Written by Brittney McKinley, Floral Wellness Designer
Brittney McKinley is the world's first Floral Wellness Designer and founder of Contained Stems, but her expertise extends far beyond her knowledge of flowers. She is award-nominated, a certified breath-work coach, and published author and poet of books Flowers with Benefits and Love Notes.
Signs of stress trigger a feeling in your body that says, ‘I am not safe to live here.’ Here refers to your state of being. Many humans live in states of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, leading to an activated nervous system. This can be caused by unregulated mental health imbalances, where fear, stress, anxiety, depression, worry, and more can be running the show. The majority of humans only use 10% of our brains and when that space is being overloaded with thoughts and feelings that aren’t beneficial, it becomes the reality of what we expect. It’s time to get to the root.
We have the power to condition ourselves to understand we don’t know what we think we know as we cannot predict the future. However, we can train our minds and our behaviors to increase our chances of experiencing the best outcome possible even in trying situations, thus regulating our mental health and nervous system.
As with all training, we need essential resources to experience regulation integration and elevate our current state. Any training you do usually involves a support system, a guide, or a facilitator to educate you through the process and achieve the results that you prefer.
I have found great trainings on YouTube, in communities with like-minded individuals, and through being in practice with myself. From my experience, it doesn’t matter how you find support as long as it resonates with you and the goals you hope to achieve.
Recently, I’ve embarked on a new venture called Essentials + Elevation Experiences alongside Ayanna Dawkins-Brown, a highly regarded Reiki Master, Sound Healer, Yogini, and Herbalist. We are leveraging Ayanna’s talents with mine in Breathwork, Floral Wellness, Plant Medicine, and Experiences to tour within the U.S. and internationally facilitating retreats. With so many hosting retreats, we understand it can be challenging to decide which retreats are for you. Our experiences provide resources to regulate your mental state and nervous system long after the retreat concludes. We offer a support system to help our clients elevate to the next level through learned experiences we’ve practiced to live more of a holistic life. We understand the power of being in community for these experiences and the impacts on your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing.
We are confident our clients will feel supported through the journey of feeling safer being in their bodies and comfortable with becoming familiar with their inner realities. By doing so, our outer experiences will be elevated. We are providing the path to live a life you don’t have to vacation from. You may find more information on Essentials + Elevation Experiences here.
Brittney McKinley, Floral Wellness Designer
Specializing in the art of floral healing, Brittney saw the need to change the outlook of floristry by connecting the curation of flowers and designing spaces back to our emotional and mental well-being. Through experiences of the brand, Contained Stems focuses on creating safe oases where clients feel inspired and guided to creation, expression, connection, and a sense of community. As a thought leader, she believes inspiration can be sourced from any where and hosts containers to honor our life-force and creative writing, along with a Floral Healing Master course on mindful design and floral connection to our well-being.