I Feel You, A Fortify Wellness Production
Bettina Mahoney the Founder/CEO of @atfortifywellness is a rape survivor who started her brand after struggling to not only find a therapist, but multiple mediums to heal through her trauma. Fortify Wellness is a 360 holistic platform offering therapy, coaching, fitness, and meditation on one subscription platform. We dive deep with our trailblazing guests about overcoming adversity.
I Feel You, A Fortify Wellness Production
Erika Lynn on Transformative Healing and Resilience
On Season 6, Episode 1 we chat with Erika Lynn a Transformational Coach for Fortify Wellness. Shifting from a problem-oriented mindset to one of creation, we discuss the essential role of self-love in attracting positive experiences and reprogramming the subconscious mind. Erika's insights into identifying true desires and dismantling old beliefs provide a roadmap for holistic personal growth. As we wrap up, we reflect on the significance of choice in shaping our lives and ask Erika what she wants to be remembered for: "possibility." Tune in for an inspiring episode that promises to leave you feeling empowered and ready to embrace your own potential.
Erika Lynn is a certified transformational coach based in NYC, with over two decades of experience helping people create lives they love. After enduring years of chronic illness, emotional instability, and abuse, Erika turned to the world of alternative wellness where she discovered the profound healing power of the mind-body connection. Born with intuitive gifts and trained in multiple energetic modalities, Erika quickly mastered the nuances of each and opened
her own wellness practice in 2001. Over 20 years later, Erika’s work has evolved alongside her journey to higher consciousness. Today, her practice is built on the principle that everything is energy and vibration, and that the structure by which you live dictates your success in transforming your life. Using a variety of transformational tools, Erika empowers her clients to dismantle old beliefs and
structures stuck in the subconscious mind and align their energetic frequency with their desires. She views her journey to the present moment as her greatest gift and the key to helping others. Erika lives in Manhattan with her loving partner and their children. Her life is a testament to the understanding that whatever we focus our attention on, expands.
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**This information is not to be misconstrued as medical or psychological advice. Please contact your medical team if you have questions or concerns pertaining to your medical or psychological well-being. All of the linked products are independently selected, and curated by the fab Fortify team. If you love and buy something we link to, we may earn a commission.**
Hey Fortifiers, thank you so much for listening to I Feel you a Fortify Wellness production. We are into season six, where we sit down with trailblazing women in their industry to chat about overcoming adversity, moments of fortitude and, of course, anxiety. This information is not to be misconstrued as medical or psychological advice. Please contact your medical team if you have concerns pertaining to your overall wellbeing. I'm your host, bettina Mahoney, the founder and CEO of Fortify Wellness, and today I am so excited to welcome Erica Lynn, who is a certified transformational coach based in New York city, with over two decades of experience helping people create lives they love.
Speaker 1:After enduring years of chronic illness, emotional instability and abuse, erica turned to the world of alternative wellness, where she discovered the profound healing power of mind-body connection. Born with intuitive gifts and trained in multiple energetic modalities, erica quickly mastered the nuances of each and opened her own wellness practice in 2001. Over 20 years later, erica's work has evolved alongside her journey to higher consciousness. Today, her practice is built on the principle that everything is energy and vibration and that the structure by which you live dictates your success and transforming your life. Using a variety of transformational tools, erica empowers her clients to dismantle old beliefs and structures stuck in the subconscious mind and align their energetic frequency with their desires. She views her journey to the present moment as her greatest gift and the key to helping others. Erica lives in Manhattan with her loving partner and their children. Her life is a testament to the understanding that whatever we focus our attention on expands. Please welcome Erica Lynn. Hi, erica, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. Thank you for having me here.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm so excited to have you and we always start with this question. I think it's really powerful, a nice grounded exercise when you take away all of your amazing titles. Who are you?
Speaker 2:I think that I am a conscious human who is connected to source.
Speaker 1:And can you dive into a little bit more about what source is for you?
Speaker 2:Source for me is everything, everywhere, every oneness connected together, so like at the soul level, it's we are a source, we are connected to source, it's all one we are a source, we are connected to source.
Speaker 1:It's all one that's really beautiful. I connect with that as well. Many people know that I started my company after I was raped. It was a really traumatizing experience for me, a long journey, and over that healing journey I realized that I really needed a 360 approach, and what I mean by that is therapy and coaching and fitness and meditation multiple mediums to help me facilitate and reach my highest self. Now, not everyone has an intense adversity like that and I hope they don't, but I'm curious for you was there an adversity in your life that sort of pivoted you into who you are today, in this chapter of your life?
