Nowadays, the genetically blessed among us are more likely to talk about their favorite yoga guru and the best green juice in town rather than their latest all-nighter in Paris. Case in point: Angela Lindvall.
The 34-year-old Kansas City native and long-time face of DKNY and Victoria’s Secret has helped maintain a nearly 20-year career this way. Before her eldest son, Dakota, 11, was born (her youngest, Sebastian, is 8), she became an eco-activist. And five years ago, she started detoxing with the help of doctors and practitioners, which has literally changed her life.
“I learned that we have such a symbiotic relationship with our environment,” she says from her rustic Topanga Canyon home.
“What we breathe and eat enters our body and can affect our health in ways that are really surprising. If our bodies are toxic, then we make toxic decisions.”
She even started an environmental non-profit that promoted sustainability among young people. But she worried that wasn’t enough. The problem with acquiring all of this knowledge, whether it’s about heavy-metal toxicity in the blood or climate change, is that it can make people feel powerless.
“I have what I like to call environmental anxiety disorder,” laughs Lindvall. “I start to worry that I can’t do enough, that it’s too big of a problem for me to handle. Then I realized I had to start at kind of a micro-level—with myself, my family and friends—and then to open that up and help make meaningful changes for a few people at a time.”
Lindvall’s solution was to open her Topanga property, a small farm that she describes as her own “little Utopia,” to guests as a holistic retreat four times a year. Facilitated by Bio Sanctuary and its medical director, Genita M. Mason H.H.P., N.C., biochemist—visitors can partake in a green juice cleanse and gluten-dairy-sugar-meat-free meals, in between yoga, live blood analysis, infrared sauna breaks, life coaching, hiking and other health-promoting activities.
“It’s always been my dream to put my roots down in a place like this,” Lindvall says. “It feels like the country, but it’s close to Los Angeles and just a few minutes from the water. Lately, I’ve been running on the beach and jumping in the waves. If I could live like this for the rest of my life, I’d be one happy lady.” Sept. 21-30; 877-285-9266; biosanctuary.com/malibu-california-biosanctuary.
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