We recently had the chance to connect with Candace Machado and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Candace , thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
I am being called to do the Mount Everest Base Camp Trek. I have been in training the last 9 months and will be doing the 80 mile hike within the next few months. For my Company’s 10 year Anniversary I was called to do the Trek as a celebration of how far I have come in my life and to deepen my own spiritual practice through self exploration. Focusing on the adventure of a lifetime and the many reflections that will transpire along the way.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Candace Machado and I am the owner of Theraexpressions Meditation LLC. We are a holistic company that infuses mental health practices with holistic teachings. Thera focuses on four pillars that are the guiding force of our mission: Mental Health, Meditation, Yoga, and Ayurveda. We provide individual sessions, classes, international and domestic retreats, spiritual seminars, and speaking engagements around the world online and in person. Our OM your Mental Health free app is in Apple and Google stores. We have live classes, pre-recorded library of videos, community chat forum, self care tracker, affirmations, podcasts, blogs, and newsletters. Whether you’re near or far we have something for everyone. Hang out with us long enough and you will start believing in yourself. We are currently in celebration mode of the company turning 10 years old. Join our TheraCommunity Today!
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
What I believed about myself in my early years was that I was a little girl from a broken home. Anytime I would be faced with a challenge I would always go back to that thought of can I do this? Am I good enough to accomplish this? Am I capable? It was honestly something that I didn’t realize until I was in my early 30s. While I was in my mid 30s I was teaching a 9 month rebuild your life program and I had an epiphany while teaching. I realized that it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, it was something to be connected to. It helped me to rebuild the relationship with myself and with others. Everything fell into place after that realization and it led me to the woman I have become. I needed to understand that part of my life before I could move forward.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
When I started my spiritual path over 10 years ago I seen suffering as something negative, something painful. If something bad were to happen I found myself saying “Why me? Life’s not Fair?. I seen my own challenges and my own suffering as an obstacle that I didn’t know for sure if I was willing to face. In the begining of my journey I was asked the question “Who am I beyond the labels and the titles”? At that moment in my life I didn’t have the answer. What I realized is that back then I was a woman searching for something that I didn’t understand at the time. I knew I wasn’t where I wanted to be but I wasn’t sure where I was going. Now I would say I am a woman who fully understands suffering on a deeper, more healed, more confident level. I am a woman who really knows who I am and I am not afraid anymore to fully show her vibrance. I rebuilt my relationship with suffering and now see it as a daily life challenge. If we are living and breathing we will suffer. Whether it is a flat tire, spilt coffee, running late, saying the wrong thing or not being what others need me to be I have realized it all is a part of being alive. Being alive means there will be suffering. Suffering helps us to have a deeper connection to gratitude. I am greatful for the challenges and the suffering as it helped guide me in all of my relationships.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
The short answer is yes. What I present out in the world is really the version of myself. I am bright, bubbly, confident, direct, intellectual, expressive, communicative, and vibrant. I am also quiet, articulate, decisive, emotional over things and people I love, questioning myself at times, caretaker, and a little bit of a people pleaser, and I take on too many things at once. I like to show as many sides of myself as I can so that others can be inspired and feel comfortable with showing their true selves to others.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you laid down your name, role, and possessions—what would remain?
I have always joked that I am a person who accidentally became important at all of the roles, jobs, and things I was involved in. But heres the thing. I didn’t become important or succeed because there was something different about me than others. I became important because I am a person who has always wanted to bust through every glass ceiling. Work, roles, passions became a part of my drive, my focus, and my willingness to create. In my adult life I have realized that even though I have had some important roles none of them really matter because I can’t take any of it with me when Im gone. The roles, the labels, the titles come from a place of the ego. They are meant that we have arrived, that we succeeded somehow. The real truth is I already succeeded. I was already worthy before the roles. When we stop basing our worth on the roles and the titles we no longer have nothing to prove. We evolve and transcend into something a good human being.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theraexpressions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theraexpressions_meditation/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheraExpressions/
Image Credits
Photos by MacAhhDew Studio
Herver Machado