Speaker 2:You know I wouldn't say, like yourself, that it was just one large adversity. However, I would say that almost my entire life I have been in a survival pattern. I did grow up in a very abusive home. My mother was, you know, bipolar abusive, and that went along the contradictory of being in the Mormon church. So you know that was my biggest adversity. What I would say, though, all of that led to a moment where things began to heal for me.
Speaker 2:I had moved to New York City and, you know, I had a very low self-esteem. I definitely did not love myself and, again, I was always running and operating and drawing towards me survival situations, being in the survival pattern. So what I did is start to use drugs and alcohol and different ways to shut off you know my sensitivity and to tone down the survival pattern, and I almost died one night from overdosing using cocaine. So I was very, very scared and I sought after a therapist, who was like an angel to me, and she helped me find a New York state program, and I don't know if this exists anymore, but it would be so wonderful if it did. It was an alternative program that you could go to.
Speaker 2:It was during the day, so you would check in in the morning, they would do a drug test on you and then they would do acupuncture needles on your feet, hands and in your ears. I would then have group therapy and then play chess or I tried to learn to play chess because it helps rewire the addiction brain and it was off to the races from there for me. And instead of me being in this kind of victim survival pattern, I started to see that there was a holistic way to heal and that there was possibility out there and you just had to go looking for it. And so I would say it was a very pivotal moment and it led me down a journey to search for other holistic practices, and it turned my life completely around.
Speaker 1:Wow, thank you for sharing that. I know how hard it is to share something so personal like that, so thank you for that. How are you feeling? I?
Speaker 3:think just when I think back. It's just sad, you know, and I'm so sensitive. I'm an empath so I get very sensitive when I think about others out there that have gone through adversity. I think it's just very hard when there's not, you have to look and dig a little bit for something. So I'm really excited about what you're doing, because I don't feel like people should have to look and dig to find, you know, to get the proper help.
Speaker 1:Do you need to pause right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just.
Speaker 1:Now I want to kind of flip on the opposite side of the spectrum. What are you super proud of in your life right now that you know? When you look at your life from both sides, what are you like? I really want to celebrate about Erica right now.
Speaker 2:Um, it's a really great question. Um, you know I want to that most of my time is focused on how to be in service to others. I want to celebrate that. I balance it out with being a really good mother and I try to teach my kids to be conscious and, you know, live a conscious life and you know I'm just all the roles I play. I feel like I'm doing a pretty darn good job, but it wouldn't be if I hadn't been through that adversity and through all the stuff I've been through in my life, and I truly believe that.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny. I used to always say that about my experience and someone said to me that, by the way, it really pissed me off. And someone said this to me it would have happened with or without the experience, and for a long time that really made me angry. But I do believe that now, about my experience, I always had it in me and now, looking at this version of myself that really loves myself, I'm like, yeah, I could have done it. And it's interesting because I recently had this.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it would be like a, it was just a spark I had where I just kind of went to myself. You know what? I'm giving back that trauma energy back to the rapist. It wasn't mine to hold onto to begin with. I just like send it right back and it makes me feel so much lighter and I think like a lot about what you were saying is you learned some tools and you had some services that helps you make really productive and empowering choices for your life and it's possible and you're so brave for that. So I want to celebrate you because it's so hard to share. Most people don't understand, but it really is. It's so hard and sometimes it's like a delay effect, where you realize the next day like, wow, I just shared that and that was really hard, but there's so much to celebrate about where you're at right now, which is really exciting.
Speaker 2:I'm surprised to even have such an emotional reaction because it's so long ago. But when you go in and like feel it, when you tell the story, I think sometimes it's just still part of your spirit, you know, and now it's at the good part of my spirit. I get to mold it into helping others. But you know what I mean? It's still like kind of touches the spirit a little bit.
Speaker 1:I agree, and I also think you're such an empath yourself and you're always there for other people, which is really positive. I would like to talk about getting stuck in like cycles. Sometimes we get into a nice constant, maybe learned, helplessness sort of circle and I'd like to talk about releasing stuck trauma. Why do we need to approach addressing mind and body collectively you kind of touched upon it earlier to sort of reach our highest self and our highest consciousness?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, first of all, you know I am a true believer that the body follows the mind. So if the mind is healthy, if the spirit and mind are healthy, then the body will follow and it will. It will adjust as it, as it needs to. It's there to protect us, right? So if we're sending it stress signals and we're treating it poorly by not cleaning up our mind or cleaning up the emotional body, what happens is it breaks down, and we can adjust that by going in and working with what needs to be cleaned up.
