THE ACCRESCENT™ PODCAST EPISODE 143

Leigh Ann: Welcome back to The Accrescent podcast. I’m your host Leigh Ann and today we are welcoming Claudia Gilani to The Accrescent community. She is here to share a little bit about her holistic healing journey, how conventional allopathic medicine really failed her in many, many ways and how that led her to pursuing her own empowerment and education in the realm of holistic alternative wellness.
Leigh Ann: So we talk a lot about her healing journey, and then we also talk a lot about finding your authentic voice and what it’s like to start speaking from that place, how that often comes with a Chiseling away of certain relationships that no longer align the courage it takes to use our authentic voice and speak from that place.
Leigh Ann: We touch in with a lot of different topics, including the importance of addressing the emotional side of healing as well. How critically important emotional wellness is. To overall wellness. This was such a joy to get to sit down and talk with Claudia I know you guys are going to love this conversation So without any further ado, please enjoy Claudia Gilani The Accrescent pause the accressing community so excited.
Leigh Ann: We were talking off air when I came across you and have been for a bit There’s like 10
Leigh Ann: 20 different topics we could go into Oh my gosh, I need to talk to this person about so Who knows where the conversation will actually lead us today, but I’m so happy to have you here.
Claudia Gilani: Thank you so much for having me. It’s funny when I first started my platform, which is healing the source. Um, I, you know, so many people tell you, you need to niche down.
Claudia Gilani: You need to have like one or two things you need to talk about. I’m like, shoot, I’m passionate about so many different things though. How can I just. and put myself in a box. Um, so I didn’t, and thankfully people seem to enjoy, um, all the thoughts that come bubbling out of my head and yeah, it’s, it’s been, it’s been fun.
Claudia Gilani: So I’m open to talking to about, uh, talking about anything and everything. Yeah,
Leigh Ann: I love it. I can’t wait to dive into it, but I’m always so curious about. Kind of what got us there. I think most of us with exception, but most of us didn’t grow up and in following your page and a little bit more of a kind of holistic mind, body, spirit, alternative world approach.
Leigh Ann: Most of us just grew up kind of with traditional Western medicine, traditional approaches to a lot of things. So I’m always really fascinated with kind of the journey to where you’re at today.
Claudia Gilani: Yeah, I mean, I definitely grew up with, you know, going to a traditional Western doctor and, um, thankfully I had a mom, she basically raised me herself, who was very into like, Only buying organic and no processed foods in the home and I was like, This sucks.
Claudia Gilani: Like, growing up, I’m like, I want what my friends are having. They’re having like fruit snacks. Yeah. Gushers. Um, they have, you know, those snacks, the array of like snack chips, the Lays, the Doritos, the Fritos. And I’m like, that’s, that’s a fun house. Like. That’s a house of flavor right there. I want that. Um, so it would always be fun when I would go to my friend’s house and I could sneak and eat those things.
Claudia Gilani: Um, and then I would go home and it’s like, back to all these fresh fruits and vegetables and Oh, how lame. And then I went to, yeah, what a bummer. Um, and so when I got to college That’s when I really rebelled, and I was like, yeah, freedom, I can eat whatever I want, and when I was at UCLA, there was, there’s this little, I don’t know if it’s still there, I’m sure it is, but there’s like a little hilltop shop with just snacks galore, and I would go there once I was done with my classes, and like, I remember like buying Cheetos and just going back to my dorm room and eating them, being like, ha ha ha, like, in my mom’s face, I get to eat this, and of course, it’s Like, all of the, and I’ll talk about this, but like, all of the symptoms that I had, 10 times worse, and I was even more depressed and anxious, and I gained weight, and I was like, Oh, alright, so this is why she kept it out of the home.
Claudia Gilani: Um, and it wasn’t until 2020 that things really Like, clicked in my mind. Um, but like, quickly going back, yes. I, so I am the founder of Healing the Source. I practice alternative medicine. I’m an herbalist, also a podcast host. Um, and for most of my life, I’ve dealt with countless chronic symptoms. I had cystic 13 years.
Claudia Gilani: Not just on my face, but on my neck, chest, shoulders, back, and sometimes my legs. Um, I, it was, I thought I was cursed. I was like, really? I went through puberty, puberty ended, still had the acne, and I was like, Oh my gosh, am I, am I going to live with this for the rest of my life? And I told myself I would never get on birth control or Accutane and after trying so many different things, I was like, okay, I guess I’m going to try Accutane.
Claudia Gilani: Um, and that didn’t even really work and it destroyed my gut and of course messed up my liver even more. Um, so I was like, okay, for sure I’m cursed. Um, but what else did I, I had hair loss, I had Three cavities at every dentist visit I’ve ever gone to. Chronic anxiety, low grade depression, low self esteem, brain fog, pretty extreme chronic fatigue.
