Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Lane.
Hi Diana, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
This story starts as a little girl growing up in lower middle-class, Santa fe, New Mexico in a single parent household. While the upbringing was eclectic and well rounded in many way culturally, it didn’t provide a lot of room for big dreams and forward thinking innovation.
Near worst in the nation for education and healthcare, I was really blessed to have an amazing mum who broke the ancestral chains of our lineage and provided a fairly solid upbringing for myself and my sister. I’ll never forget when I came home from school one day in 3rd grade. They had announced wrestling try-outs and I came home so excited to tell her that I wanted to join the team. As a lot of girl-mums would, she cautioned with something along the lines of “I don’t know Diana… are you sure you want to try out for this? Maybe there’s another sport you might like more?” to which I replied confidently “But mum… you said I can be anything I want!” Needless to say I signed up the next day, made it to the team and did incredibly well the next two years, winning lots of matches, with her support along the way.
That being said, she couldn’t have been any happier when I decided to join the dance team and cheer in the following years of my short lived wrestling career. I feel really fortunate to have had opportunities provided for me that my mom never had- she really moved mountains to see and support my success through sports, school, summer band and so much more.
It was around that same time in elementary school where my teacher pulled her aside and said “I think we need to do some testing with Diana…” and basically said, “She’s either dumb or bored” It was the 90’s so things like that were less empathetic and compassionate. Not long after I spent the whole day in a rigorous testing facility where they had me running through really unique brain games, tangrams and more. It was only a week or two later when the results came back and my mom realized I was already reading, writing and understanding college level concepts in elementary level schooling… I was SO BORED and so I was acting out in class, falling asleep, not paying attention etc
At this time I was placed in the GATE program (Gifted and Talented Education) and I really started to flourish with more advance concepts and courses. I wanted to be a CIA or FBI agent (thank you X-files) and my mum was cheering me along the whole way.
Then highschool hit… I had been in ballet for a few years at this point, quit band because it wasn’t ‘cool’ anymore (silly me;) and had developed multiple eating disorders to try to fit in with the super thing prima ballerinas commonly seen in the industry at the time. Thank goodness that one day my downstairs neighbor invited me to her bellydance salon because it changed my life and probably saved it to.
I had a different perspective of what healthy and beautiful looked like after that. I quit ballet, started bellydance with some friends instead and starting working on understanding nutrition and how to heal my body with food. This was my entry point in to the health and wellness field.
At first I thought I wanted to be a nutritionist. I started studying as much as I could and had people asking me for advice and when I was going to open up a healing center. But when I took some more diverse topics back to my nutrition class (like the concept of trophology where eating meat & potatoes releases acid and alkaline digestive juices creating a neutral state) it was not well received or understood and I became that crazy meat and potatoes girl.
It was then that I realized that career path was not really respected in the medical world and so I decided to expand the vision and mission and shoot for the stars. I was going to become a doctor instead- and cardio-thoracic surgeon at that. I wanted to help the world by healing hearts.
So I finished my Associates and set off to undergrad at the Western Washington University. The plan was to complete my premed degree there, take MCATS and go to University of Washington which was a feeder school for Ivy League level training. I was in my last semester of my Bachelor’s when they put me in a Cardiac Rehab internship for my capstone class.
It wasn’t more than a couple weeks in when I realized people were getting worse and not better. One day I saw a guy who had just had a heart attack weeks prior throwing a McDonald’s cup out on the way in. I asked my supervisor about discussing nutritional and lifestyle interventions and was basically pat on the head and told “That’s not your job- there’s extracurricular classes they can take if they wish”.
The next week another patient who’d already had two double coronary artery bypass surgeries came in with a strong scent of alcohol and cigarettes. I again asked about having a conversation about modifiable risk factors and again was redirected to get them on the machines, take their vitals and make sure they were taking their prescriptions.
Then I started asking questions and realized that most people would be back in 6mo and that many would not make it past 5 years. End of life care was not my mission and I knew I had to find another way. I would call my mum crying on my way home from clinicals and she encouraged me to dig deep and find that soul calling- even if it took a little bit more time.
I took the summer off and enrolled in a couple courses at Evergreen State College- one of which was an intro to integrative studies class where I explored almost every modality possible. I considered PT, OT, Chiropractic, Ayurveda, Nursing and beyond… but, it wasn’t until I landed on Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine that everything clicked.
The more I learned about this comprehensive system the more it made sense. The mind-body-soul approach looked at all avenues of health, wellness and disease causing cofactors including environment, emotions, nutrition and so much more. I knew I had found my Dao.
