#125 My lovely guest this week is Alja Hopkins, a Clinical Social Worker/Health Professional; an Evidence-Based EFT & Optimal EFT Practitioner and HeartMath Mentor/Coach.
I met Alja at a Dr Joe Dispenza retreat a few years ago. We stayed connected and she later came to our Live In Flow Retreats (twice!). She not only shares her own breakthroughs from our retreats, she also shares her incredible practitioner knowledge and the fears she has overcome over the years to step into her future now.
Topics Discussed:
– trauma relief and resiliency building work
– how she healed the trauma of her dad passing suddenly
– how eft has helped her
– why heartmath is a great technique and starting point
– what to do when you feel stuck
Enjoy!!
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About Alja: Alja Hopkins is a Clinical Social Worker/Health Professional; Evidence-Based EFT & Optimal EFT Practitioner and HeartMath Mentor/Coach. Alja is also passionate about energy psychology/medicine, neuroscience, meditation, and supporting others on their journey towards their desired future.
►Audio Version:
Learn more Alja Hopkins:
www.coherencepersonalcounselling.com
TRANSCRIPT
Guy: Hi, my name is Guy Lawrence. And thanks for tuning into my podcast today. If you’re enjoying these conversations and you want to check out more of this transformational work, be sure to come back to guylawrence.com.au and join me as we go further down the rabbit hole. Enjoy the show.
Guy: Alja welcome to the podcast.
Alja: Hi, thanks for having me Guy. Thank you.
Guy: Oh, you’re very welcome. Now obviously I’ve gotten to know you over the last couple of years and um, you know, we, we met at a Joe Dispenza event a couple of years ago and then you jumped on board with some of the work I was doing and as I’ve gotten to know you, it’s been amazing to see your personal journey and actually find out about the amazing things that you do as well with your work. So I’m so glad to invite you on today. And well I just wanted to ask you, like I ask everyone is that if you’re at a party and a stranger walked up to you and asked you what you did for a living, what would you say?
Alja: Okay. That’s a good one. Um, I think I would first say, that I’m a mom, that I, I enjoy being mum. But then the second thing I would say that I have gotten to start living my dream and helping people to heal and create the lasting changes that they once, um, I guess hoped for and stepping on this journey and just supporting them with certain techniques and um, methods. Yeah, I’m a therapist.
Guy: Beautiful. Absolutely. It’s fascinating cause I’ve looked, you know, you sent me some sort of the things that you do say, you know, about being a clinical social worker, evidence-based eft, an optimally eft practitioner, which we can touch on as well. Hamas coach as well, mentoring and coaching, all these modalities. An amazing like I love that. That’s why I talk about it all the time and how effective they are. But they can always feel a bit fringe sometimes from people on the outside looking in until we start. So what I’m fascinated is what drew you to those modalities in the first place? Why do you get so passionate about this stuff?
Alja: So when I was younger, um, I had lots of come from a scientific background and then because of my own personal journey, my mom became quite unwell. Um, when I was about 17 I started feeling that real need to, um, maybe initially help her, but then I ended up studying going from the science field and learning to social work and psychology field, and work, you know, graduated, um, and supported many people through my work in, um, health profession. Um, however, there was always that touch of not fooling, nailing to supporting someone. And I was always fascinated by, um, quantum physics by quantum healing that I heard when I was really young about. Yeah. So as I traveled to my journey and I had my own personal experience, one of the family members, um, introduced me to emotional freedom techniques and it really worked on my emotions.
Alja: At the time. Um, I suffered in my mind, my father who I was really close to, died suddenly. And, um, I started working. I had younger young children move to the other side of the world from Slovenia to Australia. Uh, and um, yeah, that work like magic just in about five minutes. So I always had at the back of my mind when I was working in frontline hospital physicians, so in emergency your own, um, dealing with trauma, um, you know, sudden sudden events, I always had at the back of my mind. There’s more to it. And that’s what really then got to me. I’m on a journey of wanting to bring that to other people as well. And I was very fortunate to be surrounded by a couple of colleagues who had a very similar, um, experience. So we found a way with one of my colleagues name, his name is Jules and she found Dr Peter Stapleton and she does evidence-based EFT, which means that we could start using it in a mainstream, mainstream health. Um, and yeah, I just jumped on board with that.
