I’m not someone who necessarily sits for hours on the beach, but it is my happy place, my grounding place,” declared Andrea Meier, on her preference for walking on the beach rather than relaxing on it. Growing up in the Northeast, Andrea vacationed frequently on the Isle of Palms. She recalled, “My stepmother’s parents lived on the Isle of Palms, so we would visit every summer. As an adult, my husband and I would come down to Charleston for long weekends and would try to stay as close as we could to the island. The Isle of Palms has always been our happy place.”
For the Meier family, the decision to make the move and turn themselves from vacationers to permanent residents came easily over time. “I had some wonderful experiences here growing up, and we would come down several times a year to visit after getting married,” reflected Andrea. “We finally made the decision when our kids got a little bit older to make the move. Our son will be a freshman at Clemson University in the fall, and our daughter is a rising sophomore in high school. We moved to Mount Pleasant about seven years ago and still enjoy as much beach time as possible. Part of my self-care plan is walking on the beach at least once a week – multiple times a week when I am able.”
The Meier family’s three rescue dogs are a bit too wild to come to the beach, but according to Andrea they have acclimated well to life in the South. The rest of the Meier clan counts concerts at The Windjammer and eating on the rooftop of Coconut Joe’s amongst their favorite things to do on the island. “My daughter’s best friend lives in Wild Dunes so I am over on the island all the time! I’ve traded visiting a few times a year for visiting a few times a week!” laughed Andrea. “Every trip across the connector is like a little vacation.”
Andrea’s husband Lewis is a former firefighter who now works for Impact Fire. She explained, “Lewis does fire suppression systems and works with local restaurants and big businesses throughout the Charleston area.”
Andrea opened Holistic Wellness Collective in Mount Pleasant shortly after moving to the area. She elaborated, “I have a team of therapists, and we really focus on trauma and anxiety and women’s issues, relational concerns, addictions, but what’s unique, I think, about what we do here is that we really offer what I call a deeper healing intervention, so we offer integrative care. A lot of traditional talk therapy is more in the neocortex of the brain, but a lot of the work that we do here, it really helps get into that deep brain, which tends to have more expedited healing and longer-lasting kind of sustained benefits.”
Both professionally and personally, Andrea has integrated into the local community, creating a peacefulness that practically engulfs those fortunate enough to speak with her. That mindful connection and appreciation shone through as Andrea expressed, “I think the biggest thing to the adjustment was just the seasons. We were pretty far up north, and one of the reasons that brought us down here was the sunshine and beauty. We absolutely love the culture and beaches and food and the lifestyle. We still go up north and visit family, so we get snow for Christmas and changing leaves in the fall, but we get to live in paradise and visit the seasons.”
What could be better than that? Welcome home, Meier family!
By Laura Fogarty
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