For Jaime Myers, wellness work isn’t about fixing people; it’s about helping them reconnect with themselves.
The founder of Shine Life Design has spent over 25 years leading immersive experiences, all centered on creativity, self-reflection and mindfulness. As a self-described “weaver,” Myers has incorporated activities like meditation, coaching, nature experiences, art and, more recently, horses along the way.
But a defining element of her workshops is the person working beside her: her mother, artist Laurie Eastwood.
The two Utah natives, now Park City residents, have worked on retreats for the past 13 years, designing multi-day events that include art experiences and equine coaching sessions meant to help participants slow down in a world they say often feels overstimulated and disconnected.
“We both think it’s so important to take that time,” Myers said. “People often don’t prioritize it, but when they do, it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I got my next idea.’ … You reconnect to yourself, and then you’re able to connect with others, and it is wellness.”
The mother and daughter, who live about 15 minutes apart, say their work has become increasingly relevant as stress levels rise and many people seek ways to disconnect from constant noise and technology.
“People are craving just slowing down, connecting, using their hands, like petting the horse, doing a meditation, looking at nature, getting in the art supplies,” Myers said. “It is tactile. And then with AI, I think people are more and more becoming just like, ‘I gotta get back.’”
Eastwood added that wellness often begins with giving people “permission to play,” a phrase she displays on a sign at each art experience she hosts.
“It’s a gift to yourself,” she said. “We often don’t give ourselves that gift.”
Adding Equus coaching to the ‘palette’
One of Myers’ newest offerings centers around Equus coaching, a form of experiential coaching that involves interacting with horses without riding them.
Unlike traditional horsemanship training, the sessions are not focused on technical exercises or control. Participants enter the arena with a horse, set an intention and observe how the animal responds while Myers guides conversation and reflection.
Myers distinguishes coaching from equine therapy by explaining that therapy often focuses on processing past trauma or clinical concerns while coaching emphasizes future vision, clarity and personal growth. She said this works with horses because of the animals’ innate ability to sense energy and react to a person’s authenticity.
“They’re really mirrors, so they mirror your own congruency,” she said. “If you’re in your head, trying to be some way, they usually walk away. Versus if you’re really in your own truth, you’re speaking from that place, they’ll respond to that.”
The work also teaches participants about boundaries, communication and personal presence. Myers said horses, as prey animals, are naturally sensitive to energy and safety cues.
“We think of them as these 1,000-pound animals, and maybe some people are a little scared of them, but they’re not predators, they’re prey,” she said. “They’re very sensitive to their environment and kind of looking at, ‘Are you safe, and am I safe with you?’”
That’s why the horse is never wearing a halter during these sessions so it’s free to move and react to the participant’s shifts and fluctuations in energy.
Myers recalled one recent workshop in which a participant was discussing a potential business idea while in a pen with a horse named Scarlett.
“Scarlett would come over and stand there as she was talking about her business. Then she’s like, ‘but then I get all this self-doubt,’ and Scarlett turned around and walked away,” Meyers said with a laugh. “And then she’s like, ‘but then I figure I could just play and have fun,’ and Scarlett came back.”
Through conversations like these, Myers helps a person interpret the horse’s physical feedback and what real-life takeaways that could mean.
In that example, Scarlett saw that admission of doubt as inauthentic, Myers explained. But when the woman discussed playing and having fun, the horse moved closer to reaffirm those thoughts, aligned with the person’s true self.
These kinds of interactions have helped Myers herself, especially in exploring boundaries and how to show up in her own relationships.
“I’ve had to work on bringing up my energy because I can be softer in the background,” she said, explaining that sometimes the horse acts as if she isn’t even there. “If I really want to have something to say, I need to bring up my energy so that my presence is there.”
One exercise to practice bringing up energy in sessions with the horse is called sending. It works by getting the horse to move without using its conditioned tools. Not only does it help someone identify strategies for shifting into that confidence, say, taking a deep breath, but it also identifies areas of self-doubt, Myers said.
