10 minute read
Striking Balance with Mud & Lotus Owner Shannon Spann-Ryan
With health and well being at the forefront of our communities, I wanted to reach out to a business owner I have admired for some time. I grew up in Wichita, Ks, and had minimal experience with concepts like acupuncture and eastern medicine. As an adult, I’ve opened my mind to learning new things. One thing that intrigues me is the functions of the body and nonprescriptive ways to heal your ailments. I gifted my mother, who struggles with constant back pain a session last year where she experienced the sauna, the tub, and ended her session with acupuncture. After her rave review, I wanted to learn more! While I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Shannon socially and through my other businesses, I hadn’t heard the story of her natural medicine journey. I hope you all enjoy learning and hearing her fascinating story. Thank you, Shannon for taking the time to answer my questions with such detail and insight. Truly appreciate you! Crystal
1. What inspired you to open Mud and Lotus?
I spent 12 years living in Northern California and I fell in love with hot springs - that combination of hot mineral-rich water, and being immersed in nature, felt so incredibly therapeutic for me. My friends and I would go on adventures hiking to remote hot springs, and it just became a huge love of mine. Traveling around the world, I saw that many cultures have used heat bathing - in the form of saunas, steam rooms, and various types of soaking pools was a common practice and that the research on the health benefits of these practices was astounding. When I moved back to Lawrence in 2014, especially in the fall and winter I would long for that heat and I just decided to build it, at the least for my friends and family and my acupuncture clients.
2. I know you started with an acupuncture wellness business, how did you get started with acupuncture?
When I was 16 yrs old I had horrible cystic acne - angry pus-filled cysts all over my face and back. It was painful, it really affected my self esteem, and I was put on some pretty heavy-duty medication for it. The medication didn’t really work and it also caused some pretty bad side effects. Even at that young age I wanted to understand - WHY was my body doing this? WHAT did it need to heal from the inside out? I began studying essential oils, making my own cleansers and such, and herbal medicine. My acne didn’t improve until I drastically changed my diet away from the sugar and fast-food laden diet of my high school years. But I was in love with natural medicine by then - it just made more sense to me to try to treat the root of the problem, and not just the branch or the symptoms. My time in California led me to study massage therapy, western herbalism, craniosacral therapy, and sacred plant medicines. Eventually, I decided to get my Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine. I absolutely love that TCM offers a completely different view of the body - as an interconnected whole, rather than the reductionist approach taken in conventional medicine.
3. What are some of the challenges that have come with running a business amid this pandemic?
The biggest challenges really have proven to be growth opportunities. In Mandarin, the character for “crisis” includes a radical, which means “opportunity.” And this is exactly what our name, Mud & Lotus, represents - it’s taken from the famous quote by Thich Nhat Hahn which says that “Without the Mud There is No Lotus.” It’s been hard to keep my staff busy and give them enough hours with fewer appointments being booked. It’s been challenging to provide essential healthcare services
to some of my higher-needs patients and make sure that we are keeping a safe environment for my staff and my clients. I have been keeping up on the research of which herbs and supplements have proven to be effective or at least supportive in treating Covid-19 - learning a lot from the doctors and acupuncturists and researchers in China where they have integrated the Eastern and Western medicine. But all of these challenges have had a silver lining in a sense - I feel that my team is more solid, my relationship with my patients is stronger, and my skills as a practitioner have grown. In the climate of this pandemic which is not likely going away anytime soon - I feel even more committed and passionate about giving people tools and resources around how to cultivate optimal health, keep inflammation at bay, build strong immune systems, the absolutely necessity of de-stressing and decompressing and having a affordable options for selfcare.
4. What do you feel is the most important lesson you learned in owning your own business?
That no matter what mentors or other experts are recommending, you have to trust your own instinct. Mud & Lotus seemed like a pretty “out there” concept for Lawrence - people just aren’t aware of the health benefits of heat bathing and there’s not a culture around self-care like there is in Germany, Turkey, or Japan. But everything in my being compelled me to go for it - despite being pregnant with my second baby while developing and launching it when she was just 4 months old - that inspiration was like a wave that swept me up and I had to ride it. It would have taken more effort NOT to do it than to do it. So that’s the lesson - when you feel that inspired and moved and in sync with the universe, just go for it.
