“Magic Mondays” happen when a quartet of energy healing practitioners come together in a relaxed environment to create high-quality healing mists that address physical, emotional and spiritual ailments.
Lia Bernardo, an internationally certified integrative healer and wellness coach, and Katrina Tantoco-Lobregat, who now works as vice president for dad Rico Tantoco in Sta. Elena Golf and Country Estates, have been friends for years.
Bernardo and Edna Coliangco-Chua, who is at the forefront of her family’s business, were classmates in theta healing.
Anna Chan was Bernardo’s student. The two also attended reiki classes together.
On those girl-dates they call Magic Mondays, they mix high-quality, imported premium healing oils to create mist sprays that, when inhaled through the nose and rubbed into the skin, might just help spare a client from visits to the shrink.
Theta healing intuitively identifies an individual’s physical and issues and addresses these by uncovering layers of belief that are holding the person down.
Alchemy
Bernardo said her group also engages in the Millennium Method, a healing technique that uses fractal art cards to identify imbalances in an individual and offers healing through energy medicine, quantum physics and alchemy.
The healing mists that the four women create “restore balance and release toxins from our minds, bodies and souls where there is disharmony,” Bernardo told Inquirer Lifestyle.
Bernardo said that, as healers, they identify emotional blocks like trauma, limiting beliefs and resentments that hinder people from living fuller lives.
She added that once these blocks are addressed, well-being or at least feeling a whole lot better is achieved.
Bernardo initially does a “muscle test” on a client to help identify the personal issues that need to be addressed.
A client is made to hold bottles of healing mists, one at a time, to determine which scents would help address personal issues.
So, how did the four friends end up doing this?
Bernardo’s knowledge of healing oils is largely self-taught. Over the years, she noticed that when asked to mix a scent for a specific purpose (e.g. to have courage; realize the need to grant forgiveness; or release tension), the combinations she comes up with after a meditation session are usually spot-on.
Lobregat remembered that when she was heavy with her second child, she and Bernardo came from a homeopathic class when the latter suddenly started spraying a homemade scent inside the car.
“What’s that?” Lobregat asked. After sniffing some more, she suggested that Bernardo sell the scent she sprayed the car with.
“I don’t want to bother selling it,” Bernardo said.
“I can,” Lobregat quipped. Coming from a scion of the family that sells the most chic goods this side of the planet, Lobregat sounded serious enough for Bernardo to believe.
Fast-moving product
The series of scents called Elixir was recently launched at Accessory Lab at Power Plant Mall in Rockwell, Makati.
The bottles usually disappear soon after they are displayed.
Chua, with her hands-on experience in the family business, handles all financial responsibilities.
She noted that when Chan came into the picture, “Derecho! The synchronicity was there.”
Bernardo created the scent called “Bliss” and uses it more than the other sprays.
Lobregat, in charge of quality control, inspired Bernardo to create “Self-Love,” a self-explanatory variant.
Chua said she loves the peaceful feeling that “Serenity” inspires.
She and Chan are also fans of “Forgiveness,” another popular creation.
There is a scent called “Guardian Angel” that Bernardo said was created for safety, serenity and calmness.
“Passion” uses five kinds of aphrodisiac oils “to make you feel sexy,” she said.
Chan uses “Balance” to ground herself and “Revive” to wake her children up on school days.
She said Revive’s rosemary enhances brain function for exams and can also be useful for people in creative jobs.
The women recalled a time when “Abundance” was sprayed over a cash register on a slow day. Immediately, customers began coming in and hauling away bottles of “Elixir.”
One friend’s bottle of “Bliss” broke inside her bag while inside a restaurant. In minutes, the entire table was laughing, prompting one of them to note that the scent was “better than weed.”
The four women are very hands-on with the product during Magic Mondays.
“The formulations evolve. At the end of the day, it’s all about whether we like the smell. There’s really a lot of choices, kung anong feeling namin na mas mabango. It’s a lot of trial and error. And if it’s not good enough for Lobregat as our quality control person, we will not sell it,” Chua said.
Bernardo, as the potion maker, said, “Elixir is just taking all they learned about healing a step further, bottling it and making it available to the public.”
Chua said all scents have been personally tested and they would not put out a scent that they do not believe in or use themselves.
“We are into healing… Putting out a product that we know is not good for people will result in bigger repercussions for us. So we are very careful,” she explained.
