Mother's Day

with Clara, Martha, and Pam of SURYA

To celebrate Mother's Day, we visited SURYA at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel where three generations of women work together to bring wellness to their community while establishing a sense of togetherness. Founder of SURYA, Martha Soffer sits down with her daughter, Pam, to discuss motherhood and Ayurveda practice.

Follie Top in Cassia

Paloma Uility in Tea Leaf

Pam: SURYA's purpose is to nurture, heal, and restore, and I'm curious if you see any parallels between that goal of Ayurveda and SURYA and motherhood?

Martha: One of the things that makes SURYA so much like motherhood is, when you go into these rooms, what most people say is "I feel like new" because they feel like they are reborn when they get there. They feel something nourishing and restorative. For me, that’s the biggest similarity of motherhood and Ayurveda. What we do every day to everyone here, we just send love, like you would love your kid.

P: Within Ayurveda, there's a big emphasis on tradition and values, and I'm curious if you have any thoughts on any ways that tradition plays a role in our family and the way that we live?

M: My grandmother used to have a tradition where we met every Sunday to have a meal together, the whole family and now I do the same thing. Every Sunday we all get together to cook, and Pam and I, we like to cook a lot. So we all get together on Sundays and just spend time together.

P: The goal of SURYA is to create a sense of community where people can come here and feel loved and supported and cared for. I'm curious if you have any practices you want to share for cultivating community and helping establish a sense of togetherness and community?

M: My goal in practicing Ayurveda is to bring Ayurveda to everyone. Opening SURYA in a place that you don't just have to find me in my house, because I worked in my house for so many years, and now being able to offer this to everyone, it is really amazing. And also, all the therapists that work with us, we feel like we're in a family. When people come and do the treatments and they go and sit in the dining room, that's the sense of total community. Now I'm going to start doing [monthly] classes where I want to share the knowledge of Ayurveda and grow the community.

Follie Top in Cassia

Paloma Utility in Tea Leaf

P: Another part of the community that I love here is that we all actually like hanging out with each other. We get together and we've had dance parties on the beach, and we share our gifts with each other. Sometimes I'll offer sound baths to the girls who work here, and we also trade massages, and we get the chance to work on each other and offer the services that we offer to the public to each other. That's a really special way to demonstrate our love for each other and grow closer in the way that we share this space. I would recommend that for anyone. If you want to try giving your friends massages, it's a great way to build community and come together.

P: How has our family influenced your work? I know your grandmother is a big part of this.

M: My grandmother is a very big influence for everything that I do. She loved flowers and plants, and she was always making things, and the collagen cream was one of the products that I brought to the community, and all of our family used it. We still use it. We make a product, and as I'm getting older, I start getting wrinkles, I need something. At the beginning, I make the face oil, but then I get older and older, and then I'm like, "okay, I need a little bit more." So, then I'm like, "okay, it's time to use my grandmother's collagen cream." I made the collagen cream with all the knowledge of Ayurveda and I put it together and everyone loves it and it's just such an amazing cream.

P: How have I shaped your views of motherhood?

M: I am so lucky to have [you]. I'm so grateful that one day when [you were] around 14, 15 years old, normally Ayurveda, all the treatments that we do, is two people at the same time, and I said, "Pam, you must come and help me," and [you were] like "I have no idea what you're doing, I need your help right now." I'm helping, and that's the way that I introduced you to Ayurveda. And for some time you were not even interested, but now it is amazing for me to see how that changed, and now how Ayurveda is pretty much a part of your life, and because you practice all the things that Ayurveda recommends every day. You eat the way Ayurveda recommends. You work here, and I think your work as a therapist has also been an amazing help.

Isabel Tank in Coral Balm

Kayla Shirt in Papaya

P: Another part of the community that I love here is that we all actually like hanging out with each other. We get together and we've had dance parties on the beach, and we share our gifts with each other. Sometimes I'll offer sound baths to the girls who work here, and we also trade massages, and we get the chance to work on each other and offer the services that we offer to the public to each other. That's a really special way to demonstrate our love for each other and grow closer in the way that we share this space. I would recommend that for anyone. If you want to try giving your friends massages, it's a great way to build community and come together.

P: How has our family influenced your work? I know your grandmother is a big part of this.

M: My grandmother is a very big influence for everything that I do. She loved flowers and plants, and she was always making things, and the collagen cream was one of the products that I brought to the community, and all of our family used it. We still use it. We make a drug when I start doing this, and as I'm getting older, I start getting wrinkles, I need something. At the beginning, I make the face oil, but then I get older and older, and then I'm like, "okay, I need a little bit more." So, then I'm like, "okay, it's time to use my grandmother's collagen cream." I made the collagen cream with all the knowledge of Ayurveda and I put it together and everyone loves it and it's just such an amazing cream.

P: How have I shaped your views of motherhood?

M: I am so lucky to have [you]. I'm so grateful that one day when [you were] around 14, 15 years old, normally Ayurveda, all the treatments that we do, is two people at the same time, and I said, "Pam, you must come and help me," and [you were] like "I have no idea what you're doing, I need your help right now." I'm helping, and that's the way that I introduced you to Ayurveda. And for some time you were not even interested, but now it is amazing for me to see how that changed, and now how Ayurveda is pretty much a part of your life, and because you practice all the things that Ayurveda recommends every day. You eat the way Ayurveda recommends. You work here, and I think your work as a therapist has also been an amazing help.

Isabel Tank in Coral Balm

Kayla Shirt in Papaya

(Left to Right)

Follie Top in Cassia, Paloma Utility in Tea Leaf

Isabel Tank in Coral Balm, Kayla in Papaya, Payton in Oysterette

Liu Bodysuit in White, Daphne Stovepipe in Peppercorn

"One of the things that makes SURYA so much like motherhood is when you go into these rooms, most people say 'I feel like new' because they feel like they are reborn when they get there. They feel something nourishing and restorative."

(Left to Right)

Follie Top in Cassia, Paloma Utility in Tea Leaf

Isabel Tank in Coral Balm, Kayla in Papaya, Payton in Oysterette

Liu Bodysuit in White, Daphne Stovepipe in Peppercorn

P: How's being a mother for you?

M: A mother? It's the best thing that happened in my life. I'm grateful to have my two kids. I have Pam and Chris, and being a mother, it's something that I cannot put in words. I think any mom that had a kid, when they are born and they come and you just see I made this person. This came from my tissues, and my husband's, obviously, but…

P: You grew us in your body.

M: Yeah, grew you in my body. Just seeing this being coming out and see like, look, the magic of the light, that it was sent to me and [came] into the womb, and then this being, this beautiful being comes, and it just, what you feel in your heart is…there's no words. And you see them grow and see them succeed and see everything in their lives is really beautiful.

P: What's your favorite way to spend time together?

M: Oh. We go hiking, and then we go and look at the plants…

P: You like talking to plants and touching plants. We do tea ceremonies, too, which is really nice. We haven't done that in a while, but we love that.

P: This one's for me. The most important lesson that I learned from you is to really connect to life through your heart. To trust [your heart] even if the thing that really makes your heart feel alive is different from what's going on around you. Like when you started Ayurveda and nobody knew what the heck you were talking about, and you knew in your heart that this work called to you and even if people thought you were crazy for doing it...

M: Non-value. Yeah.

P: Yeah. Didn't value [it]

M: Everybody used to call me the witch.

P: Which today would be a compliment. But yeah, I think you really taught me to honor my heart and to honor that when my heart feels strongly called to something I can trust that feeling and that I can follow that and know that it will lead me to connection and to fulfillment. I love you.

M: I love you.