Today we raise our fists high and put our hands together in celebration of our Feature Girl Warrior, the multi-talented Hemp Queen, Symentha Holmes, who has been “Living the Hemp Life” for nearly two decades, sharing her story of how hemp changed her life and inspiring many others to add hemp foods to their daily routine. When her brother and father Charles and Ken Holmes, created the world’s first hemp protein powder, she began eating hemp protein every day. Over time, she healed herself from Systemic Candida, malnutrition, pre-diabetes and adrenal exhaustion from years of working in the bar industry, being in a band and traveling for work. Her health has evolved into a success story, choosing to fuel her body and mind with the healing powers of hemp and whole superfoods. It is her mission to help others live a more integrated life of health, creativity and self-love. As a Hemp Food Educator (aka Hemp Queen), Symentha is the founder of an online Hemp, Health and Happiness Club designed to teach people how to incorporate hemp into their daily lives through educational videos and resources such as her e-books Hardwired for Hemp and 21-Day Hemp Meal Program. As a Hemp Lifestyle Coach (Healthy Rockstar program), she coaches busy performing artists and business professionals on how to lose weight, detox from carbs and gain energy through a holistic Hemp-based lifestyle. She is also currently a consultant for Hempco Canada Superfoods. If that wasn’t enough, Symentha is a Yoga Instructor, Hypnotherapist, Wellness Mastery Coach, Singer/Songwriter and recently featured in the reality series “Rise-up” Tour! She is passionate about sharing the healing powers of hemp. “Hemp is Sacred. So are we.”
What makes you a Girl Warrior?
For as long as I can remember, I have been a lone wolf. Never fitting in. Feeling very “different” from everyone. Most of my life I battled with self-hatred. It wasn’t until I moved to the city (from a very small town on the island) in my early 20s that I had a different perspective on my life. I got to “see myself” and I realized, I was never really me. I had no idea who I was. I was everyone else around me. I was everyone, but me. It was in that very moment, that my healing journey began. Almost 20 years later, I’m on the path of enlightenment and a journey of awakening, dedicated to growing and evolving spiritually. I finally feel deep gratitude and love, for myself, and it is my passion to help others awaken to their self-love too.
Why did you get into the Hemp Food Industry?
Sixteen years ago, my brother and father were on a mission to find “the perfect protein.” For years they investigated everything from soy to wild rice but nothing was good enough. They came across a farmer who had this “hemp cake” and they decided to test its profile. When the tests came back, the hackles went up on the back of their necks and they knew, this was it. This was the perfect protein they were looking for. They then created Hempco Canada and brought the world’s first hemp protein to market. When I started eating hemp, all of my health challenges went away. From Systemic Candida, to endometriosis, to sugar addictions, adrenal exhaustion and digestion issues. It changed my life.
How has it changed your life?
Hemp was the catalyst for my healing journey. I went from being very sick – which I thought was normal – to feeling what truly being alive and well really felt like. Once I experienced this sacred food in my body, and incorporated it into my daily diet, my whole world changed. My body began to heal and cravings and addictions for toxic food began to fall away. Hemp became my life, and my success story became a catalyst to help others on their health journey as well.
Why is “self” healing so important?
We are self-healing machines. Our bodies are designed to keep us alive and functioning optimally – all we have to do is give it the tools it needs to work properly. Sadly, “convenience” has been slowly killing us, and the planet, and now, look at the world we live in. With plastic filling our oceans and destroying ocean life, billions of sentient beings being slaughtered yearly, silently and violently behind closed doors, radiation and fluoride tainting our waters, and chemtrails polluting our sky – all these man-made means of keeping us sick and numb and turning us into fast food “convenient” zombies. We live in a very sick and corrupt slave-world that is run by psychopaths who have us constantly living in fear – in fight or flight. We have been locked in survival mode with adrenaline, prescription drugs, coffee, and sugar our main staples for energy just to stay alive. This is no way to live yet we have become numb – just like I was, living a life of sickness and thought it was normal. It wasn’t until a life-giving food came into my life, that I had a taste of what it’s truly like to be connected to the body, mind and spirit and living in a body that is well. It taught me how to love myself.
Freedom. Period. For me, feeling truly “free” is taking my health into my own hands and not being dependent on a sick and corrupt system. No drug can cure dis-ease. It all begins in our emotional system from within and it is our responsibility to SAVE OURSELVES.
