Natural Cycle CBD Collection: Meet the Aromatherapist

Meet Kat

Kat is the nose (and brains) behind the scents. She brings her expertise as an intuitive energy and bodywork practitioner into creating each custom scent. Kat is the founder of Kailo Organic Chakra Therapy, a wellness brand that uses different healing modalities to enhance the flow of energy through the body by helping to restore balance to the chakras, supporting optimal health and radiance for the mind-body-spirit. She spent years traveling the world, collecting the knowledge, rituals, and tools to help empower people to become their own healers. We sit down with Kat to hear how she translates her passion into healing for others. Read the interview.

Ned: You are well-known for using and creating natural remedies and fostering a deep connection with nature, yoga, and spirituality. How does this affect your wellbeing?

Kat: In every way. I consider myself really grateful that my work revolves around my wellbeing, because I'm so passionate about wellbeing, but then also it forces me to stay in check around that. In what I do, there's no way to kind of separate even my personal life from my work, and that can sound unhealthy, but it’s really beautiful, because my development, my spiritual grown, my commitment to my wellbeing and my spirituality, it's very obvious how connected that is to the work I do, so I really have to prioritize it. That’s true for anyone, no matter what job you have, but because mine is so clearly paralleled to my wellbeing, it's not optional for me to ignore that.

It’s an interesting dance to be very aware. And the truth of the matter is, sometimes I wish I wasn't so aware of all that, because there is some truth to “ignorance is bliss” and you don't realize ‘oh wow, the way I’m being is going to effect this and this and this.’ It makes it easy to carry on in life doing things that are maybe more convenient or easier. But if you’re aware that that isn’t in alignment with your ethics or you philosophy or y ou business or your health, then sometimes you have to do things the harder way. But I would never change anything about that, because the beauty of that is that what I’m creating is in alignment.

Ned: Can you tell us a bit about your company, Kailo?

Kat: I am really passionate about the mindbodyspirit connection, and I really believe that for optimal health and wellness — to be fully well rounded and embodying our highest self or living our lives to the fullest potential — we have to be really addressing all of those aspects of ourselves. A lot of our Western approaches are very one sided. ‘I’m just going to address my physical body, or I’m just going to go to a psychologist and address my mental state.’ We’re kind of fragmented. We create this idea of separation and so things become really cat-like in their categories, when really mindbodyspirit is just one thing, which is why I even like to write it as one word, as opposed to three separate words. And that is the wholeness of who we are.

I personally have such a resonance with the chakras. The chakras are a reflection of that union of mindbodyspirit, and when we work with the chakras we can't avoid working with ourselves in that totality. Because the chakras address all three sides of that and beyond. For me, that’s such an intrinsic part of the wellness, the wholeness, of our being. In that regard, the line is specifically catered to the chakras, but also all the elements that go into that. There’s a lot of intention, ceremony, vibration, and then, of course, working with the natural elements of our world in terms of working with organic ingredients and essential elements. All of the physical ingredients that go into the products are of our earth and even the energetic infusions too, such as the crystals that are of the earth too. That's earth medicine, as well.

In the creation of Kailo and what it is that I do, everything is founded on the importance of intention, ceremony, and ritual. From my personal experience, I have found so much power in that. And then, of course, there's science too that supports those claims in terms of intentions. So, it’s working off those principles of infusion, intention and energy, ceremony and ritual. I’ve created this line that incorporates all of those elements. Every crystal has its own vibration, every chakra has its own vibration, as well. And so, what were seeking when we’re looking for alignment in our chakras, is that our chakras are operating at their optimal frequency. It’s like tuning a guitar until it sounds beautiful and harmonious. Our bodies are very similar. So we’re trying to tune our bodies, which are like instruments, to be optimal. In our natural world everything is seeking that natural resonance, that rhythm, that harmony.

