From Wounds to Wisdom (Previously the Mental-Hell Podcast)

FWTW S3E09 | Why True Success Requires Soul Healing: Gina Cavalier on Trauma, Art, and Authenticity

• Barbie Moreno • Season 3 • Episode 9

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In this episode of From Wounds to Wisdom, we explore the deep intersection of creativity, trauma, and spiritual rebirth with author, artist, and former entertainment executive Gina Cavalier.

Gina shares her journey from a high-pressure career at Disney, Warner Bros., and Netflix to the moment her unhealed childhood wounds resurfaced and brought her to a breaking point.

We talk about sacred exhaustion, nervous system overwhelm, and the healing that happens when you finally stop performing and start listening to your inner self. This conversation is for every woman who’s ever felt soul-tired, creatively blocked, or afraid to let go of who the world told her she had to be.

Key Chapters
Opening and Introduction
Childhood wounds and the high-achiever identity
The corporate climb and the cost of overperformance
Crashing, awakening, and the journey into deep healing
Creativity as spiritual medicine
The pressure of perfection, judgment, and visibility wounds
Storytelling, purpose, and letting your work breathe
Tools for suicidal ideation, self-love, and nervous system safety
Gina’s books, art, and the soul of creative expression
Closing wisdom and where to find Gina Cavalier

SEO Keywords
trauma healing, creativity and trauma, nervous system regulation, high achiever burnout, spiritual awakening, healing childhood wounds, women in corporate trauma, self worth healing, sacred exhaustion, emotional resilience, creative purpose, Gina Cavalier, From Wounds to Wisdom podcast

Guest Info | Gina Cavalier
Website ginacavalier.com
Instagram gina_cavalier
Linkedin /ginacavalier/
Facebook fb.com/gina.m.cavalier
Youtube  @GinaCavalier

If this episode spoke to you, visit our website for more healing and empowering stories. Go to barbiemoreno.com and follow all our social media accounts: Barbie Moreno.

Love your life!

Season 2
Unraveling the Mind: From Mental Struggles to Inner Strength.

SPEAKER_00:

What happens when the woman who helped build Hollywood's magic suddenly loses herself behind the scenes of her own life? Today I'm from Wounds to Wisdom, Gina Cavaller shares the moment everything fell apart and the spiritual journey that brought her back to the truth of who she is. Let's dive in.

SPEAKER_02:

Back in 2019, I was very suicidal. I was working in the entertainment industry. I had a couple really big falls in my career personally. I was giving the money away because I was planning on leaving the planet. I was really forgetting to take care of myself in the form of mental health.

SPEAKER_01:

Gina has expanded her impact through storytelling, product innovation, and deep spiritual work. She's an author, artist, producer, speaker, and inventor who uses media and mindfulness to uplift communities and support emotional healing. This conversation is a deep dive into purpose, creativity, and transforming pain into powerful service. Welcome, Gina.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for having me. Hello, everybody. Hope everybody is feeling the good vibes today. And if not, sending out you out a big hug and hoping we can get there together.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, a lot of big names in your bio and who you are and all of that. Can you kind of give us an idea how you went from the corporate world into what you do now?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I had a very traumatic childhood, but I really was a fighter and I wanted to prove to myself that I could achieve my dreams. So I was a workaholic, um, you know, overachiever, and I did. I achieved a lot. Uh I started working at Disney when I was 19 years old, um, you know, worked two jobs, you know, just constantly pushing myself and loving everything and everyone around me, getting to work on some of the biggest projects in the world, like Harry Potter, Fantastic Beast. You know, I helped create, you know, wedding crashers, all kinds of different really amazing projects, you know, but in the background, I was really forgetting to um take care of myself in the form of mental health, loving myself. And I crashed. I crashed really hard when I had a couple of traumatic experiences come into my life through the divorces or situations at work. And um it really took me down a self-pity route. And um my old wounds as a child came back and you know, it became very dangerous, but I was afraid to express them to anyone else until I decided I have to heal this. This is more important than any work or project or anything I could ever, you know, put myself into. And um I did did a deep spiritual dive, very, you know, what it's you know, to me, it's like either it doesn't have to be spiritual. Um, it could just be, you know, uh practices of loving yourself. But for me, it was a big portion of that. And um just went in and went hard and um rode the roller coaster of healing, still writing the roller coaster of healing, you know, and um, you know, achieved some of the things that I thought I never would, which was getting two publishing deals. Now writing a fictional series, very akin to like a Harry Potter, speaking to a producer today about um, you know, maybe creating that. And that's that's what I always wanted to do. I was a um creator, and I always found that creating is hard, you know. It is much harder to build a building than it is and knock it down. Um destroy things is easy, to kick people in the face is easy, they'll get kick around, but to create and to constantly be into that um creative and in that unconditional love is hard, you know, and it's it takes a practice. So I work on it.

