Today, more than ever, wellness is at the forefront of societal discussions. From mental health to physical well-being, women are making significant strides in bringing about change, introducing innovative solutions, and setting new standards. Despite facing unique challenges, they break barriers, inspire communities, and are reshaping the very definition of health and wellness. In this series called women in wellness we are talking to women doctors, nurses, nutritionists, therapists, fitness trainers, researchers, health experts, coaches, and other wellness professionals to share their stories and insights. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Candice Thomas.
CANDICE THOMAS, author of YOUR VITALITY PERSONALITY, is an award-winning holistic health professional, Enneagram researcher, and international speaker. She holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology (with minors in math, chemistry, physics and English), a master’s degree in acupuncture, and certifications as an Enneagram Accredited Professional and Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique Practitioner. Thomas has devoted her life to pursuing higher understanding of Consciousness and the source of Vitality. You can learn more at www.yourvitalitypersonality.com.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Thank you so much. I am an acupuncturist, hypnotist, and Enneagram (personality types) researcher. I have combined these into a healing method I call the LightWorks Approach, which designs customized mind-body-spirit treatments. Now, I have created a new system for learning how to use the Personality Types as a tool for transforming health and happiness. My book about this is coming out in October, called Your Vitality Personality.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I had discovered the Enneagram while in acupuncture school, and it helped my relationships so much that when I opened my doors as an acupuncturist, I had every patient take the personality type quiz at the first appointment. I didn’t really know at first how the information might be useful, but it actually came to be a totally electrifying source of unexpected insights. It became quite obvious that there are common health outcomes by Personality Type. There are also patterns of whose health and happiness worsens, and whose gets better. I realized that gaining access to this information empowers people to have a totally different and elevated quality of life than they would likely have otherwise. That is what inspired me to create a simple method for learning how to use your Personality Type as the key that unlocks your best life.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Starting out I made the enormous mistake of not being aware of my own shadow. Even though I had been studying the Personality Types for a few years, it had not sunk in yet that actually our Personality Types contain different templates of the Ego — which is our dark side. So I mistakenly thought it would be fabulous to open a wellness center and hire all people of the same Personality Type as me (Type 7), believing we would be so aligned in our values and create a welcoming vibrant workplace. Wow, did I learn a lot about the dark side of a Type 7. As much as I wanted to be furious and blaming, I also had a sinking feeling of recognition of why I had a lot of friction with my family growing up. It was a major wake up call. I quickly discovered that I had work to do on myself, and that I didn’t at all like having a large wellness center. I completely changed my business model to something much deeper and simpler. My life is so happy and stable now.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
My work is for people who are ready to uplevel their quality of life, but don’t know how to proceed. It brings to light all the unconscious aspects of yourself that have been holding you back, so that you can resolve them and fully align yourself with the life you desire. It shows you how to access the special unique genius embedded within your Type to create joy and fulfillment for yourself. Your Vitality Personality is a roadmap out of a pre-programmed pathway of resistance, self-sabotage and erosion, and into a journey of self-love, joy, and meaning.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing?
1 . Learn about your Personality Type. It will help you make sense of much of the confusion and pain in your life. It will help you forgive other people for not being how you think they should be. It will help you find your strengths and talents, so you can shape your relationships, career, and wellness around them. It will give you the courage and validation you need to live more authentically as The Real You. You can take the free quiz at www.yourvitalitypersonality.com.
2 . Learn how to fully experience and process your feelings. All 9 Personality Types have their own unique pattern of disharmony towards their emotions, creating major blind spots. Most of us have never been told that there is a simple technique for processing feelings, and so instead we deny and suppress emotional energy wreaking havoc on our health. Clearing emotions out of your body is easy to do and makes life so much easier and more pleasant. I teach it as one of The Real You Methods in my book, Your Vitality Personality.
