033: Over It and On With It with Christine Hassler

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from Nothing. At age 11, young Christine was depressed from being bullied and teased at school. She spiraled into 20 years of an antidepressant and anti anxiety medication dependency. She muted her emotions, her feelings and she believed that she was broken, unlikable and that something was very, very wrong with her. All these medications and doctor diagnosis, well, to her they were just evidence that she really did have something wrong with her. All Christine ever recalls wanting in her life was just to be happy. Today, years later, Christine Hassler is happy. And she's the best selling author of three books, keynote speaker, retreat facilitator, spiritual psychologist and life coach. She's also a host of the top rated podcast over it and on with it. She's been teaching and inspiring people around the world, helping how they can get out of their own ways and be happy too. Christine believes that once we get out of our own way, we can show up to make the meaningful impact that we are here to make. Join in today and learn exactly how Christine Hassler leveled up and created everything from nothing.

Today on leveling Up, I've got my good friend Christine Hassler who you guys might know her as a master coach and best selling author. But she was not always this put together, this happy. She in fact for years just wanted to be happy happy and she was on antidepressants. Definitely somebody who was depressed looking for her happy. I can't wait to share her story with you today and dive into what makes her tick and how she overcame, leveled up and created everything for nothing. Thank you so much for being here, Christine.

Oh, I'm excited. This is going to be fun.

So Christine, my gosh, people see your books, they see what you're doing, they see your podcast, they know that you're just this ultra success. Not only that, you're like drop dead gorgeous. You look like you have this perfect happy life, but I know that wasn't always you. So I'd love to know who were you before all of that.

No, I definitely don't have a perfect life, but I really am happy, which is and peaceful Like I feel peaceful inside, which I think if we feel peaceful inside, then it's way easier to feel happy. Like you said, this wasn't always the case at all. You know, at 11 years old, I was diagnosed with depression and put on antidepressants. And it wasn't just a, you know, a random thing. It wasn't just I was having a bad day. My parents didn't do it carelessly. They really saw their little girl who was, you know, born just enthusiastic and bright and social sort of slip away. I had a lot of different things happen, one of which was bullying and teasing. And I just started to internalize all my feelings at a very young age. There was also abuse happening not in my home, but outside the home that I didn't even remember until almost 30 years later. Oh yeah, we can bookmark that. But there was just a lot of things I was dealing with that I didn't have the emotional outlet for. And I was just kind of holding everything inside and I just, I literally started to close up the other thing that was happening. I didn't know this then, but I know it now is like a lot of people, especially I'm sure people listening to the show, I was very energetically sensitive and that's another reason I just kind of shut myself off from the world. I kind of didn't know how to be a human being in a lot of ways. And a lot of times that's what causes depression is we just, we have too much emotionally that we don't know how to process and we're very, very energetically sensitive or Warren pathic. So we're not only feeling our feelings, we're feeling everybody else's feelings. And that can lead to shutdown. For some people, they rebel and their path may be more towards addiction. For other people like me, you internalize it and it becomes more like depression as you're saying.

That's like I'm getting chills because like here I have an 11 year old daughter and I, and I see her, she is in that happy, you know, always charismatic state and she, she right now has the great friends and whatever and it's like a mom's worst nightmare to think of like, oh my gosh, like that little girl breaking and this stuff happening. Like what was the belief that you started forming about yourself as a kid when this was going on?

Yeah, well, stuff happens to all of us. It's unavoidable, right as humans as part of the journey. I think what I believed in my head, especially with the bullying and the social ostracization, because it's. It's such a thing to belong. The belief that I started to form is, I'm not likable. I don't belong. I'm broken, and there's something wrong with me. Like, I really felt broken. And then when doctors told me, you need to start seeing a psychiatrist, you're depressed, and you need to take this medicine, it confirmed my beliefs. It was like, then I had evidence.

Oh, yeah.

So that. That belief of I'm broke and I don't belong, I don't fit in, and then the doctor confirms that, and I'm seeing a psychiatrist every week. It was like, oh, well, this isn't a belief. This is truth. So it really felt like my truth. I really believe something was wrong with me. I didn't fit, and I was broken.

So your parents were coming from a good place. Like, they just wanted to help.

