Mark [0:00] I’d like to welcome Alex Knysh to the World Heart of Connection podcast. Alex is an energy coach, a Reiki practitioner and hypnotherapy and from all the way in Sydney. Welcome, Alex.
Alex [0:16] Thank you, Mark. Thanks for having me.
Mark [0:18] Pleasure. Alex, the introduction is there anything further you’d like to add to your beautiful introduction?
Alex [0:27] No, I think you’ve covered it quite well.
My Connection to Energy Coaching
Mark [0:31] What led you into the field of energy coaching, Reiki and hypnotherapy? Where does that how did you connect to that?
Alex [0:39] So oh, interesting. I used to live a very toxic lifestyle. I grew up with a lot of trauma, and I didn’t know how to deal with it as a teen. So, I numbed my pain anyway that I could. I lived this toxic lifestyle for many years and in my early 30s, I started getting very sick once I quit that lifestyle. I had very high anxiety and high panic attacks. I saw a variety of therapists and doctors, and I discovered hypnotherapy. It was the one thing that really helped me to come off medications and to change my life and turn my life around. To reduce the stress and the anxiety and to start creating a much better life for myself ~ to take charge and be in control. Since that time, I’ve used a lot pf different alternative therapies to overcome what I’ve needed to. I started studying life coaching four years ago and started my business then and through that have learned how to be hypnotised therapist myself. To life coach and energy coach and it’s all just sort of spurred from there. It’s really given me this wonderful gift of self-healing and now I get to share that with others as well.
Like Connecting to a New Me
Mark [2:17] Alex what’s it like to connect to the Alex now ~ compared to the Alex back in trauma, the toxic trauma?
Alex [2:29] I look back at who I was then and I don’t even believe that was me. I think I have rebirthed myself so many times. I’ve shed so many skins and so many layers. I kind of have to pinch myself and every now and again and just go, you know, this life that you’ve created now, where I’m now the strongest and healthiest I’ve ever been. It’s really quite amazing what I have overcome and what I have ~ yeah, the way I’ve healed myself. So, I look at the person I was back then and I know that my inner child was so screaming out for love, attention and affection, and doing all the inner child work has really helped me accelerate my healing. So, it’s pretty remarkable.
Connecting to our Inner Child
Mark [3:27] Can I ask, what’s it like to connect to the inner child within yourself now?
Alex [3:36] I find it’s just it’s really a loving space, a loving environment. I know that sometimes I still take life too seriously. So, I have to remind myself to connect with my inner-child and have some fun and bring out the joy. But I find I’m able to do that quite often. So, it’s good and to remind others to do it as well. Especially with what’s been happening in the last few months everyone’s been in this place of fear and uncertainty. So, it’s really important to connect with your inner-child and come from that place of love, unconditional love, and compassion, yeah. And joy as children have this beautiful, joyful exploratory energy and we tend to miss that as adults.
Mark [4:35] It’s not called the magical child within is it?
Alex [4:39] Could be.
Alex [4:41] Sounds good.
Connecting to & Healing Childhood Trauma
Mark [4:42] Yeah. As we particularly if you’ve had a lot of trauma in childhood. It’s like, I don’t know if this is your experience. It’s like, as soon as we hit adulthood ~ it is like a lifetime – childhood was a lifetime ago.
Alex [4:59] Yeah.
Mark [5:01] Wanting to separate ~ disconnect from it.
Disconnected from our Trauma
Alex [5:06] I feel like I missed out on my childhood in some ways because I was so disconnected. I spent a lot of time on my own in my imagination. So, I would spend time making up stories of me ~ whether I was lying in the grass being in the jungle. But I didn’t really connect with other children as much as I probably could have. So, yeah, I’ve been very introverted for a long time.
Noticing My Disconnection
Mark [5:42] Now, how do you notice when you’re disconnecting from yourself? You talked about when you’re getting serious? Do you have a process that monitors or guides when Alex is getting more serious? She’s just disconnecting a little bit. How do you bring yourself back? Do you have a process? Do you have a morning ritual?
Connecting to Nature is my Daily Grounding
Alex [6:08] I do have a morning ritual. I do a lot of grounding and meditation. But I really find getting out in nature every day is a really great connection for me. So, I love looking at beautiful things. I really notice all the beauty around myself and I feel really blessed and grateful I can see that. So, even just looking at flowers and trees or coloured leaves. When I’m outside and looking at that ~ that really, that brings out the inner child in me. Like you might find me skipping down the street with a big grin on my face. Because I just feel the beauty around me and it’s just wonderful. So, I know that if I’m having, a down day or not feeling too crash hot – I haven’t slept with. If I go outside half an hour, that makes such a huge difference for me.
