Trusting Life & Embracing Uncertainty with Ana Mattos

When life's hardships seem insurmountable, stories of triumph like Ana Mattos's remind us of the profound strength embedded in human spirit.

"Try leaning into the pain so you can learn, grow and move from it"
-Ana Mattos

Ana, a world class osteopath whose grandmother was the local  healer in the neighbourhood where she was raised in  São Paulo shares her tale of transformation,  Her journey through the challenges of race and cultural barriers to a life dedicated to wellness embodies the resilience and purpose we all yearn to find. Join us as she shares her voyage of love, healing, and the wisdom inherited by her lineage, painting a vivid picture of how one's calling can guide them through life's tumultuous waves.

Change often arrives wrapped in the cloak of adversity, and this episode bears witness to the transformative power of facing one's personal demons head-on. We track the steps of a brave soul who, amidst the uncertainty of Brexit, sought refuge and rebirth on the enchanting island of Madeira. Her narrative is a testament to the human capacity for growth, vividly illustrated through a harrowing confrontation with COVID-19 that led to an unexpected rebirth. This segment shines a light on the strength found in solitude and the unexpected directions our paths can take when we surrender to life's unpredictable currents.

Ana helps us recognize that each chapter of our existence, no matter how chaotic at the time, is integral to the greater story we're composing. Together, we explore the liberation that comes from fearless self-expression, and the joy in embracing every heartbeat of our journey.


Ana's Contact 

• Website : https://www.londonhealthcounselling.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inner_alchemy_space/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-mattos-42ab1231

If you would like contribute please do so here

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

In this episode I'm speaking to Osteopath Natropath, Health and Wellness Coach and modern day healer, Ana Matos. Ana's journey comes from humble beginnings in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to helping five-star clients in the most luxurious resorts and retreats all over the world. Enjoy the conversation.

Speaker 2: 0:26

It's lovely to be with you here.

Speaker 1: 0:30

It's so easy, okay, well, hello and welcome to the James Grant from Podcast SuperSoul Model Series, where I help people tune and tap into their natural state of well-being. This week's guest is an incredible human being and her name is Ana Matos. Ana is a highly experienced health and wellness practitioner with over two decades of expertise and experience in osteopathic medicine, naturopathy, breath work, mindfulness, meditation and health and wellness counseling. Originally from Brazil, ana's story is very inspiring and she's managed to create a very successful life and business for herself from humble beginnings. This week's SuperSoul Model is Ana Matos. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me here. It's very exciting to be here with you and to participate of your show, so thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Ana, absolutely so, ana. I randomly met Ana and I don't believe in random coincidences anymore, but Ana actually treated and was a practitioner for my sister and her kids back in London and my sister said I think you really need to meet Ana. There is something very special about this lady that you need to meet, and I'm quite an open book and any of the audience that's listening in. Sometimes we get inspired to meet people and we think, yeah, you're not quite sure what it's going to be. But when I first met Ana, I was like this is a human being with a lot of light, a lot of energy, and I could just tell from even my own experience of like being in the wellness space. I was like this person is living and breathing her work and I was blessed to meet her in a beautiful hotel here in Marbella and that is how our paths came across and I said Ana, you have got to come and share your story on the show because it is such an inspiring story. So here you are.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 2:37

I just want to thank you to my sister for introducing us, because Ana really walks her talk, and that's what the world needs. And that's what this podcast is all about. It's trying to share with us people who are wonderful role models, who are walking their talk in integrity, and that's exactly what you do, ana.

Speaker 2: 2:55

Thank you, Thank you so much. This morning, when I was doing my practice, just my sort of self care practice of the morning, I was thinking of the day that we met and how we met and how there was like no expectations. And when you walked into the hotel and I saw you, I just I just needed to hug you and you did the same and it was just. You know, it was like meeting this wonderful person. It was so. I just want to acknowledge you as a wonderful person as well and, you know, I think it was a meeting of souls, like you also walk your talk and and I think we recognize that on each other. So, thank you.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Oh, that's a pleasure, and I would also, you know, I have to thank my sister as well, because she doesn't, you know, hand out like I'll go and see my friend or whatever. She doesn't do that, and so when she did that, I was like, okay, well, this, she must be someone special, right? And you know, that's why I appreciate and I recognize them that in you immediately. But what I wanted to share and particularly share with the audience, ana, is your beginnings of becoming a wellness practitioner, and you know helping high net worth clients with regards to osteopathic medicine and what you're doing, going around the world into these amazing spas and hotels and having your private practice. You know what led you to this, what led you to this life, because there was a point in time when you didn't speak any English at all. So, you know, tell us a little bit about your journey and you know, if someone's listening, anything is possible, because you are a living example of showing people that things are possible when there is no way and no how.

