We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Lee Paha. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura Lee below.
Hi Laura Lee, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
From a young age, I had a deep knowing that my purpose in life was to help people. At that time, I didn’t have a lot of clarity around what that would look like. As a teenager I was bright, an avid reader and writer, and I was great at winning arguments, so I decided becoming a lawyer was a great way to put my calling into action.
After practicing law for a short time, I knew it wasn’t right for me. I wasn’t meant to be helping people in that way. I’d been a life long athlete and from law school on, my outlet to relieve stress had been exercising. I’d watched so many people at my gym experience remarkable transformations, beyond just physical change, and I decided I wanted to be a part of that! My gym was growing and franchising, and I asked about helping open a Nashville franchise.
Ultimately that brought me to Nashville and into a career where I helped people with fitness and nutrition for nearly a decade. Before I found my true purpose, I was serving my clients as a holistic nutrition coach. I found this work to be deeply fulfilling, as it went way beyond food. My clients really opened up to me, and I began to see that the things they struggled with — body image, their relationship with food, stress — ran so deep. And in this realization I also discovered that I had a unique ability to “see” those deep issues that cause us a lot of struggling and pain.
While I was doing this work, I also went through my own series of life crises — leaving an abusive relationship and watching my mom battle and die from cancer. These experiences brought me to my breaking point. I was confronted with difficult and deep emotions, and I learned how to feel and hold space for them. I also had to confront my past to understand how it had brought me to the point I was at. The heartbreak I experienced sent me on a deep, spiritual, healing journey. When I got through the toughest parts and found myself in a better place, I realized my purpose was to help people in the way I had been helped — on a deep, soulful level. All of the jobs I’d had, all of the work I’d done, and all of my own personal experiences brought me to this point. I continued to follow the calling until it became crystal clear just exactly how I was meant to help people. And it took going through my own healing journey to gain such a deep understanding and to have that clarity.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
The first question I usually ask a new client is: “where are you feeling stuck?” or “what’s NOT working in your life?”
As a family and generational healer, what I see almost always is that what we are suffering from or what’s keeping us stuck in this present moment has deep roots that go way back to our childhood, and sometimes even well before we are born. While we not might be aware of it, so many of our struggles with relationships, career, creativity, money… those struggles didn’t start with us! And they’ve been passed on from generation to generation.
What I do is help my clients access the energy of what’s keeping them stuck, tracing it allllll the way back to childhood or before. And as soon as they make that connection and see the thing that’s keeping them stuck, it’s like this massive portal for healing, movement, growth and expansion opens up that allows them to really shift and move forward in life… in so many ways!
Being able to work with energy and to see those blocks, see what’s beneath the surface that is keeping people stuck — that is my gift. And it’s something I’ll never take for granted, because I know most people have NO idea why they’re unhappy, why their relationships don’t seem to work, why they cant find the career they love, why the money just isn’t flowing. But that is something that comes easy to me, and when I can help people see those things, it changes their lives forever. Helping people heal in that way, and not only heal, but really thrive and find true happiness and freedom… that is the most exciting thing for me to witness as a healer. And being able to hold space for people as they do this deep, healing soul work is one of the most special things. I am constantly humbled that my clients trust me to hold that space for them, and that they feel safe enough to be so vulnerable. It’s a beautiful thing.
What I am really excited about right now is a group healing class I’m launching at the beginning of 2024! It’s a live, 6 week virtual class that will focus on healing mother wounds. I think a lot of us don’t even realize we have mother wounds, but we sure recognize the symptoms. In my class, we’ll be making all kinds of connections between what we’re struggling with and where it originated. We’ll dig up SO many limiting beliefs each week — and heal them! We’ll also be connecting with our inner children and higher selves, as both of those parts of us have immense guidance and healing power to offer us. The class will be intimate – no more than 8 women. I love being able to offer healing and deep, intimate discussions in a small group setting. While 1 on 1 healing can be very profound, there’s something special about the group work. In this setting, you quickly realize you aren’t alone in what you’ve struggled with, and that alone can be very comforting and healing.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Courage — I took a lot of risks — giving up an established, “safer” career and moved to a new city — to get to where I am. I’ve also taken risks on really embracing my authentic self since my journey began. Being a healer and being a member of the LGBTQ+ community aren’t always the most understood, widely accepted qualities about myself, but they’re huge parts of who I am. I take risks, even the risk of being vulnerable and authentic, not because I’ve never been scared or worried about what might happen, but because I would rather fall down a million times than live with the regret of not ever trying and wondering “what if”. So if you’re worried or fearful, I want you to know that’s normal. But take the risk and be who you are anyway. The right people will be there for you no matter what. And you’ll usually find your tribe as you step into who you were called to be.
2. Trusting myself and the divine — a big part of following my calling and having courage is because I trusted myself and in Spirit. I believe we’ve been conditioned NOT to trust… especially ourselves. And it is 100% a learning process. It takes time to be able to listen to your intuition and trust. The best advice I can give to hone that ability is to spend time alone. Immerse yourself in nature. Put your phone down. You can’t get to know yourself, you can’t listen to the inner voice when you’re always on the go and distracted. It really takes slowing down and getting quiet.
3. Learning to work with energy — energy is all around us. It’s what we’re made of, it makes up everything! And we can access all of it and find deep healing when we know how to work with energy. I would say it’s a skill, and maybe a gift… but I think it’s something everyone can learn. Much like trust, it comes from practice and being really intentional about getting quiet and just watching and observing. Yes, it’s how I help people in my work, but I see energy everywhere! I think it’s helped me cultivate even deeper understanding and empathy in all of my relationships, and I rely on reading energy in every big decision I make, and lots of the small ones too!
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
I’ve been on my own healing journey for quite some time, and that’s come with a lot of growth and evolution. However, really letting go and not being so caught up on the outcome has been a tough thing for me. I found myself always wanting to know the “when” and “how” of how things are going to manifest (don’t we all?!), but the universe doesn’t really work that way. The universe is mysterious and miraculous, and I think it wants us to trust in the mystery.
This past year, since January, my wife and I have been trying to get pregnant. In March, it happened… but I had a miscarriage. It was heartbreaking, and I went through a period of grief, and eventually we were ready to try again. For the first few months, I was so hyper-focused on it. Like I felt like I’d even regressed on my ability to trust. I was so anxious and caught up on the outcome.
After a few months of trying, I just had this realization that none of this was in my hands. The only thing I could control was how I took care of myself – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually – and from that moment, things just shifted for me. I began to focus on nurturing myself and letting everything else go, fully trusting in divine timing. Giving gratitude has helped a lot too.
Once I was able to let go, it was like a switch flipped. I felt different, instantly, The way I showed up in my work, my marriage, my friendships, my community… it all changed for the better. Letting go and surrendering is a different level of trust. It took me a LONG time to get here, but it’s definitely been the biggest and most significant area of growth in my life this year, and probably in my whole life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theconn3ctioncoach.com
- Instagram: @coachlollipop
- Facebook: Laura Lee Gilliland Paha
