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Self-Care Garden: The Beginnings

Writer's picture: Shereka DunstonShereka Dunston

When I began Self-Care Garden in Fall 2021 after being inspired by a life coach trainee from my life coaching academy, I was working full-time as an entrepreneur. I launched the Self-Care Garden for Kids program first. Each child who attended the virtual workshop, received a copy of the Self-Care Garden for Kids Workbook and an air plant. I facilitated sessions via Zoom that integrated plant care with personal wellness concepts. At the end of each session, children were instructed to complete a personal self-care plan with the help of their caregivers and to color positive affirmation pages in their activity books to practice self-care.

To enhance my children's self-care services, I eventually earned certifications in mindfulness, meditation, and children's yoga. My additional knowledge allowed me to partner with local childcare centers and places of worship to offer yoga and meditation sessions for young children and their families.


Those yoga and meditation sessions allowed children who had never practiced yoga to explore yoga in a fun, energetic way before calming their bodies down to meditate and rest.

It was such a pleasure to share the self-care benefits of yoga with young children and their families, but my greatest joy from teaching kids yoga was seeing the benefits in my own children. Before my own kids started ending their days with yoga and meditation, my tween daughter suffered from frequent nightmares and my son had a hard time sleeping through the night. Yoga and meditation helped transform their restless sleep to restorative sleep.


In addition to offering services to children, I provided individual self-care coaching and group self-care challenges to moms who were ready to prioritize peace in their lives. The 1:1 coaching services helped moms achieve self-care goals, regardless of their financial circumstances. Clients learned to identify the self-care routines that they utilized in their lives already, while working to integrate new strategies like mantra meditation and daily gratitude practice before bed. The 21-Day Release Challenge gave moms from across the country a chance to electronically, physically, and mentally declutter their lives through guided actions, positive affirmations, and journaling prompts.


After the conclusion of the 21-Day Release Challenge, I offered a free Vibrate Higher: Family Self-Care Challenge for families to practice wellness together to jumpstart the New Year. The challenge encouraged: family togetherness, showing love, asking for consent, feelings exploration, intentional movement, meditation, deep breathing, practicing forgiveness, spending time in nature, and having fun. Families shared that the 30-day challenge inspired them to engage in weekly family self-care activities.


I continued to offer a variety of self-care services for children, families, and moms until Summer 2022. The self-care services I provided, did not feel like work. The services I provided felt like fun and fulfillment masquerading as work. However, I started to notice a shift in the economy in Summer 2022, which meant it was time to return to my social work career as a sustainable way to earn income for my family. I accepted a role as a family and trauma therapist for adolescents, and the work forced me to take a deeper look at my own trauma, trials, and tribulations. Then in December 2022, I announced that I was retiring from 1:1 life coaching to focus on my career as a therapist and my life coach training business.




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Holly Springs, NC 27540

Tel: (919) 797-9307, info@selfcaregarden.com

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