Gutsy Chick Podcast

Aromatherapy for High Performers and Why it’s Essential

• Amanda Smith • Episode 56

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In today’s episode, we’re talking with Anita Boehm about her passion for skiing, her natural remedies for athletes, and the importance of breathwork. Anita is passionate about empowering women in sports and wellness, making this a great conversation for anyone interested in skiing, health, or breathwork.  


In this Episode:  

00:00 Diving into Anita’s background 

03:06 Anita's Journey into Skiing and Teaching 

05:50 Innovations in Telemark Skiing 

09:00 Understanding Telemark Skiing 

11:51 Creating Natural Remedies for Athletes 

18:00 The Science Behind Essential Oils 

21:56 Breath Work and Its Importance 

27:06 Conclusion and Resources 


Here’s how to connect with Anita Boehm: 

https://mountainsagewellness.com/ 
 
https://www.facebook.com/mountainsagewellness 
 
https://www.instagram.com/mountainsagewellness/ 
 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-boehm-266a691/ 
 
https://twitter.com/MtSageWellness 

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Check out more from Amanda:
Website: Body Whisper Healing
Instagram: @Amanda.G.Smith
Facebook: Body Whisper Healing
Pinterest: AmandaGSmithBWH
LinkedIn: Amanda (Ritchie) Smith

Take the Gutsy Chick Quiz to find out how your athletic mindset might be holding you back from healing your chronic health issue: https://gutsychickquiz.com





