January 10, 2025 • 30 mins
In this empowering episode, Gia welcomes Christina Woods, an internationally recognized clinical hypnotherapist, empowerment coach, and Reiki master. Together, they dive deep into the transformative power of hypnotherapy and the journey of self-discovery that many high-achieving women face.
Christina shares her inspiring transition from a 30-year corporate career to a fulfilling life dedicated to helping women overcome self-sabotage and embrace their inner strength. With a focus on breaking free from limiting beliefs and the pervasive "not enough" mindset, Christina offers valuable insights on how to cultivate self-worth and authenticity.
Listeners will learn about the science behind hypnosis, the importance of accessing the subconscious mind, and practical tools to shift perspectives and foster personal growth. Christina emphasizes the significance of self-care, grounding techniques, and the power of quiet reflection in a world that often demands constant doing.
Join Gia and Christina as they explore the journey of redefining success from external validation to internal empowerment. This episode is a must-listen for anyone ready to step into their next chapter with confidence and clarity.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Your Future Starts Now, the go-to podcast for
extraordinary women who are ready to step into their next chapter with
authentic confidence. I'm your host, Gia Laqua, empowerment coach,
motivational speaker, children's book author, and girl mom. Whether
you're a corporate powerhouse or an entrepreneur, this show is
designed for you. Your Future Starts Now is more than
(00:20):
just a podcast. It's a movement, a movement towards rewriting
the rules of success for high-achieving women. Are you ready
to get unstuck and step into your next chapter? If
so, you are exactly where you need to be. Your future starts
Welcome to Your Future Starts Now. I'm your host, Gia Lacqua. Thanks for
tuning in. Today, I'm so excited to welcome Christina Woods to
(00:44):
the show. Christina is an internationally recognized clinical
hypnotherapist, rapid transformational therapist, empowerment
coach, and Reiki master. She empowers women to overcome self-sabotage,
break free from limitations, and discover their inner strength to create
fulfilling lives. As the founder of Wise Woods
Hypnotherapy, Christina's signature method combines hypnotherapy,
(01:07):
coaching, and energy healing for profound personal transformation.
Thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Excited to chat with you and learn more about the work that you do. So
tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to where
So I am a clinical hypnotherapist and
(01:30):
an empowerment coach like you. And I do energy healing.
And this is my second career. had a
30 year corporate life prior to this life, that feels like a completely
separate life. But of course, I sort of integrate all those
things together. And what brought me here was
that journey through, I grew up with a
(01:52):
single mom, the oldest of four. So that holds
a lot of responsibility. And I grew up
really with that belief, a lot of
responsibilities tends to Develop a
lot of overachievers you work with high achieving women and
sometimes what creates from that. Childhood
(02:14):
is this belief that if we are perfect and
we overachieve and where the good girl then. life will
turn out great. And it did and got a lot
of praise for that. And I became an overachiever, perfectionist,
worked and climbed my way up and just got to a point in
the corporate world and in my health world and my
(02:35):
marriage fell apart. And a lot of things happened that led
me down a journey of getting to a point in my late
forties, which is very common, where many women will
say, gosh, is this really what I want to do? Is this what
I want? And what do I really want? And from
there, I really dug deep and
(02:56):
thought about what I really wanted. And I really wanted to
learn from the lessons I had in my life and what
did create that I have to be perfect and all that pressure and
all the stress and anxiety that was really people
pleasing the heck out of everybody else except myself. And
(03:16):
that led me down a journey of finding hypnotherapy and some of the methods I use
That's amazing. I love that. So you and I have similar, similar background.
Uh, you know, I was in corporate for nearly 20 years in the healthcare industry
and decided to transition out, um, as well. And
so it's, it, and it's not an easy transition, right? And I know a lot of people think
about doing it, but not a lot of people actually take that leap. So I
(03:40):
do want to jump into hypnotherapy, but before we do tell us just a
little bit about your transition from the corporate world, being
a high powered corporate executive. and then stepping into this
new world of being a hypnotherapist and a coach and
Yeah. So, you know, the transition required that
(04:00):
I dig deep and really find out, you know,
you have to certainly have to have a lot of confidence, you
know, and there's the belief that, gosh, am
I going to be good at anything else? And this is, you know, becomes your identity. And
it It's something you can do with your eyes closed after a
while. I did it for 30 years and, you know, it becomes, well,
(04:20):
this is, this is what I do. This is how, what people know who I
am. And so I did a lot of, had
a lot of compassion for myself and built a lot of compassion
and quiet time to realize a lot of the beliefs that
I had about myself, all the validation that I was getting
was outside circumstantial power, circumstantial, um,
(04:44):
validation and I had to really turn that inward and
start to validate who I was from the inside out. And
from that came this power that, wow, all
the things that made me successful, I can translate that into
so many other things. And, you know,
that's always there if I want to go back. But what happens when you
(05:06):
start to love yourself in that, when you pivot
and you have a change in perspective, then you get to
see things differently. And just that change in
perspective, and I realized a lot of the beliefs that
I had about myself weren't even true. And that's really what stemmed
how I found hypnotherapy and why I felt it was so important to share with
(05:27):
other people, is that there are so many of us walking around
with beliefs that we think are true about ourselves that
aren't even true. And we build these castles
around ourselves or walls, if you will, And
once we realize they're not even true, we can pivot and have such a
different life or a different experience and attach different meanings
(05:49):
Yeah, I love the way you described it. And, you know, I think the way I think about
it is living inside out versus outside, right,
which is a very different perspective on life. And I think you're right, a
lot as high achieving women, we carry these beliefs, thought
patterns, and habits and identities of
who we once were or who we were told we were. right,
(06:12):
or who we're told we're supposed to be. And we carry that
into our adult life. And we never stopped a question. Is that who
I am? Is that who I want to be? And so I think that's
Yeah. You know, even, even self care, you know, I
was, I was raised no fault to my, to my mother, but
(06:33):
you know, a single mother of four, she certainly didn't have
a lot of time for self care that wasn't, that wasn't in the
schedule or the calendar. So, but that was my role model
for self care. And so when I became, you
know, a corporate woman and a mother myself, I
thought that that was what you were supposed to do. You're supposed to.
