You’re going to make some tough decisions, because you cannot elevate your energy in a toxic environment surrounded by toxic people.
Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked on Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonald’s franchise in his 50s.
How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?
In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.
As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Paula Swope.
Paula Swope is a thought leader, social media influencer, spiritual coach, podcast host, and Deepak Chopra Certified Instructor and the author of Thought Snob: The Modern Spiritual Playbook for a Better Life, written in her trademark down-to-earth style filled with humor, compassion, and plenty of personal life stories.
After years of trauma, abuse, self-destruction and failure, Paula learned that her negative thinking patterns were destroying her life and began a powerful midlife transformation. Through her extraordinary ‘Thought S.N.O.B.’ process, which teaches how to See New Objective Beliefs to help move you from havoc to happiness, Paula shares how to create the life you truly deserve through the amazing power of your thoughts — just as she did.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Absolutely! I appreciate the opportunity.
In my new book, I refer to my upbringing as downbringing, because things I was led to believe about myself brought me down, not up. Being fed disempowering beliefs boils down to one thing: being told who you are based on the subjective opinions of others. If you examine those subjective opinions, you won’t find the truth, but I didn’t realize this until I spent the first three decades of my life experiencing more heartache than love.
I was raised in a small, rural county in Kentucky, where poverty is rampant and very much so part of the cultural landscape. Poverty socialization does a number on people. There is one thing all people who were raised in poverty have in common, and that’s an expectation of defeat. They’re used to never having enough of anything, so they live in fear of the next bad thing that will happen. Well, if you expect defeat, that’s what you get.
I wasn’t raised in poverty, but my parents were. My parents were raised in cruel poverty. The kind of poverty that most people don’t escape because they expect defeat. So, their mindset is rooted in one question: Why try? So, I was fortunate enough to never experience the cruel poverty that my parents endured, but here’s the unfortunate piece of this. I inherited their mindset, which I refer to as the Poverty Invaded Mindset (PIM). I inherited their way of thinking just as I did my high cheekbones and brown eyes. Those two physical attributes have served me well, but PIM never did anything except bring me down.
My parents didn’t intentionally bring me down. They had no awareness of how damaging their mindsets were, and they certainly had no awareness that they were negative influences on me. They still have no awareness of this. The conversations I remember hearing when I believed everything they said went a little something like this…
Money is hard to come by. God blesses some people more than others. People are wealthy because God chose to bless them. Women don’t make as much money as men.
These conversations seeped into my mind, traveled to my subconscious, and shaped my behaviors for an inordinate amount of time. I was broke and dependent on my very controlling, manipulative father for all of my resources. The thought of me being able to obtain wealth was not a possibility I entertained. I settled for what I didn’t want and I conformed, and I was miserable because of it.
One core belief I had wholeheartedly adopted by the time I was five was that I was prone to sickness more than most people. My mom would say, “Paula, you’re just like Mommy. You’re frail. You get sick easily.” I believed that until I was way into my 30s, and the outcome was poor health. I stayed sick all the time with debilitating head colds, bouts of pneumonia, and the flu, and if there was a stomach virus going around, I caught it.
This is how ridiculous I was. I would plan ahead for my sickness, and this is a textbook example of living with an expectation of defeat. When I was in college, and my fall semester would start in August, I would think ahead to December. December was a month that I always fell ill. As I planned out my semester, I would think about how I would handle final exams while being sick.
My birthday is on Christmas Day, and I would tell people that I was afraid to plan any birthday celebrations because I would probably be “deathly ill.” That was my go-to drama explanation about myself — “deathly ill.”
I inherited some ridiculous beliefs about myself, and the result of those beliefs was me settling for what I didn’t want. I never got what I wanted in any area of my life, especially in my relationships. My thoughts destroyed my life, and I had no awareness of that until I was almost 30 years old. When I learned about the power I had, I developed a new fear, but it was a good fear. I became fearful of thinking and talking about myself like some broke, helpless victim who was jealous of everyone who had more than me. Keep in mind I was taught to believe that God chooses to bless some people more than others, and that caused me to hate people who I saw as God’s chosen ones.
Dr. Wayne Dyer came into my life around the age of 28 or 29, and he made more sense than anyone ever had. He taught me how life really works, and I realized that my whole existence was based on lies. Through Dr. Dyer, I learned that God had actually given me the exact same gift that is given to everyone: free will. That awareness was my foundation for transformative change because I started seeing myself as a powerful person for the first time in my life.
