Graduate Spotlight

Jana Broder, Family Herbalist Certificate graduate

“Many people have a huge call to change and they ignore it,” says herbalist and self-help guru Jana Broder. It’s a tragic trait that she can easily recognize. And, by her own example, now she can help convince others to change their lives so as to become happier in each present moment.

Previously a self-described workaholic in fast-paced Atlanta, Broder once owned an executive catering company whose revenues more than tripled in her 10 years at the helm. Then one day she realized that her soul was not nourished there, and never had been.

She sold the business, her home and most of her belongings, moving to California for three years to study such fun and eclectic things as sailing and drumming. Along the way she also taught Montessori School, traveled for a full year, and settled into an idyllic life of cultivating an herb and vegetable garden.

Then came another call on her life, and again she listened. In making her decision to move back East, there were two things Broder knew for sure: she missed her family in Georgia, and she loved coastal living. Her solution was to move to Florida and open The Comfort Shoppe in the Tampa Bay area. It was here that she discovered Clayton College of Natural Health, and is enjoying taking her herbal knowledge to higher levels. She now delights in reminding customers that natural remedies have helped people throughout the world for thousands of years, while allopathic medicine’s roots are only 200 years deep.

Within the Temenos Holistic Health Education Center, Broder’s newest business venture and personal adventure is to sell whole food nutritional supplements, handmade aromatherapy soap and candles, natural first aid and beauty products, juicers, and organic coffees and teas. Along with teaching stressed people of all ages the health benefits of drumming, Broder also loves teaching customers how to become healthier by juicing fresh fruits, vegetables and then swirling plenty of alkalizing, antioxidant green super food into their health drinks.

“Our diets are over processed and people are so addicted to the ‘convenience’ of fast food that we are starving and poisoning ourselves,” she says. “The stress of working too hard leads people to eat on the run, which is horrible for digestion. They buy unhealthy quick-fix foods and products that rob them of the joy of making dinner and gathering with loved ones. A diet with no nutritional value only exacerbates the stress they already feel.”

In the last two years at The Comfort Shoppe, Broder and her partner have seen many a customer’s health status transformed: by juicing, learning how to drum, and thereby learning how to relax.

With juicing, she emphasizes a wide variety of red vegetables, especially beets, to improve lymphatic flow. Orange foods such as carrots offer natural pain relief. Green foods such as kale and cabbage help cleanse the blood, while chlorophyll works as a natural tranquilizer. Add aloe vera juice for stomach health, and Broder says that the extracted, filtered juices bring our bodies many vital nutrients instantly, without taxing the digestive system.

Hand drumming, she explains to clients, is both organic and innate. Tracing its soundings to southwest Africa, Broder says that drum codes originally conveyed important information from village to village. Using only six words or beats to tell a story by creating infinite combinations of rhythms, these drumming rhythms can then be orchestrated into full ensemble groupings.

From drumming classes at her own shop to ongoing instruction at the YMCA, museum gatherings, senior homes and institutions for young people at risk, Broder is teaching people how to bang out their aggravations and wintertime blues while entering a more meditative state. She is also teaching teamwork skills as students learn discipline from this fun form of class structure and the devoted practice it can entail.

Getting elderly people away from the TV and teenagers away from computer games teaches social skills and generates much laughter, she adds. “Drumming enhances everything from blood circulation to mental acuity. It’s a healthy and satisfying outlet for stress, because something as primal as banging a drum with your bare hands just simply feels good — for people of all ages.”

For more information: www.drummagic.net

This article was based on an interview with the graduate.

Archived Graduate Spotlights