We were lucky to catch up with Krista Hovsepian recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Krista, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I think my resilience grew naturally over time. From ancestral trauma, to financial hardship, to bullying at school and multiple near-death experiences, I’ve had to pull myself up from the depths of darkness many times. While it’s incredibly important to grieve and honor our feelings, there comes a point where you have to ask yourself if sitting in victimhood is going to propel you forward or not. I’ve held a clear, strong vision of what I want my future to be since childhood and knowing what I want – and how I want to feel – has kept me focused on feeling, releasing, and healing on a loop since I was pretty young. I really believe that we’re all born with a strong sense of purpose or what our life path is going to look like, but we absorb and inherit a litany of limiting beliefs from the people around us, society, the media, our lineage… If we fail to stay connected to our hearts and our souls, we can easily find ourselves feeling lost or unsure of where to go next. When we do stay connected to ourselves, it becomes clear that there’s no other choice than to keep moving forward, even slowly or incrementally as we’re able to.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Since childhood, I’ve had a near-obsession with the performing arts, the metaphysical, and bringing my creations to fruition in the 3D. To me, the creative path and the spiritual path are one and the same. We’re here to create, whether we believe we’re creative or not. As an actress or visual artist or writer, I’m really just opening myself up to Spirit or Source and allowing what we collectively need here on Earth to flow through me. The more I’m able to get out of my own (my ego’s) way, the easier and more fulfilling the process becomes. As a healer, I strive to bring as much levity to the work as possible or when appropriate – my art and acting work tend to always included comedic elements, and being able to laugh at ourselves or the absurdity of being human can be healing in and of itself. Most recently, my sophomore original series, fête, has been circulating at episodic festivals both nationally and internationally. The series has received multiple nominations in the US and abroad, and has won the ISA Spotlight Awards at the Indie Series Awards here in LA, as well as Best Ensemble at NYC Web Fest, and Best Story at the British Web Awards. I’m currently outlining a few new written projects in between deeply restorative healing sessions with clients.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Hands down, the ability to listen to my inner knowing, follow my soul, and to trust myself explicitly. I realized early on that when most people give advice, it’s the advice they wish they’d listened to when they were younger. The thing is, we’re all on different paths. Their lessons are not necessarily my lessons or vice versa. What didn’t work for them might be the key that unlocks everything for me and my process. I also believe that we do people a great disservice by trying to prevent them from falling, failing, or stumbling. Each of these experiences often catalyze immense growth for us and, in my experience, sometimes when others intervene in an effort to “save us” as our path unfolds, new obstacles end up presenting themselves anyway. It’s like, you’ve got to learn the lesson one way or another to get to where you’re going. Practice tuning into your heart and soul, and following the guidance from within – with humility and an openness to experimenting or learning, always. The path to getting to a place where you can really sit with yourself and hear that guidance looks different for everyone, but it usually starts with finding a practice – whether it’s seated or moving meditation – and slowing way down, incrementally, as the nervous system allows for it. When we’re disconnected from our intuition and our bodies, this becomes a process that can take time, patience, and the willingness to give ourselves grace, but the payoff is beyond compare.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
The three things that always bring me back to myself whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed are: Breathing, movement, and feeling. This can look like a few deep belly breaths, a focused breathwork session (self-guided or a class), or just getting cozy and noticing the quality of each breath until it becomes fluid and stable. Where movement is concerned, something as simple as swaying or gently shaking the body always feels great. Yoga, a nice long walk, or some somatic exercises to support the recalibration of the nervous system are also wonderful options. And I know the last one can feel impossible for some people, but I am the biggest advocate of “you’ve got to feel it to heal it”. This doesn’t mean that we have to go trudging around in the past, digging up and re-living every unpleasant detail of whatever it is that we’ve experienced, but it does involve allowing the feeling to arise and then holding space for ourselves as we observe it and let it move through us. Zero attachment to story, full presence with each feeling. With a full body release, this can look like having a good, deep, cathartic cry without judging ourselves. It can include screaming into a pillow, or lightly tapping or hugging the physical body as we notice anxiety or fear releasing out of the limbs. I always feel like I’ve come back to being my best self after putting this triad into action, and find that it serves my clients well too.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kristahovsepian.com
- Instagram: www,instagram.com/kristahovsepian
- Other: www.madeformiracles.com