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess the biggest thing, though, I would say is, with my stuck trauma and survival pattern that I was always in I what I didn't realize is that I could not wake up every single day and be the same. I could not wake up every single day and be the same. I couldn't like look at my phone and go get coffee and then do this and do everything the same, because that would just produce the same thoughts, the same feelings, and then I would be right back in the same. You know everything for the rest of the day, and I don't think people realize that I think 90% of our thoughts and feelings are the same, realize that I think 90% of our thoughts and feelings are the same, and so I really started to realize and one of my teachers is Dr Joe Dispenza.
Speaker 2:A lot of people know him as a meditation teacher, a neuroscientist, and I really believe what he says that you have to go to the nothingness, you have to go to the nowhere. No one let go and allow yourself to be in that. Complete all possibilities so that new neurons fire, so that then you can have a different possibility, and so that's. I learned that through doing that practice which began to change my body, which I know it was because I was allowing space to let go of the emotions and change the mind. I hope that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I know you also talk about identifying the pattern, which can be really really challenging for people to do, and then, once you look at the pattern, then changing it, do and then, once you look at the pattern, then changing it. I guess this is a this is a huge question, but, like, what's that first step to going like I am making unhealthy decisions? These patterns need to change.
Speaker 2:I mean this is going to sound crazy, but I believe the first step is always to make a choice. You're you're empowered to make choices in every minute. Choice You're empowered to make choices in every minute. And even though some people, after really big experiences or life you know a whole life of lots of problematic experiences feel like they don't have a choice, but everything starts with I'm going to change my mindset, I'm going to choose to heal, I'm going to choose to seek whatever I need to seek, and so I believe it really always starts with a choice.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. I think for me. I went through such a delayed depression after being raped in my life and I remember like the feeling of not being able to get out of bed in the morning. I was so sad and so depressed and making an active decision of like I don't want to live like this anymore, I need to get help. And that one decision ended up changing my life in such an important way, Whereas I could have gone with the ladder and said I'm just going to unpack and live here forever. And I didn't want to. And it's not always that easy either, you know, it's not like one thing and one decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, and you know, I think what also and I would have to, like, ask this question back to you but you know, I think, underneath everything for you and what you went through, possibly what was driving the ship, even more than that experience is that you were empowered to. You were wanting to be empowered to create something big for others, and that was that was under there the whole time. You know, like people have said to you, but it sometimes we need a big experience to happen to us. That is not always pleasant, because that's what lets us know listen, I don't, I don't want to live like this anymore. I don't want to call this energy towards me anymore. I'm not a victim anymore. And then they get back into choice and they, from what they don't want or what they've experienced, they start to choose again. So that's how I would you know, put that to you. I think it was, yes, always there driving you. But then you know, what did you invite in? To get into the most empowered place for yourself? Was it that experience?
Speaker 1:Of course, and I think also, you don't know what you're made of until you have to go through a really challenging experience and then you learn. And so for me, of course, making an app is really challenging. It's like more. It was more challenging than I could have ever imagined, but I went through something much, much harder.
Speaker 1:So this was just yet another hill to climb and all of the adversities that are about to come as you build something up, it's just yet another hill to climb and you learn that you can actually do it, which is really fun for me, and being able to offer something to someone that I needed a long time ago to again help people make empowered decisions for themselves, because again, I can offer the education, offer the services. At the end of the day, people have to choose to use it consistently. It's not like a magical wand. They have to use it consistently and be proactive once they get the services and the education. So that's kind of how I put it with the app it's like we're here for you and now you get to make a choice, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah and that's really that's amazing, that you see it that way, and I hope that is your messaging that goes out, because I wholeheartedly believe that Everything is it starts with a choice. Yes, and also beyond that. I mean I don't think that most people get it that like that's why we came to this planet. It's like we go through polarity. It's like we go through what we don't want, so then we know what we do want. Then we go through what we don't want, so then we go through. You know we keep choosing and that's part of climbing that hill. You know, something can be really hard to do as you take on new, new skills, new everything, but at the same time you got to keep choosing and you got to keep learning from what you know isn't working Right really good lives and people take good lives.