I am 47 now, and my life looks nothing like it did twenty years ago. My high cheekbones and brown eyes are still in place, but the PIM gene I inherited has been turned off. I have everything that I was always told wasn’t a possibility for me, and guess what? I am in the best shape of my life, the best health of my life, and there isn’t one thing in my world that resembles poverty. I expect miracles, not defeat, and miracles are what I have created.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Oh yes. I’m always happy to pass this one along.
“Hostile people live in a hostile world. Loving people live in a loving world. Same world.” ~Dr. Wayne Dyer
When I think about it, this is probably the quote that changed my perspective about the world and my role in it. I grew up in a hostile environment, but I was clueless. I didn’t realize it was hostile because I thought it was normal. I’m not sure if everyone realizes their families are dysfunctional when they’re young, but when I started asking questions and educating myself, our dysfunctionality was like a piece of cellophane. I saw straight through it.
During my self-empowerment journey, I heard Dr. Dyer say that, and it made me think critically about the world I lived in. And it wasn’t loving at that time. It was very hostile. I thought to myself, “There are people who live in a loving world, so this is a possibility for me.” Simply believing that I could live in a loving world, too, ignited a chain of conscious creations, and I moved right out of havoc and into happiness.
You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
My top three qualities are Strong Emotional Intelligence, Charisma, and Determination.
I’ll begin with the quality that I consider to be most important: strong emotional intelligence. I had to cultivate this because I didn’t have any emotional intelligence prior to my self-empowerment transformation. What I mean by this is I had no control over my emotions, and when you can’t control your emotions, you become a mindless creator. Here’s an example.
Younger Paula created her problems and blamed others for her alleged bad luck. One consistent problem I had came from dating unfaithful guys. I was like an insane person because I would take these men back over and over and expect the relationship to somehow be loving, loyal, and peaceful. That was never the case.
This behavior can be traced to another core memory from childhood. My parents fought a lot, and after one of their screaming matches, I was sitting beside my mom as she cried uncontrollably, as usual. She said, “Paula, if you care about a man, and he knows that you care, he will treat you like dirt beneath his feet.” I accepted her opinion as the absolute truth. As I got older, I migrated towards abusive men who treated me like dirt beneath their feet.
I would tell people when I started dating someone about how confident I was that he would be unfaithful. And, like clockwork, I was cheated on in every relationship I was in. Each time I found out that the guy was cheating, I reacted in the worst way possible. I would get all dolled up, round up my crew, prop up at a bar, and commence holding court. I was the judge, the jury, and the prosecuting attorney, and I was there to convince everyone of how badly I had been treated again and through no fault of my own.
My audience listened intently as I worked hard to convince them that (and these were my exact words) I had been put on this earth to be tormented.
Now, how could I be faultless with that kind of self-talk? My emotions, words, thoughts, and actions were rooted in defeat. Since we create our physical reality with those four things, I created a life that wasn’t worth living and had no clue about what I was doing.
Managing my emotions healthily was a real game-changer because I didn’t react immediately to negative situations. Plus, I didn’t expect negative situations, so they became less frequent as time went on. Developing strong emotional intelligence resulted in a shift in how I felt daily. I was no longer ridden with disempowering emotions, and my life was more peaceful. So, I shifted from attracting disempowerment to attracting people, places, and things that resembled peace.
I’ll switch to the quality I consider to be almost as important as emotional intelligence: determination. I was born with this quality, and I got it from my father. Determination is his best, most admirable quality. I am very grateful that I got that from him, but I had to learn how to use it. Before I woke up, I used this quality to run myself into the ground because I was determined to hold on to an old identity that did not serve me well.
After doing a lot of inner work, I became determined to let that old identity go. And I did, which led me to embrace a new identity that would ultimately give me the life I really wanted. Let me tell you. It takes unswayable determination to evict deeply embedded subconscious beliefs. I spent about ten years working to forgive myself and the people who were determined to bring me down. During that time, I did a lot of admitting and accepting responsibility. It wasn’t easy, but I was determined to improve my life.
I stayed the course, trusted the process, made incremental changes daily that led to monumental changes, practiced infinite patience, and daily disciplines like meditation, exercise, and mindful awareness. The level of dedication cannot be carried out without determination.
Last, but not least, charisma is a quality that has served me well my entire life. This is another quality I was born with. I don’t think charisma can be learned or replicated, maybe it can, but I don’t think it can. I think you either have it or you don’t, and if you have it and use it for the right reasons, it grows. Charisma is a gift that will take you far in this life because charismatic people are better with people. Personality goes a long way.
