Health, Inside-Out

We started a cacao company because we love cacao and didn’t think there was enough good cacao in Australia. We had no plans, no visions - we thought we’d just be selling to friends at the local markets.

But as Soma has grown, and we’ve felt the need to do research on behalf of our customers, we’ve found ourselves drifting into the world of health and wellness, which is a weird, weird place.

Rose and I both have backgrounds in yoga, which, done properly, is an internal practice. It doesn’t matter how the poses look; it matters how they feel. The goal of yoga is not to twist into a pretzel; the goal is to be stable and healthy, and feel the breath flow. A good yoga class should give you a feeling of health and balance. That feeling comes from the inside-out, and has nothing to do with how you look.

The unfortunate thing about the health industry is that many people try to drill health from the outside-in. Most of us spent our youth at school, being judged by external standards, and have either lost touch with internal standards, or no longer trust them.

We see people trying to find health by losing weight or changing diets, putting on muscle, or doing ice-baths. We treat ourselves like computers, thinking that if we type in the right sequence of numbers, carbohydrates, squats, and sleep scores, we will be healthy. And although that is true in one sense, it means nothing if you do not know what health is.

Yoga has taught me health. It has shown me what it is to feel bright and fluid in my body and mind. That is now my measure: things that enhance this feeling of brightness and fluidity in a sustainable way are healthy; things that undermine it are not.

We can write endlessly about theobromine and flavanols, but you will never understand what we mean point until you drink a cup of Soma Cacao at sunrise, and feel the relaxation wash like a warm wave through you. You will never quite get it until you spend a few days drinking cacao instead of coffee, and see how much fresher you feel on waking in the morning.

Of course cacao is not a cure-all, and even cacao can be consumed in an unhealthy way, but we’re confident at Soma that the cacao we sell is helping people live healthily, from the inside-out.