Guy: Maybe we should explain what evidence-based EFT is.
Alja: Yeah. So emotional freedom technique has been around since 1995 was founded by Gary Craig. It’s a big, they call it sometimes emotional lack of psychological acupuncture. So use the acupoints as you also use cognitive statement. So you say, even though I feel angry, um, I love and accept myself anyway. So you, you say what’s the true for you in a negative way. And then you put the balancing statement how you would like to feel and then you tap in a sequence that’s quite prescribed and you tap on acupuncture points, which then impact your, um, you know, your nervous system, your chemicals, the way they travel through your body. It’s quite fascinating. So Gary Craig is a Stanford engineer and he has put this together. So, um, and worked, you know I think I saw you interview, Dawson church, you know, EFT. So I kind of just jumped into learning about it, reading older books and started training.
Guy: Amazing and working. Cause you mentioned about working in the frontline as well in a hospital and everything and dealing with people with all of health and trauma from what you’ve witnessed and slowly what you’ve learned over the years. What’s your take on, how much do you think the unconscious body is holding stuff
Alja: from the past? Very, very good question. Um, so yeah, pretty much, you know, 90 over 90%, 95% is subconscious and a lot of the things are quite somatic. So when certain things happen to us, it’s a bit like, um, if you watch television and there’s a clear picture and then there’s an interruption and then there’s a bus and the picture just disorder distorted, similar to us as we’re growing up, you know, everything’s fine and then something happens to disturb us. Um, an event that we perceive as disturbing or traumatic. Uh, and then your energy system goes into that type of a response as well. So now they’re doing a lot of, um, clinical trials of effectiveness of BFC. Dr Peter Stapleton. Stapleton is, uh, our own Australian who runs that. And, um, they find in quite a lot of, um, you know, very how effective it actually is in all sorts of areas. Yeah.
Guy: And when you want to just want to close a loop for anyone as well, when you say sematic the body holding the information. Yeah,
Alja: that’s correct. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a bit like what you teach as well, I guess through your retreats, what trauma is stored so that we have the, in a brain, it’s quite fascinating. You know, your amygdala, your stress center and your memory center, hippocampus communicate all the time. So as soon as we perceive something as a threat, Mmm. That, you know, all on sin, maybe the lesson signals to our body. So when we tab, we interrupt that we start on the side of the hand winter up that um, nervous, uh, you know, that’s a fight, flight, freeze response. And we are more accessible to, to then to a therapy because we start calling physiology and then we can access memories where perhaps that through an online have been stored. And then, you know, but first it’s really important to calm the physiology of someone. And I’ve done, um, I’ve been very fortunate to be mentored by um, trauma expert, dr Lori Laden and um, she has worked in Rwanda and in United States with the shooting communities and just watching her work in that extreme, um, difficult situations, uh, and learning from her has been amazing. Just calming someone down enough to be able to then access the prefrontal cortex and actually be able to, to go from there. But until they hijacked, as you know, in your work, um, you can’t really expect people to start healing because they’re in a survival mode
Guy: constantly. That nervous systems like firing and almost shut down what the whole time is, you know, we’re not giving our body permission to heal in anymore, which is just mind blowing. I’m curious on your own journey as you were learning this work, at what point did you realize that there’s, there’s like, because for me, I’ll explain myself for a second. For me, there was a point where, Hey, I was running on the unconscious mind. I didn’t even know my body was holding this memory or trauma. It was just me. I was so familiar with it, I just thought that was me. But, but as I delved into the work, I realized I could separate myself from that and have a third person perspective to see what’s going on if you like, and then allow that to the least. But for such a long time, I was wrapped up in my own belief system and fears. It stopped me from moving forward. But there was a tipping point. And I’m curious to know, what was your tipping point as you were learning this and leaning into it?