Totally. Totally. And this was, you know, gosh, what Was this? The 80s. So it was a time when that was what you did, you know, you put late 80s, early. That's like, pills were the way to go. And they were concerned, and they loved me so much. And I think, you know, I'm not a parent yet, but I can imagine one of the hardest things as a parent is to see your child suffer. Oh, yeah. And you want to do anything to help? Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I think of my little. My daughter getting rejected by a boy, and, like, I want to go, like, boy, yeah, yeah. So I totally get what you're saying, but, yeah. So your parents are coming from a good place, and now you. Now you're, like, validating this feeling that you're having. So what happens with antidepressants? What happened to you with them?

Well, at first, they did help, and I think, you know, medication, like antidepressants, it can be like a cast. If there's a broken bone, it can help. The problem for me is that I. It became so much of my identity. It wasn't a cast. It became what I thought I needed. It became who I thought I was. Yeah. So it was good in the sense that it did kind of pull me out of the slump a little bit. And my parents, like I talk about it with my parents now, and especially my mom, she's like, I did see the difference in you. Like, part of you came back. Because I know that those belief systems and all the trauma and things that were happening, it absolutely shifted my brain chemistry. So in a way, it was medicine and it helped. But over time, what happened is it started just to numb me because suppression and repression. I just started kind of numbing all my feelings. And I went really into my mind and really into my head and. And I became an overachiever. I thought, well, if I don't belong and people don't like me and I'm broken. And I was very ashamed of being on antidepressants. When I would bring the teacher's note, say, or the doctor's note to excuse my absence from school. I would wipe out the psychiatrist under her letter because I was so ashamed that the mom working in the attendance office would tell somebody and my peers would know I was going to see a psychiatrist. I had so much shame, Natalie, about it. So it was like this secret. And I had the kind of depression that I could put on a mask and look really good from the outside, but on the inside, I felt kind of just numb. I felt sad a lot. I felt incredibly critical of myself. I had a lot of worry and anxiety, and I couldn't feel, like, the good feelings. A lot of times I had trouble with intimacy. I didn't have a lot of inspiration. I really lived from the neck up. Truly lived in my mind.

Were kids still bullying you when this was going on after even this? And then.

No, no. And it wasn't, like, terrible, Like, I wasn't, you know, beat up or anything like that. It was just mean girls. It was like a lot of mean girl stuff. Yeah. And because. But because of that, I really isolated myself. So I wasn't good at making friends. So I'd have maybe, like, one friend, and I would just be with that person, and then I would just, you know, take the extra credit class. I would make friends with the teachers, basically, and do my thing, and then I just go home. The one thing that was really, really, really helpful was at around, I don't know, my early teens, my parents got me into acting classes that were separate from my school. And that helped so much because it gave me. It's like they were TV acting classes, too, so they were in front of a camera, and when that camera went on, it gave some part of my psyche permission to be a different person. But in a way, it was more me. It gave me permission to express. And so that was super helpful. Acting really, I think, kept me from going worse, into a depression.

Wow. Yeah. That outside. Just something else that you could be good at, that you.

Yeah, yeah.

So, okay, so you're on this journey. How many years are we talking that we're on these. Suppressing these things and taking these Pills.

Um, I was. Got off antidepressants just before my 30th birthday, so 20 years. Wow.

I mean, that's something I. That you have to kind of constantly go up on a dose. Is it add other problems?

Yep. So I. I always had to kind of experiment with the. I've been on pretty much all of them, like, every single different one. It started Prozac, and then it was like a number of them. And because I was in the habit of suppressing my emotions, I also started to develop really bad anxiety in my 20s. So then I was on anti. Anxiety. Not every day, but a little anxiety as well. I also had headaches every day for almost 27 years, right in my third eye, which is that place between our eyebrows, which happens when we don't want to see things, when we want to kind of shut down our sensitivity. So I. My poor liver. So many pills. And it was again, like, I really thought I needed them. And it was. It wasn't until, like, my. I think I was 24, that I met my first coach and spiritual teacher, which was different than a psychiatrist because I'd always been seeing psychiatrist so I could keep the medication coming that I started to entertain the idea that I could get off of them. Because she was the first one that said, hey, like, you can get off of these. And I was like, no, like, I'm a depressed person. I need these. This is who I am.

Yeah.

