Make Your Next Retreat Stand Out: 5 Reasons to Have a Henna Artist at Your Next Retreat

With a bazillion retreats out there for people to choose from related to spirituality, wellness, healing, mindset, how will you get yours to be just a little bit different and connect with your guests as well as them to one another?

Retreats are an amazing gift for guests to reconnect to themselves, meet like minded people, and reset their exhausted nervous system. Many retreats typically  will have options for self care such as tarot readers, massage, skin care, energy healing, and more.

And while location and surroundings do matter there’s also another major component that may be missing- retreat uniqueness. Guests want to be surprised and they want to experience something that maybe they’ve never experienced before that makes them feel bold, adventurous, beautiful, badass, and especially loved.

Henna is for everyone in every geographical region around the world. It’s unique for both men and women. It’s celebratory. It’s healing. It’s a safe, temporary, plant-based body art and let me tell you, people LOVE to experience it especially in a safe, community setting such as a retreat.

Here are the top 5 reasons henna needs to be a part of your next retreat.

5. They’ll be reminded why they came to your retreat and what they learned. They’ll also be talking about it to their friends, family and colleagues.
They get to take it home! How many experiences actually physically leave with you?  Their henna design & experience will be absorbed into their skin for up to 2 weeks after their experience.

4. Custom experience- What this means is that you get to create the type of experience that your guests will have. Will it be an intention word? A meaningful symbol? Or something that they get to choose on their own. It can be meaningful or it can just be something that makes them feel magical, confident and seen. Henna has a way of giving a wide range of feels to all that choose to wear it.

3. Henna raises your energy and promotes healing- Yes this one is true. After receiving henna people feel into their bodies and a deeper level and experience a kinder more accepting feeling towards themselves and those around them. When people feel adorned their spirits are lifted, energy is raised and humans come back to their natural state of love and kindness. This one happens naturally!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                2. Connective experience with themselves and their new community. Once the structured parts of the retreat end for the day, guests can really get to know each other through a shared henna experience. It’s amazing to watch people let their guards down, relax and get curious and become a playful version of themselves when they have an opportunity to do so. Can you picture it- the smiles, the laughs, the support, and the giddiness. Guests LOVE to connect through this shared experience.

1. Novel experiences elevates your retreat and makes it a little bit different than the rest. This one is the no-brainer. Who else is adding henna to a retreat in this way? Your guests want to be surprised and experience something special and unique- just for them. For many of them, this will likely be their first henna experience and what better way than to incorporate into your retreat to let them know that you cared enough to give them an unforgettable novel, custom experience that raised their energy, connected them to their community and was able to take home. 

Retreat guests will absolutely love the time, care and attention that you’ve given by gifting them this experience along with all the personal transformations and connections that they’ll make. Your retreat will be different and all because you found something so fitting, yet so different and novel to bring everyone together in this shared experience.

XO,

Mind Body Henna

Your Free Ultimate Guide to Understanding Henna

Our curiosity makes us human and humans love to learn. Living in the information age has made it a little uneasy for us to want to ask each other questions. “Google it” is a common response to any question. And while that maybe the easy way to get general information, it’s also sometimes very overwhelming. There’s a lot of conflicting information out there. So who is right? Who do you trust to give you the best answers to your questions?

As a professional henna artist that works many events and parties, I find that guests have so many questions regarding what henna is and what is actually going on their skin.

Here are a few of the most common questions that I hear:

• What is henna?

• What’s so dangerous about buying it online?

• Where do you get it?

• How long does it take to dry?

• What is black henna?

• What is chemical henna?

• Can I wash it off in an hour?

• How long do I need to wear it?

• How do I take care of it?

• How long will the stain last?

• And so much more…

There’s a lot of misleading information available that’s why I wanted to give you a complete guide to help your understanding about what henna really is and how it works so that you can feel that you have something to refer back to should you need it. My main mission is to provide education about henna to the person who is thinking of getting their first henna and it’s also for the person who may have grown up with henna at cultural events but still wants to know the details about it. The reason behind my ‘why’ of providing this information is because your skin’s safety is my first priority.

Unfortunately, there are many different types of henna on the market and even some well-intentioned henna artists out there are not aware of the dangers of buying henna online or other local stores.

So here you go! I hope you enjoy reading and learning all these different topics about henna and feel empowered to keep asking questions and have a guide to refer back to. Please share and spread the word!

XO,

Christine

Henna's The Ultimate Beauty "Pick Me Up"- 8 Reasons Why You Need To Try It.

You definitely don’t need yet another beauty service on your calendar that you have to keep up with. I know this to be true because I also live it. Sometimes we are looking for something more simplified for a quick feel-good experience that doesn’t need an upkeep.

Many people are finding this exact feel in a private henna session.

Gone are the days where you need to be at a festival or at the beach just to get henna designs. Henna is a “go to” for so many reasons without any occasion necessary.

Here’s the top 8 reasons why henna is considered the new beauty “pick me up”.

1. Henna makes you feel confident and energized. If you’ve never had it before, you’ll feel the coolness of the paste on your skin and this physical feeling along with the beauty of it energizes you for the rest of the day. 

2. You’ll look gorgeous! That’s an obvious one but one to not be overlooked.

Henna supplements you as a natural accessory to your unique look and style. From photoshoots, to vacations, to special occasions, or a girl’s night in or out, henna radiates and adds to the natural you.

3. You don’t have to keep it up. Unlike our hair appointments or nails, henna is temporary and fades as your skin naturally exfoliates over 1-2 weeks. It’s not meant to last forever.