Claudia Gilani: Such painful periods to the point where if I was driving and a cramp came over me, I would have to pull over and just curl up in a ball and cry until it passed. I mean, I’ve dealt with so much and, like, intuitively, I, some might be, some people might be like, Oh, this is So stupid, you should have gone to a doctor.
Claudia Gilani: And I did go to doctors when it was, like, extreme cases of whatever I was dealing with, but I just, like, had, like, an allergy for western medicine. I didn’t, I just knew deep down that they weren’t going to give me an answer on how to heal. They were just going to give me another prescription after another prescription, and this prescription made me dizzy, and then another prescription made me Um, you know, bedridden for the rest of the day, and I didn’t want to keep playing that game.
Claudia Gilani: So I kind of just decided in my head, okay, I don’t want to take medications. I think I’m just gonna have to suck it up and this is how I’m gonna live for the rest of my life. Um, so I’m glad I didn’t take as many medications as I, as I was offered. Um, but I wish someone had told me that there was There was a way to heal myself.
Claudia Gilani: I didn’t have to live that way. Um, but, you know, the universe heard me and said in 2020, Okay, hi, there’s, um, you know, start learning about the lymphatic system, because my lymphatic system was not working too well. I didn’t even know what that was. Um, I started diving into herbalism and it just it really felt like these things were finding me.
Claudia Gilani: I didn’t, some people ask like, oh, how did you discover? X, Y, Z, or how did you start crafting formulations of, of these blends of herbs to clear your skin? I’m like, I don’t know. It just, it found me. It was meant to be. Um, but yeah, that’s what I did. I started learning about Kidney filtration, the lymphatic system, what it means to have a sluggish liver, and I realized that, wow, I have so much accumulated waste in my system that because my kidneys aren’t filtering properly, My, quote unquote, third kidney, which is the skin, is expressing these symptoms, is releasing the waste that’s meant to come out, because it’s not coming out the way it should be, so it’s coming out as acne, as, you know, redness, and hives, and things like that, and, um, So, yeah, I got into herbalism, I started a new Instagram account, because I, in 2020, when I started learning about all these Truths about true health I was sharing on my personal Instagram because I was so excited.
Claudia Gilani: I was like more people need to know this Oh my gosh, not like people don’t need to suffer people don’t need to be on these medications for the rest of their life like Here, here I am, telling everybody I have found the answer and, um, super in my ego. And, uh, I had so many people like message me, people from like middle school who I haven’t spoken to in years being like, you know, that’s crazy.
Claudia Gilani: You’re giving so much misinformation, you know, saying things about COVID that I, that not many people, uh, had similar. Thoughts about and I was just getting a whole lot of hate. So I was like as someone who has not spoken up You know most of my life. I was like the perfect little girl in my head I was like, I wanted to be the good girl never cause any problems if there was like any Fights like in my household.
Claudia Gilani: I wanted to be like the quiet good girl to not cause issues And I just went along with what my friends thought were Was like, right in politics, so I thought, okay, being, you know, I’m gonna label myself as Democrat because that means freedoms for all people, and that’s what I believe, and end of story, no more research into that.
Claudia Gilani: Um, and I realized, wow, I I don’t like labels. I, I don’t want to be put into a box again. Oh my gosh. I can’t be put in a box anymore. Claudia cannot be put in a box. There is no restrictions. No labels. Um, and I just started to do research. I started to look at so many different biases and people don’t like to do that.
Claudia Gilani: They don’t like to look at information that Feels threatening to their, uh, their lifestyle that’s something that’s not nuanced something that’s Yes, yes, it’s Because it’s painful sometimes to change to be presented with information that might be going against What you’ve been doing with yourself, with your own kids, with your, with your family, and that can be scary.
Claudia Gilani: That could be a lot. For me, it was certainly a lot when I realized that more than half of the products I was using in my home were toxic. They were full of hormone disruptors and, um, carcinogens. I was like, I’m putting that on my face? Oh, I’m spraying that in the air? Um, it was very overwhelming. And someone can either shut down and pretend like they Never learn this information, but for me, like, once I go down the rabbit hole, once I see something for what it is, once you, like, peek behind the curtains and see Oz.
Claudia Gilani: I remember who he is. It’s like, there’s no going back. I, I now know the truth, how can I keep feeding myself these, these things, these foods that are really not foods, or putting, um, products on myself that are full of things that could potentially harm my fertility. Maybe it’s causing my acne, maybe it’s causing my anxiety.
Claudia Gilani: Um, so, yeah, I went on a tangent, I think. But that’s kind of, that’s kind of how I got here. Yeah, is, um, grateful that I had a pretty healthy, um, childhood. But it took, unfortunately, Uh, a big slap in the face of like, worsened, uh, worsened health to, to wake up and realize what’s going on and, and to make different choices for myself.
Claudia Gilani: And so, yes, when I created that, uh, separate Instagram account, that was because I was like, Okay, I’ve never spoken up before, I just did, and while I got super shut down by people I know, uh, and that did not feel good, It did kind of feel good to speak my mind, though. I, I want to explore that, and I want to keep exploring, you know, what I’m finding out.