Speaker 1:I think I lived in survival mode for a long time and now I'm like wait a minute, you know that that annoying saying that everyone would always say that would really make me roll my eyes. Is like if you love life, life will love you back, and that's true and I would roll my eyes at that. But it's true, when you put out positive energy, you get it right back and it's a beautiful thing. And I also think and it's kind of aligned with like learned helplessness and certain patterns I used to have. But I loved what you said with everything you focus on expands, yeah. And I felt that similar sort of feeling in my healing journey with just depression and anxiety and PTSD.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't overnight, it was a long struggle but I did make a decision to let go of that energy and to not let it control me because it just wasn't mine to hold onto to begin with. And I know a lot of people have trouble being stuck in that thought process. Maybe it's lack of self-love, it could be a bunch of different reasons. But how do we start taking our and we kind of already talked about this, but in a different way how do we stop these unhealthy thought processes getting out of this learned helplessness? Does it stem from going like I just need to love myself and I need to start and get help? What is that process to go? No, this is not what I want anymore.
Speaker 2:I don't think exactly it starts there where I believe it starts. This is kind of what I teach people. This is the experience they will have with me if they work with me. Teach people like this is the experience they will have with me if they work with me. But what I do and what I truly believe in is that everything is a structure and we came to this planet and in our schools and a lot of our parents and everyone teaches us that like we're in the problem orientation. So what does that mean? It's like we have problems, we're supposed to solve them. We have problems, we're supposed to solve them. We have problems, we're supposed to solve them, and then, you know, at some level we get kind of almost addicted to it. It's like that's the way it is.
Speaker 2:So then we create more problems almost, and what I, what I teach and what I do with all my clients and every modality that I do, is that you have to get out of that structure. You have to come over into the creator structure. So where does it begin? It begins by asking the question what do I want? And once you know what you want, then we can start to look at it and say, okay to get you to the frequency of what you want, what does need to still be dismantled. How do we keep you not turning around and making it a problem and instead just using it as the propel? You know the what propels you into, you know what you want and you're the creator of your life, so I call it. The creative structure is where it begins getting someone out of the problem. Problem structure.
Speaker 1:Yes, because I think a lot of times, like the survival techniques, you learn to get through whatever the trauma is. You can't stay in that same mindset to get yourself to the next level.
Speaker 2:That is right. You cannot be the same the same. You have to change the thoughts which changed the feelings. And you know thought, thoughts are, thoughts are electrical, feelings are magnetic. So it's if you think about it like that in your healing journey. It's like you know, what did you magnetize towards you? That was new, you know, by getting out of that mindset. I love that.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was. It was, it was a long journey. It was like that's the thing, that that I even think about as I think about, okay, where do I want to go now? That like, and as I work towards that next step, I think about, like, even now I'm not in that same mindset that I was years ago, but now I want to keep leveling up, for lack of a better term, and I'm very type A. So I'm like, okay, what's the calendar like? Like, what am I going to get there?
Speaker 1:And I have to learn that there's not really a schedule for this thing. You know, I'm not very I don't go with the flow. So it's like very much being patient with yourself, but it's not going to happen overnight. This, whatever it is that you're trying to get into, that new mindset, it's not going to happen overnight. So that's kind of my feelings with Fortify Wellness. The app is that I really want it to feel practical for people, very realistic. Here's the service. And guess what? Now you're empowered to, to use those services that will best benefit you, and that's really exciting for me. And so I'm excited to have you, erica. I feel so like, I feel so honored that you'll be on the app as well, and I'm curious what do you want the clients that work for you to experience while having you in the app?
Speaker 2:Well, it's kind of what I said I want them to experience. Well, I want to first be able to look at where they're at now, like, where are you at now and how does that compare to where you want to go? That's, you know, the first thing I want them to experience Because, you know, the biggest thing is, believe it or not. Most people don't even know what they want. That is the hardest first hurdle I get over with people and it's perplexing because, like you just said, you you're the creator of your life. You get it fully and I get it. But it's like that's the invitation I am to people so that they can get it as well.
Speaker 2:Right, and then from there, knowing what they want, it's like how do we attune them, how do I attune them to those frequencies of what they want and what do they have to let go of to get to those frequencies of what they want? And you know, sometimes that's reprogramming the subconscious mind that's trying to keep you safe all the time, letting go of generational and ancestral beliefs. There's a lot of tools I put into place and where it all leads to is more self-love, and I also put them through kind of a program of what does it mean to love yourself and how do we actually get there and what do we forgive to let you know and let go of to do that? I think the biggest thing is that they get to really step into living life like this as a whole, like it's a. You know, it's a whole.
Speaker 1:Each of these pieces bring them into a holistic approach of themselves, and you touched upon this, like what is the true meaning of self-love. I feel like it's thrown around a lot. Can you dive deeply into that for me?