(06:54):
travel all week, work 60, 70 hours
a week, and also bring orange slices to the soccer game
and act like you're not tired, and write the report Sunday night
for the Monday sales meeting, and make a casserole, and
help your son with his diorama. and,
you know, and, you know, look cute. So, you know, all these
(07:16):
things and then forget, forget self care that wasn't even on my radar.
So, you know, these were the the things that when I
realized, wait, I I get to take a bath and
I get to not feel guilty about it. These
are deep beliefs. I mean, most women I work with say, well, yeah,
I go to the gym. Okay, well, this is different. Quiet time
(07:39):
is different and really believing that it's
not a selfish thing. We all read about it and hear about it,
but do we take action and embody
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I love what you just said, because I think it's so relatable. And
I could hear some of our listeners right now. I'm going to ask the
question that probably some of them are thinking in this moment,
(08:01):
which is, well, isn't that what it's about, Christina? Isn't it
getting the sales report ready on a Sunday night? Isn't it baking the casserole and
making cupcakes for the bake sale and working on the diorama and
showing up to all my meetings? Isn't that what it is? Isn't
Well, I would I would ask, are you present? Are you are you present?
(08:24):
Are you checking the box? And to what
level? You know, when when we take a moment and we
breathe, when I look back at all those things, because I
thought the same thing and no shame in
doing all those things. There's no judgment whatsoever here.
But how present are we in those moments? doing,
(08:47):
doing the diorama, baking the casserole, you
know, are we, you know, food can be such and
making a meal with your family and eating that meal
and not scarfing it down. And what kind of conversation are
we present? Are we really embodying
that moment. Because I don't know about you, I
(09:09):
wasn't. I was just, can we get this homework
assignment done as fast as we can? And if that means
I'm gluing on the little baby trees, because I've got to do a
report, I'm going to glue on the baby trees. I got to go to bed. And you just
do what you have to do. And so you
(09:30):
know, and, and losing, losing perfection because,
you know, there's the judgment that we have. And I know
looking back, I can remember a moment when my son said, mom,
can you just have, I want you to have your Costco hair this
weekend. And I thought, what is he talking about? And
it was, he wanted me to just be Footloose and
(09:52):
fancy free. I guess when I went to Costco, I just threw it
up. And he didn't want me to
look cute and perfect. And he just wanted his mom and
just throw the hair up, not be perfect. We
all have those friends who, their house looks messy and you're thinking, gosh,
I would never have people over when my house looked like this. They
(10:15):
don't care, but they're relaxed. They're enjoying the moment. And
It's so beautiful. You made me laugh when you said that because it's so
true. Like our kids' perception of us, right? They don't care about
perfection. They don't care about what you look like, right? The
fact that he recognized your Costco hair, right? Like the messy mom
(10:35):
bum. That's the version that he wanted. That's incredible. Yes.
I love that. So let's talk about the work you do
and hypnosis. So for those who may not be as familiar,
can you tell us a little bit what is hypnosis? How
Yeah. So there is a beautiful place. Our mind consists
(10:58):
of our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. And I think
we've all seen that picture of an iceberg where there's a little bit sticking
above the water, but the bulk of it is below the water. And
our subconscious mind is what's submersed
below the water. And what's nice about
hypnosis is there's this little place where we can go
(11:21):
very quickly. It's a very natural state. I think we all
have watched the horror Netflix movies about hypnosis or
the silly person at the carnival that makes everybody act like a
chicken and their entertainment purposes. But in
hypnosis, we're able to access the subconscious mind,
which is really our emotional mind. Our thinking is our conscious
(11:43):
mind, which we do need that analytical mind, but
95% of how we think about ourselves, how we view the world,
The filter in which we have all of our emotions, really
95% of everything is our subconscious mind.
So when we want to make an impact, make a change,
(12:03):
stop believing certain things about ourselves or really stop
beating ourselves up. Why do I keep eating that or doing that or saying that
or feeling that? Then we're able to access the subconscious mind
and find out, well, let's get to the root of why you feel
that way or believe that way. or a moment in time
that you attached a meaning or something that happened and we can
(12:24):
make a big change. Our mind learns by repetition and
we're able to give your mind really powerful words.
What's cool about the subconscious mind is that it must accept what
you give it. The opposite of that is it must accept
what you give it. So if we're giving it negative words, negative
thoughts, things that aren't even true, it's going in, everyone,
(12:47):
it's going in. Whether it's right or wrong, good or bad, it's going in like lotion
on dry skin. But when we know what's
going in, we can say, wait a second, that's actually not the truth. Let's
give it the truth over and over in an audio recording
Wow, so powerful. I love how you described it. And
(13:09):
I would love to know, based on the work that you do with women, how
do you support your clients with hypnosis? What are some
The biggest is I'm not enough. I'm not worthy. I can't
stop controlling everything. Please make it stop. It's
(13:30):
exhausting when we live a life where we feel like we need to control
everything. This is coming from a self-proclaimed control freak.
