The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Awakening: A Journey from Medication to Meditation by Karina Cury

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

Awakening: A Journey from Medication to Meditation by Karina Cury Karina.life https://amzn.to/3FRJNav Let the story of Karina's resilience in overcoming childhood trauma and depression serve as your guiding light on the path to spiritual awakening. Find inspiration in her journey as she breaks free from the grip of antidepressant dependency, embracing holistic living and life coaching to rediscover inner joy. Karina's hard-won wisdom, gained through triumphing over adversity, will illuminate your own route to self-empowerment and purpose. This inspirational book shares her roadmap to liberation; use it as a spark for your own profound spiritual reawakening. Show Notes About The Guest(s): Karina Curry is a holistic life guide, author, and certified holistic health coach. She is dedicated to helping others thrive through self-compassion, mindful living, and spiritual growth. Karina's own journey from rock bottom to rebirth taught her the power of integrative techniques, including meditation and emotional healing. She now guides clients to rediscover their inner light and live a life of greater meaning and joy. Summary: Karina Curry joins Chris Voss on The Chris Voss Show to discuss her book, "Awakening: A Journey from Medication to Meditation," and her approach to holistic health and wellness. Karina shares her personal journey from struggling with depression and relying on medication to finding lasting change through self-compassion, mindfulness, and spiritual growth. She emphasizes the importance of addressing the mind, body, and spirit in achieving overall well-being. Karina also discusses the benefits of meditation and the use of psychedelics in healing and personal transformation. She offers one-on-one and group coaching services to support individuals in their own journeys of self-discovery and healing. Key Takeaways: Holistic health involves addressing the mind, body, and spirit for overall well-being. Self-love is essential for personal growth and happiness. Meditation can be a powerful tool for reducing anxiety and depression. Psychedelics, when used responsibly and with guidance, can aid in healing and personal transformation. It is important to have open and honest conversations about expectations and values in relationships. Quotes: "Holistic means working on the mind, body, and spirit. It's a total lifestyle change." - Karina Curry "You are responsible for your own happiness. Take charge of your own health and life." - Karina Curry "Psychedelics are not drugs, they are plant medicine. They can heal and transform." - Karina Curry "Marriage should be based on friendship, shared values, and open communication." - Karina Curry Biography Karina Cury is a holistic life coach and author. She specializes in empowering her clients to uncover hidden blocks that may be holding them back from their true potential, then guides them to find fulfillment, balance and inner peace. Many of her clients have suffered from depression and found themselves in a downward spiral of medications, which only masked the issues and made them worse. Through a holistic and personalized compassionate approach, she supports their journey of growth and self-discovery, to free themselves of the chains that have been binding them.

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We have an amazing young lady on the show today, and she's going to be talking to us about meditation and how you can use it as medication. Her byline is Medication to Meditation and how to improve the quality of life, which is what we do here on the Chris Voss Show. We have another podcast you can have called How to Destroy Your Life with the Chris Voss Show, but you don't want to listen to that one. You want to listen to this one. This one is how to improve your life because that one

is depressing. You don't want to do that. So we're going to be talking to her. Karina Curry joins us on the show. She is a holistic life guide devoted to helping others thrive. As an author and certified holistic health coach, she empowers people to transform their lives through self-compassion, mindful living, and spiritual growth. Her own journey came from rock bottom to rebirth that taught her lasting

change comes from within. Throughout integrative techniques, including meditation and emotional healing, she guides clients to rediscover their inner light. Her approach is grounded in compassion, intuition, and deep listening. She creates a safe, judgment-free space for people to unpack old wounds and release limiting beliefs while reconnecting to their highest potential. Whether you feel lost, anxious, or simply ready to move on to the next level of personal expansion, she is here to support your awakening.

We're going to awaken on the show, darn it. She will take you down a profound path of self-discovery together with new perspectives, renewed purpose, and you'll gain the tools to live a greater meaning and balance and joy. Welcome to the show, Karina. How are you? I am great. I'm great. Thank you for having me.