Claudia Gilani: So, um, I created Healing the Source, which was never meant to be, I was ne I, like, I never planned to be a creator, influencer, whatever you want to call it. I, I just wanted to track my own healing process. To see, okay, what’s working, what’s not working, because I treated myself like a guinea pig. I was doing everything and anything.
Claudia Gilani: And, um, from there, people started to notice, Okay, wow, this, this girl had pretty bad acne, and now she’s clearing her skin. What is she doing? And then people started asking me, like, what shampoo do you use? And what, what this do you use? What kind of water do you drink? And I’m like, oh, okay, this is something.
Claudia Gilani: This is. This is interesting, and, um, yeah, I started, um, batching and, uh, selling my own herbal formulations, um, which I created just for myself, which I think is so amazing, um, and, yeah, it’s become, it’s, it’s just, it’s become such a big passion of mine, and I never thought it would would blossom into anything.
Claudia Gilani: So, yeah, very special.
Leigh Ann: The Accrescent Podcast is a big part of me being able to connect and hopefully share really impactful, empowering information and conversations with all of you. And yet, the majority of my days are actually spent working one on one with clients. And for any who aren’t familiar, I have a mental health, emotional wellness practice where I combine Evox voice mapping and biofeedback technology with a subconscious approach to emotional healing.
Leigh Ann: So I work with clients in person and remotely using this technology as well as this subconscious approach to emotional wellness. For any who have been long time listeners of the show, I’m sure you have heard me talk about Evox. How Evox therapy changed my life when I first came across it as a patient, but for any who want to learn more I’ll make sure that in the show notes There’s a link to my podcast episode talking about how I was introduced to Evox and how much it changed my life For any, who want to learn a little bit more about it.
Leigh Ann: I feel
Leigh Ann: like just from some of the things you’ve said, you’re, once you’ve got the information and the know how, it’s like, okay, we’re not dilly dallying, like, let’s
Claudia Gilani: I’m a Virgo,
Leigh Ann: so. And, and then like a lot of people maybe in your life or in your sphere on social media, it’s like a little bit of a slower transition process, but you can transition really quickly.
Leigh Ann: Yeah.
Claudia Gilani: And, you know, I tell this to everybody. I really do believe in baby steps. Those are, that’s really important because I wish, I actually do wish I had done things a little differently because when I did find out, okay, everything in my home has all these toxic ingredients, um, I basically overhauled everything.
Claudia Gilani: It was like, throw it all out and replace everything, plus more. All or nothing. Yes. Again, Virgo perfectionists, like, all or nothing right here. Um, and that’s not the best because one, that’s very expensive. Um, I, at the time, I didn’t have the means to really do that, even though I did it, you know, I, it’s not smart, it’s not a smart move, uh, financially, to just throw everything away, um, and, and buy all new things.
Claudia Gilani: Um, and also, it’s like, there’s a lot to learn, there’s a lot to, there’s so many brands that are greenwashing out there, so when you go and buy something, um, maybe you just bought something that, Oh, it has fragrance in it, but it looks, it’s like, it’s a, it’s, the label’s green and it says clean on it, so it must be clean, right?
Claudia Gilani: No, there’s a lot to, there’s a lot to learn. Um, so, baby steps for financial reasons, for your mental health, to not overwhelm yourself. And to give yourself the time to figure it all out, it’s, it’s not the end of the world if you have some toxic products in your home. You know, it’s not, it’s not gonna kill you today, I mean, knock on wood, but, you know, these things accumulate over time.
Claudia Gilani: So just, Take your time. It’s okay. Look for swaps. There’s so many great, um, There’s so many great creators on social media, like one of my friends, Dr. Yvonne Burkhart. She’s a great resource. She has so many, uh, non toxic recommendations. There, there’s like some really solid people who I trust. And, uh, myself, I have a lot of non toxic product recommendations that I put out there.
Claudia Gilani: So, like, take your time. Do your research, don’t sweat and feel guilty that you’re not this crunchy, clean, non toxic, perfect person. By the way, that doesn’t exist,
Leigh Ann: so. Well, yeah, and it’s kind of bringing up something which is, oftentimes, the all or nothing is being driven by, like, a fear based mindset. And so, and I think living in that chronic fear isn’t serving us or healthy or sustainable either.
Leigh Ann: And so being able to, to your point, okay, all of this stuff doesn’t need to get cleared out at once. I can start to make these shifts as it is kind of financially sustainable and also within my capacity, but also not living in this fear that if I, Walk into a store and they’re burning a candle with synthetic fragrances.
Leigh Ann: Like, oh my gosh, I’ve got to rush out and never go back to that store again.