But it took years because I had a. Not just a physical addiction, but a mental addiction to them. I had a belief system addiction to them, and it took me a good five years to get off.

Okay, So I have a lot of questions that are coming up for me from this. So like a parent listening right now, let's say. And they're saying, okay, my daughter has this. My son has this, and I want to do what's best for them. And they're being told by their doctors, antidepressants are.

It's.

What do you say to that?

Okay. So now more than ever, children are born hugely, energetically sensitive, and we need to learn how to cultivate that. And one of the ways that we cultivate that is really teach them how to process their feelings. Because the thing that a lot of depression is is it's feelings or trauma that get shut down, or it's creativity that gets shut down. You know, I know a lot of people who are depressed because they are highly creative and highly intuitive. But they were born into a family where only kind of the logical academic side of the mind was really Nurturing.

You need to be a lawyer. You need to be an accountant.

Exactly, exactly. So they depress, they suppress all this creativity. So, you know, one of the things I'm super passionate about teaching in my work is emotional processing. And I think that's something that's really important for parents to teach their children is how to release emotions, like how to journal in a way that helps you navigate your feelings, how to express anger or sadness, like, to really make emotions okay. And teach your children about that. And honestly, we learn from watching our parents. So if a parent has a child who's diagnosed with depression, first ask yourself, okay, like, what am I? How am I handling my own emotions? Yeah. Because they're learning from me.

Yeah. A lot of light bulb moments going off for me just even listening to you. So I'm older than you. Not by much, but I am. So I'm thinking I was a kid in the 70s, and I was that creative kid that wanted to do, you know, wanted to just create and do everything. And I was told by everyone, I have add, I'm not paying attention. I need to tune in, you know, all this. So at that time, there wasn't all the drugs, there wasn't antidepressants or ADD medicine or any of that when I was a kid. If there was, my parents probably would have given it to me. And so a lot of it is really landing for me, what you're saying. Because I think that I shifted when I was allowed to create and be creative. And I think there is a lot of parents still doing that to their kids. Like, they think that they're supposed to. You know, they define this normalcy of something like, you have to have this kind of job or you have to be this kind of student, or. Rather than letting them create. And that might be causing some of these issues.

Yep, yep. Or just say, and here's the. Here's the other thing. And this is often a sobering conversation for parents. Remember how I said my parents were uncomfortable with me feeling bad? And that's what all parents feel. So a lot of times if a child is more emotional, a parent will soothe them too quickly because they're uncomfortable with their upset. Yeah. So, like, letting your kids have their feelings. And we can talk about, like, how to teach processing emotions, letting them have their feelings. Don't soothe them. Quiet them down. Tell them to shake it off. Tell them it's no big deal. Get them in their logical mind too quickly because that ends. That interrupts their ability to release their feelings and process their feelings. And feel comfortable with their feelings. Because another thing that causes suppression is being afraid to express.

Yeah, okay, so I'm probably doing that wrong. So how do you, what do you do? I think this was with my daughter right now, because clearly I'm probably doing that. So.

So let me tell you the way I teach it to adults and then we can adapt it for children. Okay. And I'll tell a story. When I started seeing Mona, who was that first spiritual teacher and coach that I told you about, and she said, you can get off these antidepressants. And I said, you're crazy. I can't. I have this addiction. I have this, you know, disease. One of the. Maybe it was like our second or third session, I would see her in her house and she walked into the session with a huge pillow that was duct taped, tennis racket and gardening gloves. And she said, I want you to put these gardening gloves on, grab this tennis racket, hit the pillow and scream. And I was like, you're crazy. And she said, no, I'm not crazy, but you're angry. And I said, I'm not angry. She's like, baby girl, you've got so much inside of you and your gifts are underneath a lot of anger and sadness and shame, and I want to help you get it out of your body. And so she taught me how to like hit the pillow and just make a sound. And that was a big deal for me to even, like, hit the pillow and make a sound because I was so, quote, unquote, good and I was so kind of suppressed in my voice and my expression and I'd be irritable. Like, my anger would leak out in irritability. And that happens for a lot of people that deal with any depression or suppression. And a lot of women, especially if we repress our anger, were snippy and were irritable. So my anger would express that way. But I had never really, like, gotten it and learned how to get it out in a healthy way. So she taught me how to just gently hit the pillow and use my words and start saying things like, I'm angry because I'm sad because. And follow.