Nature Connects me to my Inner Strength
Mark [7:02] As you’re going outside connecting to nature, what do you notice and experience happening in your body as you’re connecting ~ reconnecting back to nature?
Alex [7:14] I think feel just that strength coming back in my body. When you feel grounded, you feel really strong and you have this expanded energy. So, I really feel that in my body and it feels strong. I feel the movement and it’s like all my chakras are clearing and it’s just more inflow, which is nice.
Connecting to my Flow-State
Mark [7:38] Yes flow-states are a pretty powerful place to be. A lot of people in the conversations a lot of the guests have talked about that. When they connect to the ‘All That Is’, and nature is a very powerful connector. It’s an interesting one ~ that’s a real powerful connected to attaining our ‘All That Is’ within ourself.
~ that's a real powerful ~ connected to attaining our 'All That Is' within ourself. Click To TweetAlex [8:00] It really is because it helps you clear your mind and your body and your soul. So, and you feel the communication within yourself or your muscles and your cells or your fibres. The communication around you from the trees and Mother Earth speaking to you.
Mark [8:20] Lovely to connect to her isn’t it?
Alex [8:23] Beautiful.
Mark [8:25] As you’re connecting to yourself and you get grounded and you come back into that strength and resilience. How does that then flow out to people you’re having relationships too?
My Flow-State Connection to Others
Alex [8:41] I think other people can definitely feel it. So, even in my conversations online. I have a Facebook group and I love connecting with my people in my group. I’ve had quite a few comments lately of people saying it’s so nice to come across someone who cares so much. There are such nice conversations in there. So, I think the flow is definitely seen and heard and felt by others. I know there is ripple effects go out as well. So, I’m using my positive force and that’s flowing onto others, and that’s gonna flow on to others as well, which is lovely.
Mark [9:34] And how do you check in on yourself when a client you’ve worked with or somebody’s ~ a friend in certain relationships? They might be having a down day ~ they’ve disconnected, they’re not in flow? How do you notice and be mindful of that energetic resonance to you?
Mindfulness of my Triggers
Alex [9:58] Yeah, that’s a good question.
Alex [10:02] I’m actually living with a family member who is quite disconnected. I’ve found over the last few months that I have to work a lot harder for my own ~ to maintain my own energy and stay grounded. So, I do a lot more of my grounding techniques. So, whereas before I may have done one or two processes throughout the day, now I’m finding I have to do a lot more just to keep my energy at an even keel. But again, I know ~ like it’s worth it. Even though it takes work. It’s work that is joyful. And when you’re in that flow-state, it definitely does rub off on others as well. I know it’s helping, not just myself, but everyone around me.
Mark [10:57] Is there a resonance when you’re flowing ~ the energy from your aura then starts to flow out to others and resonates with others?
My Warmth resonates in a Flow-State
Alex [11:07] Yeah, I think so.
Mark [11:12] As you experience that ~ what happens in your body is you sense that? You get that felt sense that there’s a really powerful connection here?
Alex [11:26] I feel really warm and grateful and secure. You know, it’s just a really lovely comforting feeling.
Mark [11:38] Does it feel safe?
Alex [11:40] Yeah.
Mark [11:42] How empowering can that be?
Empowered connections in Flow-State
Alex [11:45] It’s very empowering. Especially coming from the background that I’ve had where I spent most of my life not feeling safe. To be who I am now and all the work that I’ve done ~ to be able to create that safety for myself. Everything I’ve done to calm my nervous system and being in-tune. Knowing that I have that safety within me now gives me such strength.
Mark [12:16] Whereabouts in your body do you find that or experience that safety in your body?
Alex [12:25] Um. I feel it in the lower part ~ so my lower chakras,. The gut area that’s a lot about safety there.
Connection to My Solar Plexus
Mark [12:39] In the solar plexus area ~ our power centre?
Alex [12:44] Yep, that’s the one.
Mark [12:47] And what happens in the heart chakra for you?
Alex [12:52] I suppose that’s where the warmth comes from. The love and compassion take over and it feels really good. So, it’s like ripples of beautiful warm soft colour.