Speaker 2: 4:53

Wow, yes, so starting. So I'm a child, working class child, from Brazil. My parents were very troubled, you know alcoholic father, narcissistic mother had all sorts of problems with siblings. I had a sibling that was autistic. So we were sort of very humble and troubled early beginnings.

Speaker 2: 5:23

But me as a person on my journey, there's some extra layers to that. You know, coming from Brazil in sort of early 70s, 80s, a lot of racism actually is still a lot of racism around in Brazil, in the world and so on. But that aside, I experienced quite a lot of racism as a child and also a little bit of coming from a very patronizing family. Like you are a woman, you shouldn't, you couldn't, you don't, and then having to fight through all of those layers and coming out of that, I was very fortunate to fall in love with someone I met and went to New Zealand and that was like they stepped forward to what I needed. So I was, as a child, I was very interested in spirituality. I was very connected to my great-grandmother who was the healer. Was the village? Well, village, st Paul is not a village, but she was. St Paul is one of the biggest cities in the world.

Speaker 2: 6:44

Exactly. But she was the local healer Right and I remember, you know, as a very, very little child, you know, going to visit her and she had like cues of people waiting for her to say her words. You know people would gather around her and she would talk and give them herbs and just literally give the healing and I would just be with her. I can actually feel, just as I talk to you, I can feel the energy now coming in.

Speaker 1: 7:17

So it's kind of like this beautiful, like passing down a legacy of energy from your grandmother to you. Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2: 7:27

That's exactly what I'm saying. You know, as I talk and I evoke her name and her, I can actually feel the energetic sort of surroundings increasing. So I'm grateful to that. But going forward and not making my story too long, I went to live in New Zealand. I started to learn about different things and sort of got connected to science and within the sort of more westernized world I personally myself created this idea where it had to be science-based, proven and otherwise it wouldn't be accepted. So for a long time I was living within that.

Speaker 1: 8:20

So you're living in this kind of logical world where there is nothing else except for the facts? Is that what you're saying? Very much Science is great. I mean, it allows us to really understand how things work.

Speaker 2: 8:36

Yes.

Speaker 1: 8:37

So what led you into this wellness path? What was the story for you to find this understanding? Because when you're talking about I can evoke the feeling of my grandma in my body. To listen to this, that might feel really strange, but if you're not understanding energy and how it works, it might feel very alien to some people, but to you it seems very normal. So how did that sort of all come about? Because I know that in osteopathic medicine and when you're treating the body, you're treating the body for the pain and some of the symptoms that are going on. But you've discovered that there's more going on than just the body. And so when you're talking about your grandma, you can feel it right. You can feel her spirit or her energy pulsating through you. But if you're not that type of person, how do you tap into that?

Speaker 2: 9:31

Yes, well, that's a great question. So for me it was pretty much as you described either here or here the in-between, it was almost like there was not an acceptance for it, because there was the need to prove myself within the scientific world, you know, coming from that background where you wouldn't be able to do anything or be anything.

Speaker 1: 10:09

There's no credibility. So you want to be credible through science.

Speaker 2: 10:14

Exactly so.

Speaker 2: 10:16

I attached myself for a long time within that and I wouldn't allow or I couldn't see I wasn't in touch with the other side of who I am, who is an energetic being, who is a spiritual being, and how that could blend together and work beautifully at a human level to improve our own, my and other people's human experience of life.