There you go. Thanks for coming. Give us a dot, whatever your dot site is so that people can find you on the interwebs so i um if you want to know more about my work go to my website www.karina.life that's k-a-r-i-n-a dot life um i am on instagram and facebook as holistic harmony or and i also have my personal karina curry so i have two there you go and you wrote the book awakening a journey from medication to meditation that came out september 30th 2023 give us a 30,000 overview of what you put in the book so the book it's uh it tells a little bit about my journey i i'm an immigrant from Brazil. I came here.

I was 18 years old, fresh out of home. Never been anywhere else. Wanted to be a horse trainer. Yes. Got here. Went through some trials, tribulations like everybody else. And some moments of happiness, of course. But got married got divorced the horse training thing didn't happen i got married got divorced uh found myself following

the foot patterns of my parents which happens when you're uh you know, the inner child traumas and you tend to do that when you don't heal yourself completely. Then I got really depressed and my friends were worried about me. I, of course, didn't know what I know today or I would never go this path. But I end up going to a psychiatrist, end up taking medication. And I don't know if you know how that works, but you go in for a 30 minute interview with your psychiatrist. And then she decides you're depressed and she prescribes your medication. Then you come back two weeks later for another $300 appointment.

And then, you know, you talk for 10 minutes and then she says, oh, okay, well, let's up your dose. Let's up your dose. That goes on. Now you can't sleep. So now let's give you more medication so you can sleep. Well, then you start having panic attacks.

Then, okay, well, let's give you medication for that. Well, now your GI is not working because you're on so much medication. So let's give you medication for that. Well, now your GI is not working because you're on so much medication. So let's give you medication for that. And then during the day, you're, you know, using all kinds of things to just stay awake because you're on so much medication and you're not living, you're surviving. And I'm doing that for 10 years. And my mom passed away. I went through, found this holistic life coach and she changed my life. So working with her,

I was able to get off medication. I start learning a lot about spirituality and psychology of the mind. And I was, I found so much joy that I wanted to pay forward. I wanted to help people get where I was, where I am now. So that's how I was in a spiritual retreat. And I had this download that I needed to write a book to empower people and tell them how I did it.

So I did it. So I did that. I wrote the book. I went through training to become a holistic life coach myself. And that's what I do. And I love it. There you go. And now you're inspiring people and getting them activated and teaching them the difference of meditation.

Now, is there a certain meditation style? I think there's a few different styles. Isn't there? Correct me if I'm wrong. Correct. I use them all. It depends. Yeah, it depends how much time you have during the day.

I follow Dr. Joe Dispenza. I follow lots of meditation styles. And I teach my clients how to do, you know, you've got to figure out what fits for you. Like Dr. Joe Dispenza, his meditations are real deep and long, you know, sometimes, but you got to start slow, you know, as the power of small steps and you got to start with, uh, changing your habits every day. And sometimes you just have, you know, people can do 30 minute meditation. So do a five minute meditation to get yourself down that path.

But it's not just meditation, you know, is the coaching part is working on releasing traumas from childhood, healing your inner child, and also working on self-love. 90% of the population don't know how to love themselves. And that is a problem. Ah, yeah. It's hard to give love if you can't receive love and it's hard to receive love. You can't give love.

I don't know. Maybe. Well, you, you will never receive love if you don't love yourself first. That's true. So I think that's what I'm trying to say, or at least that's what I'll say.

Yes. It sounded good in my head at the time. I think we found a way to wander through that. So what would you say is the biggest misconception people have about holistic health, wellness, and meditation? I think people don't understand what holistic means. And holistic means whole. It means I work with the mind, body, and spirit.