SPEAKER_01:

So many things that you said I love, right? So I love the being a creator is hard because it's absolutely one of the hardest things to do. There's a lot of people in the world who want to create, but I think because we turn off that creativity when we um don't honor ourselves and all those different things, we actually find that we're mimicking others versus creating. Um and we call that creator, right? Like even content stuff, right? So there's so many, even in like Hollywood, you can see movies and then you're like, oh, I've seen this movie like 15 times before because they're just remaking movies because there's no new creative stuff coming in, right? I see you're like holding your heart because it's this coming.

SPEAKER_02:

Because I literally have a meeting with one of the top producers in Hollywood today about my book um that I co-authored with um Jeanette DePatty. And it's a five-book series, it's like Harry Potter. And um, you know, I I went and looked at all the movies that are coming out with the studios for the next six, seven years. They list them all out, and every one of them is like a remake of the TV shows that we saw as kids. And Hollywood is going through an influx, and um, we're all recognizing that we get to, you know, we watch a movie, we put our heart into it, and all of a sudden it just flat lines out and it's gone, or it's repetitive. And I the industry is going through a shakeup right now, but we just need to let creatives come back in. They're working off of fear, you know, like you know, we have to recreate something that worked because we have to have a win, you know, instead of falling into what their role originally was to be create storytelling to help people dream. And this storytelling is something that has been a part of our ancestors from the beginning of time, is never going away. But we have to go back to that simplicity-ness, that heart, that open heartness of it, and let creators create, even if they haven't had a win yet.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Yesterday and today I was saying, well, what if I just stop putting like a number or an expectation to things, right? What if I stop qualifying my work by how much I make? What if I stop um stepping on a scale and deciding my worthiness by how much I weigh? What if I just stop, right? Like, what's gonna happen? You think like the world's gonna fall apart, but I think that when you just stop, you actually get just to simply be, be who you are, allow the creativity to come in because we are so closed to our creativity because there's so much, like you're told you have to make this amount of money, your worth is defined by your success. Um, you know, you have to look a certain way, you have to weigh a certain amount. All of these things we're told we have to do. And it's kind of like what you were talking about in the movies. They can't be creative because they have to earn a certain amount of money, right? That movie has to hit number one in the box office every single time. It's like, how is that supposed to happen? Like there's just some movies that aren't gonna hit number one, but maybe their story is amazing, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