Alja: Yeah, so I guess as a young person I was very adventurous and quite fearless and I liked extreme sports, you know, diving, um, mountain climbing and so on. And then I became a mom. Mmm.
Alja: And I started working in frontline position and I guess I started leaning into that reality of, um, gosh, anything can happen any minute. So it’s almost like for me, God, the fear just creeped in without me noticing. So it was very subconscious and I personally, now looking back, I believe that, you know, that was already there. Some are from way back. Um, and I’ve done a lot of my own work and I think the biggest message to people is that, um, nothing happens overnight. It’s the commitment, um, two to do. Um, you know, so commit to your own healing and being able to realize that it’s inside you, that whatever you, it’s in your environment or whatever triggers you is inside you. And so as I traveled, um, you know, to dr Joe Dispenza’s, um, um, retreat, I was just paralyzed by fear and that probably is what, what got me there.
Alja: I just didn’t like the way I felt. I had everything in my life, everything was running beautifully, but I just, I was worried something will happen to my children or husband or like there was just a fear that’s all consumed me. And I don’t know if you remember, but, but you know, I, I was once at two one meditation, it became very, very clear and I actually nearly left the retreat because it was just so, um, so real for me, the fear. Um, so it took me now, I think that was almost two years ago, something. Yeah. And it took me a lots of work. So I’ve used on emotional freedom techniques. The meditation, firstly, dr Jodi spins us, Tom Kron, and then I attended two of the retreats with you, Petra and Matt. Um, and I meditate daily a lot, um, and um, you know, just feeling the layers and I have to say my childhood was quite nice and not, you know, I was raised by very kind people and learn to be very kind and heart centered, um, had my own difficulties, but looking how much healing I had to do and, and really commit to that and wanting to be the best I can be in this life for myself and others.
Alja: Um,
Guy: yeah, it’s a daily work and it doesn’t happen overnight. Yeah, of course. And when you, um, you mentioned, cause when we met you were overcoming a fear and you have been working on that and then you leaned in and then you came to our retreat. Um, they were, the first one was in August last year for not mistaken. Was that right? Do you mind sharing a little bit? I’ll just watch your hair as well. Yeah, yeah. Um, do you mind sharing a little bit of what you can you, if you could take yourself back that before you came being apprehensive and I clearly remember you overcoming a fear at that as well.
Alja: So I still had, I still had, uh, um, it wasn’t quite as intense, the fear side of it. Perhaps I was starting to overcome that with a lot of meditation. But what then once I resolved that, you know, once I started resolving that layer, I think the self doubt and the critical voice and my analytical mind, um, came into play. So I started doubting a lot of things and I think at that retreat was just a complete shift. And I actually did the interview with, with, with, uh, one of you and watched it just recently. Oh wow. I couldn’t believe what I actually, it felt at the time because now it’s almost like a pieces of the puzzle, you know, when they missing, you feel it. But when you have the whole picture, perhaps you can’t remember, I think it’s called apex a effect. You can’t quite remember because it feels okay now. That’s cool. Was that to me really,
Guy: that’s how we lose appreciation for things. Yeah. Because we just accept the new gnome.
Alja: Yeah. A new baseline. It’s the same with resilience isn’t it? You create this new baseline and you almost forgot how it felt. Um, you know, and I, I guess in my therapy work, I continue going back to how I used to, how I used to feel when I have clients with me or how I feel today about something as you know, as you know, as we uncover and more the bigger problem comes and you’ve got to overcome that one. And I guess it’s lots of joy and love and wonder and everything, but it’s also you get faced daily, all of us with new challenges that then uncover some new layer of um, that deep wound of separation I believe. And um, yeah.