Gently hit the pillow or beat the heck out of it.

Well, once I got going, like, once I'd find something that, like, I was really upset about, I would be smacking that thing pretty hard and screaming. But I had to build up to that because, like, a lot of times, if we hold our emotions in most of our life, hearing our hearing ourselves yell is scary.

Yeah.

And especially for people who grew up in a chaotic home. That's another kind of archetype of people who suppress is you grew up with a lot of fighting, and you're like, oh, I don't want any of that. And just kind of hold everything inside totally. So that's why emotional release work is so important. So you learn how to give voice and sound to emotion, and you, like, move it out of your body. And the difference between releasing emotion and recycling it, which a lot of us do, is while you're releasing an emotion, whether you're yelling or crying or whatever it may be, you're not judging it. Too many of us, when we release any emotion or we cry or we get upset, there's that critic in our brain or the analyzer in our brain going, I don't like this. I don't like feeling this way. I don't like this emotion. I want this to be over. We're judging someone else or judging ourselves. And so it doesn't give the emotion, which is emotion, energy in motion, the opportunity get up and out of our body. So that's why it's so important when we're releasing emotion, just to let it go. So when I'm with a client or with my little nephews or with anybody that's being vulnerable and releasing emotion, I don't try to soothe right away. I don't fix. I just say, it's okay. Let it out. What else? Let it out. Keep going. What else are you sad about? What else are you angry about? Let it out. And if we can do that as parents, like, give our kids a space where they can express. I have one friend, and she saw Mona, too, and she's a coach as well. She has three children, and she set up, like, you know, those. Those. I don't know what they're called, but they're like the, like, kid punching bags. It's like a clown or something, and you hit it and it's weighted on the bottom, you know?

I know you're talking about. Yep, yep.

She set up that in, like, a little station for her kids, and when they'd get upset about something, she'd be like, go. Go to the anger space.

I'm gonna. I'm getting one on Amazon today. I love it. I need that for me.

That's awesome.

Yeah. And then you teach them, and it's. I call it in my book, in my courses, an adult version of a temper tantrum. I call it the temper tantrum technique. And if you let your children in a safe space, ride the energy of their Temper tantrum. They eventually get to self soothing. Like the emotional wave wears off and they eventually get to self soothing. And that's if we ride the wave of an emotion, we'll eventually get there. And that's an important, important part of emotional release work, is not just to have this cathartic release and then just leave it be. You have the release, but then you go into self soothing, you go into nurturing, you tell yourself, it's okay, I'm proud of myself for getting this emotion out. And then you forgive yourself for any of the beliefs you bought into that perpetuated that emotion.

Yeah, this is so good. A lot of light bulb moments here. And I'm sure people listening are feeling the same way, whether how what they're seeing in their kids or with themselves. So what is the danger of not having the emotional release?

Well, let's just first talk about the health risks of not having it. You know, I know so many people that come to me that have IBS or chronic headaches or autoimmune problems. Those are just three off the top of my head, that if they've gone, you know, they've looked at supplements, they've looked at diet, they just can't find the answer. A lot of it is because there's emotional repression going on. Not being able to lose weight is a lot of time because again, we're talking about energy in motion. If you have a lot of unprocessed emotions, people that have suffered any kind of abuse, if they haven't dealt with a trauma, tend to carry a little extra weight because the body parts holds it, you know, it holds it energetically.

Yeah.

So that's another effect of it not being able to tap into your, your passion and your creativity, you know, because a lot of times, especially for women, our creativity and our passion is kind of underneath our anger. So if we haven't dealt with the things in our life that have pissed us off, we often can't get to our passion because that fire, that healthy fire, is sometimes suppressed under things that we've kept inside. So not being able to tap into creativity is a big one too. Okay.

So if you recognize that you have a problem with this, maybe not your kids, but yourself, whatever, but it's so ingrained in you that it's not okay to release it because that is culturally pretty common and popular.

How do you break past that?

Because it's not easy for someone just to go from not showing emotions to, you know, they're being neutral, they're constantly suppressing and maybe they have the health issues to like now expressing it, it feels awkward or fake or funny to them. Like, how do you baby step into that?