It's not just working on the psychology of the mind, but it's a total lifestyle change. It's not you have to work on your body, you have to work on your mind, and you have to work on your soul. So there's spirituality spirituality involved and that that doesn't mean that is my spirituality what i believe anybody everybody's spiritual right and it's whatever they believe in they can incorporate into their life but bring in to their life believe

in something bigger than yourself right and whatever you you in, the universe, the creator, God, life source, whatever you want to believe in. But have that belief that there is something bigger than you out there. And then that your body is a vessel that carries your soul. And it's an amazing tool you have. Without this body, the soul cannot be living this life here on earth and experiencing all the things that we are experiencing that's why we're here for we're here for our own evolution for our spirit's evolution so and we need our body for that and we need to take care of our body and uh we that's the problem today right in our society nobody uh everybody's in a hurry everybody's trying to make money

everybody's trying to do these things and they don't care about their body anymore. And that's why we are so plugged into pharmaceutical companies. If you look at commercials, every other commercial, it's about a drug. It's, um, Advil or are you sad? Well, if you're feeling this way, take this drug. And, you know, they go really slow talking about all the things that you're feeling that this drug will help you with. And then they go really fast in the side effects. Did you ever notice that? Yeah.

The side effects are really long. Yeah. And the side effects, like you talked about earlier in the show, they compound each other. Like you need to, you know, you take this drug and then, oh, it has a side effect. Oh, you need this drug for that side effect. And then that drug needs a side effect. You're just kind of just patching holes like, you know, some dam that's breaking and you're just trying to get all the holes plugged with two hands and it's not working. You're just bleeding.

I love that analogy. I'm going to gonna use that that is a great one it's exactly there's an old dutch story i remember of of a or there's a picture i don't know if it's a nursery rhyme or something but he's he's he's you know how the dutch have the dams everywhere and he's like sticking his fingers in the holes as they keep popping out and And he's trying to plug it. Maybe it was a cartoon or something. I saw it as a kid. But, you know, you're trying to just constantly plug these holes that are coming through the dam. And, you know, there's only so many, you know, hands that you have to stop it. And, yeah, it's just bleeding out. And so, yeah, you need these things to plug them up, which makes all the difference. One of the things, what advice would you give to someone who's dealing with anxiety or depression and looking to make changes?

So I would definitely tell them not to find crutches, which those medications that I talk about are just crutches. Alcohol is a crutch. Marijuana is a crutch marijuana as a crutch so I would recommend because people are trying to numb these feelings that they're having and they don't know where these feelings are coming from right so you have to get to the roots of this feeling so I'd recommend somebody to get help you know whatever it is I mean people have trouble sometimes asking for help or looking for help. They feel like showing vulnerability is a sign of weakness.

And it's not. It's on the contrary. It's a sign of strength. So look for help. You know, I know lots and lots of life coach, holistic life coach. And it's for me, like I i said my holistic life coach changed my life and and that's what i try to do for people um i would stay away from um traditional medicine you know uh i would use more um what is the word i'm looking for alternative yes alternative uh and start with that but try it because there's lots and lots

of things that you can do and it but it takes work you know it takes a little bit of work on your part and i actually post on facebook the other day there's this line of people and it says pills and surgery and then the other line says, change, change of lifestyle. And the line of change lifestyle was empty. And the the line to surgery and pills is like a mile long. So that's exactly what's happening. People want the easy way out. Oh, I just want a pill. Well, the pill may mask the problem for a little while, but it causes you so many other problems that the doctors don't tell you about. And for doc, I mean, I'm not saying medicine is bad. I mean, if you have a broken arm or you need to, you know, remove a tumor, yeah, you go to a doctor. But if you're having, if you

need help with something like depression and stuff like that, you go in there and the doctors, it's not cost effective for them to spend time with you. They are like, they're just going to give you the pill and turn you away. And then you're on your own. So I say to take charge of your own health of your life, because you are responsible for your own happiness, You and you only can achieve that, but you have to put in some work. There you go. It's really important to that. Now, do you get into psychedelics?