I think being high achieving, we feel like no
one else is going to do it. I have to do it. I
work mostly with high achieving women. Procrastination creeps
in. But that feeling of imposter
(13:53):
syndrome, am I enough? Can
I keep up? And this filters
in and ripples into love or money or relationships,
having deeper connections. But at the end of the day, I
think we connect hypnosis with, okay, I want to lose weight or
stop smoking. But these are really deep issues. We all
(14:16):
want connection and to avoid rejection. the
epidemic out there is feeling worthy or feeling enough. And
when you feel worthy or you feel enough, procrastination starts
to whittle away because you're not afraid of doing
the work or showing up, doing that project, posting that
thing, whatever, showing up for that meeting, doing whatever you
(14:38):
need to do because you know you're enough. So
the way I work with women is to find out what's the root behind it.
Now you can do affirmations, you can do a lot of work, but if we're not getting
to the root, If we're not gardening and pulling out the root,
it's just going to grow back. So in hypnosis, we can
very quickly and rapidly get to the root and then change
(14:59):
it through an audio and coaching and empowerment tools
to really make a big change. I think the words we say to
Yeah, it's so true. And I think that, you know, the words we choose are very important. And
to your point, we don't even realize some of the things that
we're telling ourselves the stories we're telling ourselves, right? And
(15:24):
Absolutely. And You know, I, I find so
often that we're not even feeling our feelings. So, uh,
one of the ways I'll work with women. And is to
have them journal how they're feeling, because, you know, we
don't want to feel some of these icky feelings or, you
know, we're, we're busy, we're successful. That feeling is,
(15:45):
is sort of a nuisance or it gets in the way, or, um, why
would I want to feel something that doesn't feel good? I'd rather feel this positive feeling.
and, you know, and not dwell on that feeling that makes me
not feel good. But actually, when we feel that feeling,
we know it moves through us much, much quicker. You know, we feel
to heal. I think we've all, you know, heard that at one point. So even
(16:08):
the journal prompt, I, Gia, or I, Christina, feel,
and allow ourselves to feel, you know, I have a house
full of journals that would probably make everyone think I'm
a very angry person. But you know, this is how we express ourselves
and to write, you know, I feel because and
get that out. And even to ask, you
(16:30):
know, as we're moving through that, ask that feeling, how old are
you? And you'll really start
to have some moments where you say, wow, that feeling feels like when
I was 12 or when I was 15. And you just start to
see some connections of where things connect and where
Yeah, it's incredible. Very relatable. I mean, I would say a
(16:51):
couple of things. One is, I think as women, we have learned to suppress or
repress our emotions that maybe
are not acceptable or create discomfort, right?
the ugly, quote unquote, ugly emotions. And so we
don't want to bring those up. And then once we, you know, realize that,
well, that the being on the go and the doing and the
(17:13):
going gives us, quote unquote, success, that external success,
the achievement, accomplishment, it's driven by the adrenaline, right,
by the endorphins, the dopamine, right? That's to your point, that's
the feeling we like. And then stepping into that feeling
of discomfort and unknown. is
really, really hard, especially for high achieving women. And the other
(17:34):
thing I would add, which I think you touched upon that's really important, is
even just for some of us being able to identify what
Yes. Yeah, I started
a little book club and we were talking and
just even talking about the feelings, I think someone said, Well,
(17:55):
I feel guilty about that. Wow, where did that come from? Yeah,
he was talking about another feeling, but but then noticing
another feeling popped up. And, you know, getting
curious about your feelings, just saying, Hey, I'm curious about
that. We don't always necessarily, just that
alone will allow you and give you permission to explore your
(18:17):
feelings. And you know, our feelings are
real, but they aren't necessarily the the truth about
the situation. And one thing to understand and why hypnosis
is so powerful, is that the mind will validate
whatever we're feeling, it will look for evidence to back up how we're
feeling. So that is, you know, where that self fulfilling prophecy
(18:39):
will come in, if we believe that I'm not going to
get any support. I need to be the control freak. I
used to make a list of every little thing
my children needed and every little snack they had to have and
tape it all over the door as if my husband couldn't
make a snack or didn't know where soccer practice was. That
(19:01):
wasn't the truth, but I believed it. And then the day
I didn't do it, he would call me 12 times and ask
me, and that was the evidence I needed to say, see, I
needed, I needed to do that because it validated
it. But I had created that scenario and
that evidence. And so, you know, but when you step back
(19:21):
and you realize, wait, I'm worthy of support, you know, and, and
I'm worthy of these things, but this
is the mind giving us evidence of a belief that I'm
not worthy of support. No one is here to support me. And I
created the life, you know, I created this little world where, yep,
you're on your own kiddo. You better, you better do these things. So when
(19:42):
we start to change the meaning, I found a lot of support. I
found a lot of people that will say, I got that. And then you got, you
Yeah, it's a great point that hyper independence, right? As
high achieving women, we believe we have to do it all. We have to do it all on our
own. Can't accept help, can't ask for help, right? Have to
(20:03):
do it with a smile, have to look good while we're doing it. And again, that's
a very difficult cycle to break. What
advice would you give to women who feel like they're trapped in
You know, I would say, push the pause
button for a moment. acknowledge and just
get curious about what you're feeling and know
(20:25):
that we get more of what we feel. And so
if you are feeling lonely or alone or
on your own, you'll get more of that feeling. So
when you pause, so if you feel unsafe
or not approved of or alone, just pause for a
moment. And you can even ask yourself, when is the
(20:47):
last time I felt supported? When is the last time I
felt calm and grounded? Because a lot of
times we don't feel grounded when we're frazzled and we're running and
doing so many things as high achieving and
juggling so many things. When did I, when is the last time
I felt grounded and safe or, you know, centered and
(21:08):
clear? And think of a moment when you felt that.