Anita, thank you so much for saying yes to being on spirit of an athlete with me. And really what I'm, what I'm excited about is you and I have done work together and you have helped me through some of my body issues and helped me move some of the energy that I needed moving. And I'm stoked to share you with my audience because you are a gift. are a treasure truly. off. And as I got to know you, I got to learn some really cool things about your past. When did you start skiing and when did you become an instructor for skiing and what happened in the middle there? There's a lot. I started skiing at the age of 11. I grew up in Michigan and I loved to play in the snow. It was cold and snowy there. It's not surrounded by mountains like we are here, but we had hills to play on and things like that. I would have loved to have started at an earlier age, but my family couldn't really afford it until there was an offering through the local newspaper. I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. It's a valley. So there's really not a lot there to ski on. There's a little hill called Vince's Apple Mountain, which was a trash refuse dump with tow ropes on it. That the newspaper, the newspaper kids ski school offering at this really reasonable price. You know, that's we went to learn how to ski. And when I got on skis that first day, I absolutely fell in love with it. And there was no turning back. And my mother also noticed how passionate I was about skiing. And she did her best over the years to really feed that passion. I chose to move to Colorado many years later in my early 20s. And I ended up skiing in Michigan with a friend of mine before I got out to Colorado. at a place called Sugarloaf Mountain, which is closed down now up by Traverse City, Michigan. And there's this run called Awful Awful. And Awful Awful had these Volkswagen sized icy bumps on it. And my friend looked at me and he said, you know, you're moving out to Colorado next year. If you could hold an edge on this stuff in Michigan, you can hold an edge on anything in Colorado. Jump into a ski school hiring clinic. you'll get hired and you'll get pro deals and things. I'm like, cool. So I filed that away. And so the next year in the, November of that same year, actually, I ended up arriving in Colorado and magically within the first month, I found out about a ski school hiring clinic because I was an athlete and I had a health club membership that transferred to this little French street athletic club in Breckenridge. And I was sitting in the hot tub at the end of my workout and I said, Hey, when's the ski school hiring clinic? And he said, next week. And I'm like, oh so I jumped in. It was a five day job interview and my friend was absolutely right. I got hired. And so I started teaching skiing and I was very passionate about getting more training, improving my skiing, improving my teaching skills as well. And I just, you know, I was in love with, you know, being able to do that. instantly when I came to Colorado. It was a blessing. my goodness. Okay. So I have to share. I grew up at the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. Wisconsin has hills. Illinois is flat as a board. So my first skiing experience Actually, Cascade Mountain. okay. I skied those. That's why. No, I don't. So cascade, the longest run on the longest run there is a minute and a half and it's a green and it goes all the way around the place. And the, the, blues and the blacks are maybe 15 to 30 second runs. So when I got out to call, I started, I started skiing. I tried skiing. I should say, I was 12 or 13. So not long after you had started, right around the same age. And I learned really quick, I'm not good on two sticks. They like to crisscross and they like to split. finding edges was not something that computed until I got onto a snowboard. And so when I came out to Colorado, I was already a snowboarder. I had snowboarded a decent amount in Wisconsin so that when I got out to Colorado, I remember getting on my first lift at Copper Mountain going, holy crap. So this lift just took me about 20 times farther than I've ever gone down a mountain at one time. So it's going to take me like three hours just to do one run. Yeah. So that was my early beginnings of skiing and then coming out to Colorado and snowboarding. And I fell in love with it too. It was just like, absolutely, yes, this is my jam. This is definitely one of my things. So you're a bit of an innovator. Give us a little bit about your innovative ways when it came to skiing and what that led you into. Well, when I first was teaching in Colorado, I got hired at Breckenridge and there was this person who is a friend of mine that was on Telemark skis. And I saw him on Telemark skis and I'm like, ooh, that looks like a really cool form of skiing. And so, and it was the primary form to get into the back country in Colorado. And so I really was passionate about doing all the professional ski instructors certification trainings. I got my Alpine certification ultimately later on. After I really got immersed into telemark skiing, I became a higher certification actually in telemark skiing. And then as I evolved through the years and ended up working at different places over time, I quit and went inactive for a little while because I went back to grad school and was an environmental scientist. and I came back into skiing going inactive. I came back, I went, I quit my environmental consulting job and basically was a subcontractor so that I had a flexible schedule so I could go back into teaching skiing. And I started teaching the women's telemark aspect at Eldora for the women's program. And then I spent 10 years there and then I decided I wanted to go to a basin and and teach there instead because they had a really good telemark staff. And I was able to spearhead the women's telemark part of their women's program because they weren't doing telemark as part of the women's ski program. They were doing snowboarding and they were doing alpine skiing, but not telemark. So I talked the supervisor into letting me do that or the director actually. And they allowed me to do that for about three years and then they dropped the telemark aspect of the women's program. So I went on to Loveland and said, hey, can you allow me to teach telemark here in the women's