Connection to my Heart Chakra
Mark [13:08] It’s very healing, isn’t it?
Alex [13:11] It is.
Alex [13:13] I’m smiling so big now as we talk about it.
Mark [13:18] I know you’re in Sydney and I was just sensing. I was going to check-in there. Are you in it? Are you flowing in there now as you?
Alex [13:27] It almost feels like a warm soft marshmallow that pink comforting.
Mark [13:37] How can we learn to anchor in these places like using the Neuro-Linguistic Programming ~ the NLP stuff learning to anchor in there?
Emotional Freedom Technique
Alex [13:48] So, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is very head based mind based, which is great for a lot of mental and behavioural change techniques. A lot of the work I do is actually clearing energetic and emotional blocks. So, with the energy coaching that’s using EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, and also Reiki. So, these kinds of techniques really helped to clear the blocks. We all have blocks in our mind-body system and from negative experiences we’ve had. Or thoughts that disrupt our body’s energy system and cause symptoms and these techniques can help overcome those things. And especially with connecting with your chakras and the meridian systems in your body to help ground you find that place of ~ as we talked about safety within.
Mark [15:01] You know when you shared about the blocks that we have in our bodies. Are they protective blocks that we connect to within ourselves, rightly or wrongly. They’re just ~ are though the old protective blocks or what could they be?
Connecting to our Emotional Blocks
Alex [15:17] Yeah, absolutely. I think throughout the imprint period, we learn a lot of protective mechanisms. We create a lot of vows and rules for ourselves. So, unless you get help to clear these rules and vows that we make and create new ones that can stay stuck in your body for a long time.
Mark [15:49] Are those imprints unconscious imprints or a conscious imprint or both?
Alex [15:55] I think they’re unconscious. Something happens. We have experienced something, whether it’s from birth or ‘pre-verbal’ um, yeah. And that shapes our human experience and it could be something that someone has said to us. And we just unconsciously create a pattern or a block and we don’t even know it’s there until years later and we can’t move forward because of that block.
Healing through connecting to our Blocks
Mark [16:25] I wonder sometimes whether our connections to others ~ whilst we can sometimes like them and sometimes not like them. Can they then be teachers the relationship to others serve as teachers to bring up these block for us ~ for us to do our own healing within?
Alex [16:48] Yeah, absolutely. I believe that you never meet anyone by accident. Everyone is in your life for a reason. So, whether that’s two brings something out for you to learn and to activate that learning. Whatever it is, there’s always a reason for it, and there’s always learning behind it.
Mark [17:14] And it’s interesting how in connection to others, we can either react or respond. I’m wondering what would happen if we ~ the more insight and awareness, we gain within ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, whether we could then notice the reaction? What am I needing to connect with within myself at that point?
Our Inner Journey to Knowing Ourselves
Alex [17:43] Yeah, it’s a good question. I think the more inner work that you do and the more you truly know yourself. To recognise and acknowledge your emotions and know how to respond. The easier it becomes to recognise when you meet someone and they do activate you in some way. For you to then be able to manage it or move through it in an in a more graceful way than you may have done 10 years previous.
Mark [18:20] We never stopped learning do we really?
Alex [18:22] Ah forever learners.
Mark [18:25] Developing insight and awareness is an ongoing journey. It doesn’t ~ I don’t believe it ever stops.
Alex [18:31] Yeah, I agree.
Mark [18:32] It doesn’t matter how old we get ~ that inner child, that childhood imprint. It’s always surfacing. It’s always needing to be connected with?
Our Inner Journey is always with Us
Alex [18:49] I laugh at myself sometimes because I feel I’ve done so much work on myself. I have these moments every now and again where I think, oh my God, I’ve done so ~ much how much more do I have to do! There’s always more, there are always more layers to uncover, always more insight, acknowledgement, always more healing to be done. Your unconscious mind will only bring up what it’s ready to deal with at a certain time. So, you might not be – it might not be ready to deal with things right now at this moment, but 10 years from now, it will bring something up for you to deal with and heal then. So, it’s very interesting.
The Healing Potential of each Layer
Mark [19:30] As one of the layers ~ I don’t know about you but sometimes when we’re working through this, oh phew I got through that ~ that’s beautiful. Well done. Then, six months-time another piece comes up. When another layer comes up, what happens? What do you experience happens to your connection to it and your energy within your body?
