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Carlee
Does the thought of connecting spiritually scare you or do you feel out of touch spiritually? Hi, I'm Carlee Myers, a stress management expert. And this month we are talking spirituality and stress and because we're talking about that. I brought on an amazing guest, Ilia Stranko. She is a personal growth and healing specialist and the founder of Spiritually Curious. She is an energetic based practitioner, meaning her work is deeply rooted in our bodies energetic system, also known as our chakras. I'm sure you guys have heard some of that before, right? Ilia works with individuals one on one in person and online as a mentor with her soul signature soul sessions as well as through past life regression therapy. Her group coaching experiences spiritually curious are workshops offered in person and online created. They are created to equip beginners soul seekers. This is really key beginners, soul seekers with all of the spiritual tools and knowledge that they need to embrace their journey while learning how to connect deeply with their own inner wisdom. Ilia is a former social worker who has trained under Doctor Dr. Brian Weiss, the world's leading expert in past life regression therapy. She's also a Reiki master and so many other things that I know we're going to touch on today. She's a speaker, workshop leader, teacher and a proud mama of twin boys. She is superwoman and goodness gracious, studied under Brian Weiss. I'm just reading this for the probably fifth, sixth, seventh time now. And I'm still in awe that. You've worked with him and you studied under him. Welcome to the show.
Ilia
Thank you. Thank you so much. Brian Weiss is like a superhero to me. So I love him. So thank you for that.
Carlee
Absolutely. So I'm curious, you know, you've done so much stuff in your career and you've been helping so many people get in touch spiritually and maybe repatch some relationships with spirituality that was damaged, all of that. How did you how did you get here?
Ilia
Well, you know, to be honest, it was a really curvy road. Yeah. It was a really curvy road. It wasn't an easy journey. I went all over the place. I think. And but ultimately, I think everything that I was learning along the way is what brought me here, so I always joke that, you know, being a social worker was like my socially acceptable healer time period. You know, and like. And so that was like the period where I was helping people. And but I could like explain my title really easily. And people knew what that meant. And and now after studying, you know, meditation and breath work and Reiki and I mean, so many other modalities, including going to massage school so I could like learn about the physical body. I don't do that in my private practice. But but the knowledge that that you get there is really valuable. So I've kind of combined everything. Everything. All of these all of these little moments that were really to help me initially because I was stressed being a social worker. I was stressed being a healer. I was trying to figure out outlets for myself. And that's what really brought me to breath work. And that's what brought me to meditation. And that's what brought me to Reiki. And and then the road just kept going from there. And so it's really been. It was at the beginning was all about self-discovery. And then I started sneaking that work in with my clients. And I could not believe what was happening. And so slowly over time, it just evolved into into this, you know, into these soul sessions that I call them. And it's really like spiritual emotional care.
Carlee
Just one of the most important things that we could possibly do doing for ourselves.
Ilia
Absolutely. Absolutely. We all need it. We own it.
Carlee
So I'm I'm curious for for the listeners at home that maybe maybe we feel spiritually disconnected or or we're unsure. I mean, right now, as we're recording this, we're in a very kind of weird I just call a weird or interesting time. So if we're feeling we're disconnected spiritually or unsure spiritually or we just want to grow spiritually, what do you recommend?
Ilia
Yeah. I mean, I really think that at the core of this, it's about this deep inner wisdom and this and regret regaining trust in ourselves. And really, it's about rebuilding that relationship. And and honestly, at the beginning, I think the best thing to do is to take time to breathe, you know, and even if that's just five breaths, you know. You think that it sounds silly and it sounds like this small thing, but it's huge. It will change the course of your day and it'll change the course of your connection with yourself. So I always tell people to start there, to start noticing their breath, because we're we're high breathers. We tend to breathe up until our throat. And when you can bring your breath down into your belly, you know, we're into your where your diaphragm is really expanding. That gives you the opportunity to open up that energetic pathway so that you can connect with your with your highest knowing, with your inner wisdom. And I think that's the first step.
Carlee
So it sounds like it's like connect with your connect with your body so that you can connect with your soul.
Ilia
Yes. Yeah. It's twofold, right? Because we have a physical body. We're here, we're earthbound, but we also have an energetic body. And the two we don't know. We haven't always had this language around an energetic body. Some cultures do. Ours really doesn't. But it but it but the two play together and they really impact each other. So when you can do something simple like breathing to bring the connection together, then that just starts slowly. Starts the process.
Carlee
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And I remember it like we were talking before this that, you know, one of the first things, too, is to know that we're not alone in this whole process.
Ilia
Yes. And that's really why I started spiritually curious. The workshops is because so many people were coming to my office and they were hiding and I was hiding, too. Don't get me wrong, it took me a really long time to to get the courage to be like, this is what I do and not be hiding also. And so, yeah. You're not alone. There's so many people that are, you know, exploring their spiritual journey in a different way. And there's so many of us that that you can reach out to for support. And yeah, you're definitely not alone. Yeah, absolutely.
Carlee
It's almost like an empowerment of embodying like embodying and be like, hey, this is me. This is this is my journey. Perfect or not.
Ilia
Yes. Yeah. It's how you know, it's how we step in to the truth of who we are, right, when we step into this part of our being, when we allow this part of us to shine and to be seen. It really gives us permission to move towards our purpose, to move towards our truth, to stand in who we are. It's amazing how this transforms in-to into, you know, creating strength and creating that empowerment and creating all of that through that, you know, spiritual, emotional, physical care. And at that intersection creates so much inner strength. It's it's amazing. It blows my mind. It really does.
Carlee
So it's almost that we skipped a step because we were like, here's the result. Well, I guess we want to know the result before we take action. But we've talked about this like spiritual stress. Can you tell me tell us a little bit more about what that is. And. How it shows up?
Ilia
Yeah. So, I mean, I think at its core, spiritual stresses, it comes out in this way of some of us ignoring our inner wisdom, of us ignoring that pull for something that we really want to work on or really want to work towards. And then when we ignore that, that that sense, that's just letting you know this is the right way. And maybe that weighs like a little scary or doesn't feel comfortable. It's out of your comfort zone. And then you start to say, well, I'm not ready for that. But the way that your energy and your spirit respond is that for a little while it whispers, but then it gets louder and louder and louder and it becomes physical symptoms and it becomes emotional symptoms. It becomes, you know, anxiety that tightening in your stress in your chest, that feeling like you're holding your breath. All of these like physical symptoms come as a result of this spiritual stress, which is really kind of ignoring, ignoring this path, ignoring this calling when it comes up for you.
Carlee
So I think the first thing that we can do, we can take away from this episode in conclusion is, is really first connecting to the breath so that we can connect to that our higher sense of knowing so that we can start taking action and not ignore. Stop ignoring that inner voice.
Ilia
Yeah.
Carlee
So Can we can relieve that stress. So, Ilia, thank you so much for coming on the show. Where can we find you?
Ilia
Yeah. Thank you for having me. And you can find me at Ilia Stranko dot com. You can also find me at spiritually curious dot com and on Instagram at spiritually dot curious.
Carlee
Perfect. So for the listeners at home, we want to know, where are you at in your spiritual stress management journey? Are you in spiritual stress? Are you in connectedness and where? Maybe you're somewhere in between. We're curious. So definitely drop us a comment and let us know. We'd love to get the conversation started. So this concludes this episode of The Stress Less Show. If you enjoyed this week's episode, let us know by giving us a big old thumbs up and hitting that follow or subscribe button. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.