Ep#51 How Spirit Led Us to a Better Relationship with Money with Tanai and Wesley Holder

abundance entrepreneurship Nov 02, 2021

In this episode of Your Story Medicine, I welcome Tanai and Wesley, the Founders of The Salt Lounge in Long Beach. As experienced Reiki Masters and Intuitives, they work to educate, empower, and promote wellness from the inside out and outside in.

Main Topics Discussed:

  • Why Tanai and Wesley gave up the prestige of making their dream income in corporate America for a new life with no clear plan at the outset
  • Setting boundaries as a Reiki Master
  • How Tanai and Wesley healed their relationship with money by creating a money deck

What are you celebrating about yourself today?

Wesley: I’m still celebrating the fact that we got a babysitter. It’s game-changing! Being a parent is the best thing, but having a helping hand is gonna help us. It means more date nights!

Tanai: I’m celebrating being able to fully embrace myself at The Salt Lounge and not feeling like I have to put on a face for the folks that come in.

How would you describe your medicine?

Tanai: I’m just being me, and if you get a little bit of that, and that helps you, that’s wonderful.

Wesley: I’m a vessel. If I can inspire, help you smile today, or just help you see your situation a little differently, I did my job. It’s about living life as organically as possible.

How do you navigate the boundaries between business and family?

Tanai: We do have boundaries. We try to turn everything off at home. But we’re intentional with making sure our energy at home and our work align, because you can’t separate the two.

Wesley: We intentionally try to be regular. As an entrepreneur, I learned that, the more fun we have in our personal life, the more that rolls into the business.

How has your ancestral lineage influenced your path today?

Tanai: I get a lot of my medicine from my mom and my grandma, who were both very spiritual and metaphysical. My father’s side are all Creole. So, they're all down South. But I only discovered that heritage way later on.

Wesley: My family’s West Indian—Trinidadian. My family and I didn’t talk about this stuff either when I was growing up. My dad passed away when I was 18 and had left for college. It hurt so bad that I did everything I could to try to connect with him. I found a place in Virginia Beach called the Edgar Cayce Center where I learned about metaphysics. That fueled me to eventually do what I do now. We both grew up with money issues, having come from single-parent households. It took us years to heal our money issues, but when we finally did, that’s when things started to flourish for us.

What made you decide to give up corporate life at a Fortune 500 company and start from scratch with no clear direction at the time?

Tanai: It was a gradual process. I quit my job first. I was the youngest manager at my company and it was supposed to be the “happiest” place to work for, but I came into work crying almost every day. I just prayed to the Lord until I woke up one day and realized that I needed a change. I went in to work that day and quit immediately. That day, Wesley’s money doubled.

Wesley: I was working at a car dealership and suddenly went top 1, and eventually became the top guy in Las Vegas. But even I didn’t feel like I belonged there. I also burst out crying some days.

Tanai: We were going to get married around that time. The plan was for a destination wedding. We started joking like, “What if we just never came back?” Eventually, that joke became a little more serious.

Wesley: We had so many opportunities to learn about things around the world that we never would have learned back home. We had so many experiences that filled us up internally that going back to the corporate world in the States became impossible. I was driving Uber, doing DoorDash, Instacart, and all that.

Tanai: We were so determined to hang on to our freedom. We were even doing translations for the hearing-impaired!

Wesley: We knew that was only a temporary situation. We dream-built our future in our car while looking up addresses at 5 AM to make deliveries.

Tanai: We finally made our way to Long Beach, learned Reiki, and through family friends, were given the opportunity to open our own space. That’s how it went. It’s all trust and knowing that nothing is permanent. We can shape our reality and we can make the life that we want. And it’s all going pretty good!

For those new to metaphysics, can you please break down Reiki and how is your work different from something like the Law of Attraction?

Tanai: Energy is in everything. You can call it “Spirit”, “God”, whatever you want. But you cannot deny that there is energy all around us that connects every single one of us. Metaphysics helps us tap into what’s lying there and work with it in alignment with what you want to attract. Decide what you want to do with that energy and how you can use it to raise your vibration. Reiki helps us tap into that energy and enter the Akashic records. The Akashic records are where you get the honest truth without all the fluffiness.

Wesley: Reiki is the realm where all lifetimes are stored, like a library or iCloud. All your past and future lives are stored there. And all traumas we experience in this lifetime stem from a previous lifetime. When we’re in the Akashic records, we don’t just hang out and party; we do some really deep healing work. There’s something beautiful about energy because we live in the realm of free will. You have the opportunity to do whatever you want to do. It seems so far to become a healer; but, you’re already a healer. Emotion is energy in emotion. What is it that this body I’m in is trying to share with me, right now?

Why The Salt Lounge? Where does “salt” come into play?

Tanai: When we came back from our travels, Wes was reading about all the benefits of salt and how it transforms negative energy into positive energy. We were once in a salt cave and felt its cleansing effects on our respiratory system and our energy. Salt was our “gateway drug” into spirituality. Salt acts as “toothpaste” on your insides.

Wesley: We can heal physically and emotionally; but, hopping into a salt room clears your energy. Salt dates back thousands of years. It’s been a part of our history for centuries. Shamans would use salt to clear our energy. Salt is nothing new, but I’m just glad people are now aware of their benefits, and that they want to go back to these traditional ways of healing.

Tell us how the pandemic forced you to become resourceful when you could no longer host in-person experiences.

Tanai: Before the gifts and grants came in, we knew we had to do something before the money ran out. So, we led with the question, “How can we help?” By starting with that question, we realized that we needed to get back to basics and start conducting workshops and other activities that will give others clear wins. We posted tips on social media such as how to meditate, that empowered others to harness the energy around them. Focusing on people saved our business.

Wesley: It was really cool to recognize the power of the divine feminine energy. When Tanai was pregnant, I literally took it to mean that we’re about to go through a season of birth. If you’re a pregnant woman, you’re a creative vessel. Create anything you can. And we had fun doing it. Creation is cool, but if you’re not having fun doing it, it’s no good.

What are you doing to stay grounded and what is it that you’ve learned to release?

Tanai: We have each other. That’s one thing. The more I focus on myself—because I drive myself nuts giving, giving, giving all the time—I bring it all back down. I’ve released trying to be everything for everybody.

Wesley: I slow down. The energy outside is so fast. For all entrepreneurs out there, it’s so easy to experience burnout because we forget to take some time for ourselves. I’m releasing habits that I never needed, like decluttering, and replacing those with the right rituals, like taking more frequent baths.

If you could envision yourself as a future ancestor, what is it that they would say to present-day you?

Tanai: Just enjoy the ride and be present, because it all goes by so fast.

Wesley: Don’t be so hard on yourself, celebrate the ups and the downs, and enjoy the ride.


Conclusion: Good always prevails. Don’t try to get your next ten moves down pat and just enjoy the present moment and think about how you can be of service to your community today. Slow down and enjoy the moment. It’s the best thing you can do for both yourself and others.

Action Integration: Take  some inspiration from Tanai and Wesley’s money deck and nurture a stronger relationship with the idea of wealth by really looking at how you can be of service—and remember to have fun along the way.


Learn more about The Salt Lounge:

Visit their website: www.thesaltloungelb.com

Follow them on Instagram:  www.instagram.com/thesaltloungelb

Check their recent announcement: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVvHwQNpslB/?utm_medium=copy_link

Your Story Medicine : http://www.yourstorymedicine.com/

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