Yes, I did. Do you recommend them for your clients and stuff? I do. If they're trying to get off medication, that's how I was able to get off my antidepressants, creating my own protocol using mushrooms. And yeah, microdose of mushrooms. And I don't know if you're up to all the research is being done and all the John john hopkins and uh they're having a lot of progress i mean it's proven that actually cures depression it cures depression so i did get into

um i microdose and mushrooms and people have this idea that is a drug it's not a drug it's a plant medicine i consider as a plant medicine and it's's not addictive. You know, you're never going to hear of someone who's addicted to ayahuasca or mushrooms because it just doesn't happen. So you take long enough to be able to get off medication and then you don't need it anymore, you know, because then it heals your brain. It fires up the parts of your brain that are dormant and it's it's pretty amazing all the studies that they're doing and now it's even they're even talking about using for lyme's disease and it's showing so much i have so much hope for the studies on psychedelics and in ayahuasca you know you cannot on any medication, so you have to be completely off. It's a very powerful plant medicine.

But actually, I'm reading a book right now called The Immortality Code or The Immortality Key. There's two, but one is about this guy that goes all in deep about the studies of psychedelics and how it's been used for thousands of years they're testing these chalices that um the greeks you know when they were uh writing plays about the gods and the goddesses they're all like in psychedelics because he actually opens your connection with the divine so um yeah it it is an amazing journey but i i recommend to done very carefully with someone who knows what they're doing you know a lot of people just wanted to go do it it's not you have to go on a diet you have to be off medication you have to

prepare yourself is not something to be done lightly ah it sounds like it has to be definitely be done the right way or else have some adverse effects. You know, we've had lots of people on the show, doctors and stuff. We've had people that think we had a ketamine clinic, a guy who runs a bunch of clinics in California for ketamine and stuff. A lot of these things are being found to help people. And sometimes just one session can help them overcome traumas.

It's interesting how we store trauma in the body and everything else and make it a part of ourselves. So you find that it helps with microdosing psychedelics as a holistic approach to depression as well, huh?

With a lot of coaching you know it's not something you just do it and yeah you gotta you can't just be like yeah let's take this and then go to our car go to work and see how that turns out well just you have to do the integrative work you know because some people take and they're like okay what's you know what's happening here so there's a lot of uh work to be done around that and and you still have to go in there and and release those traumas and talk about these things that happen to you because we all have ptsd every single one of us because we we are you know we're living and we had parents who thought they were doing the best they could but you know PTSD because we

had parents they thought they knew they were doing the best they could but you know they say things and you stored from zero to seven years old you it's what is in your subconscious and what you basically react to everything that happens in your life is those information that you got from zero to seven that stays stored. So your parents thought the religion that they thought it was right or You know, I'm sure your parents and eat everything in your plates because you know, there's people starving in China or You know like little things like that You don't think that messes with people's head but it stays in their head and it can cause trouble later on you know like don't speak and what was my dad used to say women what did you say girls don't speak unless it's spoken

to I thought it's why those for kids in general and I was he said he turned that around women are not to be heard. They're only to be seen. Oh, he had all kinds of things that, you know, so. But was he doing because he was trying to be me? No, he that's what he thought it was right at the time. No judgment here. You know, I'm sure a lot of women are like, yeah, that ain't appropriate. No, I now we know it's not appropriate.

Back then, you know, 1980-some in Brazil, what did I know, right? There you go. I think it's funny. I normally say that about kids because I'm single

and I have to be on a plane with them. And they're usually screaming or I'm at a restaurant and they're screaming. And I'm just like, what the hell is going on? So, yeah. Some of your life journey is about being an immigrant from Brazil. How does that shape you? Or how does that shape you as a coach? How does that shape you in your life?