Guy: You know, so, so I kinda, I kinda took you off tangents. You were coming into, you were watching the video, you’ve seen yourself and how you couldn’t believe. Can you take us back to how you, how you felt at that retreat when there was that moment of shift? Because it can be terrifying just before we let go of. And then we have to surrender, not surrender, this amazing
Alja: opportunity to grow comes right. Well, I remember being really excited to attend the retreat and then suddenly lost my voice, had fever, um, you know, just got completely, almost sick, um, out of nowhere. And I think that was my resistance resistance. And I think I arrived just on a minute when I left, you know, gave myself a lot of time. I think my, my body was just wanting to stay in a victim mode and, um, and once I arrived, I think it was the, I mean, as soon as you step into that space, the way you all created that safety, you know, and it might be a bit Rocky at first when you walk in as yourself, you bringing whatever and other people’s energy. But I started feeling like I can lean into it more and more. And it was just familiar. And then about, I think it was the second, second day or second evening, um, I just went into this complete police Oh, in, in one of the meditations.
Alja: And it was building up through the day and it was almost like the old me just has fallen off. It’s really hard to and, and another layer of the fear. Um, and then I attended the January one and I brought some new stuff to that one. But I have to say it was easier this the second time, um, compared to August, just, you know, knowing that it’s, um, it’s just going to bring me to this new reality. And since the retreat, I mean my life has, um, just changed so much. And it was the signs from, I dunno, from the manifestations that happened that I couldn’t even imagine. And I’m just so thankful every day for any, you know, for that. But you’ve gotta be open to opportunities cause otherwise they just pass you by and you don’t even realize they were there.
Guy: Yeah. You gotta meet it halfway. You got to step into your power and step into that truth of you. And as you do that, things just keep opening up more and more. And it’s like, hang on, let’s go for a ride. Here is, you
Alja: know, it’s incredible. You know, it’s interesting cause we’ve had a few people come back for a second time at the retreat on a first glance. Um, it’d be easy to say, Oh it’s just they, they just keep coming back. And um, you know, there’s a, within the industry it’s almost like it can be perceived that we’re not, then we can go and have a fix, but then we don’t take the lessons and don’t integrate them in our life. And then we use the retreat just to escape as opposed to learn. But so far I’d say pretty much everyone’s there to really important change. But, but what I’ve noticed from being, because I’ve been, I’m at every retreat, people forget that. And I’m in the processes with everyone and it’s incredible how much every time there’s an, there’s a new layer revealed itself. There’s a new baseline, like you said, that raises the bar.
Alja: It’s, it’s continuous. And the biggest key then is to integrate those pieces in your life, in between those things. And I know there’s been quite a few that came back for a second time. And every person that came back to the second time had a different experience, but very different, but even more unveiling. But without the fear because it’s not so much of an unknown. They can just let go even more, which is always takes courage, I think. And I, um, I, I think that, you know, we talked about the trust and surrender and, uh, you know, I, Mmm, I completely agree with you. It takes so much courage, um, to, to be open, um, because at the end of the day, it’s all inside you, um, and it’s, and, and around you, but you can’t, you’re not allowing good, good. Thanks to come. If you’re in this contraction and fear or control or wanting to predict everything that happens, um, yeah.
