Before the Brand: A Story of Silence, Surrender, and Starting Over

There’s a moment many of us quietly meet - a threshold that doesn’t come with applause. No big moment. No grand reveal. Just stillness.

And maybe the ache of having walked a long way, only to finally meet yourself.

It’s the edge where who you’ve been meets who you’re becoming.

Where the sun sinks, the moon rises, and the map you’ve been holding quietly burns in your hand.

This is the story of that place.

The in-between.

Not the dream you pictured.

Not the version you perform.

But the raw ground of becoming - where life unfolds not as you wish, but as it is.

The First Unraveling

At 23, long before Goodsense Skincare Greens existed, and before I understood anything about the body’s ability to heal from within, I left behind a familiar path.

My friends were chasing parties. I was chasing silence.

Not because I was sure - but because I was tired.

Exhausted by noise.

Disconnected from my own body.

Numb from years of hustle, habits, and holding it all together.

I packed a small bag and flew to Geneva, then travelled deep into the French Alps. No plan. No goal. Just a whisper of a feeling that something in me needed to shift.

I found myself working on a remote chalet near Mont Blanc — half design work, half renovation. And between lugging timber and scrubbing tiles, something unexpected happened.

I slowed down.

I listened.

And in that quiet, I began to feel again.

Rites of Passage in Disguise

There were no mentors. No mantras. Just mountains.

But without knowing it, I was crossing invisible thresholds:

• I let the natural world undo me. I ran through alpine meadows, hiked silent pine trails, and breathed air I didn’t realise my lungs had been missing.

• I left behind an unfinished journal entry — a letter to a version of me that no longer needed to pretend.

• I stepped into a icy glacial waterfall - a small, symbolic letting go of control, of needing to be ‘on’, of seeking worth through doing.

And one night, up at 3,000 metres, I sat around a fire with strangers who felt like kin. We passed stories. We passed silence. And when the fire dimmed, we lay on the grass and stared up into a sky alive with stars.

It was the first time in years I felt like I wasn’t missing life.

I was in it.

What That Time Taught Me — and Why It Matters Now

We live in a world addicted to certainty, to planning our way out of pain.

But the truth is:

- That we can live without vulnerability.

- That we can avoid heartbreak.

- That we can plan our way to certainty.

And most of us  especially in the wellness space — are taught to hide the messy middle. But that’s exactly where the magic is.

It’s why I built Goodsense.

Not to sell another shortcut - but to honour the long way through.

Goodsense Superfoods wasn’t born in a pitch deck. It was born in the wild, through grief, healing, and the slow rebuild of my own health.

That same year, I began having severe eczema flare-ups. No cream, no prescription helped. It wasn’t until I changed how I moved, how I ate, how I lived — that things began to shift. The answers came not from performance, but presence. And from that, Skincare Greens was born - a product I needed before I made it.

Pilgrimage as Presence

This isn’t a wellness blog.

It’s a pilgrimage journal.

Because life isn’t a formula.

It’s a conversation.

One between your old self and your becoming one. One that begins right at the edge - with bare feet, a full heart, and no script.

So here’s the truth I return to:

You don’t need to have it all mapped out.

You just need the courage to take one honest step.

And that’s what we’re doing here at Goodsense - reclaiming health and self from the inside out. Slowly. Gently. Honestly.

You don’t have to escape life to heal.

You just need to return to what’s real.

Follow more founder reflections here — where we share the story behind the product, the pain behind the mission, and the path behind the brand.