program? And so they gave me that permission and we did it and we built a really strong women's program. There was a woman I worked with at Eldora Dorado. We had a huge women's program where we just built the numbers, but then we just squeezed in. the women's program at the beginning of 2020, and then the shutdowns happened. And then the next year, there was no special programs offered anymore. And then the year after that, they decided to drop the telemark aspect. So it's been a struggle because it's been one of these forms of skiing that are not appreciated, I guess, by the skiers because there's more numbers in the alpine skiing and the snowboarding. But I did my best to bring it forward and make those programs happen. And it kind of began when I was in college too. I was really interested in getting involved with things that weren't the norm for women. When I was signing up for my very first physical education class in college, it was a weightlifting class. I signed up for the guy's weightlifting class basically. And I was the only woman in the class. then... what ended up following is the following semester they created a women's weightlifting class because I participated in that. So I've always been one who really wanted to, you know, bring forth programs for women and really, you know, get that, get women out there doing things that they wouldn't normally do. Let me put it that way. love women trailblazers. absolutely love you because we it's, it's so needed. Let's go back to telemarking so that our listeners understand what in the world telemark is. I I've never telemarked, but I always, I likened it to a combination of being able to do downhill, alpine skiing, as well as cross country skiing because your heels can rock up out of the base. Mm-hmm. Unlike when you're doing alpine skiing, whichever I would say most people who have skied, they're going to know what alpine skiing is. You click in the toe, you drop down the heel, you're locked into that, that ski with your boot through the binding. So the bindings are different with telemark. What else is different with telemark? The way you complete the turn is different. You have a different ski that is the lead ski in the turn. to me, you end up with your, we call it the trailing ski. end up with your, instead of your uphill skiing, being ahead of your ski when you finish your turn, it ends up being behind. But it's a more natural movement pattern when you're skiing down the bumps. It's like you're walking down the stairs. I've always, it's just a nice free flowing. form of downhill skiing, but your heels are free. And it's just a beautiful form that I am completely passionate about. When I watch telemarkers come down the mountain, what I absolutely love is it looks like they're dancing and they, you know, they're going into a bit of a lunge also, which I loved seeing that because it was just so graceful and beautiful. And it's completely different than, you know, side step, side swoosh, push the snow out of the way, scrape the snow down the side of the mountain, which is what snowboarders do telemarkers. It seems like they just flow. with the terrain. Is that right? Absolutely. Yeah. And to me, you know, I say the same thing. There's nothing like the tele dance. There was a time when I was first starting my business. I ended up founding a wellness practice 18 years ago, actually, this month, which is amazing. I it was in 2006. And I went to Mary Jane with five other of my Telemark girlfriends. And it was really break the early season snow. And I just finished formulating a shea butter version of my muscle and joint pain relief formula that I've been making for years. I can speak to how I got into aromatherapy, but it's made in such an essential oil product that was in an oil base for many years and gave it as gifts. It was a muscle and joint pain relief formula. And then I decided to experiment and make a shea butter formula. And I gave all my girlfriends a sample of this when we went out skiing that day. And one of my friends was a mountaineering woman who came into the day really beat up. She'd been skiing for days before because was such great early season snow. And we were riding the six pack chair at Winter Park, the Mary Jane Winter Park. And my friends were like, we're a six pack of chicks on sticks. We're like just ripping down the. the mogul runs and things like that, skiing really super hard. But my friend at the end of the day put this on her knees and things and it just made her recover right away. She said, I felt more recovered at the end of the day than I did going into the beginning part of the day. So my love and passion for athletics allowed me to create my own formula that was a more natural formula than what I pull off the shelves. for my muscle recovery and my muscle and joint pain when I would tweak myself. And so that's how I began evolving into a deeper way, trying to help people who are athletes. my gosh. Okay. So the muscle and joint cream that you've made, I am in love with. I've been having some neck issues lately and I will wake up every morning and I will put that on and the rest of the day, the neck pain goes away. It's, it's not very often that you find a cream like this or a solution like this where it actually works all day, all day. I've, I've, I have other friends, John, we June. I love him to pieces. makes his own, he calls it icy. He calls his fire and ice. And one of them is a heating element and one of them is a cooling element and it smells very much like, Icy see hot. And that's what you usually get when it comes to these kinds of creams. Yours does not smell like icy hot. don't, my husband always jokes. He says, you know, when you put that cream on, you smell like you should be in a geriatric ward. And I just want to. Boppin' one for that one, because you know, it's showing our age. But when I put it on my neck, it's not fuming on me, I can't smell it. It goes on just a little dab will do ya? And it goes on so smoothly and so easily and you get instantaneous relief, which you don't normally feel that, see that. thought the fire and ice smells like a geriatric thing? So was he referring to the fire and ice? Okay, okay, that's what I thought, okay. Yeah, right. What does he think of the smell of my muscle and joint? kind of stuff. What does he think of the one of