You’re also a passionate singer/songwriter and performing artist. Tell us about your online company the Healthy Rockstar and your unique spin on health and self-mastery?
As an artist, I know how hard it is to stay healthy and stick to a routine when you’re on the road traveling, or working full time and living your artistic dreams on the side. I know all too well how easy it is to revert to things like “sex, drugs and rock n roll” as escapism and quick fixes for energy. But I’ve learned the hard way that this just ends up causing stress and confusion and takes us away from the sacred beings that we are. We are all Rockstars on the inside. I created this program as a safe and supportive place for artists of the heart to tune into and stay connected to a system that supports their health and well-being AND keep their spiritual and emotional energy in check. We have lost too many amazing artists and musicians to depression and unresolved emotional trauma – they turned to pharmaceuticals to numb themselves from feeling or healing. My mission is to hold space for artists to be able to be part of our tribe and commit to their dreams and their health.
What have been the biggest challenges or obstacles that you’ve overcome – personally and/or professionally?
As an Empath, which I discovered through this process of awakening, it has been difficult to not feel the world around me and other people’s energy or thoughts. It has taken everything I have to be able to trust myself and have stronger boundaries, and be able to say NO to people who are energy vampires or are draining to me. Learning how to take my power back and be true to myself has been the biggest hurdle, and I’m happy to say, the more I continue to commit to my heart and my soul, the more I can show up whole and truly serve from a place of confidence. I’ve always struggled with “worthiness” issues, that actually stemmed from learned patterns and programs from my ancestors and my mother, but I’m now valuing who I am as a spirit and I’m learning to believe in myself, and my dreams.
My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Dementia about two years ago, and watching her decline has been very hard. I went through the three trauma phases – from anger and resistance, to sadness, to finally the place I’m at now with her, which is peace and acceptance. I had to stop trying to save her and just trust that this is part of her path. Her kids and her family have been her life, and what I know to be true is that this has been a huge part of her destiny – to give us unconditional love and support and to take care of her family. It gave her purpose and that’s what brings her joy in life. I had to accept that her journey is different than mine and that she has her own life’s mission and destiny to follow, and so do I.
What do we need to know “for sure” about Hemp?
That the truth is, the government and large corporations and the cotton and animal Ag industry, have lied about hemp and have been suppressing its use since the 30s, when the plastic revolution was created. You need to know all about CBDs and the healing power of hemp, and that our bodies are hardwired for it.
What would you say to your younger Girl Warrior?
Know Yourself. Learn to really know who you are – without comparing yourself to others. BE authentically you, cause you are a beautiful soul.
What would you say to future Girl Warriors looking for inspiration?
Save yourself. No man will save you. YOU need to LOVE and HONOR and CHERISH yourself, first!
Who is/are your Girl Warrior hero(s) and why?
Every single girl-woman who has overcome trauma and healed themselves and stands tall, and shamelessly shares their #MeToo story with other woman to help inspire them to heal themselves. Also, my mom who is a true Girl Warrior and one of the most selfless, giving, caring, nurturing beings I ever met!
What’s next?
The most important thing in my life right now is that I stay true to my holy-trinity of Health, Music and Love, and continue to share and inspire others to love and heal themselves – this is why I built the Healthy Rockstar program. It is my dream to make it a success!
Blue sky. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
In 5 years I see my online business thriving so I have the freedom to create and do as I wish. I also see my music career being successful, and my dream come true would be to have my songs on the radio, as scores in movies, and playing live shows!
What makes you laugh uncontrollably? Cry out all the tears?
Smokin’ a spliff, getting on my yoga mat and wringing all the insanity out of my body that I caused by getting all wound up about the things I can’t control. I breathe. I cry. I laugh. I let go.
If a song were written about your life, what would it be called?
It would be called Sacred Bloom, as I’m finally in a place of surrender and realization that I am sacred, as all human beings are, and we all bloom, at our own divine time.
You can learn more about Symentha, the Hemp Queen @ http://hempqueen.ca/
Keep up with her musical career @ https://www.facebook.com/symenthamusic/?timeline_context_item_type=intro_card_work&timeline_context_item_source=508273202&fref=tag
Follow her on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/symentha
And on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/symentha
And Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/symentha/
To read another interview about health and fitness go to: https://girlwarriorproductions.com/interview-girl-warrior-kyla-gagnon/
