Spring is the perfect time to start thinking about getting your mind, soul, and body fit. Thankfully, there are people out there who want to help, including Cayla Sweeney, owner of Otherworld Wellness. Cayla is on a mission to teach people about holistic ways that they can get in shape, whether it’s through her teas, tinctures, salves, or infused herbal smoking blends (as a tobacco free substitute).
Otherworld Wellness promotes balance, healing and connection by combining ancient practices of herbalism and yoga with modern wellness practices.
Cayla told me that it is her unique wellness perspective background – as it relates to anthropologic ritual practices, working with plants for example – that allows her to excel in her practice. It’s these long lost life lessons that she melds into her products, workshops, and coaching, all of which are aligned with the Buffalo seasons.
As for Cayla herself, she found herself in the position to be a healer after healing her own trauma. She was diagnosed with PTSD as an undergrad at Canisius.
“It’s the origin story – a classic wounded healer narrative,” she told me. “When I was living in Buffalo as an undergraduate, yoga wasn’t even a thing yet in Buffalo. I moved out to southern California. It was transformative and healing. I found a yoga school for my own needs… to build my own toolkit. Being a millennial, I lost some friends to the opioid crisis. I began looking for natural tools. I learned about Ayurveda. The door opened for me there. But I began studying healing later on.”
Eventually, Cayla found herself living in Brooklyn, and working as a hiking guide (side gig) in the Adirondack mountains. That’s when [she recalled] she started paying attention to plants. Hikers would ask her about the various species, and she didn’t have a lot of answers… yet.
“I started taking workshops and educational programming,” said Cayla. “Then I attended a formal herbal school to get advanced knowledge beyond folk herbalism. It’s a bit more complex and harder to find on Google. I was still working in the corporate sector as a researcher, but I got laid off during the pandemic. I also had ethical tensions with the research that I was conducting. At the time, I was seeing what was going on with the world – the trauma that people were experiencing. I knew that my knowledge was valuable and I wanted to share it. I found myself living in Texas, but I soon realized that I wanted to be back in my home community – work made more sense here (in Buffalo). The plants that I like are here. I’,m not harvesting wild plants, but being around them in this landscape is important to me. I always wanted to start my own business – Buffalo was the city that made sense.”
Throughout the years, Cayla moved around to a lot of cities, living different lives. In one life, she was living in a van. At another life, she was wearing a suit and building apps. Now, she’s most happy applying all of her life lessons to Otherworld Wellness, as they are all interconnected (especially in the eyes of an anthropologist). To that end, she feels that it’s important that people develop a sense of kinship with nature.
Offerings include holistic movement + wellness workshops, small batch herbal remedies.
“It’s nothing new,” Cayla explained. “This has been around since the cave dwellers (and their drawings). Yoga postures were based on animals and natural cycles. These days, people don’t even know what berries are safe to eat. This is not some ‘foofoo’ stuff. It’s tangible and has practical value. I’m trying to get more people curious about this, so that they venture down the road. And get healthy in the process”
All of Cayla’s products are made with organic and sustainably sourced plants. She uses proprietary blends in small batches, whether it’s the teas, or the herbal smoking blends, which she says are very popular. When she attends markets and pop-ups, people are very curious about her products, but they are also a bit wary.
“The cannabis industry has muddied the herbal waters,” said Cayla [laughing]. “I sell my smoking blends loose and pre-rolled. People are generally excited and think it’s cool. The teas, salves, and tinctures – people are interested in the nature aspect of the products. I’m also finding people interested in my Nurture Your Nature Wellness Program – a four week curated breakdown of dietary and herbal practices, movement yoga and breath-work – I even offer organizational and practical programming, for people who have a hard time carving out time, or committing to the practices that have been outlined. I work with a person where he or she is at. Sometimes it’s as easy as finding the ideal urban sit spot – people are so disconnected from nature when they are living in a city. We tend to forget why the seasonal stuff is so helpful… it grows for a reason at certain times of year, to fortify our bodies and replace nutrients that we depleted the previous season. I teach intentional eating and diet, and incorporating food as medicine.”
In less than a year’s time, Cayla has managed to get a lot under her belt, business-wise. She’s busy making and selling her products, while consulting with people about best health approaches to get their bodies and minds back in shape.
“Im also testing the market to see what people are most interested in,” she said.
I can’t wait to run into Cayla at a pop-up market this summer. There are a few items that I want to try out. I’m not only interested in the products, I’m also piqued by Cayla’s holistic commitment to the brand. Who knows, maybe I’ll take a class or a workshop. Often times I feel that sitting in front of a computer for so long should be offset with a hike through the woods. Or maybe I should take a break and have a soothing cup of tea. But time flies, and by the end of the day I realize that I didn’t do much to counter the hours spent in front of a screen. I need to allocate time to do that. Maybe Cayla can help me with that too.
Otherworld Wellness | Instagram | info@otherworldwellness.com
Lead image: photo of Cayla at Inspiration Point on Elmwood Avenue
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