Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Sticka-Jacobs.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
In 2018 I had been serving as a full-time school psychologist for 12 years for Fargo and West Fargo area schools. I had always enjoyed education, being a student, and walking the halls of schools. In college, I studied psychology because I wanted to figure out the human mind and better understand behavior. In graduate school, I decided to combine my love of education and psychology and pursue a career in school psychology. While I was in my graduate studies there was a big part of me that wondered if it was truly what I was meant to be doing. It became evident early on that what I would be doing in my role as a school psychologist is far from what I imagined. I decided to continue anyway since I was already in the thick of it and convinced myself that I could like it. 11 years in, the creeping feeling that there was something else for me to be doing started to reemerge. During the 12 years that I worked full-time, I was fully invested in making a difference in the confines of my position. However, I became frustrated with the education system and how little I could do in the ways that I wanted. Within those 12 years, I furthered my education by going back to graduate school and working towards a credential of special education director. I believed that I could make a bigger impact on the education system if I worked in administration. I tried for five years to get into administration. I applied for every opening that came available and was overlooked in all of them.
By 2018 I was frustrated with my job and with the system in which I worked. My mental health began to suffer as a result and I became quite negative and anxious. I sought out counseling and in that process, my therapist suggested I begin meditating. I started small with a 5 to 10-minute guided audio practice in the mornings. While I was receiving counseling and meditating it became quite evident to me that I could not continue to work for the number of years it was going to take for me to receive my teacher’s pension. I knew in my gut that I needed something different. Since I was the primary income earner in my family, I felt restricted in my options. However, after my conversations with my husband on how we might be able to do things differently to make ends meet and provide for our three children, he supported me in embarking on a journey of becoming a yoga teacher as well as beginning a small business of selling my homemade candles that I had begun making as a creative outlet.
In the fall of 2019, I started my yoga studies. I had begun making candles for people I knew and started a website where I sold my candles and also blogged. By the fall of 2020, after an unusual end to the 2020 school year in the spring, I was able to convince the school board at the school district I worked for to cut one day a week out of my contract. I wanted to have one day a week that I could dedicate to my yoga practices and learning as well as the candle business. I soon learned that the one day I had set aside for these intentions was hardly enough. In the spring of 2021, I asked the school board to cut my contract by another day, which would put me in the position of working 60% of a full-time equivalent. They denied my request. I felt defeated, but still hopeful that it could happen in the future. I told them that I would keep asking for a reduced contract each year. I shared openly with my supervisors that I felt it was better for my own mental health as well as improved my productivity and enjoyment of my job.
In the summer of 2021, I was contacted by a friend and colleague letting me know that the Moorhead Area Public Schools district, the one I actually lived in and where my children attended school, had contacted her to let her know about a position within their district that had just opened up for a school psychologist with a 60% contract. She immediately contacted me to encourage me to apply since she was not interested. The universe knew what I was asking for and turned in my favor without me needing to force the issue. I believe to this day that had I not been honest and truthful to myself, my supervisors, and the school board about what I needed in order to continue to work in the field of education, the position that had opened up and met the criteria I was looking for, would not have been presented to me as it was.
This is now my second year of working in the Moorhead Area Public Schools district as a school psychologist in the middle school. I continue to work a 60% contract, which means you can find me working at the school three days a week. When I am not at school I am practicing and teach yoga, as well as write, and working on my handmade products which have now grown to include soy wax melts, room sprays, and essential oil rollers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would not say it has been a smooth road, but there have certainly been aspects that have been smoother than others. Truly when I decided that I needed to do something different in my life that encapsulated my entire self rather than what I had learned to do for a job, the world started to open up to me in new ways. The road to making the decision to do something different was the most difficult part. It is hard to change what you believe about yourself and your abilities when you’re approaching 40 years of age.
However, I now believe that you have the ability to change your trajectory at any point in your life — no matter your age. It is important, to be honest with yourself. If you are not happy even though you are grateful for what you have, this is something that you need to listen to. We have an innate wisdom within us that is giving us messages all of the time, but we often don’t know how to listen. I believe these messages show up in symptoms such as anxiety, unhappiness, lack of energy, or feeling of purpose.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Ease of Being is for those who are looking to achieve a deeper sense of self and ease in their life.
Combining the ancient teachings of yoga with the calming properties of safely fragranced handmade soy wax candles, our mission is to bring a greater sense of sacredness into your daily life. Our website offers handmade products, a blog for readers, information about yoga, and options for private virtual practices to receive personalized attention.
Ease of Being soy wax candles, melts, room sprays, and essential oil rollers are designed to help you achieve calm, relaxation, and a sense of peaceful ease. Whether you’re looking to set the mood for yoga, meditation, or other mindful activities, Ease of Being candles are the perfect way to bring an increased sense of calm and connection into your life.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The Covid-19 Crisis forced the entire world to slow down and for a period of time really shut down our access to the external world. We were all spending more time with ourselves. I think for some people this was a welcomed break and they worked on creative interests and explored their well-being. For others, it was a time of solitude that was extremely uncomfortable and unknown which led to despair and behaviors that were self-defeating and harmful.
Many people were angry by the restrictions and truly had to face things that they really weren’t equipped to face and may have been avoiding for a very long time. I learned that we all need to slow down and tune in more to what we need as individuals. Not what culture or society or media is telling us what we need, but actually becoming more aware of our own bodies and how we disassociate from them so easily. Emotions and experiences are stored in our bodies and they need to be allowed through us, and dealt with in healthy ways. If you don’t know where to start, it can be very difficult. We benefit from the community and support each other. Finding that during the Covid-19 crisis was a challenge, but many people took it as an opportunity to do things differently and became innovative in ways that they might not have if we hadn’t been forced to by Covid.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theeaseofbeing.com
- Instagram: @theeaseofbeing
- Facebook: @theeaseofbeing