I say this because people don’t remember what you say. They remember how you make them feel. When you’re in the presence of a charismatic person, you feel important and cared for. When you make people feel good, they want to be around you. Relationships mean everything. The people you’re around can either help you get to the next level, or they’re meant to go with you to the next level. If you aren’t good with people, you won’t meet those people.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?
In my former life, as I call it, I had jobs until I took a huge leap of faith and started my own business in 2015. Leading up to that life-changing decision, I worked for institutions of higher education, and I loved the work. But I didn’t love the micromanagement. I’m not made to be fenced in, so putting me behind a desk and telling me I have to stay there for eight hours causes me to have the motivation of someone on death row.
During this time, I observed various management styles and realized there is a huge difference between managers and leaders. Managers tend to overlook the human component in the workplace, but leaders value and acknowledge it. I learned that I am not a productive employee when I’m working for a transactional manager; however, pair me with a transformational leader who enables autonomy and flex time, and no one will outwork me.
When I worked with colleges and universities, I wore many hats. I taught a college course, acted as a community liaison, worked on federal grants, including the GEAR UP grant, which is the largest federally funded educational initiative in history, designed and executed mentoring programs, helped students living in poverty go to college, raised funds for middle and high school programs in rural areas, planned broad-scale events, and a thousand other things!
Although I enjoyed this work, being controlled and owned by an employer stole my joy and jeopardized my health. Waking up to a loud alarm clock is like hell on earth for me. Each day began with me being in fight-flight-freeze because of an alarm clock. My physiology isn’t wired to wake up at 4 and 5 am, but I did that and was sleep-deprived for a decade, all to make someone else’s dreams come true. Focusing on someone else’s dreams caused mine to die for a while, so entering into my Second Chapter didn’t involve a job.
In my opinion, a job is very different from a career, and I didn’t have a career until 2015. That’s when I started my consulting business and used the experience I obtained from my jobs in grant writing and fundraising to break away from W-2 employment. So, the jobs served me well because of the experience, but having autonomy was what set my career apart from those jobs. Owning my time equated to freedom, and when I made the decision to never allow anyone to dictate my time, I leveled up energetically, and my quality of life soared.
And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?
It would take a year to tell you everything I did to reinvent myself, but I can sum it up in one sentence by telling you this. I decided what I wanted, and I said NO to anything that didn’t resemble that.
Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?
In 2015, I resigned from the college I was working at to start my consulting business. In that situation, the specific trigger was sleep deprivation, and lack of sleep was causing my overall health to deteriorate. My weight was up. My blood pressure was up. I didn’t look good. I didn’t feel good. And I was drinking too much. At the end of the day, I was so tired that I didn’t need to drive a car home, and then when I got home, I cracked open a beer, and the rest of the evening was spent talking about how badly I hated my job.
I was no spiritual rookie, either. I knew how damaging it was to talk about things I didn’t want consistently, but going without sleep for so long interfered with my ability to be mindfully aware. Quitting the job weighed heavily on my mind, but because of my beliefs about money, I stayed with that employer for too long. One day, Will, my husband, who I wasn’t married to at the time, told me to watch a video. It was Jim Carrey’s commencement speech at the Maharishi International University, a speech that changed the trajectory of my life.
During that speech, Jim Carrey explained that we can fail at working in a job we don’t like, so why not risk failing to do something we love? That comment caused me to take ownership of my life and say NO to anything that contradicted the life I intended to create. The life I was living in my mind’s eye did not involve an alarm clock, micromanagement, and $42K annually before taxes. I literally sent my resignation email after listening to that speech.
I had a remarkable run for the next six years, but my inner desire to become a self-empowerment author was tugging at my soul. In May 2021, I gave up my consulting business to pursue my lifelong dream, and I’ve been working to make it come true ever since. Now, I’m at a point in my life where I don’t have a job or a career. I have a life purpose, and that’s next level.
What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?
Through meditation and visualization, I figured out my life purpose. I started asking myself, “What do I want?” Meditation took me to the silence, and I received answers revealing skills and talents I hadn’t used before. Then, when I nailed down exactly what I wanted, I took it to my mind’s eye, and that’s where I created the life I have now. Meditation and visualization worked together hand in hand to help me figure out my life purpose and how to go after it and overcome barriers along the way.
How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.
Since May 2021, I have done the following things to prepare for my newest initiative, my debut book, Thought Snob: The Modern Spiritual Playbook for a Better Life.