Alja: And trying to control your environment, it’s impossible. It is just an illusion. And working in frontline positions, um, that was so clear to me. Um, I just didn’t know how to maneuver it, I guess. And it just, um, you know, the, the energy of work, the energy medicine and energy psychology and all the meditation Mmm. Has, Mmm. You brought me back to who I’m, who I really am closer to who I really am. Then living from a place of fear and it’s been amazing to watch your journey. You’re just powering ahead, you know, you know, and you’re helping others yourself. And I just want to reiterate a couple of really important points because you spoke about the apex and that was like I always think about, I always used to have back pain. You know, I used to play a lot of rugby and then I would take steps, do my physio and I take, you know, some supplements or whatever and then, and then all the time the pain would just disappear. Yeah. I wouldn’t have noticed when I didn’t have back pain cause I just, it was just like always gone. And then what did I do? I would
Guy: stop doing my exercises, I would kick back on the things and I would let things slip. And then all of a sudden the pain was coming back to remind me to go [inaudible] got to do things differently here. You know what I mean? And, and for me, um, uh, having context and having difficulties in our life I think I believe is important because when, when the, the seasons come, you know, good things and that we can really, we really don’t let them slip by and we really, uh, able to be in the moment while with whatever it might be. And all of a sudden we see the beauty in everything, even in the smallest things in our day. And we stop searching for that external all the time to fulfill it. And in turn they’ll need, yeah,
Alja: I completely agree. I had, um, I had this cough, you know, and I think my, one of my first things was the feeling of fear and um, being, you know, quite anxious about what can happen, that it’s not a good thing. Uh, but also had this cough and I would get this cough and it would be constant reminder. And I remember talking to the, one of the doctors at work and he said, Oh, you know, you should be tested for us, man. Then I remembered my grandma who had asked mine and I just thought, Oh gosh, there’s the pattern I went to, the doctors was cleared that I didn’t have asthma, but the symptoms were there and I think they were just, they’re telling me, my body telling me, you really need to, you know, change your life. You need to change the way you think, the way you feel. Um, and yeah, leave from more from your heart than from your head.
Guy: Yeah. Which is again hard though. Yeah. It’s amazing because I always say, and it’s taken me up, don’t get me wrong, I’m not sitting here and say I got everything in the bag. It’s still, you know, I’m lucky to have a wife does a naturopath and remind me of things as well, you know, that I kind of let slip or do. But any symptomatic thing that’s happening within the body for me, like instead of suppressing it or suppressing the emotion, the body’s trying to communicate with you, it’s trying to let you know something. It’s like the oil light is coming on in the car or are we going to actually go and stop and start to try and check or are we just gonna keep driving? Yeah.
Alja: I couldn’t agree more. And I think the other thing too is the community support. You know, the finding like minded people. Um, I have, you know, your community and Petrus and mats and then I have mine’s heart connect and incredible, incredible people in my life and, and, and my family, um, friends. But it is like, it helps to have likeminded people, uh, sharing the journey without
Guy: dropping the judgments a bit more. Yeah, yeah,
Guy: absolutely. It’s huge. It’s, you know, cause we were in our first week now of the living flow four week program, cause everyone’s been in lockdown. So me and Matt and Patrick put this together and I was only in this morning watching the community connect and people, people were following the tasks and putting their images up. And it was just giving me goosebumps. It was beautiful to see. And the most common to two witnesses is people connected and seeing that there’s other people like-minded like this, that they can communicate with openly without judgment. And uh, and that’s so important because it’s that fear of judgment that suppresses ourselves so long. And, and one of the biggest things to help me shift in my life was, was to put myself around people that were going to inspire me and lift me up and allow me to express myself fully as opposed to just keeping myself small.
Alja: Yeah. And I think too, for me, um, you know, that particularly at that retreat, um, I think because dr Joe Dispenza’s retreats are very, you know, there’s so many people. But when I came to your retreat in August and by the third, fourth, third day, we were all just so connected and there was just acceptance. There is nothing that a person could say in that room without everyone just being in a complete, um, heart-centered acceptance of whatever’s there. And we could all reflect in each other, whatever was said. And it’s just this beautiful flow. Um, you know, and I,
Guy: yeah,
Alja: over and over again in my own work, I started running small groups with EFT and heart math and people often say, how is it possible that, you know, whatever we did with that one person, and it’s now at the moment is everything is on zoom. How is it possible? I have the same thing. Can all be more related than we know. And, and Gary Craig with this new advancement he brought in optimally EFT and he does a similar thing with a, with a quantum healing in a way. Cause it’s a healer and a routine. You and all around you that you’re accessing. He says at the core of it all, we’re all the same. We wish to be loved, accepted, feel safe, be at peace. The details of our stories are so different, but at the core of it, um, and it’s so true. It is just, you know.
Guy: Yeah. It’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s amazing. I, um, I want to kind of ask you a few questions that I ask everyone on the podcast and, uh, and I think you might’ve touched on it, but I’ll be interested to see about, I like to, um, what’s been a low point in your life that you can now look upon? That’s been a blessing.
