My Story
Calm is not found in the world around us, it is created from within.
A Letter from Françoise
A story of returning to calm through scent, ritual, and the quiet wisdom of plants, tending to both the body and the spirit.
Roots
I grew up in a household where anxiety was common. From a young age, I watched how it shaped the women around me, my mother, my sisters, and later, the people I met as I began to make my way in the world. Wherever I was, I saw the same pattern: women under pressure, doing too much, often disconnected from themselves.
Looking back, I can see that even as a child, I was drawn to calm. I found it in nature, in the feeling of soft moss beneath my hands, in the mineral-rich red clay of southern New Jersey, in standing quietly beneath a weeping willow or staring up at a sunflower and feeling its presence. I found it in crafts, in making things, or disappearing into a good book. I realized early on that I had to create my own sanctuary.
Those small moments became my first rituals, and they taught me something that remains true today: calm is not found in the world around us, it is created from within.
Awakening
At sixteen, I began searching for another way to live. I wanted to understand what it meant to feel truly alive, to move through the world with ease instead of tension.
We do not need to live in fear of our own bodies, and we have more control over our mind, body, and spirit than we know.
I left home early and began following the Grateful Dead, traveling across the country. It was a time of freedom and exploration, a doorway into a slower rhythm of life. On the road, I was introduced to herbalism and aromatherapy, not as trends, but as ways of reconnecting with nature and with myself. I saw that plants carried an ancient intelligence, that they offered calm and perspective in a way the modern world had forgotten.
Those years, immersed in a beautiful counterculture, taught me that working with plants was not only effective, but also a quiet form of social protest — a way of saying that life does not have to look or feel a certain way, that we do not need to live in fear of our own bodies, and that we have more control over our mind, body, and spirit than we know.
Those experiences planted the first seeds of what would become my life’s work. They taught me that when we slow down and listen to nature, we begin to remember who we are.
Becoming
The curiosity that began during those early years stayed with me. I wanted to study herbalism and aromatherapy more deeply, but at the time there were few places to learn. It was the late nineties, when the internet was new and resources were limited. With no access to teachers or community, I followed another passion and moved to New York City to study fashion design.
The city was creative but relentless. Like many women in New York, I was caught between ambition and exhaustion. Eventually, I moved into real estate, hoping for more freedom. Though it offered stability, the stress and competitiveness never eased.
In time, I began to realize that freedom comes from within. I found comfort in scent, in beauty, and in small rituals that helped me feel grounded again. Those moments became the foundation for my first brand, Amayori, inspired by Japanese bathing rituals and the art of slowing down.
A Return to Healing
Just when I began to relax, it was as if my body said, you are ready to heal. A few years later, I was diagnosed with lupus. It was a wake-up call to live more holistically and trust the body’s wisdom. I turned to what I knew instinctively, that plants, nourishment, and ritual can restore balance. Through that process, I never had another lupus-related issue and learned that healing is never just physical.
These formulas helped me calm my mind, steady my emotions, and find clarity.
A few years later, as perimenopause began and I moved across the country to San Francisco, everything I had learned was tested again. It was right after COVID, and I was overwhelmed. I began creating blends for myself, drawing on my work as a certified clinical aromatherapist and as a practicing herbalist. These formulas helped me calm my mind, steady my emotions, and find clarity.
With their support, time in nature, and the guidance of an incredible therapist, I was finally able to make the choice I had been resisting. I left the city for the redwood forests of Northern California, where I found the stillness I had been searching for and began to live what would become The Way.
The Way
Out of my own healing came a desire to help others find calm in their lives. I began offering one-on-one guidance through The Way Apothecary, combining holistic lifestyle support, herbalism, and aromatherapy.
The same formulas I created to steady myself became the foundation of this work. Each blend was designed with intention, using essential oils chosen for their emotional and physiological effects. They help calm the mind, support the nervous system, and create space for reflection and stillness.
The Way is more than a collection of products. It is a philosophy of living — a return to nature, to ritual, and to a slower rhythm that honors the connection between mind, body, and spirit.
Full Circle
As women, we move through a world that often asks too much of us. We carry cultural expectations, remnants of old systems, and the constant noise of marketing, perfection, and comparison. We have come far, yet there is still more to release.
I do not want to succumb to the pressures and norms of society. I want to live a life that is rooted, wise, and grounded.
The Way offers a path back to ourselves through practice, ritual, and small, intentional acts of care. It is not magic, and it cannot replace the inner work, but it creates space for it. This is a place where you can soften, slow down, and reconnect. Where you are supported and held without pressure, without fear, and without negative messaging.
What we offer here is also a quiet rebellion, or a loud one if that is what you need. I realized on my own journey that I do not want to succumb to the pressures and norms of society. I want to live a life that is rooted, wise, and grounded. I welcome you to join me on this journey of making our lives as genuine and beautiful as possible.