- Consciously created abundance
- I knew I would work without a paycheck for a long time, so this is the first step I took to pursue my dream.
- Built a strong online presence
- >250K followers
- Received three certifications from the prestigious Chopra Center
- Meditation
- Ayurveda Health
- Total Well-Being Life Coach
- Learned how to write, publish, and sell a book
- Wrote a book
- Networked and collaborated with experts in my field
- Designed and executed two Manifestation Challenges
- People from all over the world are in my group.
- Started my own podcast
- The Thought Snob Podcast with Paula Swope
- Hired a company to assist with self-publishing
- Created new companies to house the ‘Thought Snob’ brand
- Hired a PR firm
My blood, sweat, and tears are in the list above. Becoming an author is not for the faint of heart, and I have learned more lessons than I wanted to. The past three years have been nothing but trial and error, but now I know why everything unfolded the way it did. I needed to learn and grow to prepare for what’s coming, and what’s coming is the most success I could have ever dreamed of.
Leading up to this point, I have made every mistake there is to make, but each mistake led to wisdom. You can’t put a price tag on wisdom. Without wisdom, I can’t do what I’m supposed to, which is help people struggling to find their life purpose as I did. A few months ago, I was walking into a building where I had an appointment, and a lady stopped me and said, “Are you Paula Swope?” “Yes, I am! Do I know you?” She explained that she had been a member of my Manifestation Challenges group for two years and that the work had changed her life completely.
When you asked me to provide an example of how my new initiative is going, this one says it all, but not for reasons you may think. Here’s what I realized that day…
I was genuinely happy that someone had found a solution to their problems and emerged a better version of themselves. That’s what the whole Thought Snob concept is about — being better and being unapologetic about wanting better. A few years ago, I would have praised myself for her accomplishments, but I didn’t praise myself at all. I felt as grounded as I ever had, and my ego wasn’t present.
If it took three years of trial and error to whip my ego, then it was time well spent. When I was recognized on the street, my immediate reaction was to thank God for giving me the Divine Wisdom to help someone transform their life. Nothing about that situation went to my head. It went to my heart. And when you reach that level of consciousness and enlightenment, you can attract anything you want.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My husband, Will, has been my greatest supporter. I have never had anyone believe in me the way he does.
Last fall, I was sitting in my home office lost, confused, aggravated, and on the verge of tears because I had hired a book cover designer who oversold her capabilities. When I saw her designs, I put my head down in my hands, and it was the closest I had ever been to giving up. Leading up to that point, I had been querying traditional publishers, and after receiving a really crappy contract, I decided to self-publish. This decision meant I had to hire a book cover designer and editor, and numerous other tasks had to be outsourced.
The book cover designer was about my eighth bad hire, and I was fed up with people taking advantage of my inexperience. So, when I was sitting at my desk in tears, Will came into my office and saw how deflated I was. The conversation we had that day led to everything that is happening right now. We hired a company to help me publish my book, which freed up my time to do what I needed to do. Then, he turned a room in our basement into a professional podcast studio because he knew I needed a podcast to build credibility before my book launch.
Will is the producer of The Thought Snob Podcast with Paula Swope, and he’s editing episodes right now as I write this. Having my own podcast has given my voice more exposure and more credibility, which builds trust among my colleagues and followers. My gratitude for Will’s innate ability to build a high-quality podcast with zero experience cannot be expressed audibly. The most glorious piece of all of this is that the podcast has allowed Will to do something he has always wanted to do, because he is a very gifted and talented musician. He composed the Thought Snob theme song, designed the logo, and set up all of the technology to produce the best sound and audio quality possible.
When two people come together for the right reasons and authenticity is behind everything they do, anything is possible.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?
The most interesting thing that happened can be traced back to when I was about 26 years old, 21 years ago. I was in college and had been assigned a research paper. I could pick any topic I wanted, but I had to persuade my audience to believe something that I believed to be true. I decided to write a paper about how I believed Colonel Tom Parker was responsible for Elvis Presley’s death. For those who aren’t aware, Colonel Tom Parker was Elvis’s manager throughout his entire career.
I bought The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley by Alanna Nash to conduct research. After reading it, Alanna became my favorite author, and I binge-read every book she had ever written.
Flash forward to when I was in my mid-thirties. I was at Will’s grandparents’ house for Christmas dinner and was talking to his cousin, Brad. Like everyone else, Brad knows I am a diehard Elvis fan, and he just so casually says, “I need to introduce you to my friend, Alanna Nash. She’s written a bunch of books about Elvis.” My jaw dropped.
