How a health need turned into a successful business!
Miranda Tringis is the owner and founder of CyHerbia Botanical Park. In her interview she spoke to us about the way her need to deal with her child’s respiratory challenges compelled her to educate and retrain herself in Herbalism and, in the process, led her to discover an outstanding business accumen and leadership skills.
A passing childhood interest in herbs blossomed into a life-changing journey into the world of healing
Even as a child, Miranda Tringis was always curious about the power of herbs, experimenting with plants and preparing potions and teas for herself. However, when she had her first child, Melina, this interest was rekindled out of need.
As a toddler, Mirand’as daughter Melina was often suffering with problems of the respiratory system. These health issues resulted in frequent visits to doctors and repeated rounds of antibiotics. This excessive exposure to medication caused antibiotic resistance and left her child’s immune system compromised.
Realising that antibiotics were making her child’s health problems worse, Miranda began to research natural, alternative remedies. Through her reading, she soon came to realise that many common aromatic Cyprus herbs, such as mint, thyme, sage and lavender, had powerful healing properties.
She began to give her child homemade herbal teas sweetened with local organic honey and it soon became evident that these natural herbal teas prevented small health complaints such as a cough or a sneeze, from escalating into a full-blown health crisis, like before. This propelled her to experiment further, incorporating herbs in cooking too.
An interest in the healing power of herbs evolved into a business opportunity
Twelve years later Miranda and her husband Adam decided to invest in an uncultivated piece of land. Although initially there were no plans to cultivate this plot, the soil was so fertile that they soon felt that to leave it empty would be a sinful negligence.
They decided to create a herb garden and share Miranda’s knowledge in the healing powers of herbs with other people in need. The winning husband-and-wife team combined their individual skill sets that included Adam’s big-picture vision and Miranda’s attention to detail and in-depth knowledge of herbs
From the start they wanted to create a space for people to get in touch with nature, combining learning and fun. They worked closely with the Forrestry Department and the Department of Agriculturte to plant every tree and every herb in the CyHerbia Botanical Park.
It took 8 more years of hard physical work and a ton of paperwork to realise their vision. In this time, Miranda studied for her Diploma in Herbal Medicine from The Institute of Natural Healing and developed her practice. CyHerbia opened its doors officially to the public in 2012 and it has been hugely successful and rising in popularity every year.
CyHerbia's secret of success
CyHerbia is a hugely successful business venture primarily because their focus is not just business. It combines fun, education and quality products.
People who visit the Park get a fully immersive experience, enjoying a day out in nature, learning about herbs and trying the products. And all these, in a context of imagination and creativity.
The biggest struggle in creating CyHerbia
The biggest challenge was beaurocracy. Many regulations introduce unexpected hurdles and need careful handling. Another perpetual challenge with a Botanical Park is the need to keep up with Nature’s cycles. All the gardening work must be addressed no matter what else is going on.
When feeling under pressure, Miranda’s approach is to focus on one obstacle at the time and throw all her energies into solving that. Once that is dealt with she can move on to the next problem with the confidence that she has already overcome one challenge. This protects her from feeling overwhelmed.
How herbs and nature can help with stress-induced health issues such as insomnia
Covid 19 and Lockdown measures have created a host of health issues in the general population that are related to stress. Herbs can help enormously as a part of our self-care routine. They should be an integral part of a healthy lifestyle that includes avoiding junk food in favour of natural, living foods such as vegetables. But also, spending time in nature, such as going for a swim or a walk in the forrest, is invaluable to combating mental health issues. When we open our heart and spirit to nature, nature will heal us. And after spending time in nature, a sedative herbal tea, such as chamomile, will be all the more effective. It will calm your spirit and mind and help you get a healthy, restorative night’s sleep.
Health issues that can be managed or overcome with herbs
Many liver issues such as high cholesterol and high triglycerides can be managed with herbs, as well as blood pressure. Herbs and herbal extracts are very good at detoxifying and nourishing the liver and other organs. CyHerbia’s best selling products are herbs that support the internal organs. These herbs enable our internal organs to cope better with the toxic load of our modern lifestyles.
The impact of herbalism on people's lives and health
Herbalism can turn people’s lives around completely. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. The protocol for healing will be adjusted and adapted as each person’s journey back to health and vitality progresses. But the problems didn’t occur overnight. It takes time and committment to a healthier lifestyle to be able to bring about lasting positive change.
Essential oils and how to get the maximum benefit out of them
Essential oils are highly concentrated extracts of plants so only a tiny amount is necessary for a big impact. CyHerbia offers seminars on how to safely use them and for which conditions. There are also demostrations of herbal oil extraction when certain plants are available during the year. Essential oils can help you pamper yourself, energise you, but also can calm your spirit and heal your body.
The best-selling product at CyHerbia
Lavender products are by far the most popular and come in a wide range including essential oil, aromatic water, teas and cosmetics. The CyHerbia Annual Lavender Festival is the height of the herbal year. Moving amongst the lavender flowers can be life changing. People enter the lavender garden and they emerge completely changed.
Lavender essential oil has the most uses: it combats stress, insomnia and anxiety. It also has cosmetic uses such as pimples, bath and shampoo.
Miranda Tringis embodies the entrepreneurial spirit. In the process of addressing her child’s health challenges, she did not just gain back control of her child’s health. She re-educated and re-skilled herself and she invested time, money and emotional energy into realizing her bold vision of sharing her newfound knowledge with the public. Over the years, she demonstrated leadership, innovation, risk-taking and strategic thinking and is now in command of a successful, inspirational and thriving business.
About the author!
Des Telemachou is an experienced film maker and photographer, with hundreds of videos in the public domain. She specialises in corporate video marketing with an emphasis on branding, promotional and social responsibility videos, as well as client testimonials.
In addition, Des is an experienced social media content creator, including graphic posts and articles. She can also provide scripting, content editing and content writing services as part of a package.
Des is bilingual in Greek and English. She holds a B.A. (Hons) in English and an M.Phil. in Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, in the UK.