How did I come to brand myself as Mindful Melissa? Trust me, I went through a couple of other branding names before finally landing and staying committed to Mindful Melissa.
Melissa is my first name. Surprise! Lol.
I was never too fond of my first name growing up because Melissa is such a common name. In elementary school, we were three Melissas in my grade alone.
When I was 14, a friend of mine decided to start calling me Tudy because apparently I had ATTI-TUDE. The name stuck and before I knew it, everyone was calling me Tudy in our community. Friends would call my house and ask my parents to speak with Tudy and eventually even my parents started calling me Tudy too. My nieces and nephews even call me Tita (Aunty) Tudy. When people hear the name “Melissa”, they become confused, “Melissa? Who’s that?”
When I moved to the Philippines at the age of 25 as an expat, I decided it was time to leave “Tudy” behind and make a new identity for myself as I embarked on my new journey. I naturally reverted back to my original name because what else was I going to refer to myself as? (Though, as I later learned in the Philippines, people come up with the strangest names for themselves even when there is no correlation whatsoever to their real name.)
It was only when I discovered the Melissa essential oil in 2017 that I actually started to develop a deep appreciation for my name. Melissa essential oil is the Oil of Light.
The “Mindful” part came well, because not only is it catchy, but because I’ve come to accept that I have a unique perspective on life and the things I am interested in such as conscious parenting, zero waste, low tox living, deep reflection and introspection which are things that people in my environment couldn’t really care less about. Being mindful to me is all about elevating our level of consciousness and going deeper into why we do what we do and the impact that it has. I firmly believe that I have a unique role in this process of elevating humanity’s level of consciousness in whatever small reach I have.
& so...now you know the story of my personal brand name ;)