And it might have been when you were petting your dog or, you
know, speaking with a good girlfriend who said, no
girl, you got that wrong. Or, you know, just really ground a grounding moment,
walking in the park and close your eyes and allow yourself
to feel that moment. You can do this before a meeting. You can
(21:29):
do this in the restroom. You can do this over
coffee. What you're doing is you're bringing your cells, your
body, everything back to a moment when you
felt grounded and clear, and you
allow yourself, your body to feel that. And I promise you in
30 seconds, you will pivot and then reassess the
(21:51):
question, the moment, whatever the thing is that you were thinking about.
and you will look at it differently. You will look at it more clearly. You
will be able to say, okay, wait a second, because you will
get more of what you feel. So if you feel a certain
way going into a meeting, hold on, let me pause. When's the last time,
a moment where I felt really confident or
(22:14):
really sure of what I was saying clear or you
know, not needing to prove myself, I internally validated
and confident without having to, you know,
without anyone in the room needing to approve of me was already internally
validated and centered in my in who I
am in my wholeness, from even a higher power or
(22:36):
outside, you know, something bigger than me. feel that
Yeah, I think that's very powerful. Being introspective, tapping
into the feeling, getting curious, right? And then grounding
and centering yourself in that self-worth.
It's a pivot. It's just a pivot because we get more of what
we feel. And it snowballs in
(22:59):
a good way when we're mindful
Yeah. And so for the women, a lot of women deal with, as
you know, the self doubt, the imposter
syndrome, you know, and the pervasive not
enough mindset, as you touched upon, right, that self worth, the I'm not
enough, You know, in the work I do, I
(23:22):
talk about the never enough mindset or the cycle of like, no matter what I do, no
matter how much I do, no matter how much I achieve, I accomplish, it's never enough.
What is there any other advice, tips, tools you would provide
You know, I would I always get back
to, you know, getting behind
(23:46):
that belief a little bit. And, you know, it doesn't have to
be with necessarily with a coach or
someone that does therapy with you. But getting curious behind
that belief is really important. Otherwise, affirmations
and these types of exercises, they will be
short term. But I really do think very highly
(24:08):
of journaling or getting curious and just saying,
you know, I feel I feel not
enough or just what are the but what are the feelings behind that?
I feel I feel panic. I feel anxious. I
feel no one's no one's seeing me.
Just like when or because and really starting to
(24:30):
peel back the layers of it and identify when
did that feeling start and why and then looking
at that feeling and even how old was I
when I felt that because you will start to, you're
very, we're very intuitive when we allow ourselves
to know, we have intuitive wisdom, and we can
(24:52):
look at something and say, well, that's interesting, just like when I was 14, on
the cheerleading team, and everybody made
me feel like, whoa, I didn't make that, whatever
it was, and I felt that way. Okay, I'm bringing that feeling
back because these beliefs, our subconscious mind, when I
talked about that, doesn't know how old we are.
(25:13):
It stays in a vault. So guess what? We're
high achieving women now. We're in our 40s, 30s, 40s, 50s. A
feeling is a feeling, a belief is a belief. It could have been when you're
5, 10, 12 and you do not have to have necessarily trauma.
We know about big and little trauma. It literally could have been a
(25:34):
comment a teacher made, a friend made, a passing comment.
It literally could have been, you know, mom poured your brother more
cereal than you and the meaning you attached was she loves
him more than you. And from there, get curious,
wow, I did feel like I wasn't the favored one.
What does that mean? And from there, take responsibility, because
(25:57):
whatever you believe, you will seek evidence to prove
and validate it, whatever it is, it's
what we do. So if that truth isn't the truth
about you, then let's pivot that
truth, because you, your essence is your
divine right is to be your authentic self. And that truth, that
(26:21):
Yeah, that's so incredible. It's so incredible.
And so true that we carry that with us, right? We believe the stories
that we've told ourselves. And it's the meaning that we've attached to
those experiences that then become to your point, sort of encoded in
And, you know, it helps when you have someone else guide you
through this, but there are things that we can do and even really
(26:44):
start to peel it back and ask questions and
Sure. So powerful. So Christina, what's one
thing you want our listeners to consider doing differently or changing after listening
Get quiet and listen
to your intuition, you're so intuitive, you're so wise inside. And
(27:05):
so whether that's meditation, prayer, listening to
music, going on a walk, but I think
as high achieving women, we feel like, okay,
on a walk, I have to listen to a podcast, I have to do
something. Right? Yeah, exactly. It
has to be a productive time. As I cook dinner, I have to be listening to the
(27:26):
book. And Quiet time will
make your life so expansive. It will open
up so much more in your life. Your energy will expand. So
my belief is that we are physical, spiritual, energetic
beings as well. And so it just allows your energy
(27:46):
and your space to expand, your mind to be more clear, the
Such great advice. And this can be really hard for some of us, but I think starting
small, right? Start with three minutes. For
sure. For sure. Christina, we talk a lot about
success and redefining success on this podcast. How do you define success
(28:11):
It's evolved for me. Success is personal
power and not circumstantial power. That's
how it's evolved. And it used to be measured outside
of me, and now it's measured inside of me. So through
personal power is the compassion I have
(28:33):
I love that. Yeah, beautiful. And
So on LinkedIn, and also Instagram, Christina.LWoods, and
Amazing. Christina, thank you so much for being here, for sharing your story, your
insights, and your expertise. It's really been a pleasure. Thank you
(28:55):
so much, Gia. It was a pleasure. Of course, you can visit my website at
gialacqua.com. Reach out on Instagram at Gialacqua. Don't forget
to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. This is Gia signing off with
gratitude for your time and energy. Our mic drops, but the movement continues.
That concludes another empowering episode of Your Future Starts Now.
(29:16):
Before we wrap up, I want to thank this incredible community of high-achieving women.
