We’re looking forward to introducing you to Daniel Gingras. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Daniel, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Spending time outdoors is my number one way to come back to myself. It has been a practice since I was 16 and has looked many different ways. I used to be an avid hiker and always would be looking for the next vista, but now I move slower and focus on identifying plants and foraging. I love harvesting for food and medicine. I am lucky to live in Western North Carolina, an area rich with biodiversity. Biting into a persimmon fruit leather, or having nettles with handmade acorn pancakes returns me to who I am and where I am from.
Lately I have been enjoying trying to capture the scents of the plants that I run into along my hikes. I have been infusing oils with various different herbs, such as Mugwort, St John’s Wort, and Juniper. It feels like a perfect memento to relive the beautiful sights and special sights of days past.
Whenever I begin to feel like work has gotten to be too much, or city life starts to feel too cramped, off to the woods I will go to reset.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an Licensed Massage and Bodywork operating in Asheville North Carolina. I went to school at The Pacific Center for Awareness and Bodywork in 2018. I currently operate my own private practice and have been in business since 2019. I have a technique that is both therapeutic and relaxing, defined by a targeted, pinpoint specific detail that is then integrated with long full body sweeps. In 2020 and 2022, I took classes with Michael Sitzer on Thai Bodywork. Thai Bodywork is a modality that focuses on stretching as well as compression. It is more akin to assisted yoga than it is to your standard spa massage. I have been offering Thai Bodywork professionally since 2023.
I also run Cygnus, an herbal line started in 2024 featuring wild-crafted body oils. I use Organic Jojoba Oil as a base and infuse various different herbs that I have gathered among my forages. My most popular are Mountain Mint, Mugwort, and Cottonwood oils. They are available for individual sale, and are also available as an enhancement to my table massages. They are small batch, and once they run out are out forever!
Finally, I teach herbalism with my partner and mentor Rebecca Beyer. She runs classes out of the Blood and Spicebush School of Old Craft and also at Wild Abundance. It is a joy to help students connect with plants.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who taught you the most about work?
My father taught me the most about work. He is a self-employed carpenter that has been in business for 45 years. Ever since I was little, I was familiar with being on job sites. He is a dedicated, honest, and earnest worker who has maintained a high esteem and trust among his clients.
I always thought it was fun when I was little to help out on the job when I could, and I remember watching his concentration as he would troubleshoot whatever issue he was working on. In the evenings, he would come home and respond to all the phone calls and type up estimates for upcoming jobs. I didn’t realize how special it was to get an in depth look into my dad’s work life. And as time rolled on, I absorbed his work ethic simply from proximity. I am very grateful to have such a positive example. I enjoy being self-employed now all these years later, even though at times it can be a little extra work!
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
I really struggled with feeling worthy when I was in my teens and twenties. I felt like the world was a place for everyone else, but I couldn’t understand how I fit into the picture myself. I questioned why I would say something rather than to listen. I questioned why I could eat when others couldn’t. Or why I could have a roof when others didn’t. I abstained from these basic needs and became injured and depressed.
In time, through meditation, massage, and the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, I came to understand it as a fear of existing. I take up space. It is a simple fact of being born. And with that I feel it is a birthright of everyone on earth to get to be nourished and explore this beautiful planet. I feel very dedicated to helping others understand that they belong here on this planet.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
Recently, my place of residence, Western North Carolina, had to come together and navigate the horrors of Hurricane Helene. Situations like this make you realize what is really important: food, water, healthcare, and our neighbors. Everything else is simply a fad. Real foundations do not shift.
We are born in a body that is frail and delicate, and requires the right temperatures, the right nutrients, and safe environments. This body is our foundation. We sense the world from it. If we did not have it then what good would anything be to us?
I am thankful to return back from that survivalist point of view as the damages of Helene become hindsight more and more everyday. But I will never forget the evaluation of priorities I had from that experience.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If immortality were real, what would you build?
Truly life is to short. By the time we start to figure out just what is going on here, our cognitive and physical abilities decline. Of course, if I had eternity to look forward to in this body I would build a utopia that valued human harmony amongst each other and nature. When I was growing up I felt very affected by my reading of The Island by Aldous Huxley, and also took a lot of pleasure in reading Walden Two by B.F. Skinner.
I think if immortality were fact, humanity as a whole would have a value shift away from instantaneous satisfaction at the price of mediocrity, and towards longstanding efficient systems. We would have to slow down because we would face the consequences of our errors instead of passing it on to future generations. Even wars, and all the pains with it would end with shame for the psychological grief and loss of resources it caused.
My part in eternity would at least start with connecting people back to their body and back to earth. Educating those to nurture a beautiful world with thriving ecosystems would be first and foremost.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gingrasbodywork.com
- Instagram: @DanSquishes
