Cassie Cameron
“The Mind High Club really started for me as my personal growth journey. I was always interested in mindfulness and mindset, but I hadn’t truly awakened."
Master of mindfulness and meditation, both model and role model; we sat down with Cassie Cameron, founder of the Mind High Club, to chat about breathing, beauty, and filling up our own cups.
Cassie Cameron is the founder of the Mind High Club, a personal growth and wellbeing platform that connects people with transformation coaches, thought leaders, and wellbeing experts. Having modeled for much of her young adult life, venturing into this undiscovered territory was a step in a new and unknown direction.
“The mind high club was really born through my own experience. As you mentioned, TrooMe is really about going through the dark nights of the soul, suffering, and transformation, and that's really how The Mind High Club came to be.”
In our lives, oftentimes we come to find ourselves pushing against what seems to be an unmovable force. We place ideas in our heads that the more we do, the more we can work, and the more we can work, the better life can be. Unfortunately, this leads to stress, burnout, and pushing ourselves to the point of exhaustion.
“I was working as an entrepreneur in my first business, and my husband was working seven days a week. I was also frequently modelling internationally, flying back and forth from the U.S to Australia. I gradually became so disconnected from myself, not realizing how under stress my body was, and how much stress I was really experiencing.”
Finding herself in a world of ‘hurt, anxiety, and burnout’, Cassie asked herself the question that would change everything.
“I was in deep suffering and I needed to ask myself the question, ‘how was I supposed to continue living like this?’
Realizing that this was no sustainable way of living, Cassie dove deeper into who she was, and what she needed to do in order to save herself from her current state.
“I needed to go deeper; my workout classes just weren’t enough anymore. I ended up learning how to meditate, and nothing could’ve possibly prepared me for the gift that this all was.”
With her nervous system re-set and her awareness expanded, Cassie woke up to a side of herself that she hadn’t known existed before meditation. Due to her new-found passion and curiosity, Cassie started reaching out and connecting with coaches and healers, in hopes of expanding her mindfulness practice. What happened next, put her vision in motion.
“Those key groups of different coaches and healers really walked with me and helped me transform. Then one day, sitting in meditation, it became clear to me that I wanted to give this experience to everybody, whether they were suffering or not.”
Life is a continuous journey.
Whether we’re going through a season of pain and hurt, or a period of harvest and renewal, making sure that our minds are cared for properly is a practice that should come as a priority.
“What Mind High C
lub is, and what we’re building, is a collection of experts, coaches, healers, and practitioners of mind, body, and soul, all in one place.”
The way that Cassie has designed MHC, was done flawlessly so that people can easily find what they’re looking for based on their specific niche, and can be connected to the proper expertise they seek.
“For example, you could be in Canada and someone in our system might be the absolute right guide for you in Australia, and we have a sophisticated matching system that will make that connection.”
The Mind High Club isn’t just about matching the seekers with the doers, they offer many different tools and resources to aid throughout daily life as well. With their live interviews featuring mindful influencers, and their 21-day meditation challenge, this platform is sure to spark a fire within and bring some light to even the darkest of days.
Push and Pull;
When we see movements as impressive and impactful as The Mind High Club, we can easily expect that laborious sacrifices would’ve been made to bring such a platform to life.
But for Cassie, it’s been quite the opposite.
“For me, it’s actually flipping that on its head. I think in my first business, I had a belief system set in place, that the more we have to sacrifice, and the more we have to give up, the more we will succeed.”
Having gone through the struggling ‘push and pull’ experience with her last company, Cassie learned through experience that the more we force isn’t necessarily the more we receive. It’s about finding our true passion and acting from a place of authenticity, that makes giving as well as receiving, effortless.
“I think that once you connect with this vision that you’ve been given to carry out, and you start moving from that core place, then the lines between work and play start to really get blurred.”
We come to find that as we surrender to our truths and to our talents, doing what we love, and loving what we do; there really is no such thing as ‘work’.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t necessarily know what it is we are passionate about, or in other words, what our vision is. We seem to be pushing and pulling, burning out, and going into overdrive, and for what? If we were to stop and take a look at our realities, would they really be what nourish us?
A fun practice that Cassie recommends for anyone who’s feeling drained, overworked, or simply looking to dive a bit deeper into where their energy is going, is the ‘Fill Your Cup Practice.’
“The Fill Your Cup Practice is a fun tool that MHC offers, and an easy practice that I often do on my own as well. You draw a cup on a piece of paper, with arrows going out that represents everything that’s taking up your energy and resources. You then draw arrows going back into the cup representing the things that restore your energy and make you feel alive.”
Some examples of practices that restore us are; a weekly massage, a long walk in the park, meditation, and even something as simple as petting your dog.
“Once you have this diagram on a piece of paper, you can really start to reflect and say to yourself, ‘is there more going out of my cup than there is going in, and if that’s the case, where do I have room for more restorative practices?”
We all are faced with life’s demands, and in doing this reflective practice, we can assess and make the changes where they are most needed.
The goal of this exercise is to find our cups overflowing. When our cups are full, we can more easily navigate life’s demands, give to the one's we care most about, and move from a balanced place.
Find what feels good;
"Find out what feels good first, and then follow that."