Your energy, resilience, and commitment to growth are the driving force
behind what we do. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate
it, leave a review, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Your
feedback fuels our mission to empower high-achieving women just like
you. And of course, share Your Future Starts Now with the extraordinary women
(29:38):
in your life who are also on a journey of healing and empowerment. Connect
with us on social media, share your thoughts, let us know what topics you'd like to
explore in future episodes. Stay connected on Instagram at
GiaLacqua. I encourage you to carry the energy of this conversation
into your day and keep on supporting the incredible women around you.
Welcome to Your Future Starts Now, the go-to podcast for
extraordinary women who are ready to step into their next chapter with
authentic confidence. I'm your host, Gia Laqua, empowerment coach,
motivational speaker, children's book author, and girl mom. Whether
you're a corporate powerhouse or an entrepreneur, this show is
designed for you. Your Future Starts Now is more than
(00:20):
just a podcast. It's a movement, a movement towards rewriting
the rules of success for high-achieving women. Are you ready
to get unstuck and step into your next chapter? If
so, you are exactly where you need to be. Your future starts
Welcome to Your Future Starts Now. I'm your host, Gia Lacqua. Thanks for
tuning in. Today, I'm so excited to welcome Christina Woods to
(00:44):
the show. Christina is an internationally recognized clinical
hypnotherapist, rapid transformational therapist, empowerment
coach, and Reiki master. She empowers women to overcome self-sabotage,
break free from limitations, and discover their inner strength to create
fulfilling lives. As the founder of Wise Woods
Hypnotherapy, Christina's signature method combines hypnotherapy,
(01:07):
coaching, and energy healing for profound personal transformation.
Thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Excited to chat with you and learn more about the work that you do. So
tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to where
So I am a clinical hypnotherapist and
(01:30):
an empowerment coach like you. And I do energy healing.
And this is my second career. had a
30 year corporate life prior to this life, that feels like a completely
separate life. But of course, I sort of integrate all those
things together. And what brought me here was
that journey through, I grew up with a
(01:52):
single mom, the oldest of four. So that holds
a lot of responsibility. And I grew up
really with that belief, a lot of
responsibilities tends to Develop a
lot of overachievers you work with high achieving women and
sometimes what creates from that. Childhood
(02:14):
is this belief that if we are perfect and
we overachieve and where the good girl then. life will
turn out great. And it did and got a lot
of praise for that. And I became an overachiever, perfectionist,
worked and climbed my way up and just got to a point in
the corporate world and in my health world and my
(02:35):
marriage fell apart. And a lot of things happened that led
me down a journey of getting to a point in my late
forties, which is very common, where many women will
say, gosh, is this really what I want to do? Is this what
I want? And what do I really want? And from
there, I really dug deep and
(02:56):
thought about what I really wanted. And I really wanted to
learn from the lessons I had in my life and what
did create that I have to be perfect and all that pressure and
all the stress and anxiety that was really people
pleasing the heck out of everybody else except myself. And
(03:16):
that led me down a journey of finding hypnotherapy and some of the methods I use
That's amazing. I love that. So you and I have similar, similar background.
Uh, you know, I was in corporate for nearly 20 years in the healthcare industry
and decided to transition out, um, as well. And
so it's, it, and it's not an easy transition, right? And I know a lot of people think
about doing it, but not a lot of people actually take that leap. So I
(03:40):
do want to jump into hypnotherapy, but before we do tell us just a
little bit about your transition from the corporate world, being
a high powered corporate executive. and then stepping into this
new world of being a hypnotherapist and a coach and
Yeah. So, you know, the transition required that
(04:00):
I dig deep and really find out, you know,
you have to certainly have to have a lot of confidence, you
know, and there's the belief that, gosh, am
I going to be good at anything else? And this is, you know, becomes your identity. And
it It's something you can do with your eyes closed after a
while. I did it for 30 years and, you know, it becomes, well,
(04:20):
this is, this is what I do. This is how, what people know who I
am. And so I did a lot of, had
a lot of compassion for myself and built a lot of compassion
and quiet time to realize a lot of the beliefs that
I had about myself, all the validation that I was getting
was outside circumstantial power, circumstantial, um,
(04:44):
validation and I had to really turn that inward and
start to validate who I was from the inside out. And
from that came this power that, wow, all
the things that made me successful, I can translate that into
so many other things. And, you know,
that's always there if I want to go back. But what happens when you
(05:06):
start to love yourself in that, when you pivot
and you have a change in perspective, then you get to
see things differently. And just that change in
perspective, and I realized a lot of the beliefs that
I had about myself weren't even true. And that's really what stemmed
how I found hypnotherapy and why I felt it was so important to share with
(05:27):
other people, is that there are so many of us walking around
with beliefs that we think are true about ourselves that
aren't even true. And we build these castles
around ourselves or walls, if you will, And
once we realize they're not even true, we can pivot and have such a
different life or a different experience and attach different meanings
(05:49):
Yeah, I love the way you described it. And, you know, I think the way I think about
it is living inside out versus outside, right,
which is a very different perspective on life. And I think you're right, a
lot as high achieving women, we carry these beliefs, thought
patterns, and habits and identities of
who we once were or who we were told we were. right,
(06:12):
or who we're told we're supposed to be. And we carry that
into our adult life. And we never stopped a question. Is that who
I am? Is that who I want to be? And so I think that's
Yeah. You know, even, even self care, you know, I
was, I was raised no fault to my, to my mother, but
(06:33):
you know, a single mother of four, she certainly didn't have
a lot of time for self care that wasn't, that wasn't in the
schedule or the calendar. So, but that was my role model
for self care. And so when I became, you
know, a corporate woman and a mother myself, I
thought that that was what you were supposed to do. You're supposed to.
