I came to skin the way most people do: through frustration. I'm the founder of Hapa Wellness and the creator of the Hapa Method, a Japanese-inspired facial lifting and lymphatic drainage practice. But before any of that had a name, I was just someone dealing with acne, puffiness, and breakouts that didn't respond to anything I put on my face. I tried the serums. I tried the expensive treatments. Nothing really stuck, because I was treating the surface of a problem that wasn't coming from the surface. But I started noticing a pattern.  

We’re Kerstin Recker and Helen Grimshaw, co-founders of Peli Health. One of us came through an emergency c-section with excruciating pelvic pain and no guidance on what came next. The other started noticing pelvic symptoms during perimenopause and had no idea they were connected to her hormones. Between us, we visited multiple doctors trying to get answers, and heard, more than once, that the solution was to “have a glass of wine and relax.” 

As someone studying Public Health with a focus on nutrition, I’m particularly interested in how small, repeatable dietary patterns shape long-term hormonal regulation.  In this second part, I want to move from physiology to practice, the hormone-balancing foods, daily rhythms, and lifestyle changes that can support steadier energy, mood, and menstrual cycles over time.

Dear Two Moons Readers, I’m Laura Donovan, a certified auriculotherapist and the founder of Solstice Ear Seeds. I didn't start Solstice because of a business idea. It started as a necessity. They say you have a thousand problems until you have a health problem, then you have just one. That became very real for our family.