And if they actually went and been more authentic with their creativity, people would feel it more because, especially children, I mean, they can see the manipulation, the formulaic um and the uncaring characterization so quickly, right? And then they just get bored with it and be done with it, and then you're over. So I just think going back to that authentic place. And if you look at filmmakers that we just loved back in the day, I mean, studios used to um find a creative spirit and they we used to let them create, like Stanley Stanley Kubrick or whatever. You know, he used to get carte blanche, like be creative, Oliver Stone. You know, they don't do that anymore. And so, you know, letting creators be creative is gonna be like such a huge win if we ever get there. You have to stick to what you believe in and not let those I call them judgments and criticisms, and something that we also need to monitor how we do to other people. And it can be really hard. It could be small things, but we don't realize how much that's dampening us. And I've really worked really hard. It's like, why am I judging that thing or that person? And I reel myself back in, I throw them love instead, and then I move on my way. But that's been a practice, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's definitely a practice. We do it to um our spouses or our partners that what a financial relationship, the financial part of a relationship breaks up so many relationships because it's like they're not good enough, they're not making enough money, or maybe you're not good enough, you're not making enough money, or together we're not making enough money, or they're we're always qualifying people by the quantity that they can offer to us. And I really think that you see that just the same, like you said in Hollywood and the movies and the TV shows. When you're talking, it reminded me of that show Frasier. I don't know if you ever watched Frasier. They had the best episodes until the staff, they they some of them passed away on a plane crash, and then it went to like a generic writing um crew who didn't have like the same creativity, and you just saw the show like go downhill. It used to be this like fun, amazing. Um, it's like George Cartlin, right? He just says whatever it is that he wants. And those people who are free to be who they are are the people who have made such amazing things in our life. And then we have all these restrictions, and then it shuts us down, and then we can't be who we want to be because we feel like we have to fit into this box that we're told is where we're supposed to live.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And the industry is going through a transformation, just like all industries are. And it people aren't talking about it that much. So the variety does a couple pieces about it right now. They almost they're embarrassed, like Detroit lost all of its car making cut capabilities. And we're in the same thing with the with the Hollywood right now. There's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people out of work and have been out of work for years, and they're not filming there anymore. You'll see it in your product, in your in your shows. I just think that storytelling is is magical when it is a part of being a human because we love it. We see things in visual uh art and we just need to, I think the answer is to let people go back and be creative and to support those people, put money behind those people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think that, and we go back to this. Like, I think that the creativity is lost when there's expectations, but also when there's judgment, right? Because everybody wants to have an opinion about everything. And so if you put something out there that's original, you know, you're gonna get both sides of it. You're gonna be get people who get it, and then you're gonna get the people who just absolutely hate it and then just say like really nasty things about it. And my feeling about it is if you don't get it, cool. But there are people who will get it, right? And if you don't like it, go somewhere else. You don't have to like every single movie, you don't have to like every single song, you don't have to like every single book, but just let people be. Tell us about your um, your book, and I want to talk about uh while we're on here, you have so much on your plate. You came from a world of being an overachiever, which I understand that 100% overachieving is basically trying to prove your worth, right? Somewhere in your life you didn't feel worthy. And so it's like if I overachieve and I prove to everybody how good I am, then I will then at some point feel worthy or I will feel enough at that point, which you never do because you're looking for it externally. So I know you wrote a book, I know that you are busy, but are you busy as an overachiever? Are you busy being you? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh gosh, uh busy just inventing and creating. So back in 2019, I was very suicidal. I was working in the entertainment industry. I had a couple really big falls in my career um personally, and I just I didn't want to be here anymore. But I had accumulated uh, you know, a good amount of money equity in my home, almost like$700,000. And I didn't want to just, I was like, wow, I just don't want to like lose that or that to go to nobody because I didn't, I didn't get to have kids and I don't have people to leave that to. So I sold my home and I started paying off people's bills, just rented a place in Hollywood Hills and I had a big birthday party, and I would, you know, pay my friends' bet bills, my friends' legal bills. I was giving the money away because I was planning on leaving the planet and nobody knew it.

SPEAKER_01:

Nobody questioned that like they weren't like, how could you sold your home and you're just spending all your money? Like I kind of a red flag.

SPEAKER_02:

No, but what was so beautiful in it was that was sort of the letting go of the home ownership and that whole thing that I needed to be that woman that owned this and had those things and the ability to do that stuff. I honestly, that whole journey made me fall in love with myself. It made me release the power of money over my soul. Right, right. And uh it really owns us sometimes, you know, it can be last a lifetime where it's like that one dollar that thing, you know, and I released money. I was like, you mean nothing to me in a way, you know, it really does, of course it does, but I had to reform my relationship with money as well. And I did that, and I literally gave away all my money, and I'm still currently rebuilding my life. I have a day job now where I go to all the time. And um I'm working with a bunch of 25-year-olds, and I don't see it as a you know a negative at all. I'm learning new things, I'm meeting new people. It's something I can put in my toolkit. I'm proud of myself for um just staying in the positive and and and having this opportunity. And at night I still write and work on my things. I I just um I have a lot more energy because I I manage my energy. I have more space to create because I really manage where I'm putting all my energy, right? That's what we were talking about earlier. It's you know, getting up. Am I gonna sit there and watch negative stuff over Instagram and Facebook and the news? And I'm, you know, I touch base on it just to know what's going on in the world, but then I leave it. Like things that I I'm gonna put all my energy into things I cannot control or have say in. Um, my first book, I was so proud to get published because I didn't really have a college degree, and everybody kind of told me I was never going to like get a publishing deal, but I did. And that was uh talked about me becoming having suicidal tendencies and then healing from that. And I have two book deals, and then my other book coming out in January called Planet Walking, a Handbook for the Living. And I wrote that book in seven weeks, 70,000 words. I did probably 15 illustrations, also an illustrator in art. I've published over a hundred um black and white uh illustrations and magazines and books. So I'm continuing that. I'm doing an art show next week. I realized artwork was a way for me to channel my pain. Yeah. Um, and I used to just think they were doodles, but then people wanted to buy them.

SPEAKER_01:

So do you notice when when you channel it, it comes out and it's like this beautiful piece. But then as soon as there's a dollar amount put on it and a pressure to do it, it seems like it changes.

