Koya Webb’s Approach Will Help You Fuel a Healthy, Calm, Love-Filled Life
Koya Webb is a beloved influencer whose followers turn to her as someone they trust to help them get beyond their fears or anxiety to live a healthy, strong and love-filled life. To do that she advises: Learn to meditate, eat healthily (which for her means a plant-based diet) and be in control of one's emotional wellbeing. A health coach, Webb talks openly about her personal journey from depression to that of a positive holistic thought leader who has trained as a yogi, life coach, and now someone who has created Get Loved Up Organic Vanilla Protein with Moringa. If you want to know what she eats in a day, here she shares her daily eating plan for the plant-based eater.
Webb tells us fear is "false evidence" that appears real in your mind. She advises thinking of fear thoughts as you would false news headlines that lead you down the wrong path. Instead of listening to those fears, Webb says, acknowledge them as signals of what you care about, then translate them into knowing what you truly love and want or need. Once you do that, you can move forward.
Here, in an exclusive interview Webb gave to The Beet yesterday, she talks about her philosophy, her favorite morning routine and her healthy-mindset toward food. Her goal is to help you be your healthiest and calmest right now. Webb has now written the book, Let Your Fears Make You Fierce: How to Turn Common Obstacles into Seeds for Growth. We think her sage advice, along with her action-oriented morning routine, will help you breathe easier, feel better and surround yourself with self-love and be able to give love back to those around you who need it most.
Q: What made you want to write a book about overcoming fears?
A. Fear can make you feel stuck and prevent you from moving forward. I had a lot of fears. I wrote the book for the world but I wrote it for myself. and I learned to live through the fear. My biggest fear was admitting I had been sexually assaulted, but I feared I would be judged. And my fear was also that I would not be good enough. And that is still my greatest fear. I still think "What do I have to do to be loved?" What is it going to take to feel good enough? I wrote this book, yes, but what else do I have to do?
Q. Where did you learn how to help others?
A. This message was spiritually sent. It's what I call a "divine download." Authenticity is the most important thing. Being able to say I still have fear and I still have weak moments. I was sneezing (last week) and got sick, with a one-day bug! And if you get sick -- even if it's just a cold -- life is not all rainbows and butterflies. Being able to not acknowledge fear is my biggest thing now.
Q. So what tangible advice do you give someone who is fearful or anxious now?
A. I created the "mindful mindset" which is the five-step process to get beyond your fear. The practical application includes everything from Yoga to chakra work to questions you ask yourself.
- The first step is acknowledging the fear. A lot of people don't acknowledge it ... if that is the case you can't get beyond it. This is a scary time. It does not matter how old or young they are. The fear that I hope getting sick does not happen to me or my family or anyone else is valid.
- The next step is giving yourself forgiveness for being fearful or having fear.
- The next step is to feel gratitude. That is what shifts you into a vibration of love as opposed to fear. I go outside and think "I am so grateful to go on this walk." I walked in the morning with my boyfriend and best friend. To be able to just be together or hold each other. I feel immense gratitude for the love in my life.
- Then the next step is to help others. How can I be of service?. Beyond the business we all need to do, or going to school, beyond all the things you think are your daily purpose, it's really to give and be loved.
- I think we can help others by saying: If your intention is to love and give love, what does that look like? First, you have to love yourself. The other aspect of the mindful mindset is sharing all your wisdom. Share your best helpful advice with friends and family and community. Say to them: Let me give you my healthy recipe or my best meditation.
- What I talk about with "Get Loved Up" is first: Love yourself. Then love others and then love the world. In that order, and if you do it in that order, that is the way to be mentally and spiritually and physically strong.
Q. That makes sense right now. What should we do to calm down?
I encourage women to practice meditation. Meditation is important because there is a lot of news out there. We as women are intuitive. We are nurturers. We have to be guided to what we need to do for ourselves and for our families. Need help? Well, we are the ones who we have been waiting for. And if we start there, taking care of ourselves, we can help others.
I believe in taking all the healthy herbs and eating all the best foods and eating all plant-based foods. You need to look for foods with antioxidants and zinc, which help in keeping stress levels low. Because if your stress level is high, doing meditation every morning, keeps your cortisol low, keeps all your stress hormones like adrenals low. You need to be healthy! Reality is that you're going to be more susceptible to fear if your stress level is high.
Q. What is Your Morning Routine? How Can We Start Our Day Strong, Calm, Focused?
1. Practice your breathwork. Just controlled, calm breathing. Move the breath through your body. When you breathe, take a long, deep inhale, hold it and then deeply exhale. This will help you really calm down your nervous system.
What not to do: If you wake up and turn on the news and get on your social feeds, you are already in a nervous fear state. Put down the phone and breathe in that air and express the things you are grateful for. Maybe you wake up and have a bad dream or don't have enough toilet paper, just wake up and feel grateful you're alive.
2. Start meditation and focus on gratitude. If you have never meditated, you can try my Meditation for Beginners. It is just a ten-minute guide to meditating. You do breathwork in meditation. But Meditation is different and involves your mental process as well as breath.
3. Get Moving in the Morning. Take a gratitude walk. Just a mile a day walk or jog is enough to feel better. Or if you can't go outside. Dance. Do some kind of movement. That means morning movement. that is what you need ... Dance around your house Buck naked.
The other way to move, that is great, is to do a yoga flow. Try this: Do 12 Sun Salutations ... and follow along with my on my YouTube video of this. Any amount of getting moving is helpful.
Q. At The Beet we want people to eat healthy. What's your approach to a healthy diet?
A. I'm a vegan foodie, so as long as it's vegan I eat it. I tell people if you're feeling down, just eat that treat, guilt-free. How you feel when you eat something (even if it isn't a healthy choice), it changes the structure of it.
So eat as healthy as you can, and when you do eat something else then remember how you feel, and how it made you feel. And then when you don't feel healthy, remember that for next time and make a decision based on that. How does your stomach feel, and how does your head feel and then ask yourself do I want to feel that way? And if that is not the way you want to feel, then you make that decision to eat healthier next time.
I tell people to eat foods you love that love you back. You want to eat foods that love you back. That means healthy food. But first of all, enjoy it. I ate chocolate cake the other way and I ate ice cream, all of it vegan. I don't make myself feel guilty.
The truth is I want people to love their food but I want people to love themselves even more. I want people not to feel ashamed of what they eat. They should make a decision and feel empowered to make that decision. You have a choice. Whatever you choose, feel good about it. But most of all I tell people: Eat the food that loves you back.
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