I get it. It felt so freaking awkward to me. And you know, the other thing was like being a bit of a people pleaser too and definitely like not wanting to express how my feelings in front of others. So you baby step it and you get help. Like I didn't learn this on my own. I had help, I had teachers, I had coaches. And we live in a world where there's a lot of resources out there. And the first I think the step even before that is just the awareness and the willingness I have found. Natalie, I'm sure you have too. Like when I have an aha moment and I'm like, oh, that's me. And I'm like, alright, I'm willing to shift this. The teachers and the situations appear that are going to help me once I, once I connect the dots and have the willingness. So that's to me the biggest step to take to be like, all right, like, I don't exactly know how to do this, but I'm willing to do it. And starting with something as simple as journaling, there's a technique that I teach called release writing where you just write and write and write and write. Stream of consciousness writing. You're writing so fast you can't even read your handwriting and then you just like rip it up. It's not like a journaling because you're not like using your logical mind to try to process things. You're just clearing out emotional clutter. And that process in itself will start to activate some of the subconscious mind. And so that's an easy way just to start. If even that feels like too much, just simple journaling is fine. But just taking that first step of all right, like I don't want to live repressed and suppressed depressed anymore. And I don't want to live like not fully expressed in my life. That's an amazing first step.

So this is really, really brilliant actually because I think a lot of people would look at it as it's an either or, it's a black or white. Like I either have to be tough and not share emotions or I need to like be a sobbing, you know, blubbering, whatever. It's like you look at these extremes. So I love that you're saying like you, you kind of baby step it and you, you just take little steps. Like any step forward is a step in the right direction. It sounds like. So if you're doing nothing and you just start journaling or sharing or whatever it is, it's going to make an impact.

And those two things you mentioned that like suppressed everything or blubbering mess are two polarities, right? Yeah, it's like two opposite ends of the extreme. But if you learn how to release your emotions, like kind of. You know, when I first went into this work, there was a lot. I was doing the temper tantrum, temper tantrum technique a lot. When I was getting off the antidepressants and finally starting to feel again, there were always a lot of pillow hitting and crying and journaling. But that didn't last forever. You know, it got. It got up and out. And now, you know, there are moments I may be triggered and I may need to do a little temper tantrum or a little writing or a little releasing, but it's very fewer and far between. And on the other side of that, I feel very expressed in my life. I feel a lot of joy in my life. I feel way more connected. But it was a process. It was a healing process. And this applies to people that everybody, not just people that have been diagnosed with depression. We all as human beings are exceptional at suppressing our emotions.

Yes. I love this topic right now because. And you don't know this about me and my audience doesn't know this about me, probably, but. So as a kid, my dad used to make fun of me for crying. In fact, he would hold a mirror up to me if I was crying and tease me. So I learned. And he thought he was doing a good thing. You know, he was. He was the right attention from him. He thought it's weak to be emotional. So I learned my whole life, you're not. Don't be emotional. Don't show emotions. And my dad died at age 49 of a heart attack. I wonder why it is that suppression. So everything you're saying makes sense. And as I'm taking notes, listening to you, a lot of that, I'm a case example of it being very difficult to break that habit when that's ingrained in you. But I will share that. Letting it out and starting to share that emotional side. It's kind of like, for lack of a better analogy, it's like being constipated and holding it in.

Yes.

You feel so good once it's out.

Yes. I call one of my retreats an emotional clonic, because that's. Yeah, it is like being constipated. And have you found now that you're not so emotionally constipated that one you have More energy and two, more creativity.

Yes, I do find that. However, I will say I have definitely not achieved it. The level that you have when you're. When something's so ingrained in you, it is difficult and challenging. But I like that you're offering, like, baby steps versus, like, having to go all the way. I know there's some cultures, specifically Asian cultures, I see it a lot where they're taught this is a. And I. And I see it over and over again, come up with these. Some of the health issues and the perfectionists and all of that, and not showing creativity. So this is a very real. A very real thing. And it's. It's. People overlook it. We look at. We have to exercise more. We have to watch what we're eating. But this is a really big component.