Speaker 2:Well, what is the true meaning of self-love? I think the absolute true meaning of self-love is that you can integrate your shadow, which we all came here to have an experience, into. You know your highest pieces, your highest self and it's all integrated. That you're, you know and you have an operating system to operate it, and also that you're not in shame and blame and that you can really accept that you're not a victim. Life puts us into these victim roles and part of self-love is really saying no, I I'm not. I'm actually this over, actually this over here. I'm a creator and that's part of me loving myself, then also having values, boundaries I mean it's a mixed bag of all of this, but I really believe that's the definition. It's like what are your values? Do you really know how you want to live life? What are the boundaries you need to have to protect that energy? And, yeah, I hope that answers that. I hope that makes sense to you. So, again, it's not just one definition. I guess that's my definition in a way.
Speaker 1:I agree and I think again, self-love is not just going to the spa or getting a facial. Self-love is not just going to the spa or getting a facial, you know. I think that that is the what's being pushed right now. You know, self-care is going to the mall, like so true, self-care to me is like and I agree with you everything that you said is like looking in the mirror and and and and going. Well, I like kind of say like I'm sick of myself. That's what I had to do, like I'm sick of the way I'm living right now. I've got to change.
Speaker 1:And I think I realized that when I was really I couldn't see past the next hour. I was really struggling, I couldn't see past the next week, the next month, and I didn't want to live that way anymore and I was really terrified. And I think in that moment, that was when I made a pivotal change for my life and I'm really grateful that I did. And I want people to live really good lives. I think that they deserve it. And there's this misconception that the cards that you're dealt are forever, and I don't think that's like. I don't believe in that at all. You get to choose how you want to live your life and I think it starts today and you just have to want it, you just have to go. You know, I love myself enough to try and, as I always hear is like tomorrow's a chance for a do-over. If today didn't work, well, start tomorrow. You know, that's kind of how I feel.
Speaker 2:I mean one of the other things that I teach and really work on, and it's, you know, not just this simple, but the past is over, and it really is. The past is over. We have, like you said, we have a choice to not repeat it today, and you know meaning. We don't have to feel the same feelings of the past and think the same thoughts. So it's like finding the right person on, like what you've built that helps people shut down those thoughts of the past and shut down those feelings of the past so that they can literally step into something new, you know, and so the past is over.
Speaker 1:I agree, and I know you do a lot of workshops. Do you have anything coming up that you'd like to share with everyone? Listening, yeah.
Speaker 2:I have a few programs going on right now. My biggest program that I love running every week is a membership program called Elevate, and it's the most cost-effective way to work with me. We have a live meeting every week. We have a library of recordings and meditations and tools and I teach a new teaching every week and I also, you know, check in with everybody. They're accountable to me, they're accountable to their group. It's a really conscious group that want to live in a conscious way. So that's one way to work with me.
Speaker 2:I have a three month coaching capsule that I run. So when somebody new comes to me and I've kind of vetted them out if I'm a good fit for them and vice versa, we will do like a one-on-one coaching. They'll have access to me through a thing called Voxer, which is a kind of a real time place they can check in and then I answer them back. We do their gene keys to know what their purpose is and how to activate that. We let go of, you know, trauma or past things that want to repeat over and over, and I have a bunch of tools and processes for that.
Speaker 2:So that's a three-month coaching, what I call a coaching for that. So that's a three-month coaching, what I call a coaching capsule and then I am going to be offering a digital course on self-love. That it will be done at the end of the summer. So it's interesting. You asked me about the definition, because I'm kind of building the definition and every minute I'm always thinking of, well, this is part of loving yourself and adding it in. And then finally, in the fall, I will be doing an intuition course where I teach people to understand their intuition and where they house it in their bodies and how to use it.
Speaker 1:So that's beautiful. Maybe we should do it I'm thinking out loud Maybe we should do a self-love fortified wellness addiction. That would be addition. That'd be really cool.
Speaker 2:Really cool. I mean honestly, it starts from that. That's laying there underneath anything Somebody chooses, with your app or with me or anything right, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I always love closing on this question and and I'm always surprised by the answer it's always a lot of fun. But in one word, what do you want to be remembered for? Possibility. I love that. Thank you so much for joining me today and your vulnerability. It was beautiful, oh, thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope you enjoyed it. Please follow us on every social media platform at Fortify Wellness and listen. Next week we drop an episode every Wednesday. Fortify Wellness, your wellness inside and out. Let's take on the world.