3 . Practice silencing the mind by dropping your attention to your heart instead. The constant chatter you hear in your mind is your ego — it is very damaging to your health and happiness to allow this to run your life. It takes regular practice to gain mastery over it. Imagine you are projecting a holographic image of a golden orb inside your chest. It takes a very light amount of attention to imagine holding it in place there, but it takes the ego mind offline when you do it. Practice when you’re doing mundane things like driving or chores. See how peaceful and serene you feel in this state. The more often you operate from a quiet mind and enlivened heart, the happier and healthier you will become.
4 . Get a high-quality food toxicity test (you get what you pay for — cheap tests generally have a 50% accuracy rate). Also known as food sensitivities, they are the single biggest reason you have inflammation in your body — the root of all disease. Whereas food allergies bring on a histamine attack very quickly, food toxicities bring on an inflammatory attack sometimes 2–4 days later. This is why they’re so hard to identify. This rare test is the secret behind my award-winning holistic health practice, www.lightworkssoulcare.com.
I’ve seen many incredible health reversals as the result of changing how you eat according to your food toxicity list. It really turns our understanding of what “healthy food” means on its ear. I’ve seen people with lemon, spinach, cucumber, and mushrooms on their list. I had one woman who came in desperate to get her period to stop. She was very fit and athletic, didn’t eat dairy or sugar, and was the perfect weight. You would have expected her to be very healthy, yet she had been experiencing constant vaginal bleeding for months. She was very anemic at this point, even though she got iron through a diet of red meat and green vegetables. Regular acupuncture made no real impact. Finally I had her take the blood test. Of everything in her results, her eyes bulged when she saw that ginger was on her list of foods that were toxic to her. She said that, believing it to be so healthy and anti-inflammatory, she put a triple dose in her smoothie every morning. Within 2 days of discontinuing the ginger, she finally stopped bleeding, and began the journey of rebuilding her health.
5 . Add silica and sea moss gel to your diet. We are all generally deficient in silica, a mineral our body needs that promotes the absorption function. This results in the long slow decline of our overall health, because we don’t effectively absorb the nutrients from our food, or the fluids and oils our cells, blood, bones, fascia and organs need to remain healthy. The best source of silica is from food-grade diatomaceous earth, which is actually fossilized algae. It is tasteless and totally absorbs in liquid. Add a tablespoon to your morning coffee and you will never even notice.
Sea moss is a seaweed that contains 92 of the 102 essential minerals your body needs to thrive. Since you have been silica deficient for a long time, you are also quite mineral deficient. This leads to pain, low energy, weight gain, depression and anxiety. Dried sea moss can be soaked and pureed into a tasteless gel that can be eaten with fruit or dissolved in a hot beverage. Take 1–2 tablespoons per day.
The most common benefits I see among my patients who follow this protocol are sleeping deeply all night without waking up to urinate, elimination of edema (swelling with toxic fluids under the skin), reversals of cysts, reduction of musculoskeletal pain, weight loss, and improved energy.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I AM trying to start a movement! I would like everyone to know that their Personality Type is way more than just an entertaining curiosity. It is the encoding of your unconscious and your greatest source of self-sabotage, as well as your unexplored genius and greatest source of happiness and meaning. Learning how to gain mastery over your Primal Persona so that you can step into your Vitality Personality completely transforms your relationship with yourself and your life.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- It will all cost 3 times as much and takes 3 times as long as you think it will.
- A business plan is better than no plan at all, but you’ll be modifying and adapting it all along the way as times and needs change.
- Take two full days off in a row every week.
- As an entrepreneur, if you were to get upset every time things don’t go as you wanted them to, you would be upset every day. Accept, surrender, adapt, pivot.
- It’s best to build a business around who you really are, rather than who you think people will approve of or prefer. Authenticity is the highest attractor, and you’ll be much more fulfilled in your work.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Mental health. I am very concerned about the rampant levels of anxiety and depression in our society, especially our young people. I want to teach everyone how to love and trust yourself, stabilize and heal yourself, and cultivate and expand yourself.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
To learn about your Personality Type or book a consultation, go to www.yourvitalitypersonality.com.
To learn about the Food Toxicity Program or the LightWorks Approach, visit www.lightworkssoulcare.com.
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
