The West Coast calls for happier people, with its sunny weather, beaches, and an overall more relaxed vibe. Cynthia Howard, a stress coach of more than 20 years, discovered this after moving her motivational and coaching business, Vibrant Radiant Health, from Maryland to Santa Barbara County just last year.
“I actually think people are happier here in California,” Howard said. “I think people are more laidback on the West Coast than the East Coast, but people here still have stress because the world is uncertain.”
Howard is a registered nurse and a stress expert who works closely with individuals and businesses, teaching them how to achieve wellness, increase energy, perform better, and improve emotional intelligence by transforming their reactions to stress.
The entrepreneur realized her passion for guiding people to well-being after working as a nurse in critical care for about 15 years. She was addicted to the adrenaline the environment gave her, she explained, but started noticing how burnt out people were managing stress, and decided to attend graduate school for her doctorate in psychology. From there, she extensively researched issues surrounding stress and launched her own private practice wellness center in Maryland.
Now, Howard is settling her business in Santa Barbara County, where her sweetheart grew up.
“Generally, I work with professional people, business owners, nurses, and physicians,” she said. “I really want to work with businesses to help their management and employees change their reaction to stress and build their emotional intelligence.”
Howard is now focusing on working with organizations for leadership training and stress management, and will debut what she’s all about at her workshop on May 18 at the Santa Maria Inn.
“I’m very excited about it—it’s going to be very dynamic,” she said. “It’s going to give people tools they can use to change their reactions to stress.”
The workshop will be experimental with lots of participation and demonstration of techniques that help manage stress. Howard hopes for a lot of attendees; she just recently began promoting and talking to people about her business, she said, so the event will be an introduction to who she is and what she does. This is why the price to attend is low, she said, with a $25 registration fee.
Despite the difference of people and their personalities here versus those on the East Coast, Howard’s business will still focus on breakthrough technologies and stress-managing techniques she has used successfully in the past. One of these techniques is tapping, which uses the body’s energy system to create an almost immediate relaxation response, eliminating the emotional charge of the stressor.
“I think that there is a more holistic approach to life here on the West Coast. I have a variety of techniques, but I really just tune in to the person and focus on what they need,” she said.
“Well-being is my business, and while I help people transform their stress response, I really want people to know that well-being should be your priority for success, either personally or professionally,” she said.
For more information on Howard’s workshop, visit transformyourself.com/events.
