Self-love With Leticia

Promoting personal self-care regimens, local health and wellness business Self-love With Leticia offers workshops and subscription bundles relating to self-care.

Developing the business over the past five years, Leticia Apablaza originally launched Self-love With Leticia as Fitness and Lattes in the early summer of 2020 after feeling the final push in the midst of the pandemic. For the longest time, she was unsure what to do with her idea. Her journey started when she began to realize the importance of self-care and making that a priority. 

“Working out, changing my eating habits, taking back my time, setting boundaries, and not letting others dictate my decisions about my health; I started to change and evolve into this version of myself I always wanted to be but wasn’t doing before,” she said.

“It’s a lot easier than mainstream media, social networks, and even family say it is to reach this level of self-care.” 

According to Apablaza, the key to success involves consistency and making ourselves a priority. Once she reached this level herself, she felt a desire to help others on their self-care journeys. 

“There was something there that I wanted to share; a message, things I was experiencing, and knowledge that I thought other people might not know,” she said.

Starting out, she originally started a personal blog where she posted things to inspire people to work on self-care and share what she knew and felt. After a while, she took a break from the blog, unsure of the next step, going back and forth on what to do with her idea as it evolved over the years. 

“My mission is to inspire beings to create daily self-care rituals,” she said.  

Taking the Next Step 

Ultimately, the COVID-19 crisis provided the push Apablaza needed to make her business a reality. 

“Shortly after the pandemic began, the situation provided me with clarity and amplified the journey I was already on,” she said. “I realized the importance of living out your passions.”

She explained that we all have these amazing ideas, skills, and visions, yet we think we have to do things a certain way or we fear change. As a result, we don’t take the next step for ourselves. 

“The last year really changed my mindset and I no longer worry about the “what-ifs”.” 

Setting out, she started by making coffee scrubs, then decided to create the self-care bundles shortly after. 

Self-love With Leticia Monthly Bundles

Apablaza partners with different brands to curate a monthly subscription package filled with various self-care-related products.

Working with companies with missions aligning to self-care, the boxes contain samples of items sold by small-to-medium-sized businesses both locally and nationally. Apablaza personally curates the selection each month and packs each bundle by hand.

“It’s so much fun! I love making the bundles and seeing people’s reactions,” she said. “Each bundle always includes a sample of coffee, tea, or both.”

In addition to the coffee and/or tea selection, the box includes various skincare products like masks, oils, lotions, soaps, and bath salts. They also occasionally include things like incense, mini-journals, and even inspirational stickers. In a previous box, subscribers received a pass for a free week at a local gym to work out at. 

“I curate items to accommodate for physical, mental, and spiritual fitness to create a self-care package that assists people in all three types of self-care,” she said. “It’s still a growing business, and honestly, that’s the beauty of it; I’m enjoying the journey and process.”

Self-care bundles cost $34.99 each, and ship for free locally and nationally. 

This month’s ‘Indulge’ bundle contains the following products:

• Rich, healthy brownie from Superbaked Foods;
• A whipped sugar scrub from The Narwhal & The Manatee;
• A coffee brew from Rasa Coffee;
• Furlesse skin patches to take away some unwanted wrinkles;
• Choc-Zero chocolate, and hazelnut spread;
• And, mushroom-infused highlights from Cocokind.

The upcoming webinar Apablaza hosts this month includes this bundle, but purchasing the bundle separately does not grant admission. 

Self-love With Leticia Self-care Workshops

To further her mission of inspiration, Apablaza integrated themed workshops at the beginning of the year as part of her Fitness and Lattes bundles.

By launching her personal brand, Apablaza plans to emphasize her workshops while also selling the subscription bundles separately. 

Shifting the focus to the workshops, she said the boxes themselves don’t involve as much real connection with people. At the workshops, she can talk to people, inspire them, share knowledge, and receive feedback. 

“The workshops really help build community,” she said. “People really connect on the topics we discuss, and the experience enhances more and more over time as people return.” 

Apablaza has conducted three in-person workshops so far, one at The LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada and two at Sunset Park. At the workshops, participants meditated, journaled, grounded themselves, and conducted a tea ceremony. “It was great to be outdoors in the fresh air with spring coming,” she said. 

The Hero’s Journey

At a recent workshop, she covered ‘The Hero’s Journey.’

On Saturday, March 27th, participants discovered the hero within through a journaling prompt and embraced failure with a “failure is fun” activity. 

The workshop started with a light, guided meditation session before the Hero’s Journey activities began. Afterward, the session ended with a flower-essence tea ceremony and a reiki session hosted by Sierra Nicole Skin Care.

Attendees also enjoyed a light brunch and received the March ‘Zen’ bundle through Fitness and Lattes. This workshop was the last one done through F&L before Apablaza launched Self-love With Leticia. This was also the last bundle that included the workshop in the price. The two are now separate opportunities available through the Self-love With Leticia website. 

Get in Flow

The next workshop theme is “Get in Flow” and scheduled as a virtual webinar for Thursday, April 29th, from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is $25.

This webinar includes the following activities:

• A 30-minute yoga flow;
• A guided meditation;
• Journaling prompts (during the event and post-event);
• A five-question assessment to learn anout your energy frequency towards your path of least resistance;
• And, you’ll discover your individualized 4-5 soul values. 

You’ll also receive the ‘Indulge’ bundle with the admission for the webinar. 

Weekly Mediation and Journaling

An additional opportunity Apablaza offers is a weekly mediation and journaling workshop on Instagram live.

Join this session every Thursday at 10 a.m. PST.

Apablaza’s Goals 

Over the next five years, Apablaza wants to work up to bringing her self-care programs into the work environment. 