what does he think of my formula? He doesn't smell it at all. He doesn't even know I have it on. It's so great. And he knows it's sitting, it's sitting right next to my bed and I put it on at night. I put it on in the morning and, and no comments whatsoever about it. So he's not smelling it at all, which is fantastic. I also have a lot of hair to cover it up when it goes on my neck, but no response to it, which is so nice because I don't want to smell like icy hot. I don't want to have that. pepperminty fume coming at me all day long, reminding me that, yeah, your neck hurts. It's just, it's so nice to have that. The fire and ice that, that John makes is very intense. It's very, strong and it lasts for a very short period of time. I would use that for lifting. I would put that on, go do my lifts. And then after I was done lifting, I would have to reapply because I either sweat it off. or it wore off and nine times out of 10, it just wore off. And I love his formula for the intensity, but yours, I can wear it all day and not be like having that reminder. And I don't have to reapply it constantly. was introduced to aromatherapy about five years before I brought that to market. And I was a skeptical about aromatherapy and I happened to be at this conference called Teaching Outside the Box and I went to this aromatherapy thing. And this woman spoke to the environmental scientist in me. I used to do risk analysis on hazardous waste sites and she talked about how essential oils can be entered into the body either. through ingestion for some essential oils. You gotta be cautious with that. But they can be applied dermally. And then also through inhalation, you get benefits. And I just instantly perked up because I used to calculate risks associated with hazardous waste sites with those routes of exposure. And I went out and bought every single book that she recommended and started making my own muscle and joint pain relief formula. It was me cooking. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I discovered so many essential oils that had so many medicinal properties that could be put into a formula that would be very effective for people. And I was just giving it as gifts for about five years. But then when I founded Mountain Sage Wellness, I was honing in on the recipe. I did not want it to smell medicinal. That was an objective of mine. I did not want it to smell like, you know, I hate to say name of a product, but like a Bengay or something like that. I did not want it to smell medicinal. wanted it both men and women to be able to tolerate the smell as well. So I did a lot of research and development on it all and I ended up bringing it to its present form. So that's how I got started in my business. Mm. I also create other. so we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna drop a link right now so people know where to go if they need a muscle and joint cream that isn't smelling like Icy Hot and constantly reminding them, yeah, you have this injury because of the smell, fuming into their face from whatever part of the body, especially with Icy Hot, I can put it on my foot and smell it. That's a far distance from your foot and you put a sock on, but you can still smell it. So where can people find this particular formula? Well, I also want to add that there are other formulations that I've created. have a stress relief, headache relief, insomnia relief, and I also import an essential oil that is fantastic for the respiratory system and the immune system called Fregonia that I sell straight up. And I've got 30 products in my product line through Mountain Sage Wellness. If one goes to mountainsagewellness.com and clicks on the store, It'll take you right into where you can read more about all of my formulations and the single very therapeutic essential oils that I offer as well through Mountain Sage Wellness. love how thorough you are. When someone comes to you and buys one of your essential oils, you give them a pamphlet that explains not only what the ingredients are or what this will help with, but really you tell the story of how you came to finding this formulation and then how else it can benefit beyond just the thing that they probably got it for. the The joint and the muscle and joint cream, that one's pretty obvious. We're using that on muscles and joints. But the beauty of that muscle and joint cream is you don't have to use it constantly. It's not something that you're just going to have to keep going back to over and over again. It actually has healing properties that will take you beyond just needing to use it constantly. Absolutely, and I do energy work. Yeah. Yeah Thank you. I do energy work and I also put a lot of energetics into my products and when I create them I I work with that quite a bit to have just another frequency that is contained within the products that is indirectly beneficial there's also I make so many different products and they have so many essential oils in it that really help with calming the nervous system. There's a technique that you can use to all of my essential oils, including the muscle and joint, you can do a carotid artery massage. And what that does is it activates and detoxifies the vagus nerve. So it really creates a calm sense of being even just inhaling any of the essential oils that goes. right directly to the limbic system of the brain, which helps athletes and everyone. And that's our emotional control center of the brain. And that controls your oxygenation, your hormones, stress levels, your respiration, it's just also your heart rate and blood pressure. But doing the carotid massage too, in addition to inhaling, it allows for that detoxification and activation of vagus nerve. And we have baroreceptors. baroreceptor neurons, I should say, that are contained, that are connected between the heart and the brain, and it helps lower the blood pressure, and also it helps to lower heart rate as well. So it's good for everyone, no matter whether you're an athlete or not, to help create a more calm state of being because it's activating that parasympathetic, that rest and relax aspect of our autonomic nervous system. How does one go from being an environmental scientist to knowing all of this about the body? Well, having a toxicology background as an environmental scientist and doing risk