About

The Origins of Sweet Like Honey

The Mission Sweet Like Honey is a small-business rooted in healing through ancestral practices and traditions of the African and Indigenous diaspora. Our liberation and healing is interconnected to the liberation and healing of the earth. We are committed to creating and living sustainably through a reciprocal relationship with Mother Earth based on connection, reverence, protection, & stewardship. The mission of Sweet Like Honey is grounded in integrity, honesty, vulnerability, reciprocity, grace, accountability, and sustainability, and we strive to reflect these values in our work. Sweet Like Honey offers a holistic approach to healing by gently holding space for the complex, cyclical nature of healing with grace, faith, love, and a sense of humor. Healing is a collaborative effort. We work with nature, our ancestors & spirit guides, and our community for our collective well-being. Sweet Like Honey offers products and services such as herbal teas, smoke blends, salves, candles, spiritual products, herbal consultations & spiritual readings to give our clients a holistic healing experience for the body, mind, & soul. Holistic healing is the model for sustainable wellness for ourselves and the earth. The Vision Our vision at Sweet Like Honey is to create revolutionary and sustainable change in our community. We have seen how capitalism has destroyed our sense of connectedness with the land and our communities; we have been pitted against each other and made to be self-centered for the cost of survival. But it hasn’t always been this way… As humans, we are communal, social beings who have survived by forming communities. Our ancestral practices are rooted in the ideals of community and mutual aid, because the health and well-being of the individual depends on the health and well-being of the community, and vice versa. There’s an African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.” The idea of being “self-made” is a hot mess because no one can do it alone; it literally takes two people bring life into this world, which goes to show how much we need each other. By creating a strong sense of community, in both the spiritual and physical realms, we can regain our sovereignty and alignment to nature. ‘The community exists, in part, to safeguard the purpose of each person within it and to awaken the memory of that purpose by recognizing the unique gifts each individual brings to this world. Healing comes when the individual remembers his or her identity–the purpose chosen in the world of ancestral wisdom–and reconnects with that world of Spirit’- Malidoma Patrice Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa

Sweet Like Honey was born out of my own healing journey towards wholeness. As an Afro-Indigenous woman moving through a society designed to my detriment, I often found myself at odds with the western medical system. My pain and symptoms were dismissed or treated without searching for a root cause of the condition I was experiencing, and as a result of the latter, any recovery was often temporary.

Due to the treatment I received, I often left encounters with doctors feeling unheard, unhealed, and with hundreds of dollars in medical fees. I decided to take my health into my own hands by thoroughly researching symptoms and using herbal remedies to treat my concerns. Plant medicine offered me more success in my healing journey than pharmaceutical drugs, without the side effects. I found that by thoroughly researching my health concerns from a holistic approach, I was able to get to the root cause of the condition I was experiencing.

To be clear, I am not against modern/western medicine, in fact, I believe that some of the advancements in modern medicine are beneficial to health. However, there are limitations to treating health conditions from a symptomatic or allopathic lens. I believe that modern medicine and ancestral medicine can inform each other and work together in tandem. As a healer, I have the ability to integrate traditional ancestral remedies with modern medicine and create a healing experience that is not only effective but also practical. Using my background as a certified athletic trainer and spiritual herbalist, I blend the scientific and the spiritual, two concepts that at first glance seem contradictory but in reality are complementary, and I use them to inform my practice. To me, healing is about balance and finding common ground.

Sweet Like Honey’s core mission is to inspire, uplift, and empower communities to take their health & well being into their own hands through a holistic approach. My vision is to see the collective become empowered through a holistic sense of wellness and use that energy to create a sustainable future that centers the health of the individual, the community, nature, and Mother Earth. Our liberation and healing is interconnected to the liberation and healing of the earth. Sweet Like Honey approaches healing through an ancestral lens of Afro-Indigenous practices and is committed to creating & living sustainably through a reciprocal relationship with Mother Earth based on: connection, reverence, protection, & stewardship. The mission of Sweet Like Honey is grounded in values of integrity, honesty, vulnerability, reciprocity, grace, accountability, and sustainability.

 

About Yahna Miele Tullis

My name is Yahna Miele Tullis. "Yahna" meaning "God is merciful/gracious" in Hebrew, "Miele" meaning "honey" in Italian, and "Tullis" meaning "mighty people" in Gaelic. I am the daughter of D'Ta-Relle & Harold Tullis, granddaughter of Willie Lucille Reaves & Winston Johnson and Bertha & Carl Raymond Tullis Jr., and great grandaughter of Ella Mae Lovelace. I name those who come before me because without them there would be no me, my parents and ancestors are integral to my journey. Born and raised in New Jersey and currently based in Bridgeport, CT, I am the product of the land I live on and the community I live with. I am a certified Athletic Trainer with a B.S. in Athletic Training from the University of Pittsburgh, and a current Level III apprentice with Karen M. Rose at Sacred Vibes Apothecary in Brooklyn. As a healer, I integrate the knowledge I've acquired from both athletic training and spiritual herbalism to create holistic herbal medicine & healing protocols. Human anatomy & physiology, injury evaluation & treatment, evidence-based research, principles of plant energetics, properties, & constituents, medical astrology, traditional chinese medicine, ayurvedic medicine, chakra healing, and ancestral African & Indigenous healing practices are all reflected in my work. My purpose in life is to heal myself and my community through a multitude of mediums such as spiritual herbalism, spiritual healing, rootwork, dance, music & film.

Yahna Miele Tullis was born and raised in Elizabeth & Union, New Jersey and currently based in Bridgeport, CT. She is the product of the land she lives on and the community she lives with. Yahna is an Afro-Indigenous woman with ancestral roots in Virginia, Alabama, and St. Thomas. She takes great pride in her name "Yahna" meaning "God is merciful/gracious" in Hebrew, "Miele" meaning "honey" in Italian, and "Tullis" meaning "mighty people" in Gaelic. Yahna is the daughter of D'Ta-Relle & Harold Tullis, granddaughter of Willie Lucille Reaves & Winston Johnson and Bertha & Carl Raymond Tullis Jr., and great granddaughter of Ella Mae Lovelace. She honors and says the names of those who come before her they are essential to her existence and integral to her journey as a healer and spiritualist.

Yahna is dedicated to uplifting the community with products and services created with divine intention and guided by God & her ancestors. She wears many hats as an herbalist with training from Sacred Vibes Apothecary, a certified athletic trainer with a B.S. in Athletic Training from the University of Pittsburgh, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Yahna integrates the knowledge and experiences she has gained through out her studies to curate a holistic healing experience for her community. She believes that healing is a communal effort that should should be filled with grace and sweetness and lives by the motto “let’s heal together”.