Despite Brad’s attempts to connect me with Alanna, it never happened. After all, she’s one of the most famous authors in the world, so her schedule is a little busy. But I continued to envision meeting her one day, and on June 21, 2022, that vision unfolded in physical form. I was invited to attend a private showing of Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS three days before the rest of the world would see it. On June 21, Will and I sat down in our assigned seats at the movie theater, and guess who was right beside me? Alanna Nash.
I tear up thinking about it, because after that, I ended up helping Alanna with a project. I got to know her through that work, and we developed a friendship. Now, let’s flashback to when I was sitting in my office with my head in my hands. I had made so many mistakes with hiring the wrong people that the thought of hiring an editor made me nauseous. Will said, “Why don’t you ask Alanna?” I became very nervous about asking her because I had spoken with her a couple of days prior, and she was working on an advance obituary for one of the Rolling Stones. I thought, “She’s not gonna fool with me.”
Take a look at the cover of Thought Snob. Each time I read “Edited by Alanna Nash,” I shake my head and smile.
Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?
This question is perfect timing because I just touched on that in the last question. Oh my God, yes, I struggled with believing in myself. A prime example was when I hesitated to ask Alanna to edit my manuscript because I felt I wasn’t worthy. I immediately started comparing myself to her clientele, and it was an intimidating list, to say the least.
I cannot honestly say that I have completely overcome limiting beliefs about myself because I care so deeply about my performance in everything. I know there will always be a twinge of fear present, but it’s a good fear that keeps me on my A-game. But there is one thing I have done that has helped me to prevail against those limiting beliefs. I started weighing the facts.
The Thought Snob concept is based on an acronym — SNOB ( See New Objective Beliefs). SNOB is nothing more than an exercise in mindful awareness because when you operate with a high level of awareness, you can interrupt limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs come from the opinions of others, and there is no truth in the subjective.
Sticking with the Alanna example. When I found myself attaching meaning to asking Alanna to be my editor, I realized the story I was creating was not true. I thought, “Alanna isn’t going to be interested in working with me because I’m not a celebrity.” I caught myself telling myself that story and looked at the objective truth. The truth was I didn’t have any proof that Alanna wouldn’t be interested. The only way to find the truth was to go to the source, so by weighing the facts, I mustered up the courage to ask her.
Blowing on her spoon to cool her soup down, she looked up at me and said, “I’d be honored to edit your manuscript.” She doesn’t know this, but I was balling tears of joy on the inside that day.
In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?
This is an interesting question that I haven’t considered until now. The only real support I had came from Will, and his support was completely natural — nothing I had to create. But what I’m realizing right now as I answer this is that I created a support system by enhancing my emotional intelligence.
I knew that emotional resilience would be something that would make or break me during this new chapter, so I took my inner work to the next level. I enrolled at the Chopra Center with the intention of enhancing my professional life, and I certainly did that, but I experienced an unintended benefit. Through my classes, I experienced more self-growth than I possibly ever have, and I have been on a self-growth journey for almost 20 years.
My emotional intelligence was strong going into this new chapter, but now it’s unbreakable. Since I am savvy at managing my emotions healthily, I have been able to remain resilient even when faced with intense obstacles. This is the reason I never gave up.
Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?
I actually like change. Without change, nothing ever happens. My biggest fear is living the same existence for 90 years. The greatest moments of my life were a result of change, which was often brought about by tough, painful decisions. So, I am a person who embraces change and understands its power.
That said, I kept my need and love for change at the forefront of my mind at all times. When I felt discomfort creeping in, I reminded myself of all the rewards I had received as a result of my willingness to feel uncomfortable.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started” and why?
1 . You’re going to make some tough decisions, because you cannot elevate your energy in a toxic environment surrounded by toxic people.
An example of a tough decision I had to make was stopping binge drinking, and it was part of my identity. Binge drinking was destroying my health and it was the only thing that I had in common with the people I associated with. Without the binge drinking, the relationships couldn’t survive. So, I had to remove myself from those people, and they didn’t like it. But what had always been wasn’t working in my favor. And I had to try something different. Meditation replaced happy hour.
2 . Your subconscious beliefs are controlling your behaviors.
Our subconscious mind controls around 90% of our behaviors, and I was completely unaware of that. I didn’t realize that my entire life was a product of the beliefs I had been taught about myself. To improve my life circumstances and create what I wanted, I had to get rid of those disempowering beliefs that lived rent free in my subconscious. When I started doing the work to eliminate those beliefs, my subconscious looked like a landfill. Now, it looks more like the grounds at the Biltmore Estate.