And how does it help with your influencing your approach to coaching other people i think i have a lot of compassion for for people because i you know i don't like to use words like i suffer some discrimination i mean because we all we all do you know it's not something like i i never wanted people to think that i wrote this book because i wanted to sound like a victim because that is not who i think i am everything that has everything that has yeah everything that happened to me made me the person that i am today so you know these experiences that i have dealing with people uh you know you learn a lot from what not to do by people. Right. So I think I have a lot of more compassion and understanding for, for, for humans

in general, by living everything that I lived through, not just as immigrant, as a woman, as a, uh, you know, a single mom as a, so all that shaped me who I am and helped me to have a lot of compassion and, and, and see people in a different light. You know, there's no judgment anymore from my part. When I see people, I understand that everybody's going through something. Every single one of us have a story. And, um, you know, those, those moms with kids chris on the plane they're struggling you have you you go they're going oh my gosh i'm so embarrassed my kids screaming i actually have compassion for them some of them do some of them have just no i mean there's i i go i've gone to restaurants here in utah and some of them just are oblivious completely oblivious there are people that, there are some that are and there are some that aren't.

There are some that are just completely oblivious, don't give a shit. In fact, it seems like half the time they're just incurring their kids worse. Well, you're in Utah, though. That's a different country. It really is, actually. I don't experience that in L.A. or Vegas or stuff where I go. But still, I mean, planes and stuff, you know, I've almost been killed on planes from the sickness of crying babies

and getting their flus and stuff. So, yeah, I'm not a fan. But, you know, I mean, there are parents who are struggling, and there are parents who just, they're oblivious, man. And part of the reason the kid's screaming is because they can't get the parent's attention and get security. And the parent is completely, I don't know, looking at their phone or in their own private eye. So there's that.

But there you go. So going through this, how do people onboard with you? What sort of services do you offer? Do you have courses? What sort of things do you use, services that people find on your website? So I offer one-on-one coaching and group coaching uh depends where you are in your journey um in my website you can go and book a call with me for 30 minutes and we can see if we are fit for each other so and and then we you know

see it will go from there but i have i use a lot of modalities you know i so we're uh work on do some hypnotherapies therapy sorry um it is like diving going into your subconscious mind and uh exchanging those limiting beliefs for better beliefs, right. For better things to believe in yourself. And so we, yeah, I worked with, um, uh, anybody, you know, I, most of my clients right now are actually women going through a divorce. Oh really? Yeah. But, but cause now there's something I, um, but I also have men that I work with who were, you know,

also going through a divorce. Oh, really? So it sounds like you're really good. And you know, the divorce time is a, is a time of, you know,

it's a, it's a hell of a time for change. You have something you believed in that you saw was an entity is marriage. And, and basically that identity is dying and you've got to go create your own single person identity so it's a very tough time to go through that process you got kids you got exes and you know not everyone's happy yeah exactly i never could figure out divorce like i i've never been divorced but i i'm always stunned when i when i date people who like i'm like you spend more time thinking about your ex than you did when you were married to them.

And I don't know why you divorced them because you really just spend all your time obsessing about them. So I'm just like, I thought you left your ex to get away from them. What was the point of this? It's easy to get away from them? What was the point of this? It's easy to get away from them if there's no kids. If there's kids, it's a whole different ballgame. You're attached to the person, unfortunately,

for a life. There you go. Something to think about before you sign on that dotted line. As a joke, I think they need to make marriage as hard to get into as it is to get out of. In fact, it really should be the opposite when you really think about it. It should be really hard to get into marriage, and it should be really easy to get out. Just like, here, sign this paper, you're out.