So, I jumped ship to the East Side and applied for grad school for Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture instead. It was quite the journey studying western and eastern principles for the next 3.5 years, with half of it in Chinese by the way, which was NOT a prerequisite for the program. This is the part of the journey where I became “the perfect blend of science and wu”. My science mind prevailed, but I was about to expand deep in to the world of TCM and esoteric arts.
I dedicated all of my resources to this program, moved to Portland, OR then eventually Austin, TX to finish my program and I’ll just say the didactics, clinicals and national licensure testing was not for the faint of heart. By the time I graduated, the same week as my 30th birthday, I was definitely on the path of adrenal fatigue central.
I took the summer off, finished my Boards and spent 3.5 months traveling from China to Thailand where I studied with the Monks in the mountains of Wu Dang and the Physicians in the hospitals of Guangzhou. It was one of the most life changing adventures ever and I feel so grateful to have taken that time to recalibrate. Nothing like waking up at dawn to run down to the Purple Cloud Palace to welcome the sun with deep chanting in Mandarin, studying Qi Gong in the birthplace of Wu Shu surrounded by deep and beautiful nature, or listening to a Chinese elder that lives in a cave in the mountain read stories to me that I only understand by resonance and tonality while drinking fresh tea.
Coming back to the states was a special kind of culture shock… and now I had to figure out how to start and run a business. Cue my entry in to entrepreneurship!
I was very fortunate to be living in Austin and surrounded by some of the best of the best in the marketing industry. I got some really solid guidance and they also knew to encourage me to figure things out on my own as well. And so the journey as a business owner began.
At first- I was literally renting a room from another practitioner for a couple hours a week. It was a tiny room at the very back of a spa over on S. Lamar next to the old Zero Gravity and Pizza Hut. Super glamorous- you could literally smell pizza walking in the front door and the room was so small the massage table was only accessible from one side.
Right around this time, I got a job as an admin assistant working for an established acupuncturist and integrative medicine practitioner part-time. Not only did I get to learn the back end of operations, but he also mentored me during the first couple years of getting established as a practitioner myself.
Eventually, I graduated from the pizza place hourly rental and took on a full-time room at another practice that I shared with 4 other newly graduated acupuncturists. A couple months later a treatment room at my ‘day job’ opened up and suddenly I was juggling two rooms and my front desk position. I remember one day, my mentor sat me down and said “Diana, another room is about to open up here soon… what would it look like if you channeled all your energy in to one place?” and that really struck a cord.
When that second room opened up, I passed on my other space to the practitioners I had brought in and started to really focus on cultivating my business in one location only. I spent many year expanding my entrepreneurial acumen and my clinical skills, and eventually traded in my smaller of the two rooms for a large corner suite as I continued to grow.
Over the years I continued to learn, grow, travel and be of service in the healing space, adopting an integrative medicine model with functional lab analysis, and supplementation, rooted in eastern medicine and Chinese herbology. I also took a liking to hosting various impact oriented events for health and wellness, transformational music, women’s circles and more.
As the story goes, I began to dream a bigger dream, and at the end of 2023 it was time to branch out completely on my own. I had been looking for quite some time for a new clinical setting and found the perfect place to grow in to in early 2024. It was time to start a new book!
The expansion in to The SanctuaryATX is a beautiful blossoming of a multi-part story that is still unfolding. This 5 treatment room facility was the perfect stepping-stone for the next layer of healing arts services for the Austin community. We moved in last year and had a beautiful grand opening party in July that included music, healthy food, amazing vendors, various health and wellness practitioners and showcased our new collaborative.
It’s been a journey of self and soul, but I feel so honored to co-create alongside amazing practitioner like Karina Yanku of Oana Healing Arts, Tien Bui & Ian Strachan of Healing Texas, Dr. Katie Keller from DirectMed, Lizette Vela of Alma Sagrada Healing, Marclea of Empowered Movement Therapy and Cynthian Bednar or Cynful Peace. We have just about everything under one roof from various styles of massage, Shamanic Arts, Integrative Primary Care, PT, Reiki, Acupuncture, Sound Healing, Herbal consulting and so much more.
We also recently launched a membership for the Longevity Lounge that showcases vibroacoustic sound healing, red light/PEMF, passive stretch devices, BrainTap and more!