analysis, looking at the hazardous chemicals on hazardous waste sites, I gained a really strong chemical information background, a really strong knowledge about chemicals in the environment from an adverse effect. But then when I got into essential oils, I learned about the therapeutic aspects that essential oils offer. So it was really easy to transition into that. Yeah. Well, you just broke down the nervous system better than I've heard. Most people break it down, which means you've done some deep study around the body and some deep study around anatomy, physiology. Yes. I'm gonna guess that comes from your athletic background. Well, that does too. And also I'm a breathing practitioner and I also facilitate breath work workshops. I'm a Qigong instructor too. And I get into sort of an East West perspective of breathing and the breathing practices are really key for athletes, but also for people to create a more calm state of being as well. And when I studied, actually I worked with Wim Hof and If you go to his website, can look at how breath work really helps people create a calm state of being. If you look at what is called the vagal tone, the higher the vagal tone, the easier somebody can achieve more rest and relaxation and reduce their stress levels. And so it's really key physiologically to be able to work with the breath. And so the breath and the essential oils do a combination of those things in the work that I do. I, it's the easiest thing to access. are constantly breathing. Our autonomic nervous system tells us to breathe. We don't have to think about it. But the fact that we can always have access to our breath and be able to control our breath and to be able to work with our breath to help calm our body, not just calm our body, but send the signals to the brain to actually chill everything back out. It's the easiest form to access and yet people dismiss it so easily because it's, it's something we already do. It's autonomic. So I love that you're, you're into breath work and Qigong. Qigong is all about moving energy, moving the body and moving the energy at the same time. And Qigong was actually one of the first body awareness movement practices, breath, body movement practices that I really sunk into. At a very young age, I was, I was probably 20 21 and Qigong was one of, one of my favorite ways to play with my energy. And my instructor and massage therapist, she always said to me, you're like a little baby goat when it comes to this. And I was like, yeah, but I can't wait to become the goat when it comes to this. And she was like, sister, I don't think you're going to become the goat of Qigong. think you've got bigger, better plans than just Qigong. But I love how many different modalities you have brought together to help people heal. That is by far and away your biggest gift in my humble opinion. Well, thank you. I also want to point out that people don't realize it because it is so automatic with breathing is that breathing is behavior and you can actually train yourself. And I have a bio feedback instrument that's called a capnotrainer in which I can help people train themselves to achieve a better physiological function through breathing practices or breathing patterns that they change from their previous behaviors to new behaviors. And so that's really helpful for people too. And I'm also doing a special on that too in my business. I'm doing like half off. I normally charge $100 an hour and I'm doing like 50 % off through the beginning of next year. Or actually, no, you're not gonna show this. Anyway, I will be offering it early next year. Yeah. But yeah, all those things. Yes, I'll be offering 50 % off of the breathing practice, the breathing physiology training. So. Excellent. This is definitely from an, from an athlete's perspective, learning how to control the breath, learning how to use the breath tied with movement is quite possibly one of the biggest ahas that I had as an adult athlete. I wish I would have better understood it as a child athlete because I was, I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma, which to me just means I had no clue how to move my body and breathe at the same time. It wasn't because of allergies. wasn't because of something that was really, A disease in my body. was just, didn't have the tools to know how to breathe and move at the same time. like during basketball games, I would turn blue on the court because I'm, as I'm dribbling the ball down the court, I'm holding my breath the entire time and I'd get to the other end of the court. And then finally take a breath because I paused long enough to grab the ball and either pass it or shoot it. And generally I wasn't shooting it. And thank God I wasn't generally dribbling because I sucked at dribbling too. But I just needed somebody to teach me how to breathe. So to the listeners, if your child or you have been diagnosed with exercise induced asthma, look into learning breath work techniques. Contact Anita. She can teach you how to breathe. Mm-hmm. and you'll become a much better athlete because the breath controls the entire nervous system. And if we're nervous, we're playing tight. And if we're playing tight, we are not optimally playing our game. So Anita, where can people find you besides at mountainsagewellness.com. Well, they can contact me directly via phone at 303-241-3343. I also have a Facebook presence for Mountain Sage Wellness. I'm also on Instagram and LinkedIn and also Twitter. So I'm not on social media a lot. But I can be found on any of those platforms as well. Excellent. will put all of those in the show notes so you guys can go and find Anita on the internet, go to her website, take advantage of this breath work course that she is offering. And please, if you are looking for a better solution than I see hot, check out her muscle and joint cream. is fantastic. And then of course, all her other essential oils are amazing as well. have a whole bunch of them. You can come check them out with me too. Anita. Thank you so much. yes, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much. It's been an honor and a pleasure and I can't wait to see you again soon so that we can do some more body work on me. All right, you have a lovely rest of your day. Thank you so much. Thank you.

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