Claudia Gilani: Exactly. Although I, whenever I do go into, uh, like public restrooms and I see a plug in. I am so tempted to throw those things away and just be like, take one for the team. I’m helping humanity, not my place. Totally, totally.
Leigh Ann: I want to touch on something you kind of briefly referenced in the beginning, though, which is sometimes a big barrier to making these changes.
Leigh Ann: And I think it’s something really worth noting is the social acceptance and Whether it’s my friends are going to judge me or have different opinions or sometimes it’s even I’ve got a family, I’ve got a partner and we’ve got kids and we’ve been living this way for X number of years and now to start to change everything can be very disruptive.
Leigh Ann: And I think it’s worth noting and validating, yeah, that’s real. Social acceptance is real and being afraid that I could lose connections. Can certainly be a barrier for a lot of people, I think.
Claudia Gilani: Yeah, I mean, I certainly, I, I will say, I don’t think I’m friend, well, I, okay, I have like three friends left. From my, from pre 2020.
Claudia Gilani: Pre 2020? Yeah. Um, these are people who, you know, if you change your life for the better. Um, and someone’s judging you for that, or if you, you know, anything you do, if someone’s, especially a friend or, you know, family, they’re judging you, that’s, are they the right people for, for your circle, for your environment?
Claudia Gilani: Because you’re, your health also factors in environment, the people you hang out with. Um, yes, it’s a little harder if it’s your immediate family, your partner. Um, so I won’t speak on that, because that’s a whole other, topic to go into. If your friends are judging you or feeling like they can’t hang out with you anymore because maybe you’re not drinking alcohol and they are, or, um, you’re feeding your kids, uh, you know, healthier food while they’re feeding their kids processed foods, it’s, it’s not your responsibility to Make yourself small, or to apologize for your actions, or, you know, it’s, it’s your, your family, your health, your body.
Claudia Gilani: Usually when people react and, and judge, or say, I’ll live a little, and like, urge you to do the same thing that they’re doing, it’s because they feel insecure about what they’re doing. They feel triggered. It’s something, it, it says a lot about them. And really nothing about you. Um, so if it comes to that, it’s, in my belief, it’s best to just distance yourself.
Claudia Gilani: You don’t have to, you know, cut ties with anybody. But if someone is making you feel a certain way, it’s, you know, it’s not worth the time. And, like I said before, I cut ties with most of my friends in 2020, um, because they, we just didn’t see eye to eye and Um, it, none of them were like a, a bad falling out.
Claudia Gilani: It really was just like, slowly the communication were, was getting slower and more distant and until, you know, we just stopped communicating. And I, at first I was very sad. Because I was like, oh I am all alone. I have, I have nobody. I have no friends left. All right. Um, but at the same time I was like, those people were not truly my friends to begin with.
Claudia Gilani: Because if they truly liked me for me, they would have kept being my friend, right? And now, uh, because I have changed my own frequency, because I’ve changed my lifestyle, I have attracted people who are like myself, who are like minded, who, um, either are looking to who Be more clean in their lifestyle or, um, you know, holistic, whatever, or they’re, you know, they’re already doing it and they’re 10 steps ahead of me.
Claudia Gilani: You attract the people, you attract similar energies once you change your energy. And it might take some time. I mean, it took a few years for me to really find a solid group of people, um, but it happens. You’re not gonna be alone in a hole by yourself and your non toxic things forever. There, there’s like, there are people out there just like you, and if you can’t find them in your own immediate area where you live, um, you know, it.
Claudia Gilani: Social media is pretty cool. I have found so many people who don’t live here, where I live in Los Angeles, a lot of them are across the country on the east coast, or like, Florida, and um, I have yet to meet so many of them, but they’re like some of my closest friends that I keep up with and chat with, so you can find your people, it’s, I mean, it’s 2024, you can, you can definitely find your people, some way or another.
Leigh Ann: Yeah, yeah, in terms of connectivity, absolutely, but you make such a good point of, I, in order to find people who are so deeply aligned with me, I need to be putting that out there. Here’s who I am. And if I’m being totally authentic with that, the people who like and are attracted to that vibe will come to you.
Leigh Ann: But if we’re hiding certain parts, this is I feel like something that was a pattern in my life for so long and is something I’m really starting to work on because of my own, like, you know, fears and past trauma related to connection and safety there. But. Really feeling safe to show your full self.
Leigh Ann: You’ll never know if someone really likes, loves, and appreciates you if you’re not your
Claudia Gilani: fullest self. Yes, I love what you just said. That is so true. And, you know, I think about people who Start dating and, you know, they go on the first few dates and they put on this like air about themselves to make themselves likable and, you know, they actually sweet and, you know, maybe the guy doesn’t pay on the first date and they, they don’t really like that, but they go along with it because they don’t want to come off as like, um, annoying or like, you know, we, so many people are acting as not themselves.
