My Story and The Catalyst for Attract Essentials

I would like to share with you the story of how I turned my struggle with allergies into an opportunity for discovery and how it led me to create a company that produces products that boldly proclaim to be: Everything You Need To Attract Everything You Want.

When I was a little girl I had terrible allergies. I let my sensitivities to perfumes, hairsprays and common household cleaning products keep me from pursuing veterinary medicine and a professional singing career. When it came time to choose a direction in life, I took the path that avoided as many of my allergy triggers as possible. I chose dance and it was a blessing that I did because it started me on my path.

At Harvard Summer Dance School, my professor Penny Bernstein, Ph.D. first introduced me to the concept of holistic healing via Dance Movement Therapy, a therapeutic system that has none of the invasive techniques or harsh side effects of traditional medicine. At NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, I learned Ideokinesis (Imagery coupled with Tactile Aid) from Andre Bernard (which teaches people to relax specific muscle groups at will) and Robin Powell, Ph. D. guided me to explore additional alternative injury rehabilitation techniques such as the Ball Therapy and the Movement Re-education (now called Movement Education) techniques Feldenkrais and Alexander. My first introduction to the Alexander Technique was with Clarice Marshall, one of the Modern Dance teachers on staff. Later I had many sessions with Hope Martin and volunteered as a teaching model for a semester of Feldenkrais Institute at the Abraham Goodman Center in New York City. I sporadically continue my Feldenkrais sessions with Kira Charles and have added Tai Chi to my list of body mind therapies. Practicing Tai Chi on the beach at sunrise with Sifu Chad Bailey in South Beach has been one of my most pleasurable life affirming and movement informing experiences since dance and Movement Re-education techniques.

But it was at The Swedish Institute training for my Massage Therapist License that I had a significant break through outside of movement. Evelyn Li, L. Ac., who I went to for Shiatsu and one of my most trusted instructors, invited me to take her class in Essential Oils. Despite my fear that I’d have an asthma attack, I enrolled in her class.

We must have smelled 50 different distillations when I realized that instead of being overwhelmed by my allergies, my head felt cleared of congestion. I could think more clearly and my breathing was easier. I felt calmly energetic. In that single class, she exposed me to the therapeutic world of natural aroma. This was my first clue that I could control my allergies without pharmaceuticals and enjoy a whole new world of scent.

After becoming licensed, I began to make my own massage oil blends. My massage clients loved them. I continued to create new blends and my clients continued to request them. Over the 6 years that followed, it became clear that while my massage therapy practice was rewarding for my clients and I, it was my work with essential oils that could help many more people around the country and perhaps the world. After all, I could only touch about a thousand clients per year.

This realization guided me to invent the concept of Ritual 1, Intention-Based Aromatherapy spray mist. I had enrolled in the WIBO program (Workshops in Business Opportunities) and was directed to choose a subject. I wanted to blend my understanding of alternative therapies, my knowledge of massage, and my love of aromatic and therapeutic essential oils and their properties. What would be the product of all of the training and guidance I received throughout my career? Ritual 1 emerged as a uniquely blended, water-based scent that can be used to create The Attract Essentials Mindset; an empowering state of mind designed to assist anyone in realizing their full potential, faster and more pleasantly. After all, who hasn’t been nervous on a first date or on a job interview or at an exam? Attract Essentials’ flagship product Ritual 1 is a 2 oz distillation of all of the experiences in my life, the mentoring I received, and my commitment to improving the lives of my clients near and far.

My Root, Branch & Blossom line is an extension of my mission, to create products which empower human beings by giving them all natural alternative personal and home care products to use that are safe, gentle and effective. Products that root you to mother earth, free your breath and body (thus supporting your growth into the empowered adult that you want to be) and enable you to blossom as a human being.

I invite you to enjoy the journey of life with me.

Essentially yours,
Sherrin Bernstein, BA, LMT, CA