Blog: Community Feature for the Month of June
While sharing the goodness of Finally, Truly Healthy Chocolates®, our community has grown as clients have become friends.
This month we shine our spotlight to Gabby Melissa, founder of Awaken Wellness, a Reiki Master, and is a certified chocolover.. Gabby is one of our first taste-testers before we launched the Co Chocolat brand. She is a cherished member of the Co community.
Not to brag of anything but I was actually one of the first taste testers of the chocolates before Co Chocolat started. I was fortunate enough to meet Luchie when she was still working at her last corporate job, and she got my savoury tooth addicted to her healthy chocolates by bringing me samples to the office.
2. How should we describe your passion? And what do you find most fulfilling about it?
My passion is awaken wellness, which I started in 2016. Firstly, focusing mainly on energy healing, as a Reiki Master and slowly as I continued studying more healing modalities, branching out to small batch natural skin care products that are based on aromatherapy with natural healing properties. There are a lot of wellbeing options in the market and my aim is to make holistic wellbeing accessible to everyone. It shouldn’t just be for the elite that can afford a few hundred dirhams to attend a single yoga class. I tend to give away free sessions and products on my Instagram quite often to ensure more people become aware of these modalities, that might not have the financial stability to spend on themselves.
3. To those who are not familiar with your beliefs or traditions, tell us a bit about it.
I wouldn’t say that I have a specific belief system. I focus on Gratitude daily. We take so many things in our daily lives for granted, that we don’t even blink an eye about. Like the long showers we take every morning before we head to the office, or getting to work safely after the drive, living in a safe city like Dubai (especially for a female!), the food we get to eat every day, the friends we get to talk to and laugh with, our loved ones still being around. Most people tend to focus on the things they don’t have in life vs. the beautiful things they already have. I practice Gratitude and that’s the foundation of my believe system.
4. Any advice for our community specially those whom you feel are exploring?
Always keep an open mind in anything that you’re exploring. I never thought I’d one day eat fried bugs at a market in Thailand and there I was, telling myself it will taste like chicken, guess what? It tasted like chicken! Hahaha! Sometimes it’s good to step out of your comfort zone to try something new. That’s the only way you’ll actually really know what it is you truly like and what is not for you.
5. Which Co Chocolat products do you love the most?
It used to be Gold Bar until Ooh Bae In The Tropics came out last year. Firstly, coz of the colour (yes, yes, yes, you can’t pick your chocolate based on colour they say, but I do) hello purple and coconut! Winning combo right there for me. And on that note, let me end of this interview by saying “Thank you so much for having me. It’s been great working on this with you.” I now have to go place my order for Ooh Bae In The Tropics to take along for my summer break at Villa Awaken on a tropical island.
What do they all have in common? The same values and love for honestly good chocolates while savoring wellness and health may it be physical or mental.
Those fun encounters with our customers that started with chocolates and food eventually led to interesting, and inspiring conversations. We discovered their passions through these exchanges and with our community growing bigger and more diverse each day, we figured it would just be awesome if we can inspire more people with fun and interesting features about our friends in the Co Chocolat Community.
Could you be our next featured member?