Claudia Gilani: They’re, they’re not their true selves, they’re not putting their authentic, real self out there, and that’s just gonna cause more issues. It’s not going to attract the right people to you, not the right partner to you, not the right job. You know, being your authentic self is, you know, probably one of the best things you can do in life.
Claudia Gilani: If you have any desire at all, like, be authentic.
Leigh Ann: Yeah, and there’s so much, there’s so much that goes into why we’re not. It’s so funny, I just put up a post the other day that was talking about how the vibrational frequency of authenticity is four times higher than the vibrational frequency of love.
Leigh Ann: Which is pretty high already. And so it’s like being authentic is such a powerful energetic space to inhabit. And what we either will like attract to us or kind of repel and not attract to us can depend so much on that piece. But you’re making me very, very curious. Cause you kind of talked about like coming into 2020, I started to find my voice and over the last three, four years have started to get even clearer and clearer.
Leigh Ann: On what that is, and I’d love to hear a little bit about your own journey to authenticity, whether it was like, yeah, here’s how I started to use my voice, but also even find it right? Because there’s this piece of how can I show people who I really am if I don’t even know myself. Yeah.
Claudia Gilani: Oh, yeah. Ha ha ha ha.
Claudia Gilani: Loaded question. Um, Yeah, no, that’s, no, it’s really, it’s a great question. Because so, for so long, I didn’t truly know, like, if someone were to ask me before 2020, who are you? Who is Claudia? I would, I, I feel like I would just tell you, like, I go to UCLA, or, oh, I’m an actor, uh, which is what I was doing before.
Claudia Gilani: Um, like, I would just name, I would give you labels about myself. I wouldn’t really know how to respond to that question. And today, I’m like, I know myself so well, like, I have stepped into my body. Which might sound strange, but I felt like I was not really living in this body for so long. I was just kind of up here and going along with whatever was happening and to like finally come into my body and feel grounded and like go, Oh, okay.
Claudia Gilani: This is who I am. Wow. This is. It’s so empowering, so freeing, um, and it took, it took a lot. It is still a process that I’m going through, um, but my gosh, it took finding my voice. That was huge. Finding my voice because I’ve always lived up here in my throat. I’ve never really like gone down to the, you know, sacral root chakra and spoke from down here.
Claudia Gilani: I was like, a chest breather. Everything was like, up here, Aerie! And, because it sounds nice. It sounds like I’m a non threatening, nice person. But when you’re grounded and you’re speaking from, from deeper and, and you know who you are, like, that can intimidate. People who don’t know who they are, um, and like, as someone who didn’t know who I was, if I came across a confident person, I, I felt intimidated because it was like, whoa, that person knows things, they’re really confident, they, they, they know who they are, I don’t, yeah, um.
Claudia Gilani: And I almost felt like I had to apologize for, for my existence, which was so sad. You can see, you walk into a room, you go to a party, you can instantly see the person who’s kind of like, who’s not standing up straight, who’s kind of like looking around by themselves, or like, hidden within a group of people and not really giving anything, um, to the conversation.
Claudia Gilani: They’re just there. They want to disappear. Not taking up space. They don’t know who they are, yet. Hopefully they will.
Leigh Ann: Finding clean skincare products is actually so much harder than it should be. And one of the reasons for this is so many brands are doing what we call greenwashing, which is where they’re throwing labels and marketing on their products that say things like clean skincare, natural skincare, and yet their ingredients are full of so many toxic chemicals, additives, additives.
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Claudia Gilani: But using the voice was huge and Like something I used was mirror work. I don’t know if you are familiar it’s It’s just like a little guidebook. It’s called Mirror Work 21 Days to, like, Heal Your Life or something like that. Uh, it’s by Louise Hay. And Oh, I love Louise Hay, okay. Oh, she’s amazing, yeah. And it’s essentially, um, daily self care exercises by looking yourself in the eyes in the mirror every day and like Doing affirmations, like, doing inner child work, speaking out loud to yourself, which felt so ridiculous and silly and almost like I was lying to myself in the beginning stages of doing this.
Claudia Gilani: But as you keep going and you commit yourself to speaking to yourself and like really taking yourself in, because that’s another thing is most of my life, I could not look in the mirror. I had acne, so, and I was like, oh, if I just not, if I won’t, if I don’t look in the mirror, it doesn’t exist, or like I won’t really know how bad it looks, so I just won’t look in the mirror.
Claudia Gilani: So to finally look at myself in the mirror. Was like, whoa, okay, this is, that’s what I look like. This is me. It was almost like I was, I was like introduced to myself for the first time and, um, it’s So many emotions just fled out of me when I started doing mirror work. Um, I love inner child work. I don’t know if you are into it.
Claudia Gilani: Yeah, I’m sure. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so powerful. Yes. Yes. Oh, I love it. I love it so much. It is so powerful. I think it’s one of the most powerful emotional healing modalities. Any of us can do. Um, that was so powerful. To just go back to your younger self and either, um, forgive, or give love to, or just acknowledge Your own presence, that you exist, that you are worthy, that you are meant to be here in the world.