When we do what feels good, we can perform at a higher quality. The universe gently guides us towards what we need to be prioritizing, and to connect with this guidance, we must first connect with ourselves.
“As a rule of thumb I find that I don’t wake up and say ‘regardless, I’m going to do this because I said I would’, I say, ‘Okay how do I feel and what do I really feel needs to be the priority today,’and then I just reshuffle.”
Making schedules, setting goals, and keeping on top of our priorities, is vital when working to achieve what we’ve set out to do. But, Cassie says finding what feels good, is the number one way to make sure that whatever we're doing comes from a place of passion, authenticity and purpose.
Role Model;
It’s important for women, as well as men of all ages, to begin to separate our image from our sense of identity. With society placing so much emphasis on the physical, we end up spending a lot of time attaching our sense of identity to our external traits.
“When I started modelling when I was a teenager, I really over-identified with my looks and how people perceived me; going the extra mile to change what was needed to please clients and agents.”
We need to be our own reminders and cheerleaders towards the importance of the internal and mental.
“A few experiences that I had really gave me a new perspective on the idea of beauty. In the span of one week, I had a client tell me that I was too thin for the part, I had an agent tell me that I was too bulky, and I had a photographer ask me if I was the makeup artist because my physique was more of the 'bodybuilder' type.”
Through a rather comical experience, Cassie soon understood that the idea of beauty, differs through the perception of one person to the next. Everyone is viewing life through their own lens, meaning that we should never try to distort ourselves to fit into the lens or the expectations of another.
“Just love your body, love yourself, be who you are, and completely own it. Stop thinking that if you change something, others will change their opinions about you.”
When we stop identifying with the external, we can then focus inwards on what truly matters, and who we truly are. The words that people say will start to brush off as we begin to question the value of opinions and realize that the only opinion that matters, is our own.
Busy being Busy;
Many of us believe ourselves to be ‘too busy’, concluding that our schedules simply don’t allow them time for our self-care practices. Whether we realize it or not, busy being busy is a state in which very little ends up being accomplished.
“I used to be one of those people who walked around saying, ‘I’m so busy’, and not only is that unhelpful, but it leads you to perpetuate that state of being.”
Being busy implies that we’re all over the place at one time, rather than in the here and now, which is the place we feel the calmest and the most productive.
“I needed to stop saying that I was ‘so busy’, and instead allow myself to be present and work from a place of productive calmness.”
5 Minutes;
There are countless times throughout the day when we have five minutes to spare. The problem is that very few people schedule these times into their days, therefore we find ourselves using this golden free time to distract ourselves with meaningless diversion.
“I’ve actually started scheduling my free time and my ‘me time’, into my calendar, and I find that to be very effective.”
We’ve got to start prioritizing ourselves. If we are the boss of our lives, and we’re the one who’s in control of our own happiness, we need to be in control of the time we leave for ourselves to flourish and grow.
“If we believe that we don’t have five minutes to spare every day, I think we’ll need to take a step back and question that.”
When we make something a chore, it no longer has that positive feeling behind it. The enjoyment of the time we carve out for ourselves is as important as the time itself.
A few things that we can start to prioritize into our calendars;
Meditation;
“You don’t need to meditate on top of a mountain for two hours every day. Just start with 5-10 minutes, and you’ll come to find that the natural progression will lead you to want more.”
Move your body;
Yoga
Running
Pilates
Walk-in Nature
“Getting into our bodies is a really great way to be healthy, become grounded, and get back into the present moment.”
Definition of beauty;
Oftentimes, when we ponder the idea of beauty, we fixate our minds on features and forms. In the fashion industry, Cassie knew beauty to be products and cosmetics, but over the years, her view has shifted from vanity, to what takes her breath away.
“I consider beauty to be one of my 5 top values. Not just the physical beauty of another human, but beauty in nature and design.”
If we were to expand our definitions of beauty and extend our focus towards not just what is in front of us, but what is all around us, we would be able to find wonder in all of our surroundings.
"If I were to define beauty, it would be, ‘an absolute appreciation and admiration for creation.”
Whether it be the laugh of a child, a flower in a garden, or a couple walking hand in hand in a park, these moments that make us marvel, and the simplicities that take our breath away, are where true beauty resides.
Best advice;
“If I could give myself advice ten years ago, it would definitely be to stop seeking external validation. You know who you are, own it, and just be yourself.”
It’s one thing for people to tell us to, ‘just be confident’, Cassie says. But owning who you are, being true to that, and asking yourself what it is that you want, will get you much farther than changing your dress size or hair color.
“Reminding ourselves daily that who we are is enough, is something that we all need to do a bit more of.”
100% True;
We asked Cassie Cameron what she knows 100% to be true, her answer;
“I’ve learned through my life that each person has their own truth, their own perception. But that deepest part of ourselves, our own innate truth, although different for everyone, is what connects us all as a whole.”
At TrooMe, we believe that every one of us has a truth within. A truth that we must stand in, tall and proud, as we allow ourselves to share it fully with the world.
May we follow in Cassie Cameron’s footsteps, leaving space each and every day for our truths to emerge, knowing in our hearts that our beauty comes from within, and never dulling our sparkle.
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