That's how it should be. It's completely the opposite of what it is. But all jokes aside. Well, what happens is people grow apart because they're they go into separate like right like if you're if you're marriage that work is people that are going the same direction and so for example with my journey going through this self-discovery and all that stuff and then that person's like oh yeah go but he stays here and you're here and then you just you can't you know you find yourself like we have nothing in common

we have nothing to talk about we you know don't like the same things but once you when you're young and you get married you think oh you know and that is one of the problems that i work with people that you people when they're young they always think they can fix that other person well you cannot fix anything but yourself that you're only can change the only person that can change is yourself but you go in and going and ignoring all these things that you know you don't like but oh you know he's a good guy and i'm sure if you get married and have kids things will be okay well no it gets worse because you're you didn't agree in a lot of things when you're single now you have children and you're buying houses and you're

talking about finances and it's very it becomes very difficult so i agree with you they should make like people go through lift like steps of into marriage right date then you have to move in together and stay four years i don't know four or five years and then decide if you want to get married ah yeah i i believe that and you should have to go to get a college degree for a couple years to learn how to be a parent. You need to learn to wash away all your traumas. And so talk to me a little bit about that, if you would, as we round out. You know, people, one of the problems with relationships now is people drag their traumas right into their relationships, and they haven't healed them. So they're just these wounded animals getting involved with people that maybe sometimes they shouldn't be involved with because they're trying to fill a space of a vacant father or whatever situation they grew up with.

Exactly. So it's lack of self-love. You get into a relationship because you're incomplete. Most people get in, I wouldn't say most, a lot of people get into a relationship and they, because they want to fix something in their life or because they don't want to be alone because they don't feel complete and they want someone else to complete their life or they have codependency issues, self-love issues. So they think that person is going to bring something that's missing in in them well you can't do that you have to bring you have to be complete and then you add to your bringing relationship to add to your happiness so um that's what the problem starts when you're

marrying for the wrong reasons you should marry someone because it's a great you guys have a great friendship and you like the same things and you like to do things together and you laugh together and you and you have to talk about all the difficult things from the beginning like finances how you want to raise your children they didn't people never want to talk about those things in the beginning right because they're like oh but we're just having fun right now and now you have to decide if you're in the same page let's talk about how do you want to raise your the children what you know how you do your finances what is your um credit score i mean do you want to be a homeowner or not you know where all these things you are you going to want me to work or you want to want me to um stay home and raise the children what you know and then you need to tell i want to stay home and raise the children

then maybe that person wants you to work so it's like all these things need to be talked about it not just you know and then you get children involved with poor things and they didn't ask to be born and now you're maybe um have traumas and triggers and stuff like that now you're creating you know this person who's going to be full of issues just like you so if you're not knowledgeable you know kids i mean even in school kids are taught completely wrong the teachers should be asking the kids to teach them it should be the other way around that's the the the way that kids should be teaching they shouldn't be like brainwashed to just sit there and listen to the teachers should be interactive and should be

asking questions and and you should be parenting your kids like that too. You don't just tell them what to do. And they're human beings with feelings and thoughts and they're, you know, smart and they need to be nurtured just like a little tree. You know, you have to take care of it to grow properly. So you don't just have children and, you know, wing it. There's a lot of people that do. It seems to be the thing to do and then and then you'd end up with this giant mess and people like hey what happened eh uh so there you go uh well this has been very insightful tell people one last pitch on how they can onboard with you uh get involved get your coaching etc etc so yeah, get a hold of me through my website, www.karina.life.

There's an option to book a 30-minute call with me, and I can tell you all about my coaching style. We can actually have a conversation and see what's going on in your life, what things you need clarity on, what things you feel like you need going on in your life. What things you need clarity on, what things you feel like you need to better in your life. And I can see if you're a fit and we can go from there. There you go.

Well, thank you very much, Karina. And people can read my book too. That's right. Order of the book. Yeah. It's on Amazon and all the major awakening and journey from medication to

meditation. Out September 30th, 2023. Karina and Karina. Thank you very much, Karina, for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you, Chris. Thank you. And thanks to our audience for tuning in.

Go to goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Voss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress Chris Voss, YouTube.com, Fortress Chris Voss, and all those crazy places we're at on the internet. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. other stay safe and we'll see you guys next time