Alja: Okay. There’s been few. I think my, my hardest lesson, um, was losing my dad suddenly. Um, I of thought my dad would be here forever, like invisible, invincible and not visible, invincible. Um, and Mmm. He died suddenly pain-free, but suddenly, and I think that was the turning point. Um, and I think if I look at it now, although I wish to have my dad’s here forever, um, it was that, um, that realization that, um, you know, I have to be relying on myself. And then when I was in meditations, I actually connected. I recognize my dad’s energy, I mean, as, as whatever, as it sounds is through meditations that I, it’s, we’re more energy than, than we know. And it doesn’t have to be, you know, it’s that connection and the love you have with, with your parents or your grandparents, whoever might have passed that lives on forever and you carry it in your heart. And I think it’s just, um, I think
Alja: him of him dying was probably that turning lowest point in my life because it’s almost like you have to grow up and find your own way. I was 30 and I wasn’t a small child, you know, but, but I think I always found him as a rock, although he lived on the other side side of the world. Um, but yeah, and also realizing the connection I had with him was, was, um, he was a very extremely supportive person, which I didn’t always recognize as a teenager. For example, I didn’t. Um, and it’s taught me how to be a parent differently too, and keep reminding my kids, you know, what’s important and what isn’t important. And, uh, I think I’m a better person all around, um, because of my dad in my life. But also being, realizing that really this world is just an illusion, you know?
Guy: Yeah. It’s nothing’s permanent. Try to, um, yeah, it’s uh, yeah, I can relate, you know, cause I lost my dad seven, eight years ago now. But, um, but how healing is it when you can feel the presence of someone energetically, you know, when you start to, that’s why I love quantum physics. Cause there’s a language around something, uh, that can really start to break down to the Western mind and make things land. And the more you, you look at the new science, the more you look at an acquire these things with curiosity and an objective mind. But I mean, even skepticism, but it’s incredible how, um, how healing it can be and how amazing it can be as you can start to understand things from a scientific perspective to what’s actually going on. And that science blend with spirituality is so powerful. And when you have those experiences, it’s so healing. Like I felt my dad presence at the retreats when my mom was there. There’s nothing,
Alja: mm. Nothing compares to it. Like it’s the live, it’s the lived experience for you. And that’s what I found that that retreat, um, the first retreat when I had that experience as well, um, it happened, it’s not like you were in meditation but it happened to you. You can say you were driving and walking and you saw your father, but in meditation you met that energy somewhere and it’s real for you. And the same for me. And, and I think I, you can’t explain that people unless they actually, um, you know, go deep and see what happens for them. Cause unknown has carries information and whatever that might mean for, for us, it’s an experience so much you have experienced whether you, who cares where anyone, I was just an experience to you and that’s all that matters at the end of the day. And also much better therapist, I believe for that reason because I’ve had those experiences.
Alja: So when people talk about things, I don’t just go in with my just purely analytical mind or you know, um, I think, um, I can hold it the space for somewhere, someone much better now as well because of that experience. So yes, I’m very thankful. That’s amazing. Um, what for somebody starting out looking at this for the first time, what would you, what would you, uh, what tips would you give them if you had a couple of minutes for them and they’re like, I don’t know. I think where do I go? I’m stressed out all the time. Or what would you recommend? Well, I guess it’s, um, sounds maybe a bit like a cliche, but I would go, I would just, I think HeartMath is incredible, right? And I just encourage people to start breathing into their heart and, and you know, drawing that sense of appreciation for something, for someone in their life.
