Meet Ari Hunniford | Founder, Zen Seeker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ari Hunniford and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ari, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
When starting my own journey into spirituality I was blessed with a group of friends who I could talk to about the emotions, messiness, and awkward moments that inevitably came up. As I shared more openly to others outside my core group about my own journey I heard one thing over and over again, “ME TOO! I just wish I had someone to talk to about this. Nobody gets what I’m going through. I thought I was alone.” It was clear that there are so many people who don’t have a support system around spirituality. Thus Awkwardly Zen was created as a safe space for EVERYONE to awkwardly be themselves while exploring their spiritual paths. What was once a little thought in my head became a quickly growing worldwide community run by me, our lead team of four brilliant women, an ethics committee, and a group of over 50 amazing volunteers.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Awkwardly Zen was created as a safe space for people to be awkwardly themselves while exploring their spiritual paths. We work diligently to hold space for anyone no matter what their beliefs are. Spirituality is such a vast topic and can be very confusing. Having a place to discuss thoughts and experiences with people who won’t judge you or think you are crazy is extremely helpful. We hold 30+ free events online every month to create opportunities for our members to discuss spiritual topics and to learn from trusted practitioners who have been providing spiritual services or teachings for years. People can take what works for them and leave the rest behind. They can create their own belief system in a space where no one will judge them or tell them they are wrong. We also have some paid membership options where people can dig in further with their spiritual learning.

It wasn’t easy to make the decision to start the community. I wasn’t a spiritual expert or guru. I didn’t feel like I was the one to run a spiritual community, but the need was there, and I felt so inspired to create places for all the people I kept meeting who said, “I don’t have anyone to talk to about this.” I knew I had to do something, but I didn’t know where to start. Then I had a reading with Laurie Hewitt. She got a message for me that I was supposed to start a Meetup group. This was during the pandemic, and I had only known the platform of Meetup as an in-person thing. It had changed to online, so that night I started Awkwardly Zen with no idea what I would do with it. Two days later, we had 60 members already signed up, and so I gathered my spiritual friends to talk through the plan. We hosted our first event on July 26th, 2020, and now a little over two years later, we have 16 locations worldwide, more than 8500 members, hosted over 800 free events. and over 50 volunteers that make the whole thing work.

There have been a lot of learning curves along the way. Technology was constantly shifting during the pandemic with Zoom and Meetup trying to cover needs that weren’t there before. We had to figure out how to fund the costs associated with the platforms. We had to deal with major issues like racism, sexism, virtual attacks, and harassment. We had to learn how to adapt to quick growth. Oh, and timezones…man…that continues to get us! Also, we are dealing with a lot of people who are struggling. Trying to make sure we are very careful with people’s mental health and physical health is extremely important. We aren’t doctors or mental health care providers, and we want people to get the help they need both in the metaphysical world and in the day-to-day lives they are living. We work hard to be aware of the responsibility we hold with people coming to our space to try to find their beliefs. We have an ethics committee in place to make sure we are being as ethical as possible and are not problematic. Trying to make sure that we are creating a safe space has been our number one focus and it hasn’t been easy. It’s totally worth it though.

I’d love people to understand that Awkwardly Zen isn’t going to answer all the questions for you on your spiritual path but it will create opportunities for you to work out your own beliefs. It’s a safe space to be awkward or weird. We love hearing about the crazy dream you had or what happened when you connected with your spirit guides the first time. We love promoting practitioners who are good at what they do and can help people with exploring their spiritual paths. We love helping people not feel alone in this big crazy world. We love helping people realize that it doesn’t have to be black and white. There are a lot of vibrant, beautiful colors out there waiting to be discovered. We love holding space for the new spiritual seeker who is completely confused and for the classic hippy who wants to be in a safe space for a bit and share their knowledge. There is no right or wrong here. Just be kind.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We do a lot of in-person gatherings at Junction Food & Drink (https://junctionfoodanddrink.com/) it’s such an easy place to get a bunch of people and everyone can eat and drink what they want! Then for us, we’d be hitting up some of our favorite metaphysical stores. We’d go see the awesome herbalists at Herbs & Arts (https://www.herbsandarts.com/) for some custom teas for anything you can think of. We’d go puruse the awesome book selection at the Shining Lotus (https://www.shininglotus.com/). We’d go see our friends at Discover Your Spiritual Gifts (https://discoveryourspiritualgifts.com/) and pick out a new Tarot or Oracle Deck. We wouldn’t miss a seance with Charles Cox (https://denver-psychic.com/). We’d see if Susanah Magdalena from The Beloved Heart Source had a class or ceremony to attend ( https://thebelovedheartsource.com/) Oh, and of course, we’d book local readings with all of our awesome Denver practitioners like Laurie Hewitt, Paula Robbins, and Kendara Laurel that you can find on ww.awkwardlyzen.com/partners.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d love to give a shout-out to the volunteers that make Awkwardly Zen work. Without the love and passion, all of our moderators, practitioners, and volunteers put out we would not be able to create the community that we do on a daily basis.

Website: www.awkwardlyzen.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awkwardly_zen/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beawkwardlyyou

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AwkwardlyZen