Meeting with Santa Mila: her vision of well-being around the ocean

Hello Laure, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

My name is Laure Bawejski, I was born in Reims (and I'm a big fan of Champagne) but I lived a bit all over France because my dad was a fighter pilot. We traveled quite a bit but luckily we had a small family base near the ocean, on the west coast. It was our point of stability and our little cocoon in this eventful childhood. We went there every long weekend or vacation, summer and winter, it was our haven of peace.

I spent part of my studies in Lille and abroad and got my first permanent contract in Paris in marketing, for a brand of champagne.

On paper, everything made me dream, a great team, a great job, my friends in Paris, but after 4 years of metro-work-sleep, I had the feeling of suffocating and not being in the right place. I had the impression of not breathing and of being in need of nature and the ocean.

I started my blog "Santa Mila", to share my travels near the ocean where I was going more and more, as well as wellness tips to take care of yourself while being in a super active life. It has become a real escape.

So I decided, after a year, to leave my CDI to start my business in well-being, train myself and be more expert in this area where I took a lot of pleasure.

I created my company 3 years ago with the aim of sharing my vision of well-being around the ocean, a simple lifestyle connected to nature to take care of yourself. I share this vision of well-being through digital content via articles on my blog, more spontaneous and regular videos on social networks, such as Instagram, and two formats "away from the screens" with my book Ocean Therapy and a new audio format with my “Ocean & Happiness Therapy” podcast channel.

I also wanted to bring this experience and this vision of well-being to life. So I launched, a year and a half ago, in partnership with a travel agency, my “Ocean Therapy” stays. A salty break, to fill up on good vibes and learn to take care of yourself by the ocean.

And personally, I decided to get closer by going to live in the South West in Biarritz.

Tell us a bit about Ocean Therapy, your vision of well-being around the ocean?

We are living beings who originally come from the ocean.

Nature is magical, it provides all living beings with what it takes to heal, heal and regain energy.

In our urban lifestyles, we have cut ourselves off from the cycles of nature and we no longer know how to listen to the needs of our body. We forget to follow our intuition like most animals do.

The ocean has this incredible power to quickly reconnect us to our inner being, to our intuition.

When we are in contact with the ocean, all our senses are awakened, sight, hearing, taste... We forget our worries, we are in the present moment, in active meditation, reconnected to nature.

Especially if you are going to practice an activity like surfing, swimming or kiteboarding because these activities require you to learn to read nature, to understand it and to be in harmony with it... You reconnect with our natural environment and simple pleasures.

It's not for nothing that after a good bath, a surf or kite session, you feel so good, balanced and full of energy.

The composition of seawater is also very similar to the liquids that make up our body, a good bath is enough to replenish it with trace elements and mineral salts, all that is essential for our body. The ocean is therefore a magical element for both the body and our mind.

When I told you that nature is well made :) We just have to get closer to it to feel better and above all to take care of it to preserve it.

You are a great athlete, you teach yoga and you practice running, what advice would you give to beginners who want to get started?

I would advise them not to put pressure on themselves, to be kind to themselves and to enjoy practicing. I have never excelled in any of the sports.

As a child, I thought I was useless at everything, when in fact today I look at it differently, kindly, telling myself that I'm not the best, but at least that allowed me to open up to lots of different activities and experience different things.

The important thing is to have fun, to have a good time. It's important to keep this approach also in running and yoga, not to compare yourself, to have fun, to surround yourself with caring friends with whom to share these activities.

What are your daily wellness rituals?

I have two essential rituals wherever I am, it's morning and evening. It's been a year since I took this moment, and starting the day well and ending it well, that changes everything!

For my morning ritual: I get up, I brush my teeth and rid my tongue of toxins with a tongue scraper, I also clean my nose like in yogi rituals with sea water or water salt, then I do some soul yoga face movements to wake up my skin and tone it. I finish with a jet of cold water on the face.

Then I prepare an Ayurvedic infusion (often yogi tea chai tea that I love or otherwise hot water, lemon, and turmeric) to wake up my digestive system and depending on the time I have, I do some breathing exercises and some sun salutations on my yoga mat with soft music that puts me in a good mood.

If I have time, I do a one hour yoga session and if I miss it, it's 5/10mn but it gives me the impression of having a little time for me before starting a long day. And only after, I attack a good breakfast.

Same for the evening routine, I take 15/20 minutes for myself, to remove my makeup, massage my face and body and I finish with some breathing and meditation exercises and bedtime. It's my magic little quarter of an hour. My ritual to soothe me after a long day.

I'm lucky to live near the ocean, my other ritual when I'm here is to go see it every day. I run on the beach, I surf, or take a little bath (even in winter!), sea water is magical for the organism. We fill up with energy, we feel boosted and at the same time soothed.

Finally, what is your impression of the Hygée products?

I really like Hygée products because they are products that are inspired by the benefits that nature brings us, to extract the best from it and be able to consume it even in our very active and urban lifestyles.

I feel like I'm taking my little magic powder to feel in great shape.

I consume them as a cure when I have moments of fatigue. I really like the Energy cure !

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Find Laure on santamila.com or on Instagram @santamila_