This is just a milestone for a much more advanced healing center that is already in the formulary works in years to come. I feel so thankful for all the guides, mentors, friends and family who’ve believed in me and supported me along the way.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Wouldn’t it be such a fun, easy and short, semi-boring story if it was?
I’d say the road has been a bit turbulent, twisty turns, pot holes, wrong turns and downright lost along the way.
Getting out of the scarcity and poverty mindset of my hometown and upbringing was a whole struggle on its own. Moving for college was definitely scary and the school debt of self-funding my education has definitely felt heavy at times.
I would say, besides the obvious struggles of building a bootstrap business from the ground up, the personal struggles have definitely been a doozy along the way. Dealing with out of integrity or mismatched tenants was fun, having my mentor nudge me out of working under him and then eventually in to my own place was definitely a little sticky at times, but the worst of the worst was everything that happened at the start of the pandemic.
I know everyone was going through it, and I was grateful to be first line defense to help people with their immune systems and mental health along the way, and in some ways this kept me anchored to the path forward as I experienced loss after loss.
My dearest friend and spiritual mentor (not the one I worked for) passed away in March of 2020, followed by my mum passing after an 8yr battle with cancer in April and then my cat and grandfather both joined them in the next 12-24 months as well. I went through a lot of struggles during this time, not only with these losses, but also in a challenging relationship on top of the worldly woes.
There have been a lot of “oh sh*t” moments where I’ve had to really trust ad surrender to the universal plan. Times where I’ve been scared, off course, and thought that I totally messed up. The ebbs and flows of business are real, and life is very much the same.
No Mud No Lotus right?
We’ve been impressed with The SanctuaryATX, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I mentioned a bit about The SanctuaryATX in the first one but a little bit more about my specialties will follow:
The science nerd in me is still strong when it comes to my practice and medical approach. I specialize in working with burnt out entrepreneurs dealing with digestive dysfunction and adrenal fatigue.
This can include functional lab testing and analysis, lifestyle consulting, herbs/supplements, nutritional refinement and more. One day we may be reviewing a GI Map test and the next we’re off in the Esoteric Acupuncture realms or using what’s called the “Dragons Treatment” to clear any entities or blockages to treatment.
I have a very unique approach- my follow up sessions are 90 minutes each, to allow plenty of spaciousness for emotional processing, exploratory depths and what’s been explained as out of body experiences in acu-land with acupuncture. Some of the best compliments I’ve received are from patients who have extensive history working with acupuncturists or other practitioners, have traveled around the world, or moved to other highly populated cities with expert level practitioners and they send me text messages telling me they’ve never been to/found someone like me.
I’ve also worked with many patients who’ve been to the ‘experts’ and high level medical facilities, not gotten the results and see improvements working with me that change their lives. When they say “I wish I’d found you sooner” I remind them kindly that it’s all in divine timing and I’m glad we found eachother when we did.
Another principle of mine is that I tell all my patients “I am not here to heal you- you are the great healer, your body knows what to do, I am just a guide alone the way.”
My services include acupuncture (Esoteric, TCM, Tung/Tan, EAM), herbal/supplemental medicine, functional lab testing and analysis that I can order ‘in-house’, sound healing, guided meditation, aromatherapy, crystal body grids, lifestyle consulting and specially tailored protocols that help patients see tangible and accumulative results that support longevity and whole body healing.
This mission comes from a soul calling, a passion and purpose deeper and bigger than me, a desire to be of service to seekers on this healing journey.
I’m so proud that my brand has evolved and continues to grow. I am working on V2.0 of this healing center and am in the formative stages of creating a pitch deck and calling in investment/funding partners for high impact, state of the art, health and wellness facility (or three).
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success comes from satisfaction, from trusting the process, from being ok with the beauty and the mess along the way. Success is learning from perceived failures, the becoming and unbecoming all at the same time. Success is maintaining an open mind and heart in a world that can be wild and sometimes try to break us or deter us from our path and calling. Success is integrity in all things and the quality of not only what we do, how we show up, but also the company that we keep.
Pricing:
- Longevity Lounge Founder’s Membership: $222/mo (4hrs/mo shareable and rolls over)
- Acupuncture/Integrative Medicine Journey: Varies based on frequency/need
Contact Info:
- Website: www.moonmedicinemagic.com www.thesanctuaryatx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonmedicinemagic/ https://www.instagram.com/thesanctuaryatx/
- Youtube: Self Care Series Coming Soon: https://www.youtube.com/@moonmedicinemagic2677
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/diana-beilman-moon-medicine-healing-arts-austin?osq=diana+beilman