(06:54):
travel all week, work 60, 70 hours
a week, and also bring orange slices to the soccer game
and act like you're not tired, and write the report Sunday night
for the Monday sales meeting, and make a casserole, and
help your son with his diorama. and,
you know, and, you know, look cute. So, you know, all these
(07:16):
things and then forget, forget self care that wasn't even on my radar.
So, you know, these were the the things that when I
realized, wait, I I get to take a bath and
I get to not feel guilty about it. These
are deep beliefs. I mean, most women I work with say, well, yeah,
I go to the gym. Okay, well, this is different. Quiet time
(07:39):
is different and really believing that it's
not a selfish thing. We all read about it and hear about it,
but do we take action and embody
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I love what you just said, because I think it's so relatable. And
I could hear some of our listeners right now. I'm going to ask the
question that probably some of them are thinking in this moment,
(08:01):
which is, well, isn't that what it's about, Christina? Isn't it
getting the sales report ready on a Sunday night? Isn't it baking the casserole and
making cupcakes for the bake sale and working on the diorama and
showing up to all my meetings? Isn't that what it is? Isn't
Well, I would I would ask, are you present? Are you are you present?
(08:24):
Are you checking the box? And to what
level? You know, when when we take a moment and we
breathe, when I look back at all those things, because I
thought the same thing and no shame in
doing all those things. There's no judgment whatsoever here.
But how present are we in those moments? doing,
(08:47):
doing the diorama, baking the casserole, you
know, are we, you know, food can be such and
making a meal with your family and eating that meal
and not scarfing it down. And what kind of conversation are
we present? Are we really embodying
that moment. Because I don't know about you, I
(09:09):
wasn't. I was just, can we get this homework
assignment done as fast as we can? And if that means
I'm gluing on the little baby trees, because I've got to do a
report, I'm going to glue on the baby trees. I got to go to bed. And you just
do what you have to do. And so you
(09:30):
know, and, and losing, losing perfection because,
you know, there's the judgment that we have. And I know
looking back, I can remember a moment when my son said, mom,
can you just have, I want you to have your Costco hair this
weekend. And I thought, what is he talking about? And
it was, he wanted me to just be Footloose and
(09:52):
fancy free. I guess when I went to Costco, I just threw it
up. And he didn't want me to
look cute and perfect. And he just wanted his mom and
just throw the hair up, not be perfect. We
all have those friends who, their house looks messy and you're thinking, gosh,
I would never have people over when my house looked like this. They
(10:15):
don't care, but they're relaxed. They're enjoying the moment. And
It's so beautiful. You made me laugh when you said that because it's so
true. Like our kids' perception of us, right? They don't care about
perfection. They don't care about what you look like, right? The
fact that he recognized your Costco hair, right? Like the messy mom
(10:35):
bum. That's the version that he wanted. That's incredible. Yes.
I love that. So let's talk about the work you do
and hypnosis. So for those who may not be as familiar,
can you tell us a little bit what is hypnosis? How
Yeah. So there is a beautiful place. Our mind consists
(10:58):
of our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. And I think
we've all seen that picture of an iceberg where there's a little bit sticking
above the water, but the bulk of it is below the water. And
our subconscious mind is what's submersed
below the water. And what's nice about
hypnosis is there's this little place where we can go
(11:21):
very quickly. It's a very natural state. I think we all
have watched the horror Netflix movies about hypnosis or
the silly person at the carnival that makes everybody act like a
chicken and their entertainment purposes. But in
hypnosis, we're able to access the subconscious mind,
which is really our emotional mind. Our thinking is our conscious
(11:43):
mind, which we do need that analytical mind, but
95% of how we think about ourselves, how we view the world,
The filter in which we have all of our emotions, really
95% of everything is our subconscious mind.
So when we want to make an impact, make a change,
(12:03):
stop believing certain things about ourselves or really stop
beating ourselves up. Why do I keep eating that or doing that or saying that
or feeling that? Then we're able to access the subconscious mind
and find out, well, let's get to the root of why you feel
that way or believe that way. or a moment in time
that you attached a meaning or something that happened and we can
(12:24):
make a big change. Our mind learns by repetition and
we're able to give your mind really powerful words.
What's cool about the subconscious mind is that it must accept what
you give it. The opposite of that is it must accept
what you give it. So if we're giving it negative words, negative
thoughts, things that aren't even true, it's going in, everyone,
(12:47):
it's going in. Whether it's right or wrong, good or bad, it's going in like lotion
on dry skin. But when we know what's
going in, we can say, wait a second, that's actually not the truth. Let's
give it the truth over and over in an audio recording
Wow, so powerful. I love how you described it. And
(13:09):
I would love to know, based on the work that you do with women, how
do you support your clients with hypnosis? What are some
The biggest is I'm not enough. I'm not worthy. I can't
stop controlling everything. Please make it stop. It's
(13:30):
exhausting when we live a life where we feel like we need to control
everything. This is coming from a self-proclaimed control freak.
I think being high achieving, we feel like no
one else is going to do it. I have to do it. I
work mostly with high achieving women. Procrastination creeps
in. But that feeling of imposter
(13:53):
syndrome, am I enough? Can
I keep up? And this filters
in and ripples into love or money or relationships,
having deeper connections. But at the end of the day, I
think we connect hypnosis with, okay, I want to lose weight or
stop smoking. But these are really deep issues. We all
(14:16):
want connection and to avoid rejection. the
epidemic out there is feeling worthy or feeling enough. And
when you feel worthy or you feel enough, procrastination starts
to whittle away because you're not afraid of doing
the work or showing up, doing that project, posting that
thing, whatever, showing up for that meeting, doing whatever you
(14:38):
need to do because you know you're enough. So
the way I work with women is to find out what's the root behind it.