SPEAKER_02:

Not for me. Um, because when I do art, I literally zone in, I tunnel vision. And I when I do a piece of art, I don't stop until it's done. And I'll stay up all night long if I have to. And I oh, I and then I own I never touch it again.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So I just execute it and then I'm done with it. And then I just put it out in the world. I've been lucky with the art, that's what I do. This the writing, like the writing is where my mind goes, what are they gonna think about that? And because I have an eight as um a literary agent now, you know, and then I'm so nervous when she comes back with like I have a few notes, you know, and it's just that whole, oh, it comes over like a personal judgment, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Like it might like it comes back as a personal thing versus like it's the book, it's not you. So her comments aren't about you as a person, it's just about the words and the book or the flow of the book or the case may be. I want to go back to the suicide thing because one thing that I have learned in my journey, and one thing that I've learned by all the people I've talked to, is that when we oftentimes, not everybody, but oftentimes when you come from a hard childhood, one that has trauma, abuse, whatever the case may be, it's actually a go-to to think about suicide. It's literally a go-to. It's like a coping mechanism. It's like I can't do this anymore. I've already endured so much, and I just have nothing left to give the world. And so I love what you said about tools. I always talk about, you know, I don't believe anybody's ever quote unquote healed. I believe that we're on a journey. And as you develop more tools and you add them to your toolbox, then when things come up that you've had come up in the past, you simply have more tools to use, right? So, like with your idealization of like having like a suicide thing a few weeks ago or whatever, you weren't going to commit suicide. Your brain just defaulted back to a thought that, you know, I can't do this anymore. This is too much. But you then used your tools from your toolbox that you taught yourself or that you learned and got out of it. And that's perfectly normal, okay, and a beautiful process, right? Because now you know the next time that comes up. Because if that's your default, it's going to come up sometime, right? You know that you have the tools to move forward out of that.

SPEAKER_02:

And yes. And my maybe the biggest thing is I didn't know I didn't love myself. I thought I liked myself, but I didn't. And the way that you can tell, and so it's learning how to fall back in love with yourself. Um, you know, I love my husband, my friends, my job, my projects, you know. And then inside I would talk to myself like I was a POS, a terrible person. And I knew in my heart, I go, I'm a good person. I try, I'm kind, you know, I have great qualities that I admire even about myself. But why do I let myself this isn't love? The way you're talking to my the way this brain is talking to myself right now, that's not love. So it was falling back in love with myself. My mom even makes fun of me now. She's like, You married yourself. And I was like, Yeah, I kind of did. That's how much I love myself now. I mean, so even though I had that bad moment, I still was in love with myself. I still honored myself, and I'm like, I'm in pain. I just tired, you know, and I want to leave because you know, I've just I want the suffering to go. And it does go. That's the thing is that you will transform that momentary um pain. And in those moments, we want people to know who to this uh Jordan Peterson actually said that because I've you know, obviously listened to a lot of um conversations about this topic, and he said one thing he said, can you just wait one more day?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that's what I wish the message would be for people who are in that state. Just wait one more day, and then if the next day isn't great, wait one more day, but just give yourself the time because at some point, some point it will get better.

SPEAKER_02:

And it the energy that really dark energy, though, like in our in this book here that I have this surviving suicidal ideation that I co-wrote with Dr. Amelia Kelly, we put the stages in there. So that was like say a stage five where you're like, Oh my god, I really want to go, you know. Um, you can wake up and be at stage one, yeah, you know, or or not at all in any stage. So yeah, you have to kind of like know where you're you are and manage yourself a little bit, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And you can wake up and be at stage five. Yeah. You might have just been, you know, pushing along and not taking care of yourself and not honoring yourself and just you know, just overdoing it and living in a world that doesn't honor you, or maybe you're doing work that doesn't honor you, or whatever the case may be. And then you wake up and you're like, one day, like, you know, this is I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to get out of bed. Like, I just simply don't want to do it. And again, I want people to remember everybody goes through those days. Everybody. There is not a single person in the world who has woken up every single day of their life and went, oh my God, this is like the best thing ever. You know, even what we call like spiritual leaders, you know, like Gandhi and all of those different people, they have those, they talk about the times in their life where they were at a point where they did not want to live anymore. We all go through it and some people to more extremes because of our past, but just give yourself, like you said, give yourself one more moment, give yourself one more day. Use tools, learn tools from other people who have gone through it, like you, like myself, that we're offering to the world so we know that you're not alone.