So for example, if my root chakra is out of balance, not at that perfect pitch / perfect vibration, I can bring tools into my field that reflect the perfect pitch or vibration of that chakra and that will help raise that vibration to that or soften it to that. And we have tools all around us in the natural world — and that's how much nature is our medicine. You can work with a crystal that will emanate the vibration of a healthy root chakra and wear it everyday and that will help bring balance to it. Or work with color. The way we perceive color is vibration. We're literally seeing wavelengths. When we expose ourselves to light of a color, we’re bathing in that frequency and that will attune our frequency. If you think about it, we’re just kind of walking radio towers. We’re all just emitting our different frequencies. It's in our best interest to raise that vibration.

Ned: What excites you most about Kailo?

Kat: I’m really passionate about witnessing and supporting people through transformation and growth. I feel so much pain and worry and sadness about the state of humanity and our planet and everything that's unfolding in this time and place right now. I really believe that the solution to all that lies within each and every one of us. We have to do our inner work to show up and have this bigger shift happen. We're all as humans here on some healing journey and some people are very aware of that and some people aren’t. And whatever the case, that's very beautiful and they are exactly where they’re meant to be. Despite all the turmoil and devastation that's occurring right now, there's also so much inspiration and there's so many people who are really seeking themselves, healing growth, transformation. They want to better themselves. There are more people now that every before, which is a reflection of how necessary it is right now too.

Ultimately that curiosity, that calling to do those things, to grow and evolve and know yourself, to seek love and happiness within you, and health, vitality and radiance — that can be such an overwhelming undertaking. How and where do I begin in that? There’s so many things out there, so many techniques, and that's great because there's no one right path. The chakras are something people have a curiosity about. Developing a relationship with the chakras is developing a relationship with oneself, because we are a reflection of our chakras and our chakras are a reflection of oneself. There are so many healing modalities out there that it can be overwhelming.

Kailo, the intention is to serve as an accessible, non-intimidating entry point to that journey of learning and / or serve as the anchor for someone to deepen into an already existing practice. So, by incorporating rituals with the products, people have that invitation to integrate a ritual into their life, a really simple 10-30 second ritual that can be done anywhere, anytime — that kind of thing and that kind of accessibility. ‘I can do this in my car,’ that’s welcoming for people. And then it’s just the beginning to a much bigger journey. Anyone and everyone can go as deep as they want with that.

The expansion on that is the workshops and retreats that I offer for people who really want to experience the chakras and work with them in an all encompassing and deeper way, a more immersive way. I have an eight day chakra retreat happening in January in Guatemala. Each day we’ll be diving into each of the chakras. For me, I see how the chakras are a really beautiful effective road map, a guide to healing growth and self awareness and kind of this whole evolution of consciousness we as humans are intrinsically evolving through. This is the way that resonates with me. Everything we're doing, our chakras are being affected.

Ned: You’ve done a good bit of traveling to some pretty amazing places. How has this influenced your work?

Kat: I chose to not go to college and travel instead because my intuition called me to do so. And I spent years traveling in that way, always following my intuition, and it's always lead me down the path of creating a beautiful life for myself that’s always in alignment. Traveling and seeing the beauty of the world, diversity, humanity, different cultures, it has allowed me to fall even deeper in love with this earth, Mother Earth herself and all her inhabitants, and that fuels my passion for people’s healing, growth, and transformation, because that’s what we need.

Ned: What guides you when creating a custom scent?

Kat: Mostly intuition, but there’s always some sort of criteria that I'm going for with whatever I’m creating. It’s always a challenge because scents can be really polarizing. Knowing about essential oils really helps, like this essential oil is helpful for inflammation or circulation and knowing that most people are going to be using a product for a specific reason. I’m looking for essential oils that are gender neutral, generally popular amongst many and then ideally also have properties that would be in alignment with why people are using this product. I can eliminate certain things based on that and I just kind of play. Now let's just play and see what blend comes through and the right ratios. And that process is kind of the intuitive part. Because there may be 50 oils that fit that criteria but only five get used, so it’s kind of like that.