Yes, it's a really big component. And honestly, if people had kind of more emotional health, they'd be able to eat more intuitively. They'd have more energy to exercise. Often we go into any kind of weight loss, diet, exercise program with all this emotional baggage, and it makes it so much harder. I have seen in my own life, even my body will give me feedback if I have aches and pains, if I'm carrying a little weight or whatever, there's something emotional. The body's a messenger. And I truly believe, and I've seen it time and time and time again, that physical symptoms are illnesses, aches, pains, weight, whatever it is, is our body communicating to us? Because our body is the only way that our unconscious mind, which is where all our feelings and repressed emotions and memories lie, it's the only way our unconscious mind can communicate to us is either through our body or our dreams at night.

Interesting. So do you think like doing an intense workout when people do that? Does that give you that same types of type of release with that? Like you mentioned punching a pillow or hitting a bag. Would that. Could that translate to that?

Well, the difference between punching a pillow and hitting a bag is you're putting the words and the emotion at it when you're exercising, you're moving energy, but you're not connecting the memory and the emotion that's in the subconscious to the physical release. Okay. So it doesn't to an. It's a good stress release. But until we connect that, the feeling memory with the release, we don't get the healing that the body's really wanting.

Got it. Really good, Good thoughts there. I hope everybody's taking notes on this one. This is good. This is gold. Oh, my gosh. Okay. So back to you. This journey was huge for you. How long did it take you to get off the antidepressants? And was there anything additional you had to add to this emotional training, really?

Yes. And, you know, I should say, like, I'm not, you know, preaching that antidepressants are bad or wrong or people shouldn't be on them. I'm just saying what's worked for me. And you know, at this point, thousands of people that I've worked with because, you know, a lot of people are drawn to, to, to me in the work because they, they are dealing with depression and it can feel really, really hopeless. So if you are dealing with depression and anxiety, let me just say that there's hope. There's hope. I promise. So there are a couple things that were not just a couple, many. So first I had support. You know, I had. I had Mona, my teacher. I also was in a grad school program at the University of Santa Monica where I got a master's degree in spiritual psychology. So I had a community of people. I really looked at my nutrition. I really identified, like, things like gluten are not good for my brain. I did not have any alcohol for. I can't remember how long it was. It might have been two years. Because alcohol is a depressant. And I wanted to like, give my brain chemistry the support it needed. I worked with both a medical doctor and like a naturopath so that I was weaning off and supplementing in a way, because I knew that cold turkey off. Hell no. Not advise that, like for people at all, especially if you've been on them as long as I was like, I mean, it was seriously an addiction. And I had to work on my. Yeah, yes. I had to work on shifting my brain chemistry. And here's. Here's a massive thing too. My relationship with myself was highly dysfunctional. Highly. And love healing is the application of love to the places inside that hurt. And I had to apply a lot of self love as well. I had to really look at how critical I was and how addicted I was to being critical of myself. Because, Natalie, being critical of myself got me to do things. Yeah, I was successful because I was hard on myself. I could motivate myself that way. So I had to find a different way to inspire myself to know I could get off the medication and have a happy life without being critical of myself. So I had to really look at my inner voice voices and my inner judge and find a place of self love and forgive myself for buying into a lot of the beliefs too. So it was, it was mindset. Not just, not just like thinking positively, but mindset and really listening to my own inner dialogue and shifting. That was a huge thing. And then it was community, having support, having friends, being vulnerable, taking the shame off of it, talking to more people about what I was struggling with and how I was dealing with it. And then it was also channeling and into service. You know, my first book came out in 2005 when I started as a coach. I was still on antidepressants and I was just channeling everything I was learning and all the healing work I was doing into my service, into how I wanted to impact people. So creativity and service was a big part for me as well.

And I think also being authentic, you've always been very authentic with what you're going through yourself.

Yep. Because that helps with the shame.

Yeah.

You know, the only way we heal shame is to get it into the light. You know, it's such a dark, heavy energy to carry and we have to get it into the light for us to be able to be free of it.

So good. So good. Okay, I've got a couple of questions for you that I've got to, I've got to know. So one, because. Because you are so committed to the work now, do you. Are you very aware of your circle of friends and who you let in, that they have that same belief? And how do you. Are you an influence of that onto them or do you seek out people that are of that same mindset Now?