Claudia Gilani: Maybe you didn’t receive something from your parents that you wish you had. Maybe you were, you know, maybe you had a lot of siblings or your parents fought a lot and you just were not given the attention that you were meant to have and maybe you felt Overwhelmed and, oh, maybe not worthy of love because I didn’t receive it from them, so who, who else would give it to me?
Claudia Gilani: Uh, so many false beliefs that we’ve, we’ve created in our heads, usually due to our childhood, right? Um, and again, these are false beliefs. These are not true. And so many of us are walking around the streets, sitting at home with the same loop of like ten thoughts. It’s in our head every single day, the same thoughts, I’m not worthy, I’m not pretty enough, I’m not smart enough to do x, y, z, it’s not pretty enough, or loving enough to have the partner that I want, or not smart enough to have the job that I want, or position that I want, or, um, You know, whatever it may be, we keep telling ourselves these things, and they’re lies!
Claudia Gilani: And, um, it, it, it took rewiring my brain, rewiring these thoughts. Because that’s definitely something anyone can do, is rewire the thoughts in your head. Um, like, I was very self deprecating. I remember I worked this job, anytime someone asked me, Hey, how’s it going? I’m like, While I’m surviving, or like, still breathing.
Claudia Gilani: I would like, I thought that was funny, but it was like, that’s so sad. Like, what a sad thing to say. Um, and, yeah, usually, they say like, comedians are some of the saddest people. Um, and it’s true, because they’re coping. It’s like a defense, it’s a coping mechanism to, um, make. Fun of yourself, or make fun of the things that are actually so painful to you.
Claudia Gilani: Um, so yeah, rewiring the brain, and I’ve done a lot of work, there’s some, there’s like a program, um, DNRS, I’m not sure if you’ve heard, yeah, it’s like neural retraining. Um, I could send you the links for all these things that I’ve, I’ve, uh, I’ve, I’ve done so you could share with, yeah, so the audience can check them out.
Claudia Gilani: Using my voice was very difficult in the beginning. It would literally shake. My, my hands would get all Like sweaty and I would start crying when I didn’t want to cry, it’s like in this moment I want to sound really strong and like convicted and grounded and yet I had tears streaming down my face when I’m just saying like, oh my coffee order is wrong.
Claudia Gilani: I don’t drink coffee But I’m just using that example and it’s like why is that? Oh, it’s because this is literally a release of energy using my voice Which, if you haven’t for so long, is a release of energy, and with that comes sometimes tears, or, you know, sweating, or maybe, you know, your voice hasn’t been worked for, for however long, it will tremble, and it will sound so shaky, and soft, or weak, and that’s okay, keep going, because it will eventually, it will strengthen, you won’t, Sweat as much, you won’t cry, I promise.
Claudia Gilani: Um, it, it takes practice. It is a skill, and it’s, um, not just a skill, but it is, it can be a huge release to finally start using something, uh, an energy that you’ve never, Let, let into the world before.
Leigh Ann: Yeah, you’re, you’re kind of reminding me, I was talking with a client just the other day about when we’re trying to let go of old patterns and step into new patterns, right?
Leigh Ann: Maybe the old pattern is I don’t use my voice. Of course there’s, in my practice, it’s all about what’s the subconscious blocks. A lot of it goes back to childhood work. What are the subconscious beliefs? What are the repressed emotions? So yes, a lot of it is doing that work. What is preventing me? using my voice, but also a part of being able to step into that new pattern is starting to push our capacity a little bit, like starting to go.
Leigh Ann: Like if you were training for something like each day you go just a little bit further to build that muscle a little bit more. And so there is a part of this that’s like, even before I feel a thousand percent confident in it, Can I start to push that boundary a little bit?
Leigh Ann: I talk about holistic health products, natural products so often, and I know it can be overwhelming when we want to start switching out some of our old products for newer, cleaner, less toxic products. And one of the things I always say is start with the products that you’re using on a daily basis. And for me, One of those products is coffee.
Leigh Ann: One of the reasons, one of the biggest reasons why I switched to Four Sigmatic coffee is because I’m drinking coffee every single day and most coffees, a study was done that I think 80 percent plus of coffees tested positive for mold. We also know Non organic coffees have a lot of pesticides, herbicides, there can be a lot of stuff, heavy metals in Coffee, and so if it’s something I’m drinking every single day, every single day I can either be putting in something that’s much much cleaner or every single day I can be putting in these Amounts of pesticides, heavy metals, maybe even mold.
Leigh Ann: So what I love about Four Sigmatic is they have now launched their whole bean coffee. So they have a number of ground coffee options, but I love grinding my beans fresh every morning. So they have their whole bean coffee, which also has adaptogens like lion’s mane in the whole bean. And then they also have a few other amazing coffee options.