Now you can do affirmations, you can do a lot of work, but if we're not getting
to the root, If we're not gardening and pulling out the root,
it's just going to grow back. So in hypnosis, we can
very quickly and rapidly get to the root and then change
(14:59):
it through an audio and coaching and empowerment tools
to really make a big change. I think the words we say to
Yeah, it's so true. And I think that, you know, the words we choose are very important. And
to your point, we don't even realize some of the things that
we're telling ourselves the stories we're telling ourselves, right? And
(15:24):
Absolutely. And You know, I, I find so
often that we're not even feeling our feelings. So, uh,
one of the ways I'll work with women. And is to
have them journal how they're feeling, because, you know, we
don't want to feel some of these icky feelings or, you
know, we're, we're busy, we're successful. That feeling is,
(15:45):
is sort of a nuisance or it gets in the way, or, um, why
would I want to feel something that doesn't feel good? I'd rather feel this positive feeling.
and, you know, and not dwell on that feeling that makes me
not feel good. But actually, when we feel that feeling,
we know it moves through us much, much quicker. You know, we feel
to heal. I think we've all, you know, heard that at one point. So even
(16:08):
the journal prompt, I, Gia, or I, Christina, feel,
and allow ourselves to feel, you know, I have a house
full of journals that would probably make everyone think I'm
a very angry person. But you know, this is how we express ourselves
and to write, you know, I feel because and
get that out. And even to ask, you
(16:30):
know, as we're moving through that, ask that feeling, how old are
you? And you'll really start
to have some moments where you say, wow, that feeling feels like when
I was 12 or when I was 15. And you just start to
see some connections of where things connect and where
Yeah, it's incredible. Very relatable. I mean, I would say a
(16:51):
couple of things. One is, I think as women, we have learned to suppress or
repress our emotions that maybe
are not acceptable or create discomfort, right?
the ugly, quote unquote, ugly emotions. And so we
don't want to bring those up. And then once we, you know, realize that,
well, that the being on the go and the doing and the
(17:13):
going gives us, quote unquote, success, that external success,
the achievement, accomplishment, it's driven by the adrenaline, right,
by the endorphins, the dopamine, right? That's to your point, that's
the feeling we like. And then stepping into that feeling
of discomfort and unknown. is
really, really hard, especially for high achieving women. And the other
(17:34):
thing I would add, which I think you touched upon that's really important, is
even just for some of us being able to identify what
Yes. Yeah, I started
a little book club and we were talking and
just even talking about the feelings, I think someone said, Well,
(17:55):
I feel guilty about that. Wow, where did that come from? Yeah,
he was talking about another feeling, but but then noticing
another feeling popped up. And, you know, getting
curious about your feelings, just saying, Hey, I'm curious about
that. We don't always necessarily, just that
alone will allow you and give you permission to explore your
(18:17):
feelings. And you know, our feelings are
real, but they aren't necessarily the the truth about
the situation. And one thing to understand and why hypnosis
is so powerful, is that the mind will validate
whatever we're feeling, it will look for evidence to back up how we're
feeling. So that is, you know, where that self fulfilling prophecy
(18:39):
will come in, if we believe that I'm not going to
get any support. I need to be the control freak. I
used to make a list of every little thing
my children needed and every little snack they had to have and
tape it all over the door as if my husband couldn't
make a snack or didn't know where soccer practice was. That
(19:01):
wasn't the truth, but I believed it. And then the day
I didn't do it, he would call me 12 times and ask
me, and that was the evidence I needed to say, see, I
needed, I needed to do that because it validated
it. But I had created that scenario and
that evidence. And so, you know, but when you step back
(19:21):
and you realize, wait, I'm worthy of support, you know, and, and
I'm worthy of these things, but this
is the mind giving us evidence of a belief that I'm
not worthy of support. No one is here to support me. And I
created the life, you know, I created this little world where, yep,
you're on your own kiddo. You better, you better do these things. So when
(19:42):
we start to change the meaning, I found a lot of support. I
found a lot of people that will say, I got that. And then you got, you
Yeah, it's a great point that hyper independence, right? As
high achieving women, we believe we have to do it all. We have to do it all on our
own. Can't accept help, can't ask for help, right? Have to
(20:03):
do it with a smile, have to look good while we're doing it. And again, that's
a very difficult cycle to break. What
advice would you give to women who feel like they're trapped in
You know, I would say, push the pause
button for a moment. acknowledge and just
get curious about what you're feeling and know
(20:25):
that we get more of what we feel. And so
if you are feeling lonely or alone or
on your own, you'll get more of that feeling. So
when you pause, so if you feel unsafe
or not approved of or alone, just pause for a
moment. And you can even ask yourself, when is the
(20:47):
last time I felt supported? When is the last time I
felt calm and grounded? Because a lot of
times we don't feel grounded when we're frazzled and we're running and
doing so many things as high achieving and
juggling so many things. When did I, when is the last time
I felt grounded and safe or, you know, centered and
(21:08):
clear? And think of a moment when you felt that.
And it might have been when you were petting your dog or, you
know, speaking with a good girlfriend who said, no
girl, you got that wrong. Or, you know, just really ground a grounding moment,
walking in the park and close your eyes and allow yourself
to feel that moment. You can do this before a meeting. You can
(21:29):
do this in the restroom. You can do this over
coffee. What you're doing is you're bringing your cells, your
body, everything back to a moment when you
felt grounded and clear, and you
allow yourself, your body to feel that. And I promise you in
30 seconds, you will pivot and then reassess the
(21:51):
question, the moment, whatever the thing is that you were thinking about.
and you will look at it differently. You will look at it more clearly. You
will be able to say, okay, wait a second, because you will
get more of what you feel. So if you feel a certain
way going into a meeting, hold on, let me pause. When's the last time,
a moment where I felt really confident or
(22:14):
really sure of what I was saying clear or you
know, not needing to prove myself, I internally validated
and confident without having to, you know,
without anyone in the room needing to approve of me was already internally
validated and centered in my in who I
am in my wholeness, from even a higher power or
(22:36):
outside, you know, something bigger than me. feel that
Yeah, I think that's very powerful. Being introspective, tapping
into the feeling, getting curious, right? And then grounding
and centering yourself in that self-worth.
