CreACTive Wellness opening in Alabaster
Published 2:06 pm Thursday, February 11, 2021
Owner Eileen Leslie has spent the last 10 months transforming the building into her vision for creACTive Wellness Center.
Artist Zack McElrath preps a table for a painting of a butterfly.
Mila Carder & Kellie Kelley are two of the employees that help serve the goals of CreACTive Wellness.
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By DONNAMY STEELE | Special to the Reporter
ALABASTER – Awareness makes courage, and when there is courage, transformation occurs. That is the motto for Alabaster’s newest business, CreACTive Wellness, according to community educator Mila Carder.
The center’s grand opening will take place on Feb. 14 at 11 a.m. and is located at 200 First Street S in Alabaster.
“When we say wellness, we aren’t talking about a gym,” Carder said. “Those who say, ‘I can’t do yoga’ are the people we are hoping to provide a service for.”
The wellness center’s purpose is to be a one-stop place for your health needs, Carder said. Aside from the various classes and health opportunities provided, there will also be a small restaurant area for those who want to begin their health journey from the inside out.
“We are going to have a small restaurant area with healthy make-your-own salads,” Carder said. “The base can be spring mix, arugula or whatever, then you pick your protein, toppings and a healthy homemade salad dressing. Our kitchen manager and food editor for the Cooking Light Magazine, Kelly Kellie, will be running our kitchen and recipes.”
Soups, salads and alcohol will be served at the wellness center, Carder said. As they await their liquor license approval, Carder said they are planning to have an art area where they will be doing art classes with wine.
“There will be an open period of time where people can come in and just chill out and play with our supplies,” Carder said. “We are looking to create a community basically.”
Carder first became interested in teaching yoga classes when she became severely ill. After falling to her lowest point, owner Eileen Leslie encouraged Carder to work back up from moving one ankle at a time to leading an entire yoga class.
“I am a registered nurse who has worked exclusively with hospice,” Carder said. “I became severely ill, and I had yoga therapy that I received from Eileen. It helped me to walk again and I am hoping to teach a beginning yoga class called ‘Breath and Body’ where you just show up and do what you can. There is no judgement because I remember where I started, on the floor moving only one ankle.”
Carder said her main focus is to reach out to people who think that they cannot do it, but truly want to change their mind or way of thinking, and who want to heal on an emotional and spiritual level.
“I literally went from not being able to wash my own dishes to finding the ability in disability,” Carder said. “That’s all about connecting and bridging mind and body. That’s the huge, big thing because stress comes out and trauma is held in the body. It’s social and we need community right now. It’s getting those issues in our tissues out.”
Some of the activities and rooms available at the wellness center include barefoot fitness, various types of yoga, which include trapeze yoga and yoga classes for people who are in recovery, massage therapy, and a Japanese energy healing technique called reiki.
“Going forward, we have lots of things planned,” Carder said. “We are planting a tea garden on the property, we want to have live music and we have a 20×20 deck to use. We have a lot of things we are excited about.”
The grand opening will be on Feb. 14 at 11 a.m. at 200 First Street S in Alabaster. For more information about CreACTive Wellness, visit their Facebook group.
More Alabaster Reporter
-
-
-
Polls
Loading ...