I have a strong relationship with the essential oils. I already know lemongrass is not going to smell good with this or is it going to smell great with this. And you can have that whole process of elimination too in terms of grouping. That's the same thing I do with my products in terms of, like, for example, citrus is very energizing and uplifting. That would correspond with the solar plexus chakra that has a fiery, active, more masculine kind of Leo energy. Your outer personality, ego, is very much solar plexus energy and that matches with the feeling of citrus. And lavender is super relaxing and that would fit more with third eye. People use lavender before they go to sleep and our third eye is our place of tuning inward, of quieting ourselves, this stillness, inner wisdom, our connection to our subconscious.

Everything is a vibration. In the same way, the essential oils are also a vibration. I just really feel into the properties of each one. What’s going to sound good, what’s going to resonate? I think it’s the same way people cook. Or maybe like making music.

Ned: Why were you interested in working with Ret and Adriaan and the Ned brand?

Kat: Well, I sure do love Ret! I have a bias there, being his sister! Ret and me, well obviously, we’ve been there for each other my entire lifetime. I created Kailo about a year before the Ned seed was planted and the creation process started to happen. Like I said, I just got this intuitive hit to create Kailo, and I don’t have any business experience, just figuring it all out as I go, but I’ve had help from my brother, because he’s much more business savvy and experienced than I am. So, in the beginning stages, planning and doing all these things, Ret was actually living at my house in Carbondale for a month and it was the very first month that Kailo was an idea and then I started to build it. So, it was really awesome to have him there and have so much time with him to bounce ideas off and get his input. He’s just always been so supportive of me and helpful, and I can just count on him in so many ways, I’m so grateful.

And then the beautiful piece around that, because he was so present for the planting of the seed of Kailo, he shared with me later that what was a big part of his inspiration to create Ned was seeing what I did with Kailo and seeing how from the beginning it’s always been about the integrity of the ingredients and the integrity of the brand and doing things differently and really raising the standard in the industry and doing things with intention, and that inspired him. And he told me that based off of that he wanted to create this line that is in alignment with what he’s passionate about (nature and being active) and all these things, so of course I was always from the beginning super excited for him and supportive in the exact same way. I’m super grateful.

Ned: Why are you excited to be a part of Ned’s Natural Cycle Collection?

Kat: I think that the direction we’re moving in, there’s a lot more kind of reverence, and honoring towards the feminine in our culture. And that’s so necessary and such an important part of the collective healing that needs to take place. A lot of people can get in this ‘down with the patriarch’ thing because that’s the paradigm we’ve been living in. But it’s not that the feminine should replace the masculine in terms of power, there just needs to be a balance. The feminine has just been so disrespected, violated, and oppressed for so many generations now, there’s a lot of momentum in that balance coming about.

Having a line that is catered to women is really beautiful. It’s a reflection of the paradigm shift that’s happening. Even now, still today a lot of research and studies and all these things doctors are studying in medical school have all been based on male anatomy and haven’t even taken into consideration the female anatomy. And so, women are being treated as if our anatomy and physiology is the same as men when it’s not at all. And so we're at this huge disservice, it’s just been not even thought about until recently. And so, having a line that really caters to the uniqueness of the feminine body is important and necessary. That excites me for sure. And the beauty of women co-creating, that just is magic. Women co-creating is magic, so that’s special to be a part of, I’m very honored.

Ned: Is there anything else people should know?

Kat: I just would like to extend an invitation to anyone. If any piece of this strikes that intuitive hit within you, if you’re like ‘ooh I'm curious about that,’ or whatever that feels like, and you want to learn more, I would love to connect with you, because I’m really passionate about supporting people on their journey through these different modalities that I work with. So, if there’s any way that I can be of support in that, I’m always happy to connect and have a conversation around it.