“I want to speak with businesses and their employees about self-care and conduct team workshops as well as offering one-on-one sessions to people in these organizations,” she said. “Ultimately, I’ll offer programs for employees to participate in both an individual and shared experience.” 

Apablaza plans to conduct activities and workshops both in-person and online, offering the space for dialogue around self-care. 

“I want people to dive in deeper and not feel alone as they all work towards something together, offering a support system to one another on their journey,” she said. Through this, she hopes to help workplaces build rapport with their employees and provide them with the resources they need to improve their work-life balance and productivity. 

“When a company supports its employees and cares about their well-being, those employees are going to feel better about themselves, their work, and enjoy their job more,” she said. “Ideally, the program would be ongoing in these businesses to promote consistent self-care. It takes time to develop a good routine while you’re building good habits and working on self-discipline.”

As she works on this goal, Apablaza said she’s focused on building a community and helping individuals through their own self-care journeys for now. 

“I want to see everyone have a self-care ritual of some kind; something they do every day, just for themselves.” 

Apablaza’s Biggest Challenges

Building Her Brand

Managing her business independently, Apablaza’s biggest challenges include getting her brand out there and developing a community around it.

“As I build on the perception of the business, I want people to resonate with my journey and what I’m working towards, and choose to be a part of that,” she said. To overcome these challenges, she started making connections and meeting new people. The workshops, in particular, really helped her with this. 

“In the process, I learned that the community is huge; I don’t have to do this alone,” she said. “If we find the right people to support, help, and guide us, we can accomplish so much more. I also realized that it’s okay to reach out to people and share what you’re doing with them more personally.” 

People’s Personal Obstacles to Self-care

Another challenge Apablaza faces involves the general challenge of dealing with self-care itself; people are reluctant to step outside their comfort zone or make themselves a priority.

“People often make excuses for themselves or hold this idea that it’s selfish to take care of themselves when in actuality, self-care is a selfless act,” she said. “We’re here to live our best life. I want to help people solve that issue for themselves by showing them that they’re worth the effort. It’s important to take care of themselves.”

To address this challenge, Apablaza said that normalizing and destigmatizing the discussions around self-care and mental health, in general, helps the most. 

“Share what you’re doing, post about it, and make it less taboo. I love seeing people’s posts where they’re like, “this is my workout or meal for the day,” or “I went outside and got some vitamin D”,” she said. “Don’t be ashamed that you’re doing this for yourself. Take a nap if you need rest. And feel free to talk about that openly.” 

Ultimately, Apablaza said to listen to your body and share with others that you did. “I have to remind myself sometimes that I’m not going to be less productive or less good at what I do if I take a nap,’ she said. “And when I wake up from that nap, I know I’m going to feel better and be ready to complete the task at hand.” 

Apart from that, Apapblaza mentioned that she’s glad to see people talking about self-care and mental health more openly during the pandemic. 

“These weren’t conversations we were having just a few years ago,” she said. “Even just setting out on the path of self-care, I feel people weren’t talking about it as much before.” 

Apablaza’s Experience of Sharing Self-care

As she worked her way to this point, Apablaza explains that she learned to take a step back and set boundaries for herself. When the pandemic hit, she went deeper into her journey, addressed what she needed to change in her life, and worked on habits she wanted to develop. 

Over time, she gained a lot of personal insight into herself as a person and what she wanted to accomplish in life and through her passions. “I love guiding others, having these conversations with them about self-care, and hearing their realizations about it,” she said. “Those ‘aha’ moments are so beautiful to see.”

Apablaza explained that her favorite part about her work is connecting with people and learning from them. In the process, she said she understands the notion of “the teacher also being the student” better now. 

“It’s really fun, and I’m always learning and evolving. Even at the workshops where I’m the one guiding people, they always inspire me, teach me, or remind me of something in the process,” she said. “One of the biggest lessons I’ve gained is that people really do want to learn about self-care and that the questions around the subject are changing. People are more excited to explore themselves and be more open-minded to self-care practices, and I love it.” 

Additionally, she explained that we as individuals need to understand that self-care is a long-term commitment. 

“Most people think of self-care as a short-term goal that once achieved, it’s over. If I reach a target goal of mine, like eating healthily and reaching a healthy weight, I don’t just go back to eating bad food; that ruins my progress and hurts me in the long run,” she said. “Self-care is constant; it’s an everyday thing we must work at consistently.” 

Showing Up For Yourself

When it comes to self-care, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Some people are far on their path and looking to enhance it, while others are just getting started.

“Everyone’s on a different level; we all have different ways of practicing self-care, but we move forward together as we work on those practices,” Apablaza said. “That’s why at the end of the workshops, I thank people for showing up for themselves. They allowed me to guide them and share my experience with them to use as tools in their own life, and they took that next step in their own self-care journey.” 

All in all, people connect with others as they move forward and support one another on their journey. In the process, they plant a seed in others, inspiring and motivating them to do more. 

“People are so receptive to that energy and it’s awesome.” 

#GetinMotion with Self-love With Leticia

To support Apablaza’s endeavors, she said that the best way people can help is by ordering a bundle through the SCWL website or participating in a workshop – should you feel called to either of them. 

“Self-care starts with you; only you can take that first step and start building a routine for yourself. Every aspect of our health is impacted when we take time for ourselves,” she said. “Ultimately, it’s your time and money; you show up for yourself, not for me.” 

Other ways to support Self-love with Leticia include sharing the workshop events and posts on social media, commenting on things, and inviting friends to check out either of the businesses.

Follow Self-love With Leticia on Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date with the latest subscription boxes and upcoming workshops. If you have any questions, contact Apablaza at selflovewithleticia@gmail.com.