Leigh Ann: One that I’m recently trying out is their Balance Half Calf Coffee, so it’s half the amount of caffeine. This is something I’m trying to reduce my caffeine intake a little bit. But what I love about all of Four Sigmatic products is they are third party tested for pesticides, heavy metals, fungicides.
Leigh Ann: Mold, so many other toxic things. So there’s none of that going on in here. It’s organic, mold free, heavy metal free, toxin free coffee. I absolutely love it. I use it every single day. As I said, there are many other options on their website. And I’ve got a great discount code for you guys. So use the code LAL.
Leigh Ann: Capital L A L at checkout to get a discount on your purchase and click the link below. Yeah.
Claudia Gilani: Yeah. The
Leigh Ann: thing that was surfacing first was not feeling protected and a way that it was like my inner child was saying, I need to feel protected. And the smallest way that I started doing that in the very, very beginning was literally you brought up the food thing. If my order was wrong, Hey. This isn’t right. Do you think you could change it for me?
Leigh Ann: Like, it sounds so minimal that you’re just like, for real. But that was like what I had the capacity for, and that in and of itself was scary. But, it’s impactful because it’s, you’re actually giving yourself the things you need. But also, and I think this is so, so core and something I see so often is, it’s reestablishing the trust and safety with yourself.
Leigh Ann: And that is foundational. Not only do I feel seen and heard and protected by others, but do I see me? Do I hear me? Do I protect me? And that, for me, more than anything, is actually where the starting point would be. And it very much sounds like kind of how your process was to have let me, like, let me get to know this person.
Leigh Ann: Yeah. Again, and then see how can I honor her.
Claudia Gilani: Yes. Oh, absolutely. And it, again, as someone who was like the good girl. Growing up, that sounded very selfish to me, then. That sounded like, oh, why would I do that when I should be helping, you know, my family, I should be helping other people, giving myself to all, you know, my work, everything, even though I was so sick.
Claudia Gilani: I was, like, I needed time to heal myself. I didn’t have the capacity to, to help someone. And, and like, spread myself so thin. I was already spread thin, um, but again, the thought of just taking time to myself and focusing on me and getting to know me felt, like, I felt very guilty, and that’s, that, like, again, goes back into the thought That we have.
Claudia Gilani: Why? Why do I have that belief? Is that true? Is that really true? That it’s guilt, it’s, uh, something I should feel shame around? No,
Leigh Ann: totally. I have a similar thing that I’ve experienced. For me, it was really religious based, growing up in religious context that really were kind of teaching. Be a martyr. The more of a martyr you are, the better of a person you are, the better servant you are.
Leigh Ann: But almost in these extremes of like, the sicker you are, the worse off your life is because you’re giving so much. Like, oh, we love those people, we respect those people. And it’s not to say we can’t be of service, but not at our own expense. Exactly.
Claudia Gilani: Not at your own expense. Because if you keep Pouring from an empty cup?
Claudia Gilani: You can’t help those people, can you? You can’t show up as your best self. You can’t really help someone who is in need when you are so in need yourself. You have no energy, no you don’t have anything to give. You need to fill your own cup in order to then spill it into other people’s cups so that they can become nourished in whatever means that that looks like.
Leigh Ann: Yeah. Oh my gosh, I love this. If anyone in my world knows, we always end up talking about emotional things at some point because that’s just what I do every
Claudia Gilani: day. Love it. Because that’s not talked about enough. It really is not. Everyone’s like, What’s the best diet? What should I avoid in my diet? What products should I be using?
Claudia Gilani: And you know I love all that. I talked about that earlier. But that’s like, so secondary. Actually it’s like, Fifth on the list, everything that comes before that is emotion based stress. I mean, stress is the number one killer next to medical malpractice. Um, but no, truly, in all seriousness, emotional wellness, um, is, is everything.
Claudia Gilani: It’s, um. I don’t know, you can, yeah, you can eat the cleanest diet, whatever that means. And I say, I say that because a clean diet looks different to everyone. People are carnivore, plant based, some people eat gluten, some drink alcohol, some don’t. So when people tell me they eat a clean diet, that really doesn’t tell me anything.
Claudia Gilani: I want details. Yes, totally. But, let’s say it really is the truest definition of clean, right? You can move your body, eat clean, hydrate enough every day, whatever, but if your mind isn’t healthy, that itself can make you sick. I know so many people who have lived very clean lifestyles, but they’ve held on to grudges.
Claudia Gilani: Maybe they’ve gotten a divorce and never got over it, or they hate the way they look. And because of this, they’ve manifested illness in their bodies. And they’ll say, why? I’ve done everything right. I work out most days. I don’t have any toxic products in my home. I’ve done it all. But it all comes back to stress.
Claudia Gilani: Stress is The number one killer. Again, it, it all has to do with the energy you manifest. And when you vibrate at a frequency of strength, love, faith, A frequency of disease cannot penetrate that. Emotional and physical health are not isolated. They influence each other in, in so many different ways. Stress, anxiety, and depression could lead to physical health problems, such as heart disease, immune system suppression, and sleep disturbances.