Alja: And if they can’t do that, maybe for nature or whatever that might be around, because I do think that Mmm. People just drop everything once they get in touch with the hearts of this wisdom. And we’ve forgotten how to do that as a society, but it works every time. Um, you know, if I, yeah, I know either the tapping on the side of the hand, which probably doesn’t look all that great if you’re somewhere and you’re trying to explain something to someone, but I think the heart, the, the going back into your heart and also just, um, well overcome the fear. I mean, it’s a choice at the end of the day. It’s a choice, no matter how scary we choose to stay in that fear. And, and I say that with the greatest compassion because I have been there for quite some time. Mmm. But at the end of the day, it’s a choice and it’s life is, as they say, out of your comfort zone. Life happens. Absolutely. And uh, yeah,
Guy: the Hamas stuff is wonderful. I had, um, for anyone listening, I had one of the founders, Howard Martin on, uh, way back in the early episodes, probably episode 10 or 20, something like that. I’d recommend checking that out cause he breaks the science down and that, and that was my entry into it because if somebody has said to me, guide just a picture of flower opening in your heart and breathe, you know, I’d be like, come on night. Like, yeah, you know, but once I understood the science behind it and actually what’s going on with the nervous system and the fight or flight and rest and repair, it all started to make sense. And then, and then once I had the experience to sit with it, I was in, you know, it’s, it’s very different. So, um,
Alja: I do it with my son’s friends. They all teenagers, um, you know, they choosing whether to buy a car or this or that and like, here’s your heart has actually the answer. And they’ve all known me for a long time, so they kind of open to, okay, how do I do that? You know? And it’s very quick exercise. It’s a very quick exercise and it’s fun. Um, you know, you have to have bit of trust with the person you’re doing good with, I guess.
Guy: Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. A couple of, couple of more questions for you. If you had to name one book that’s had a lasting impression in your life, what would it be?
Alja: There’s few that, that’s a very hard question. Um,
Alja: I think the, I think for me, um, dr Joe Dispenza’s books were really, um, shifted my whole thinking, like the breaking the habit of being yourself, the placebo, the heal documentary. You know, I just heard one sentence by, um, I think it was dr Joe at that point saying if you can create, if, if, if we can with our thoughts, create the illness we can with our thoughts, create wellness, something like that. But it just, you know, it just completely, that one sentence changed my whole life. So, but there’s so many amazing books. Um, you know, like Dr. David Hamilton, the self-love books. Um, I’ll come this, um, the women who ran with the volts, I think it’s hard for me in English sometimes to, to remember titles cause I read a lot of Anthony de Mello. Um, was it Mmm, awareness. I read that when I was about 18 and it just changed a lot then.
Guy: Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah, it’s good to know. Um, is there anything about yourself that’s somebody who doesn’t know? What’s one thing
Alja: I know I was just a very energetic child, um, who just thought the world was just there for me. And I think that the, I guess I had to slowly, you know, going, I dunno, the way I entered the world was just like that I think. And then life taught me to be really humble and become more giving. Um, and I think people that meet me now wouldn’t imagine how I was maybe as a child and if some of my old friends would see me now because you know, they, a lot of them are in Europe, they probably would be also going cope. Is that the same person? Cause I think I leave from my heart a lot more than I than I did back then.
Guy: Yeah. Thank you. Sharon. Um, last question. Uh, with everything we’ve covered today, is there anything you’d like to leave the listeners to ponder on?
Alja: You’re in charge of your, your own destiny, your current present and your future, your past does not define how your future will look like. That would be my biggest take. That probably helped me, that thought, um, helps me every single day.
Guy: Beautiful. And course you’re working with people. Um, if anyone wants to reach out and get in touch with you out of your way, I can, there’s the best place to send them.
Alja: So I have a page, I don’t know, on Instagram, on Facebook, um, website and it’s coherence personal counseling,
Guy: Coherence personal counseling, and then we’ll make sure we link in the show notes as well. So if anyone wants to learn more about Alja, just pause the button, scroll down and the link will be there.
Alja: Thank you.
Guy: You’re welcome. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. I always appreciate it. Love your enthusiasm around the work and uh, and everything that you do. So, I’ve no doubt have on today with it. Got something out of that.
Alja: Yea, and thank you for what you do for, you know, for the world. Yeah. Incredible. Thank you so much for having me here.
Guy: Thank you.
Alja: Thank you.