Women In Wellness: Laura Giles of Surviving to Thriving On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Everybody has trauma. I thought trauma was about war and crimes. We live in a traumatizing society. If we accept the impact as normal or part of our personality, it’s like crawling through life blind or deaf. We’re handicapped. To be our highest and best selves, we have to address our personal and collective trauma.

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Giles.

Laura Giles helps people live fulfilling lives by creating a sense of belonging. Her holistic work starts with building a stable foundation, getting to know yourself, then connecting with others and the universe. She believes that when you are the best version of yourself, you’re never lonely because you always have the best company.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

Sure! I was working with a woman recently who was between jobs. She was really good at what she did, but wanted a change. However, she wasn’t sure what that change might look like.

To identify her passion, I asked her, “What is it that you always do?” She started listing tasks and job titles, and I interrupted her and asked her how she served others. After doing a little brainstorming, we realized that the way she served was by giving others the means to grow. Once she saw her gift in that way, she wasn’t stuck at all. She had a million ideas of how to do that and got to work immediately.

So, one of the things that I “always do” is to help people get unstuck. My mind loves to make order out of chaos, so the more challenging the situation, the more stimulating it is.

The other thing that I “always do” is create safe spaces so that people can heal, shine, and connect. Sometimes it’s informal and I’m listening to a stranger while sitting on a park bench. Sometimes it involves hosting workshops or retreats. Maybe it’s just affirming someone’s beliefs. Like with everyone, the way we do that thing we always do shows up in different ways. That’s why it can be so hard to figure out what our “thing” is. However, when we allow ourselves to do it, we live our purpose and flow through life rather than struggle against it.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

When I was an intern, I worked in a sexual assault crisis center. When assigning cases, the front desk thought that they were “dumping” the difficult cases on me, but those were the people I found the most interesting. When people seek help for crisis, they are often emotional, but they also have their masks off. They are vulnerable and real, and that’s when I find people the most delightful.

What I learned from that is to not shy away from life’s struggles. It’s true that what doesn’t kill you can make you stronger. Surrendering because we’re at rock bottom can be the beginning of healing things that we didn’t know we needed to heal.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first started, I kept my wellness practices on the down low and relied on word of mouth to get clients because I knew that my approach to healing was unconventional. Some people considered my way of thinking “witchcraft” (and some still do). So, I played quiet and small to avoid negative attention. Obviously, that kept me from helping as many people as I could.

Now I don’t care. I wouldn’t tell everyone to shout their quirks from the rooftops. Details matter, but I also believe that we are all here to serve, and by playing small, we hurt ourselves and those we could help.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

I believe that a meaningful life comes from a sense of belonging. There are a lot of problems in the world. I think that cultivating belonging can remove lots of them. We don’t steal from our neighbors. We typically don’t rape or kill people we know. It’s hard to discriminate against our friends. Love is a powerful force, you know?

My goal is to reach 100,000 people by working with one. That one might reach two. Those two might reach six, and so on. Every person matters.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. Earthing. Earthing is skin to earth contact. You could walk barefooted in the grass or walk on a beach. Everything is energy. When we sit inside all day, we are disconnected from the Earth, our Mother. When we reconnect, she helps our energy to return to it’s natural rhythm. This is healthier for humans.
2. Forest Bathing. Forest bathing is spending mindful time specifically in a coniferous forest, but any green space will do. Pay attention to the sound of the leaves rustling, the squirrels jumping from branch to branch, and the smell of the earth. Be there. Your mindful presence in nature reduces stress and anxiety and increase well-being.
3. Practice mindfulness. Most of what we get upset about never happens. The stories that we tell ourselves may not be true. The way to escape the suffering created by the overactive mind is to practice mindfulness. It is also a way of stepping into your power, because mindfulness can illuminate how we opt out of life. This can give you a chance to jump back in.
4. Practice loving kindness. This is essentially the act of sending love to people that you like and people that you don’t like. It neutralizes your dis-ease and may change them as well. I have helped many people change the way they feel about someone in minutes. It’s really that easy.
5. Stop complaining. I worked with a woman who didn’t realize how much she complained because her whole family did it. Once she stopped, then went back to visit, she said, “I used to love being with my family, and now I have to limit my time. It’s too negative!” It’s not always easy to see how damaging something is if it’s a habit or is culturally acceptable.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I work with inner-city kids, but I think the gold is in educating teachers on some fundamentals of connection. Teachers can have a huge impact on the future by modeling safety so that their kids can learn boundaries, respect, empathy, and things that make people more connected and healthier. Without safety, it’s a survival game. No growth or learning is possible while in crisis.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. Everybody has trauma. I thought trauma was about war and crimes. We live in a traumatizing society. If we accept the impact as normal or part of our personality, it’s like crawling through life blind or deaf. We’re handicapped. To be our highest and best selves, we have to address our personal and collective trauma.
2. Everybody doesn’t have coping skills. In the beginning, I would ask my clients to do things that they sometimes couldn’t do. I assumed that everybody had the same basic life skills and coping skills. If you didn’t learn it, how would you know how to do certain things? Would you even know that you’re missing something? Now that I know this, I don’t take it for granted.
3. Do you. I had heard the saying, “If you don’t love yourself, how can you love anybody else” but I really didn’t know what that meant. It’s true. We have to know who we are before we can fully show up. Otherwise, we will keep chasing others for validation because our reflection keeps disappearing when they leave.
4. Connect. When I was a little kid, I thought the song line, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world” was the stupidest thing in the world. (I was a precocious kid). I didn’t realize how important connection was because I was so well connected with my family. I took it for granted. I can now imagine what that is like for someone who doesn’t have it. It’s really essentially, and yet it can be easily missed.
5. Connect to the nonhuman world. I have never been lonely. I think this is why. I was always plugged into something. This was one of the things I took for granted, too, because it was always there. I overlooked how easy and essential it is.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

As a trauma therapist, you might think I’d say mental health, but I am going to go with sustainability because sustainability covers more ground. If our lifestyles are sustainable, it has a positive impact on our mental health and the environment.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

https://lauragiles.org

https://letitgonow.net

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.