Why Snapdragon and a Little More About Me

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot

As I was falling asleep one night last November, contemplating starting my own business, the name Snapdragon Alchemy came to me as a bolt of inspiration much like Archimedes' "Eureka!" moment. I sprang out of bed to look up the flower's meaning. Here's what I found.

Snapdragons come in a multitude of beautiful colors. The thing about snapdragons is that they can thrive in a wide range of environments. From sun-drenched and rocky soil to shady curated flowerbeds, no matter the garden, snapdragons make their environments work for them. Snapdragons rely on their internal messaging to grow tall, strong, and beautiful as they were meant to be.

The snapdragon flower symbolizes strength, resilience, grace under pressure, gratitude, and protection. These attributes are within all of us as well, though at times they may seem inaccessible.

We put so much effort and focus on the surviving our external rather than thriving in it. We dim our light to keep the peace, put on armor of various forms to fight battles to prove our worthiness or that we belong, ignore our instincts until our intuition is offline, seek accolades, judge ourselves for how well we conform to societal roles - parent, sibling, spouse, significant other, friend, employee, boss, woman, man, etc. This list is not exhaustive. Through all of this external noise, are you able to hear from your heart what you need to thrive and bloom? The most beautiful and lasting blooms come from the heart and not the mind. This is a life lesson I've lived through myself.

I like many of you reading this, forgot what it takes to make me bloom. I hadn't even realized that my bloom had wilted before I felt its absence entirely. I was in full survivor mode despite, on paper, being on top - fancy job, fancy car, fancy things, fancy vacations, ability to do, buy, go whatever I wanted. What made it worse was that I was in survival mode only in regards to myself because I was being everything to everyone else. I was killing it!!! Though there was nothing left in the tank for me most days. I was beyond burnout.

What did this look like for me? Decision fatigue - once I left the office - having to decide what to feed myself or how to dress was painful. I had bomb shelter level supplies of Zzz

Quil and antacids to beat my body into submission to sleep and digest food properly. I escaped into books in a most unhealthy way - 300+ books read in 6 months...fun but yikes! I knew that this lifestyle was not sustainable, but who had time and energy to work out another path. I'll just buy another handbag to distract myself.

While on one of my fancy vacations, this time at a desert spa, I tried reiki for the first time without knowing much about it. This experience was a huge pivot point for me. As the practitioner moved through each chakra, I could see their individual colors and feel how each connected to my spirit. When she reached some of my lower chakras, I was SHOOK! I could energetically and viscerally feel just how dead and empty my internal fire was. It felt like a furnace that had gone dormant due to neglect and misuse. I could feel just how impacted and depleted my spirit was by this burnout state I was in. I was hit by such an intense wave of grief, I started bawling. How had I let this happen to myself? I had to book additional spa treatments to help soothe myself.

I would like to say that this wake up call initiated immediate change and I put a game plan together to tackle the problem as soon as I returned home. No, what I thought of at the time as life, kept pulling me outside of myself. I did start small changes. I learned how to read tarot to help gain insight and read external energies. Months later, I started meditating. Some time later, I added seeing a local reiki practitioner on a regular basis. Slowly, but surely I could feel myself come back. I slept unmedicated every night. I wasn't drinking as much. I was at peace whenever people around me swore that they sky was falling. I had security within myself again.

When I became one of the 300K+ highly educated black women laid off last year, I was still at peace and grounded within myself. Frankly, I was relieved, but that's for another blog post. I took the opportunity to fully live for myself. I traveled the world visiting sacred sites and loads of beaches while also training to become an energy healer in my own right.

I started this business to create a safe healing space for folks like my former self. People who have habitually put themselves at the bottom of their to-do list or find that they are not as connected to their internal spirit as they once were. If any of my story resonates with you, I'd love to work with you.

I see you.

Let's wake up your snapdragon together.

Tyra

Taj Mahal Winter 2025