SPEAKER_02:

I heard a thing about Buddha, which I didn't know much about Buddha before. They said, Well, what did Buddha learn? Like he learned how to find the light in the dark. Yep. And that really stuck with me because you know, even if say you go in a dark situation, it could be you had a car accident or breakup or uh a job loss, you know, and it feels dark. Right. What is that light that why is that? What's the driving force? Maybe it's maybe it's there for you to get you out of that position or away from that person, or you know, and you and it's hard to do that in the moment because all the old storylines start to come up, you know, like if you said, I'm unworthy, I don't deserve this or whatever. But maybe that person isn't for you. Maybe this is something to help you go to the next phase and exactly look behind you and go, thank goodness I'm not with that thing person anymore or in that job anymore, or you know, or I accidentally woke me, you know. That's why people talk about near death experiences and like, oh my, you know, my whole life changed after that because they wake up a different version of themselves with that experience behind them and realize that they have something to do here, that it's important, whatever it is, to walk with, you know, every day I try to say what excites me the most with what I can do. Like I have two hours left. I have to work all these other hours. What's gonna, what's the what I'm gonna do with those two hours that is gonna really lighten up my spirit and put a smile on my face and make me feel light right now. And I'll find something, whether it's drawing or listening to a speaker that really inspires me, meditating. Sometimes it's just being quiet, going shopping. What is it gonna do? Sometimes you need to do all of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. And there's that, there's that quote that says, Comparison is the thief of joy. And oftentimes when I get into a space where my head's kind of spinning, that will pop into my mind because almost always it's the comparison thing, right? Like I'm not doing enough, I'm not making enough, I'm not blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. My best friend from high school told me that one time. And I was like, wow, like what a big thought. Because it's almost always you're comparing, it's almost always some sort of comparison.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, the suicidal rates for the youth are just skyrocketing worldwide. And a lot of it, and the exactly, you just hit it, is about comparison. They see what other people's have, and you know, they got filters, and they just say, Oh, I'll never get there. And the youth, even people in their 20s and 30s that I talk to still is like, Oh, I'm never gonna have that person. And it's I'm like, you gotta pull yourself out of that, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And because it's not real, anyways, like nobody puts their crap moments out there, very few people, right? Like, no, they don't show up and like their hairs in a ponytail from waking up in the morning and they look like crap, and then they get on camera and they're like, Today I feel like shit. Like, like they always put these like stories out there that's like one percent of their life, and that's what we're comparing ourselves to.

SPEAKER_02:

And I'll see people because I'm an artist, I'm like, you know, somebody who it looks absolutely not like anybody that you would think is quote unquote typically attractive, and I think they're the most fascinating person in the world, you know. You maybe just a real big nose, or like I'm like, oh my god, they're just a they're beautiful, beautiful. But um, because we have to we we're falling in line it with that type of world, you know, we're creating the world that we want our children to see. And so as an adult, even though I don't have children, I find it very it's very responsible. That's why the projects I work on and what I put out, you know, I want that like even my um, it's called Thomas Fine and the Mystery School, and we have five books scheduled. We would have the first book written, and that's what who we're meeting with the producer on. And we it's a whole underwater school, and it's like we do have diversity. And even though um people say, Oh, diversity is this and that, it's like the world is made, we are all diverse. I mean, right, it was always here, you know. We have we have the gamut of diversity in this world, and it's a great thing, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that. So let's wrap up and give me two things. One, what is your wisdom that you can offer to the people who are listening today? And then two, how can they find you?

SPEAKER_02:

Sorry, I'm just taking a moment. Yes, good. I I wrote this down when I was about nine years old, this line, and I love it. And I didn't understand it until now. You are the joy that nothing else is. You are the joy that nothing else is, joy, the word joy. Hold on to that word joy and feel it. It's such a beautiful world word, and know that that is what you really are at your core. Right. Um, my name is Gina Cavalier, GinaCavalier.com. I'm all over Instagram, Facebook, anywhere else. I have a YouTube channel, Gina Cavalier, Gina Cavalier, Gina Cavalier. I'm everywhere, Amazon, and you'll find all kinds of ways to connect with me. I respond to every single person. I really want people to have joy in their heart, to be creative and move towards their highest excitement, and to unconditionally love yourself first and then everyone else.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that. Thank you. I will put um some of your contact information in um in our description, and then they can just go from there to find more information about you. But we look forward to your book series coming out. We look forward to all of the beautiful creative things that you're doing, and we're so grateful.

SPEAKER_02:

So grateful for your time and energy and uh letting me have this moment. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. We look forward to if this story spoke to you. Let's keep the healing going. Visit Barbiemoreno.com for my online course, Awakening Your Worth in Healing Energy Sessions, one on one coaching, and your free healing guide. Your next step is waiting.

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Barbie Moreno

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