Born and raised in Oklahoma City, the owner and visionary of Salt & Water beauty and wellness boutique – known professionally as Chelsey Ann – epitomizes calm, grace and light. Chelsey Ann has developed a successful business in the beauty and makeup artist space, and in 2018, she dove into the wellness arena and opened the first iteration of Salt & Water via a pop-up shop. The brick-and-mortar version opened in February 2019, and continues to be, even in this uncertain time, a place for seekers of balance to find the tools and encouragement they need. Chelsey Ann was the obvious choice to ask about taking care of ourselves, and in turn those around us, on both a macro and micro scale. Enjoy.
Briefly tell our readers how you came into working in the wellness space.
My journey into working in wellness is one of truly returning to myself. I was raised in a world salted with healing and health. After spending most of my adult career working in the beauty industry, I found myself being called closer to holistic living – having your outsides match your insides, if you will. Once I made the internal wellness shift after starting a family, taking the dive into beauty wellness seemed like the next step. Daunting, yet it opened the doors for me to bring what I have learned and gathered these last 10 years into a wellness shop.
What have you found inspiring about how, in general, this area of wellness has changed?
I’m so hopeful that caring for one’s self is not a trend. It is inspiring to see the young and wise turn boxes over – from food to skin products – and truly care what is going in and on their bodies. I see medical professionals teaming up with holistic teachers. That is wellness! When we all take care of and support each other and the work we are all doing, wholeness begins. Wellness is not just “granola”; it is full body, mind, spirit care. This is a place where we must make a shift in supporting one another, and this is where I see us going. It’s an energy outside of ourselves.
Where or from whom do you look for encouragement and expansion?
I am a gatherer. I love soaking in information, reading to understand and know you are not alone, listening for encouragement. Here’s the short list.
I listen to:
“Goop” podcast
“How I Built This” with Guy Raz
“To Be Magnetic” by Lacy Phillips
I read a bit into poetry, memoir and research. Most of my expansion comes from reading poetry. It seems to subtly lift my head and place it back in my heart.
Poetry I love:
“Inward” by Yung Pueblo
Selected poems by Jim Harrison
Collected poems by Jack Gilbert
“Upstream” by Mary Oliver
Have you seen more openness to taking care of ourselves during these past months of social distancing and isolation?
The beautiful thing about fear and grief is it brings to light very quickly our most vulnerable ideals. You stop the guilt and shame we have tied to caring for ourselves, and you just do it. You do it for your kids or your spouse, or partner, or sibling. You do it for yourself. The stillness of these days, the beauty of the isolation is that we all have a chance to decide what we want our days to hold. It gives us the opportunity without others’ needs to examine what I want my daily rituals to be. What does my body need? What does my mind need? What are practices I will put on priority when the doors of life reopen? What am I letting go of? I think there is an opportunity here and now to make shifts from living in mundane habits, to creating rituals and peace.