Speaker 2: 10:51

So I don't know if I'm answering your question properly, but how it came to me was through a series of traumas or realizations of traumas, and having to go deep, like a divorce, a sort of very dramatic breakup, breaking up from a country that I really loved and then going to another country. So this is the sort of fourth time I move around the world, but rediscovering that actually home is here with me, in me, and also that I can be all of that. I can have the science, the knowledge, the scientific prove and I can also be spiritual, energetic and I can blend all of that with my work. So that's how it came about for me to sort of restart. Restart my life was like research restart, which started in 2019, very much.

Speaker 1: 12:01

OK, so tell us a little bit what happened in 2019, because everybody who's listening is going to have to restart or reset again and again, and again.

Speaker 1: 12:13

And one thing I always like to remind myself of in my own journey, which can be quite humorous, but it doesn't feel like it when you're going through it, but when you fast forward a bit you can look back and laugh. That's why I love Shakespeare's quote, which is life is but a comedy of errors and it just makes you look at life with a little bit more life, with a little bit more lightheartedness. And when I look at it, at my own trials and tribulations, I can look back and have a good old chuckle about them. But during the time when I was going through it, I was like, oh, this feels really heavy, but there was always in life a series of resets and restarts, and today, when you wake up, could be a new chance for a reset, and today is a new opportunity. But in 2019, take us back to something that you've shared with me before that you can share with the audience about what happened to you for your next restart, because that was quite significant for you.

Speaker 2: 13:14

It was. It was. So two things happened. I don't intend to be political or to get political or anything, but for me it was very significant. Brexit was one of the things. It was the little fire there that kind of went like oh where am I and what am I? Why am I here? Am I in the right place? Am I doing the right thing?

Speaker 1: 13:42

Because you were living in London, right.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Well, I was living in London, right, and even in London for a very long period of time, like 20 plus years, and I still love London. London is one of my very favorite cities in the whole world and I love it. But it was everything about my life within England and London and it was like who am I, what am I living, what can I do to going forward? Because I used to say, in 10 years time, I want to do this, in the future, I want to do this, and then it would never happen. And that was the first thing.

Speaker 2: 14:28

And then I had a breakup, sort of very sad breakup, with someone who I loved and we intend to move to live in two different countries. We had a whole idea of what to do or not to do, and then I realized, sort of kind of last minute, that it wasn't what I wanted. You know, it's not the person that wasn't who I wanted, it was the relationship wasn't what I wanted, it wasn't me. And then, from that moment of having nothing because I had already sold my house in London, got rid of everything, bought an apartment in Brazil, so I had already reshuffled my life and then I was at this point where all that I had planned went down the drain and I had to think last minute of plan B.

Speaker 1: 15:32

I don't mean to laugh or giggle at the pain, right, but it's so funny how life does this, right? And if you're listening, I really want you to just be reminded of Anna's truth. It's sometimes you plan stuff and the universe goes no, that's not what's going to happen. And you know, I planned my life for myself to a certain extent and the universe picked me up and put me somewhere else. I'm like, no, you're not doing that. And I was like, oh, and it was scary, right, it's scary when your plans are taken away and reshuffled by something bigger than yourself, meaning life.

Speaker 1: 16:12

And it can be really humbling to have your life reshuffled without your permission, because that's what it felt like with me, right? I don't know if that's, and that's why I laugh, because I felt like my life was reshuffled without my permission, but I had to just accept it, right, because that's what happened. So you know, in my case it was picking up, coming to Spain, looking after my family, looking after my parents, treating my dad before he ended up making his transition. It was a blessing in disguise, but I never planned on remaining or staying. But that's what's happened and, very much like your story, your plans went right out the window. Life had other plans for you.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Exactly and it just highlights to me the importance of acceptance. You know, mindfulness. It's a big thing for me In my practice, in what I teach, in what I, how I live my life, to sort of always tip back into the sort of the practice of being present, to what it is, the acceptance of what it is, letting go, recognizing and letting go of what is not, so just sort of tipping back into that, you know, and how life just went like whoo and I had to think I was working. So part of the work that I do is to work for sort of very high-end hotels and resorts and I bring in workshops and I work as an osteopath, as a naturopath, so I use all my skills within this sort of you know, sort of beautiful, amazing place.

