People We Adore: Nicole Will

A: My adventurous heart has led me along a rather unique career path. I've lived and worked at a ski resort in California, a fly fishing ranch in CO, a high adventure camp in the Florida Keys, as a wilderness therapy instructor for at risk adolescents in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and a hiking guide in the Ecuadorian Andes and Great Smoky Mountains.

I started a company organizing adventure wellness retreats in South America before landing in Asheville, NC where I now craft unique mini-retreats through my company Asheville Wellness Tours.

As I settled in Asheville, I wanted to continue to share adventure and the healing power of time spent in nature with others. A friend and I started Asheville Wellness Tours with two offerings: a walking tour downtown and yoga hiking adventures in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Since then, our "menu" has expanded to include tarot, massage, goat yoga, and so much more.

Everything we do is designed to help our guests connect more deeply with themselves, each other, and Asheville! We specialize in crafting custom mini-retreats for groups whether that might be a girls getaway, corporate retreat, wedding weekend, or family gathering. Our passion is to craft experiences that support well being in fun, lighthearted ways so guests feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and relaxed after every adventure.

A: My superpower is trust and dedication. When I know in my core that it's time to take a leap, make a change, or hold steady on my current path, I dedicate my full energy to that gut instinct.

This combo has helped me jump with eyes wide open into the unknown many, many times and led me to all of the adventures I listed above in my "career" journey. That's not to say each transition is easy...in fact, they're typically incredibly challenging (and equal parts exciting, terrifying, joyful, and sad), but this is where dedication comes in. As long as the path feels like a core "yes", I'll keep at it.

As soon as it feels like a "no", I dedicate my energy towards the next step. I definitely don't always get it right but holding onto trust has helped me navigate with an openness to learning, being wrong, and trying again.

A: I love to start my day with a movement practice and a stroll around the block. Because I work from home, this stroll is my "commute" and more clearly marks the boundary between being on and off of work. When the day is done, I take another walk around and "clock out". Being out in nature is my ultimate healing resource.

The mountain trails and natural spaces in our area offer Invisible gifts like phytoncides, charged ions, clean air. The forest so gracefully holds my anger, sadness, joy, calm, and confusion with ease while offering space to process and I always leave feeling more peaceful and grounded than when I arrived.

A: At the moment, I'm focusing a lot of my energy into grounding and building stability into my life so I'd say the root chakra. After moving around so frequently over the past couple of decades, I'm enjoying putting down roots here in Asheville, building community, and learning how to be still. Wish me luck!