5. What are some of the health benefits of your services?
I am so glad you asked!! While I am passionate about “alternative medicine,” I am also really into evidence-based practices - which means that every technique and modality offered at my office has a large body of research showing it to be scientifically effective. Some of the benefits of heat bathing (sauna and hot tub) include:
Aiding the body in detoxification
Promoting relaxation and stress resilience
Increasing athletic endurance and recovery
Helping to build muscle and buffer muscle loss
Promoting cardiac health and linked to a lower risk of all-cause mortality
Increasing insulin sensitivityIncreasing cognitive function
Acupuncture is the fastest growing sector of alternative medicine - not only has it been used for thousands of years but it also has enormous backing in the scientific world. Government agencies like the VA and Worker’s Compensation can be billed for acupuncture, we are very close to getting Medicare to cover for acupuncture as well. This is exciting because I would love to see more people have access to preventative, low-cost and minimally invasive treatment modalities like cupping, acupuncture and herbal medicine.
6. With your Eastern medicine background, what do you think people should be prioritizing when it comes to their health?
Let’s just say you get a brand new car. You will probably be pretty diligent about getting regular oil changes, rotating the tires etc. And if a check engine light flashes up on your dash - you’ll probably be pretty proactive about getting it check out right? Our bodies are the same way - we need regular “tune-ups” to maintain things running well. If you are experiencing pain, digestive issues, anxiety, sleep issues etc - it’s like the light on your dash. This is feedback from our body that something is out of balance - if we listen and give it right support, the bodies’ own innate healing intelligence can often rectify the issue. That support can come in many forms - acupuncture, herbal medicine, bodywork, chiropractic, massage, stretching and strengthening; good old rest even is so powerful. I think our culture encourages disconnecting from our body, ignoring issues until they become emergencies, and there is very little emphasis in our health care system around preventative care.
The other thing I would like to emphasize - Western Medicine and Eastern Medicine are very complementary. It doesn’t have it be an “either/or” situation. I work with people and their physicians all the time to help them reach their health goals. For example, I’ve seen incredible results with people getting acupuncture after their rotator cuff surgery. I have a very high success rate in helping women get pregnant with an IVF procedure that previously was unsuccessful. Sometimes a patient may want to get off a certain medication and we can work with that, or they are just looking for adjunctive care in addition to other more conventional methods. All of these approaches are wonderful and hopefully, as our healthcare system acknowledges that many people these days are dissatisfied with uber short doctors visits and the pharmaceutical pill pushing that too often happens - we will move toward a more integrated system where effective strategies from Western and Eastern medicine are being prescribed in a harmonious and complementary way.
7. Have you sought out mentors along the way?
Yes I have many mentors - I have business mentors, fitness mentors, and spiritual mentors who keep me on track. I am the kind of person who is always wanting to learn, grow, and evolve in every aspect of my life. Some of the people who have been very powerful teachers for me are Michael Sonn, local Sufi goddess Malika Clark, my husbands’ mother Niyonu Spann, Alan Lazaros, and my Qi Gong teachers Grandmaster Leone and Zhenevere Sophia Dao.
8. I’m big on quotes and motivation, is there a specific quote or saying that resonates with you?
This is the balance of yin and yang - they need each other to exist. If I never struggled, I would be able to experience that exhilaration of overcoming an obstacle. If I was never overwhelmed or stressed out, care-free release and relaxation would lose its power. Being busy with lots of appointments wouldn’t be as much fun if we were never slow. So everything under the sun has its place and gives us meaning in a different way. As one of my mentors has always said - Life is a tragi-comedy. There is incredibly suffering, violence, pain - and also earth-shattering ecstasy and bliss. My task to grow my heart big enough to love it all and this quote helps me remember that.
9. How do you balance running your businesses and being a mother of 2 small children?
This is the golden question! I am very blessed to be able to work part-time so that I can be with my girls- age 4 and 18 months- quite a bit of the time. I have learned to delegate and surround myself with team-oriented people who I can trust. Also, I have learned to accept that things aren’t always going to be perfect - I try to “do my best and leave the rest” so that I am not holding myself to unreasonable/impossible expectations. My husband is amazing with the girls (he refers to himself as a “double daughter dad” lol) and definitely supports me with my dreams. I often give myself permission - despite the books that need balancing, endless emails to respond to and social media posts to be made - to call it quits and just be present with my family. Sure, I would love a whole month of pre-scheduled perfect Instagram posts - but that’s just not my life right now. I don’t want to sacrifice these precious years with my girls for the sake of my business. In TCM just as we move through seasons of the year, we move through seasons of our life as well. I know that I am in that Earth season of my life where my kids need me a lot - I’m still nursing and co-sleeping for example. I’d love to read more, meditate more, workout more, etc but there will be a season of my life were those things are more prominent. I try to breathe and relax into that often when I feel like I am not where I want to be.
People enjoying the outdoor tub