Speaker 2: 18:00

And at the time I was in Oman. I was in Muscat in Oman and I was doing a gig there for a month and I thought I just need to, I need to find the plan B. Now, what is the plan B? So I made a list of things that I needed from the next place, the place I wanted to be, because I had this opportunity to rewrite my story.

Speaker 1: 18:27

Yes, so you were. So Brexit was happening. You were doing a month-long workshop or placement in a luxurious resort and you were thinking to yourself Brexit's happening, I can't be in England much longer. So that was your opportunity to rewrite what you wanted. So what did you rewrite?

Speaker 2: 18:53

Yes. So I thought I'm going to go and live in Portugal, which I speak, the language, it's culture that perhaps is similar to mine. I don't know much about it. I'm going to explore. So I made a plan. I had just one vision for me by the 31st of January 2020, brexit Day that it took place I was going to be living in Europe Because I wanted to be in Europe and that was the most strong thing for me. I wanted to remain in Europe. So I made that plan and as I was going through this list, a little pop-up screen came Madeira Island, and I was like oh, madeira. Never heard of Madeira. Actually, I had heard, but it was never like somewhere that I would think of going. It's a Portuguese island.

Speaker 1: 19:53

That looks like Hawaii, if you don't know. Basically, yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:58

It is. It is like the it is Hawaii within Europe. But I didn't know. So I made a plan. I came back from Oman in the morning five o'clock in the morning, arrived 12 o'clock in the afternoon. The same day I came to Madeira.

Speaker 1: 20:16

So you got on a flight. So wait a minute, did you fly to London to go and then take another flight to Madeira?

Speaker 2: 20:22

Okay, same day, same day, because I had two weeks to sort myself Within my vision and I came to Madeira, where I'm talking to you from today, and in that weekend that I was here, I decided that I would move to Madeira and I rented an apartment and that was it, not knowing that COVID would strike less than two months after that and I would be in this island on my own, totally.

Speaker 2: 21:07

With no family with no friends, nothing because it's all new and grieving from a broken heart, from so many aspects of my life, and that was the best decision I've taken in my life so far.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Isn't that interesting. There's two things here that I think that the audience may really appreciate. Number one the intensity of your desire for change and transformation. Yes, because if you stay where you are, you're not growing and sometimes you need to shift where you are or change your environment so that you can grow into the new you and life will sometimes challenge you and test you, but really it's just helping you become more stronger version of yourself, more resilient version of yourself, so you can grow into that version. And sometimes that growing at least in my own experience is sometimes very uncomfortable because growing like when you're a child or you're growing into a bigger body you know there's movement, there's more energy being required and it's uncomfortable growing.

Speaker 1: 22:15

So what happened during COVID for you? Because you had all these challenges right, you made the move, you got the apartment and, by the way, this particular you know. I'm hoping this resonates with the audience here because it's just a bit of a understanding that what you think is a straightforward plan Isn't always a straightforward plan. You know there will be twists and turns along the way, but life will still have your back despite all those twists and turns. And I always want to say sometimes of those little pain spots that you get. It will still have your back, and Anna's story is basically a wonderful example and inspiration of that. So what happened next?

Speaker 2: 23:05

So, as you're saying, you know, and from an osteopathic point of view, sort of growing hurts, yeah, we get the growing pains and the stretch and the move and and I love your sort of words saying that life does not go in a straight line, that it goes around, and we have to go with that flow always, or try anyways.

Speaker 2: 23:31

So, um, covid came and I was alone in Madeira and for the first time in my life I was completely alone and I had the opportunity to be with myself and discover who I was as a person and reconnect to who I am in my essence and allow everything else that came as layers in my life to to work through. But of course, with that came a lot of pain, because it came the realization of the past traumas that I had as a child. I've always been the resilient child in the family who will be like no, I'm looking after, I'm managing, I'm, I'm strong, I'm doing, you know, like, and I had always this posture of like you know the superhero in the superhero T-shirt on, but deep down inside you're covering the vulnerable heart, right?

Speaker 2: 24:36

Yes, and and it was I was not. I was not allowing myself to to bring in the vulnerability because that felt like weakness to me. But towards the end of 2020, I I had COVID and I almost died from COVID. I had one very dramatic night where I could not breathe and I got the sort of the cytokine storm. You know the people who knows a bit more of science thing that where your body it's fighting against itself and it's either either or you're going to live or you're going to die there. Yeah, and it was that time that you went to hospital. They would anticipate you didn't know what, what would be your end.

