Lana's journey of awakening began at the age of 20, a year before her first Son was born. Her path has transcended adversity, trauma, and several ‘dark nights of the soul’ to harvest the wisdom, strength, and perseverance that such hardships bring and to share the power of possibility to benefit as many people as possible.
Lana's early childhood experiences of poverty, neglect, abuse, and being fostered resulted in low self-worth. Lana recalls her first feelings of depression and longing for her life to be over beginning at the age of nine, and at 12 and 26, she made attempts to take her own life.
At thirteen, Lana was blessed to meet a woman who would eventually adopt and raise her as her own, opening her eyes to a much larger world of perspective and possibility.
Leaving home at 17, Lana struggled to find purpose and meaning in her life while struggling to manage school and two part-time jobs. But behind her smiling face, her unresolved trauma started to surface in ways that became increasingly impossible to ignore.
During this time, Lana's highly intuitive and spiritual nature was kindled. She began learning about plant medicines, sacred nature rituals, aromatherapy, participating in women's healing circles, interpreting oracles, and using food as nourishment and medicine.
From her mid-teens until the age of 20, her sense of self was so diminished that she developed addictive behaviors in many areas of her life: from tumultuous romantic relationships to drug abuse, poor dietary choices, reckless behaviors, disruptive sleep patterns, and general tendency to create a chaotic environment in her world, all in the hope that she could somehow numb out the constant feelings of pain, aloneness, and sadness within.
This was when she heard her first message from Source, telling her that she would soon die if she didn't immediately stop self-destructing with drugs. It was at that moment that Lana made an important decision. She knew how to be loving and kind to others, so to choose life, she decided to have a child with her partner of 2 years and learn to self-love by loving her child.
At age 26, Lana made a second attempt at taking her life. This 'dark night of the soul' precipitated one of the most illuminating and inspiring turning points in Lana's young life: she heard Source speak through her for the second time, "It's not until death you part," which ultimately catalyzed an all-encompassing whole-life transformation and spiritual awakening.
Leaving her psychologically abusive marriage, she moved back to Northern Ontario, Canada, with her two small sons, where she committed to fully embarking on her healing journey.
After this awakening, Lana began her training as a culinary chef. And soon after, Lana was inspired to be in service to others by becoming a certified nutritionist, yoga instructor, and holistic life coach.
In 1995 she founded Asherah Spa, a ritualistic aromatherapy product line. In 2002, she founded Conscious Living Lifestyle, a holistic coaching business that offers programs such as yoga, nutrition, and skill sets that support a more balanced life.
In 2004, Lana purchased Sudbury's first yoga studio, OM Yoga Space, which evolved into a holistic, educational epicenter that offered teachings and services around chakras, shamanism, crystals and aromatherapy, personal empowerment, life coaching, Reiki healing, and nutrition.
At age 33, the self-destructive patterns and suppressed childhood traumas culminated in numerous immunological & associated disorders such as anemia, cold-induced urticaria, Addison's disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and spinal rheumatoid arthritis.
In 2011, Lana found herself experiencing another burn-out which catalyzed her to sell her studio and 90% of her personal belongings and move to Costa Rica for the next three years to heal, re-evaluate her life and professional path, and become more self-aware through the study of Ayahuasca, Iboga, Kambo, and Buffo medicines under the supervision and guidance of Shamans.
During this personal sabbatical, Lana learned to surrender more to the Creator to become more trusting in life and the unknown. Lana prayed that her gifts be directed by her Higher Mind so that whatever she was to share, teach and guide occurs in a way that could support others in their transformation with more grace, kindness, and compassion.
Over the next several years, Lana cultivated an even stronger relationship with her intuition, helping spirits, and nature, making her an influential leader who could communicate esoteric and mystical teachings in a modern-day, pragmatic way that was accessible to spiritual seekers and lay people looking to cultivate tools that would support them in integrating more peace, inspiration, direction, clarity, and wholeness in their lives.
As Lana’s mastery and body of work blossomed, she discovered that the core of a graceful life includes inner calm, steadiness, self-trust, and security, from which the ability to connect with more subtle energies and synchronicities becomes possible.