4. Variety! Yes, ma’am. You can always get something different. You can also choose where on the body that you’d like your design. Larger designs on the legs, back, arms and chest are becoming more common. Hand or feet designs are always there too. There’s different regional styles of henna too such as South Asian, Khaleeji, Moroccan, fusion, and more.

5. It won’t hurt your skin. Not only that but henna actually feels good when applied to the skin. It has a relaxing effect on the person wearing it. No needles, no burning, no poking- nothing. In addition to this, henna is safe on the skin because I personally make it with all plant-based organic ingredients.

6. It’s an experience. That’s right. An experience can never be lost, broken or stolen like the last thing that you bought on Amazon. No need to collect it, store it, or clean it. Who wouldn’t want that?

7. It’s novel, of course. You can’t get henna services on any corner of town. While there are highly experienced henna artists all over the world and in the US, there aren’t many of us in each city as compared to other types of artists. This makes you stand out from the crowd because it’s different in the best sense of the way.

8. If you love attention, not gonna lie, you’ll get plenty. I learned this the hard way when I started wearing henna. Henna brings people together and it brings people to you. Complete strangers will strike up a conversation with you about your henna and ask you questions about it. Henna is still quite novel outside of larger cities in the US so it’s a big conversation starter.  But if you’re a person that doesn’t like attention from strangers, don’t worry. We can always map out a design on an area of the body that can be covered up (back, legs, shoulders, etc).

There’s so many more reasons that I can come up with but out of respect for your time, these are the top favorites as polled from my past clients. I’d love to see you at one of my locations here in Austin, TX to create something that you’ll love. Locations are in NW Austin and in Central Austin for you’re convenience. Have you ever had henna before? If not, what’s holding you back? If you have questions? Email me: christine@mindbodyhenna.com. Let’s get you decorated beyond something you’ve gotten years ago at a festival.

You can book sessions here by time (15, 30 and 60 minutes or greater)

www.mindbodyhenna.com

XO,

Christine

The Real Reason that I Became a Henna Artist

People ask me all the time, “How did you get into doing henna?” And “Is it because you married into Indian culture?”. The answer to that last question is both “yes and no”. The marriage part was just my introduction to the art itself and the cultural excuse that I used to hide behind.

 Here’s my story:

 Nobody’s healing journey is a straight upward arrow, and I’m no different. Before working my way into becoming a professional henna artist, I earned a Master’s degree and worked as a Pediatric Speech Pathologist. And although parts of working with children with communication disorders were very rewarding, it was hard for me because there wasn’t much space for creativity. After years of practice in different environments, it all felt very mechanical and I became unfulfiled but I did it anyway because..….life responsibilities. When my kids were born, I stayed home with them until they were old enough to go to school. As life took an unpredictable turn and I ended up needing to homeschool my kids and did so for 7 years. In those years, to keep myself sane, I began exploring art mediums. I painted and doodled as a way to relax and give myself some “me time” Art was all very play-like with no rules and I loved it! Art practices felt healing and it slowly began waking me up to welcome my own creativity. 

I painted, woodworked and drew repetitive henna-like designs on canvases, coffee cups and even my bathroom walls. Eventually I tried buying some henna and found it very frustrating to work with. It wasn’t as easy as I hoped it would be. Since I married into Indian culture, there were always occasions for me to wear henna so I didn’t need to learn how to do it well.

Aside from loving the way henna looked, I always loved the way henna made me feel. Henna gives off this empowering, bold, badassery feeling to whoever chooses to wear it. I often wanted to wear it more and more to hold onto that feeling that was hard for me to put into words. I felt a need to wear it beyond cultural occasions and so I did.

I noticed that when I would wear henna that I would get a lot of head turns, attention and questions about it in public. I started to notice the uncomfortable feeling that I had with strangers coming up to me, touching and holding my hands, grabbing my arm as I walked by, bending down and rubbing my leg and giving me compliments and starting up awkward conversations with me. Of course it was all innocent and curiosity driven but I was uncomfortable AF. It was in those moments that I realized that I didn’t want that type of attention that henna brought. The outside physical and verbal attention brought me feelings of anxiousness and I hated it. So I stopped wearing it- for years. As these years passed, and I was working with a therapist, she helped me to figure out that my anxious trigger was an unhealed fear-based, reaction to being touched without permission from childhood sexual traumas.

She also made me understand that I used henna as a catalyst in my healing negative body image stemming from the abuse. Over the years, henna taught me how to learn to be with the attention that came along with it while learning how to set boundaries with people wanting to touch me (while I was wearing henna) without permission. Henna body art helped me grow and nurture myself so that I could mother myself into more wholeness and pop the top of my untapped creative potential. In time, I began to create with ease and have appreciation for my own body. It became clear that I knew I wanted to use henna as a source of healing and nurturing sourse for other women.

Most people that I come in contact with learn about henna from a friend/co-worker with ties to South Asian or Middle Eastern culture. Today, in eastern cultures it’s worn mostly for specific celebratory occasions. But even in henna’s rich history, it was used as a means of healing and blessings before anything else. To me, henna is healing, therapeutic and yes it’s magical! It helps women especially connect to their bodies. It can be a spiritual experience and a way to nurture ourselves. Henna is versatile and can just be worn because you want to feel pretty and feminine for no reason at all. But most of all, to me,  it is a celebration of self and my personal homecoming.

I love talking about henna and educating people about what it is and what it isn’t and allow them to decide for themselves if they wish to wear it. But most importantly, I do want to normalize wearing henna as another way to nurture and connect to our bodies. I asked for this healing. It was given and I’m forever grateful. 

If you have a specific way that you nurture your body, I’ll to hear about it in the comments.

Much love,

XX,

Christine