Speaker 2: 25:31

You may go out of that very well or not, but in my opinion, at that time, it was more about my life here and my life going forward and how I wanted to be. So I remember one night that I spent. It was the night that I say that I died. I passed away. The old me died on that night and I spent the whole night on my head was like burning in fire.

Speaker 2: 26:08

I was in this little apartment in London and it was the same bar, and I was this in tiny little apartment that I rented and I spent the whole night sitting with eyes in my head and listening to a cat, the power of now, and I, literally I could. I didn't go to sleep because I thought if I would sleep that night I would never wake up. Yeah, so I kept awake and from that night, when I, when the day came, true it was it has been sort of a different path, a different feeling of life to me. And the fear is not that I'm not fearful, I am fearful, I'm still fearful, but I'm not fearful of telling people that I am fearful. My vulnerability is allowed back, my childish love for the world, it's allowed back. I don't mind being silly, I don't mind being looked at as ridiculous. It's like I'm just going to go for it, I'm going to go for life. And then it came all sorts of discomfort within that. A lot of discomfort because, of course, everything comes up, comes to the surface.

Speaker 1: 27:54

It's almost like when we try and push those heavy feelings away, we're trying to protect. We have these protective layers so that it doesn't hurt ourselves or our energy. We can close our heart or whatever. You're putting on all these protective layers to help you being vulnerable or to stop you being vulnerable, to stop you feeling being hurt in the world externally.

Speaker 1: 28:19

But what you said I really really like and it mirrors a little bit of my story when I had my own near-death experience, which was, you know, you want to come back as, like a child that isn't afraid to feel all these emotions, because that's what we are.

Speaker 1: 28:35

Right, we're human beings and I guess one of the gifts of life that makes us unusual and a miracle to be here is that this physical life allows us to feel all these different emotions. And I believe like I don't know for sure, but I feel like this has come up several times in meditation it's like I believe that once you do part from this physical world and your spirit moves on and your soul continues, although not in this physical form, I really firmly believe, although I can't prove it is that you kind of ask you know, did you enjoy that experience? And you'll be like well, sometimes, you know, sometimes, and sometimes it was really heavy and then. But if you only lived in a place where it was all sunshine, lollipops and roses and rainbows the whole time, you'd never get to experience the variety. And so sometimes those heavier moments just allow you to really focus on what's important, so you can return back to that purest state of being. Now, it's not to say that we're always there, but it's nice to know it exists.

Speaker 2: 29:46

And you can always tap into it, always. And I think the biggest learning to know sort of the undulation of life, highs and lows, highs and lows, but also that nothing is frequent, nothing is certain. You know we can plan, we can desire and we can manifest as well. I'm a big sort of believer in big manifesto, but we also have a path and the life will take us through that. So how do we experience that path? How do we experience from A to whatever B is, and not the arrival at B, it's like how do we go about? And that, for me, has changed. And that's one of the things that I in my work today actually not just my work in my everyday life, in my interaction with people, with friends, with family, I try to bring that to the surface. How do you experience whatever it is? It's hard, it's painful. How I experience that? Do I lean into it? Do I feel it? Do I let it work? It's whatever needs to work through so I can learn, roll and move.

Speaker 1: 31:23

I'm kind of lost for words for a little bit, because that's like a beautiful little meditation right there and I think Anna's words really sort of allow us to become present, to realising that life is a dance, it is a movement and we are all part of this cosmic dance and sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it makes no sense. Sometimes a breakup makes no sense. Sometimes being put in a new country makes no sense. Sometimes a political divide makes no sense and it forces you to move. Sometimes moving to a new country makes no sense because you have no idea where you're going to go and at the beginning it's very uncomfortable. But eventually all of these things will make sense and it will only be when you cast your eyes back and you're living in a future now that you can go.