It's a pivot. It's just a pivot because we get more of what
we feel. And it snowballs in
(22:59):
a good way when we're mindful
Yeah. And so for the women, a lot of women deal with, as
you know, the self doubt, the imposter
syndrome, you know, and the pervasive not
enough mindset, as you touched upon, right, that self worth, the I'm not
enough, You know, in the work I do, I
(23:22):
talk about the never enough mindset or the cycle of like, no matter what I do, no
matter how much I do, no matter how much I achieve, I accomplish, it's never enough.
What is there any other advice, tips, tools you would provide
You know, I would I always get back
to, you know, getting behind
(23:46):
that belief a little bit. And, you know, it doesn't have to
be with necessarily with a coach or
someone that does therapy with you. But getting curious behind
that belief is really important. Otherwise, affirmations
and these types of exercises, they will be
short term. But I really do think very highly
(24:08):
of journaling or getting curious and just saying,
you know, I feel I feel not
enough or just what are the but what are the feelings behind that?
I feel I feel panic. I feel anxious. I
feel no one's no one's seeing me.
Just like when or because and really starting to
(24:30):
peel back the layers of it and identify when
did that feeling start and why and then looking
at that feeling and even how old was I
when I felt that because you will start to, you're
very, we're very intuitive when we allow ourselves
to know, we have intuitive wisdom, and we can
(24:52):
look at something and say, well, that's interesting, just like when I was 14, on
the cheerleading team, and everybody made
me feel like, whoa, I didn't make that, whatever
it was, and I felt that way. Okay, I'm bringing that feeling
back because these beliefs, our subconscious mind, when I
talked about that, doesn't know how old we are.
(25:13):
It stays in a vault. So guess what? We're
high achieving women now. We're in our 40s, 30s, 40s, 50s. A
feeling is a feeling, a belief is a belief. It could have been when you're
5, 10, 12 and you do not have to have necessarily trauma.
We know about big and little trauma. It literally could have been a
(25:34):
comment a teacher made, a friend made, a passing comment.
It literally could have been, you know, mom poured your brother more
cereal than you and the meaning you attached was she loves
him more than you. And from there, get curious,
wow, I did feel like I wasn't the favored one.
What does that mean? And from there, take responsibility, because
(25:57):
whatever you believe, you will seek evidence to prove
and validate it, whatever it is, it's
what we do. So if that truth isn't the truth
about you, then let's pivot that
truth, because you, your essence is your
divine right is to be your authentic self. And that truth, that
(26:21):
Yeah, that's so incredible. It's so incredible.
And so true that we carry that with us, right? We believe the stories
that we've told ourselves. And it's the meaning that we've attached to
those experiences that then become to your point, sort of encoded in
And, you know, it helps when you have someone else guide you
through this, but there are things that we can do and even really
(26:44):
start to peel it back and ask questions and
Sure. So powerful. So Christina, what's one
thing you want our listeners to consider doing differently or changing after listening
Get quiet and listen
to your intuition, you're so intuitive, you're so wise inside. And
(27:05):
so whether that's meditation, prayer, listening to
music, going on a walk, but I think
as high achieving women, we feel like, okay,
on a walk, I have to listen to a podcast, I have to do
something. Right? Yeah, exactly. It
has to be a productive time. As I cook dinner, I have to be listening to the
(27:26):
book. And Quiet time will
make your life so expansive. It will open
up so much more in your life. Your energy will expand. So
my belief is that we are physical, spiritual, energetic
beings as well. And so it just allows your energy
(27:46):
and your space to expand, your mind to be more clear, the
Such great advice. And this can be really hard for some of us, but I think starting
small, right? Start with three minutes. For
sure. For sure. Christina, we talk a lot about
success and redefining success on this podcast. How do you define success
(28:11):
It's evolved for me. Success is personal
power and not circumstantial power. That's
how it's evolved. And it used to be measured outside
of me, and now it's measured inside of me. So through
personal power is the compassion I have
(28:33):
I love that. Yeah, beautiful. And
So on LinkedIn, and also Instagram, Christina.LWoods, and
Amazing. Christina, thank you so much for being here, for sharing your story, your
insights, and your expertise. It's really been a pleasure. Thank you
(28:55):
so much, Gia. It was a pleasure. Of course, you can visit my website at
gialacqua.com. Reach out on Instagram at Gialacqua. Don't forget
to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. This is Gia signing off with
gratitude for your time and energy. Our mic drops, but the movement continues.
That concludes another empowering episode of Your Future Starts Now.
(29:16):
Before we wrap up, I want to thank this incredible community of high-achieving women.
Your energy, resilience, and commitment to growth are the driving force
behind what we do. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate
it, leave a review, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Your
feedback fuels our mission to empower high-achieving women just like
you. And of course, share Your Future Starts Now with the extraordinary women
(29:38):
in your life who are also on a journey of healing and empowerment. Connect
with us on social media, share your thoughts, let us know what topics you'd like to
explore in future episodes. Stay connected on Instagram at
GiaLacqua. I encourage you to carry the energy of this conversation
into your day and keep on supporting the incredible women around you.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com