Claudia Gilani: Um, emotional. States can trigger biological changes in the body. For example, chronic stress can lead to elevated levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that can have so many different negative effects on the physical health. Oh my gosh, yeah, like cardiovascular and immune system issues. So, emotional wellness.
Leigh Ann: I talk so often about, uh, most of us in this world, in this holistic kind of alternative world, or just wellness world in general, even if it’s not holistic, we’re so accustomed to, it’s like a no brainer. I do something every single day for my physical health, whether it’s movement, supplements, diet.
Leigh Ann: wellness services and modalities. And that is so commonplace. Like people like, Oh my gosh, of course I do something every single day for my physical health. And yet we’re not looking at emotional wellness in the same way. And that is so, so big for me. And something I work with clients on, on a regular basis is how can we start to implement and foster.
Leigh Ann: A daily emotional wellness practice that, you know, is fluid and kind of serves you and meets you where you’re at each day. But can we look at the emotional side the same way we look at that physical side? And I see this, I’ve seen it in myself. I think I had a lot of subconscious beliefs contributing to poor health, even though I was quote unquote doing all the right things.
Leigh Ann: I think, actually for me, I had some subconscious beliefs about self sabotage related beliefs. And if I’m in poor health I always have a scapegoat. I never have to fully step up into some of these things. And that was a huge thing. And when I fixed the mental piece, I finally started feeling better, even without changing anything physiologically.
Leigh Ann: So that’s like a personal anecdote. But also, I see this every week. I work with a lot of cancer patients. And I can’t tell you how many patients come in, stage 1 to stage 4, whatever it might be. living the most quote unquote healthy lifestyle. They’re not eating all the toxic things. Their home is so clean.
Leigh Ann: Their products are so clean and yet what you know what they’re coming to me to work through is the unresolved trauma, the unprocessed traumas, the unprocessed guilt and resentment and All these things, and that’s not to say, you know, it starts to get a little sticky, but my point being the point we’re both making of, yeah, the emotional piece is huge, and that dis ease can contribute to real disease.
Claudia Gilani: Absolutely. I, I don’t do one on one consultations at the moment, but, um, I did a year or two ago, and I had this client who was dealing with acne, and she truly was doing it all. I mean, I know People say they do it all and I’m like, well, you’re not But she truly like I was like, okay. Wow. She is Um, she has like marked off every box except for the emotional piece So I was like, okay, if you’re open to it, I think it would be interesting to take a look at doing some inner child work and mirror work, like I mentioned before.
Claudia Gilani: And she was hesitant to do it. ’cause it’s, you know, it’s, it, it’s, it can be be daunting. Yes. Mm-Hmm. . Um, but thankfully she decided. Okay, this is something I, I, I’m doing it all. Nothing’s budging. I don’t want to do Accutane or whatever. So, um, we worked on that and it was crazy. It was so crazy. She cleared her skin up in a matter of, I want to say, like, three weeks.
Claudia Gilani: Um, it was gone. It was, it was just, it was purely emotional for her. So, like, I’m not even sure if Accutane would have worked for her because this was purely emotional. She had such, um, such a low self esteem, low self worth. She, she also could not look at herself in the mirror. She thought was, she was like the ugliest person to walk the planet.
Claudia Gilani: And when she Realized, kind of forced herself to realize that that was not the truth, and she started rewiring her, her thought patterns, it was like, whoa, she’s now radiating, her skin is clear, you could see a glow, like it wasn’t just clear skin, she was glowing, she, like, I would get on Zoom with her, she was sitting up straighter, I’m like, Who is this girl?
Claudia Gilani: She is, she is thriving! Yeah, all from, from that work. It was amazing.
Leigh Ann: Oh, I think that’s like the perfect place to, to close on is just that importance and how quickly the shifts can start to come. Yes. When we get some of these things in balance, particularly that emotional side, it’s like my emotional wellness can either be this like fuel in the tank that’s pushing me forward or it can be this boulder strapped to me that’s like weighing me down and slowing me down so much.
Leigh Ann: Yes. So, yeah, I love those resources you shared. I can’t wait to look into those a little bit, and I’m already like, ooh, the mirror, the
Claudia Gilani: mirror, gotta do that. It’s amazing. Yeah, I’ll, I’ll definitely, I’ll send you, um, I’ll make a little list of, um, things even that I didn’t touch on in this, um, conversation that helped me as, you know, tools in my process, um, you know, books and, um, You know, meditation techniques and things like that, so people can check those out.
Leigh Ann: Yeah, I love it. I think we could go for another few hours, but we’ll rein it in there. Thank you so much for coming on, Claudia. This was so, so fun for me. This was,
Claudia Gilani: oh, it was so lovely. You are a great host and I’m so honored to have been on. So thank you so much.