3 . Forgiveness isn’t for the people who abused you. Forgiveness is for you, because through forgiveness you obtain freedom.
I was taught to believe that forgiveness was something that suckers did. Forgiveness was a sign of weakness. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. When we refuse to forgive, we carry around dark emotions that eventually manifest into people, places, and things that we don’t want. That also causes us to repeat abusive patterns.
I was early on in my self-empowerment journey and I made a list of people that I needed to forgive, and that was one long list. I was number one on that list. It took about a decade for me to fully forgive everyone on that list, including myself, and when I released all of that dark energy, the abundance started flowing in. The way I was able to fully and freely forgive was through empathy.
4 . Everything is energy.
No one had ever taught me this. Everything is energy, and here is an example of a life-changing benefit I received from learning this. I was a person who struggled with being around the wrong people at the wrong time. I was a magnet for toxic people. When I shifted to an empowering mindset, I raised the frequency of my energy. During this transition, I was confronted with a lot of hate from low-energy people who couldn’t understand why I was suddenly not giving them what they wanted. And they said horrible things to me and about me.
But I didn’t take any of it personally because I knew something they didn’t. We’re all from the same source. We’re all different, but we’re all from the same source. I viewed my haters as energy that wasn’t right for me versus how I had viewed them before. I didn’t see them as human beings. I saw them as energy that wasn’t right for me. And because I had an awareness that I was from the same source as them, I knew there was no need to fight with them. Fighting with them would have been the same as fighting myself, so that is one example of how developing a higher level of awareness benefited my life greatly.
5 . You’re always manifesting, whether you realize it or not.
Yes, if someone would have armed me with ammunition my self-growth evolution would have been a lot easier. Our physical reality is a direct outcome of our most dominant and consistent thoughts, feelings, actions, and words. Before I realized this, I mindlessly created my life, and during that time I was broke, very unhappy, surrounded by toxic people, and all of my experiences were bad and rooted in fear. When I learned about my power to consciously create the life I wanted, I started interrupting thoughts that didn’t contribute to me being better.
The way I did this was so simple yet so effective. I started living with mindful awareness and each time a stupid, disempowering thought started to spiral into some fearful story, I stopped it by saying, “Not now. Not now.” The repetitiveness of doing that produced cumulative effects and I rewired my brain to migrate away from negativity bias. Then, the good stuff was easier for me to believe.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
People shouldn’t be so comfortable with judging and criticizing people who are different from them. We’re all from the same source, but that doesn’t mean we’re all the same. I’ve noticed how wrapped up in right and wrong people are, and if they could only see that there is no such thing as right and wrong. It’s all about perception. A person’s perception is their reality or truth, which means an opinion carries no real power.
Just because I think someone’s outfit is unattractive doesn’t mean I’m right or wrong. The next person may see the outfit and think it’s the most beautiful thing they have ever seen. Developing this level of awareness would lift the collective consciousness and change the world. Right now, getting offended is the norm. It’s expected, and people look for reasons to get offended.
For instance, some people get furious when others choose not to stand for the national anthem, which wastes time and energy. As long as you expect another person to behave like you, you will never experience true peace and joy because another person will always have control over your emotions. So what if someone chooses to sit during the national anthem? I guarantee that person would disagree with some of your actions. When you view getting offended from this level of awareness, your energetic frequency elevates to the point where you can attract what you want.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)
This is an easy one. My answer is Deepak Chopra. I studied at his school for over two years, earned three certifications, and had transformative life-changing experiences, but I never met him face to face. I would love to tell him how his work trickled down to impact my life in an enormous way, because I would have never adopted the Ayurveda lifestyle had it not been for Deepak. Living the Ayurveda way is helping me to reverse aging. I’m 47, full-blown menopausal, and still in the best shape and health of my life. I’ve never felt better, and there’s more.
In 2016, I was diagnosed with a rare, misunderstood bladder condition called Interstitial Cystitis (IC). My urologist told me there was no cure, but with lifestyle changes, I might not be debilitated by it. As I write this, I am asymptomatic after struggling with bladder issues since I was 18. I attribute this miracle to Primordial Sound Meditation (PSM), the meditation I learned from Deepak. It reduces inflammation, and my situation reiterates what the scientific studies have shown about PSM.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
My website is the hub of information for all things Paula Swope! Visit paulaswope.com. You will find the links to all of my social media accounts, The Thought Snob Podcast, and tons of information about my services.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com.