“You get to practice bringing up your energy, or if the horse doesn’t move, usually things come up like, ‘Am I doing this right? What’s wrong with me? She doesn’t like me.’ Whatever our typical story is will come up,” she explained.
Beyond coaching itself, Myers said simply being around horses can have a calming effect.
“They have an electromagnetic heart field that’s six times that of humans,” she said. “They’ve done a lot of studies around calming heart rate and well-being, just being in the presence of horses. … When we have people out, they just leave feeling more energized, more clear, more connected. Connected to themselves, nature, animals.”
Art as ‘permission to play’
While Myers guides coaching and designs retreats from a big-picture lens, Eastwood leads the artistic side of those events, as well as her own workshops.
A longtime artist and former continuing education art instructor at the University of Utah, Eastwood now hosts what she calls “Wild Wonderful Wednesdays,” two-hour creative sessions in her Pinebrook studio built around experimentation and play.
Everyone is creative, she said, and her goal is to get people out of their heads.
“If we can just be in that space of playing versus trying to do it right or create some masterpiece,” she said.
Her classes, including the ones led with Myers, use watercolor pens and spray bottles to create colorful, organic shapes on paper. Then, participants are encouraged to use black pens to trace those shapes, designed to encourage spontaneity.
“It’s so interesting to me that I will have as many as eight people in my studio, and I give the same instruction, the same materials, the same atmosphere, and every single one is so different,” Eastwood said. “There’s no right or wrong, and every art session I have is based on that. My intention is that they leave feeling relaxed, feeling calm, feeling at peace, and knowing that they can be creative in their own way.”
The philosophy stems partly from Eastwood’s own artistic journey. She originally worked in advertising before helping her sister with an art business. Later, while visiting a frame shop in San Francisco, she encountered a hand-tinted, black-and-white photograph that changed the direction of her life.
“I saw this image, and it was like, that’s it. That’s what I’m going to do,” she said.
Her business grew rapidly after she connected with Restoration Hardware founder Stephen Gordon, becoming one of the retailer’s top-selling print artists as the company expanded nationwide.
“I had a factory. I mean, it was a huge business, and I absolutely loved it. Until I didn’t,” she said.
Eventually, she found herself searching not for another business venture but for creative fulfillment, back to “that unfettered joy of creating.”
That answer came when her daughter invited her to incorporate art into retreat experiences.
A shared philosophy
The partnership between Myers and Eastwood has now spanned more than a decade, taking them from Utah to retreats in Costa Rica, Hawaii, California and Arizona.
Both women say the collaboration works because their personalities and talents complement each other naturally, and they don’t take themselves too seriously.
“I think we both have our own skill sets and gifts that we like to share,” Myers said. “It’s like, OK, that’s your part, and I support you, and that’s your part, and I support you.”
Eastwood said it helps that they also genuinely enjoy being around one another, something participants often notice. Their relationship itself has become part of the experience for some attendees.
“It’s inspiring for a lot of people, and healing to see that it’s possible. Not every mother and daughter can work together,” Myers said. “A lot of women, too, I find, who don’t have a good relationship with their mom, it’s kind of healing just to be in her space.”
Eastwood said, looking back, she recognized Myers’ empathetic nature early in life.
“She was always so kind and so sensitive, to her own feelings and feelings of others. Always empathetic and so much in her own world, but I really appreciated that about her,” Eastwood said. “I always recognized in Jamie that she would follow her own path.”
Today, both women say their workshops are intentionally designed to create emotional safety and authenticity.
“We’re very intentional. We so want people to get what they’ve come for,” Eastwood said. “It’s a very safe space that we create, and a very vulnerable space. I mean, people share things that they may not otherwise.”
At the center of their philosophy is the idea that slowing down can actually create clarity.
“In this town … it’s high performing; it’s a lot of stress. We have a lot of noise in our world,” Myers said. “People slow down and literally leave like ‘I solved that problem. I know what to do now. I got an inspiration.’”
It’s something that Eastwood, too, reminds people in her workshops.
“Get out of your head. It’s such a bad neighborhood,” she said with a laugh, then pressed her hand to her chest. “Get in here a little bit.”