Speaker 1: 32:18

ah, that will make sense now, but it doesn't whilst it's unfolding, because you cannot see the bigger picture. And I think, sometimes, when you, what I love talking to you about and what you've spoken about today is this new perspective. You know, having the bigger perspective allows you to not necessarily understand every step of the way, but to understand that there is a bigger picture that maybe you cannot see just yet. But if you can have some daily habits, if you can have some practices, if you can contribute to the world in an uplifting way, then maybe you get to ride on this thermal where you get to see the bigger picture. More often than not and I always try to live there, but every so often I dip and just like everybody else. But that's why we start the show by saying, helping you tune and tap into your natural state of wellbeing. That's the thermal I'm talking about, that's that natural high I'm referring to, and you said it's so eloquently with your words a moment or two ago.

Speaker 2: 33:29

We're here for a purpose and now, like, for example, I am in the second half of my life and this is the time where so the first half, I learned, I grew, I heard, I moved, I kind of you know like everything was, and now it really is like you know, I don't, it's like the phoenix and I was kind of okay, so you can now just show and help help be itself.

Speaker 1: 34:04

And I've got to ask you this because this is really interesting for me, like as a curious human being what is your? The help, the helping, what's that given you?

Speaker 2: 34:20

Love that? That's such a good question. It gives me so much joy. It gives me joy, it makes my eyes twinkle, it gives me the warm feeling in my body, it gives me purpose, it gives me love. Yeah, back, I feel, I feel loved.

Speaker 1: 34:54

When you're helping people, you feel loved.

Speaker 2: 34:57

I feel loved, yeah. Yeah, it's interesting, but yes, I feel loved. Yeah, and it's nice to feel loved.

Speaker 1: 35:09

I feel, when I'm helping, like when I'm doing these podcasts, even though I don't know who is helping lots of people write in I mean, it's more often than not nowadays, which is lovely, and people I don't know, nice, but I feel protected.

Speaker 2: 35:29

Protected, I feel protected.

Speaker 1: 35:32

Because I have this little thing that I wrote out and it says when you take care of God's business, God will take care of yours, and I was like that's never a true word and I've actually lived that by looking after my mom and looking after my dad, and my whole experience prior to that was get, get, get.

Speaker 2: 35:57

How are you to see? How are you to see?

Speaker 1: 35:59

Get, give right. Give, give, give Don't get, get, get, give, give.

Speaker 2: 36:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:08

I think I'm going to have to write that down, because I was really that's a good one, that's a very good one, you know, because?

Speaker 1: 36:20

That's huge for me because you know, like with modelling, I've had some fantastic successes, I've had some fantastic projects and working with amazing people, but ultimately, at some level of my ego being, it was if I get that, then I can get, then I can go there and I can do that. It's only if I can accumulate then I can do it. And it was just so such a you know dog chasing its tail When's the agent going to call you know when's it going to do this? But it was only when I actually went straight into my dad needs my help. I'm going drop everything, drop all your projects, drop all your work, even if it's paid, drop it all. Go and help your father, go and help your mother Drop it. Took a weekend bag. You know the story. That weekend bag was five months A lot COVID.

Speaker 1: 37:16

A lot Give, give, give, give. And then the day that my dad died, I was like mum, I'm staying, I'm not going back until you are where you need to be. What do you want? And that was three years Give, give, give. And in that time I felt protected, cared for abundantly, provided for, had all my needs met abundantly, and I still couldn't figure out, like what's actually happening. And it was because of the give, give, give.

Speaker 2: 37:49

It's so inspiring and it's like you know it's. All these things you know can sound so cliche because we hear the da, the, da, da, da, but authentically, like the way you're saying, because you experienced it, you felt it, it needs to be said, needs to be heard.

Speaker 1: 38:11

But I just want to say I love talking to you and I could talk to you for hours. It's just so easy to talk to you and I just want to say, Hannah, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom, your, your knowledge, your open heart, just sharing your, even your, your troubles and daring to be vulnerable, because it's not easy to be vulnerable and expose yourself, but it's the only place where freedom really exists.

Speaker 2: 38:38

Yes. So thank you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to to be here, to be present, to tell my story, and and also thank you for your sister to introduce both of us. I just want to say thank you again for her, and it's been such a pleasure to be here, and I hope my story can inspire people and and just be present, just be there, just be present and live it.

Speaker 1: 39:18

Thanks for tuning in.