I definitely not. Just, it's funny, like, I don't just seek it out, it just kind of naturally happens. That's the amazing thing about energy is it shifts our vibration and it naturally shifts who we attract. And because I've done so much inner work, my outer life, it's pretty. I don't want to say easy, but it flows a lot better. Like I would say my outward stuff, everything from my business to my friendships is a direct reflection of where I am inside. Yeah. So I naturally just am drawn to and attract people that have a level of self awareness and are willing to do the work and, and, and actually really like themselves. Like, I love being around people and we all have our inner critics and we all have our bad days, but I find that the more we like ourselves, the more we have an abundance mindset, the healthier we are. The more we're rooting for each other, the more we can support each other. We're not competition. And I'm not like saying that we're all perfect or living in an idealistic world. But I truly have found that I've just naturally attract really amazing people. The more I own my own amazingness.

You know, as I'm talking to you and asking that question, I'm thinking when I actually met you and the events that I've seen you at and we've been at is if you really look at, at who that circle of people was, always everybody there that we. All these great women that we've been around all have a high level of emotional intelligence or work that they did.

Yep, yep. High level emotional intelligence, ability to communicate, ability to set boundaries. You know, like it's, it's, it's. And again, like it doesn't have to be years and years of work and no one's walking on water, but just you nailed it. It's like emotional intelligence, understanding ourselves, because then we just understand others way better.

Yeah, no, that's gold. Okay, I have a question that I ask everybody. I could go on all day with a million questions for you, but I'm going to, I'm going to not take your whole day.

Oh, I love talking about this.

I have one question that I do ask everybody and I'm curious your take on this. So if somebody themself is in their own rock bottom right now, so maybe they're in their deep depression right now, they're on antidepressant depressants or they're not on it, but they're in their own depression. They've just had lots of stuff happen to them and they are ready to start shifting out of it. What are three pieces of advice that you would give them to start leveling up and creating everything?

Well, first get help. You know, find. Find somebody that is of the mindset. Like if you are somebody that you're resonating with this and you don't want to necessarily go the prescription drug route the rest of your life. The help may be someone, it might not be like a psychiatrist that's super ingrained in western medicine. Right. You have to find the help that is aligned with the direction that you want to go. And a great way to do that is one, be vulnerable and ask people. But also two, just put out to the universe. Put out as a prayer. Hey, I'm ready. It's when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And I really believe we have that strong intention that's huge. Another just very simple tool to create a quick shift is. And I have this on my phone and I carry it with me. Find a picture of Yourself when you were a child, like a baby. But toddler age works really well. And when you're feeling really sad, when you're feeling like the inner critic and the self loathing is really ramped up, look at that picture and look into the eyes of that precious little being and just connect with your self love and connect with your compassion. Because nothing is more healing than our own self love and compassion. And that picture is a. Is a great way to do that.

So good.

And. And then finally, I think you said 3. The journaling technique that I recommended is a great way to start to clear emotional clutter and to help us start to feel safe with the expression of emotions. It's a very low risk, kind of non threatening. It's not as jarring as maybe yelling and hitting a pillow. It's a great beginning to just start to bring feelings and memories forward.

So good.

I love this.

Christine, where can people find you? Where do you. Where are you most active on social? Where do you want people to go to look for more and can. Do you still take coaching clients?

Yes, yes, yes. So I'm probably most active. Not probably. I am most active on Instagram and Facebook. It's just my name, Christine Hassler. If people, you know, like coaching and this kind of conversation, I my podcast, I coach people live on the air. It's called over it and on with it. So every Wednesday is a live life coaching episode and then I combine life coaching and spiritual psychology. So that's another great way to get tools. And every Saturday is a coach's corner with an expert like you. So that's a great place to go. And then Christine Hassler is my website and I have a free gift people can get. So if they just text my name, Christine C H R I S T I n e to 444999 they get a an ebook which is 32 days to uplevel your mind and uplift your heart. Just daily little inspirational reads that I wrote. And then they also get my six steps to intuitive decision making process. I love it. It's like my most practical technique that I teach to be intuitive because everybody's like, how do you be intuitive? So they get that.

I'm texting and getting those today. So thank you.

Cool. Yeah.

Thank you so much, Christine. Thank you.

Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, Fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up? We aren't feeling it yet. Or we've had a big setback. On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst are how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible, leveling up and creating everything from nothing.