Alex [19:56] I go through different stages of flow. I find I need at times a lot of rest. So, but even in my rest periods I’m very busy behind the scenes trying to uncover more stuff and deal with it and heal. So, even in my dream state, I’m working very hard. I’ve always got stuff that’s coming up for me. I have very vivid and imaginative dreams and some of them are very confusing, some I love. There’s – it’s always I know, there’s always work going on in the background. So, I love the way everything kind of fits together.
What are the messages of our Dreams
Mark [20:38] Do you do any journaling on your dreams?
Alex [20:42] Ah, not really. I always have the intention to and I can remember my dream for the first few seconds when I wake up. And then I just get on with my day and it’s gone.
Mark [20:57] Do you get busy in your day?
Alex [21:00] Yeah. I’ll have some days where parts of the dream will come back to me and I’ll think oh yeah, that’s right, that weird thing happened. I never try and seek an explanation. I just think it’s whatever’s going on in the background, it’s just doing its thing automatically and it’s all part of the healing process. So, let it do its thing.
Connecting to the ‘All That Is’
Mark [21:24] And be present to it. Just that acknowledgement, loving allowance type thing. Loving acceptance of just what is. Coming now ~ coming back to the ‘All That Is.’ When I mentioned that concept, the ‘All That Is’ ~ what happens for you, what does that facilitate in your mind and your psyche when we have the conversation about the ‘All That Is’?
Alex [22:04] I feel it’s like a big expansion. I don’t know how else to describe it. I feel we’re very, we are so connected to the universe and everyone in everything around us. It’s just, it’s a very big expansion. So, I don’t really know what else to say about that.
Mark [22:29] It’s really hard sometimes I’ve found in this conversation to put cognitive intellectual words into space.
Alex [22:40] Yeah.
An Expansive Connection
Mark [22:40] Sometimes it’s like ~ there’s something deeper and it’s really hard to intellectualise it. You know, sometimes when someone, when we’re travelling through stuff or one of the layers, are coming up, and we just can’t put our finger on it, then someone says a word. And it’s that word is the light bulb moment where?
Alex [23:01] Yeah, and it’s like your mind is just blown.
Mark [23:08] When you’re in nature, how much do you then connect to the ‘All That Is’ ~ is within you?
Alex [23:17] I find I can connect to really quickly.
Connecting with Everything Around Me
Alex [23:22] I just feel everything around me. So, as soon as I get outside and take a few deep breaths and start walking down the road and start noticing the air on my skin and the trees and the leaves, the birds singing, like that’s it. It’s like I’m in that ~ ‘All That Is’. I’m fully in it – fully present and it’s just beautiful.
Mark [23:50] What happens in your body? Can you describe what you experienced in your body?
Alex [24:01] I think I just feel really connected. And just one. It’s just all – like everything is sorted. Everything is knowing, everything is strong.
Mark [24:14] Where does the sense of ‘I’ ~ where does the Alex go? Is she present or does she become the all?
Alex [24:24] She’s fully present. Yeah.
Alex [24:28] So and just it’s all part. Like its all ~ we are the universe, we all are ~ all one. So, it’s we’re all just part of one.
‘All That Is’ Connection resets our Mental Health
Mark [24:41] And when you’re in that state, what happens to your emotional health and your mental health?
Alex [24:49] Oh, it’s just a full reset and recharge. Like I said before, you could see me skipping down the street smiling because it really is ~ that breath of fresh air that recharge. If I had been feeling really tired five minutes before I walked out of the house when I’m outside in nature, I just feel really alive and connected and well and happy, healthy whole.
Alex [25:19] Yeah, joy.
Letting Go in Nature
Mark [25:20] Is there a letting go in nature?
Alex [25:23] Yeah. Because you let go of your daily stresses _ you’re not in front of the computer or the phone. And when you’re fully connecting to nature to yourself, and nothing else matters.
Mark [25:40] I sometimes wonder whether nature absorbs energetically our negative energies?
Alex [25:53] Well, if you look at the difference that we’ve all noticed in the last three months. The tree has been sighing a relief because there’s been fewer planes, fewer cars, less smog. The water systems have cleared up a lot. It’s like Mother Earth has just side, this big sigh of relief. And this is what has needed to happen in human existence for hundreds of years. So yeah, I think you know, we all talk to each other. So as humans we also absorb negative energies from other people. All our trees, everything else is living out there. So, it does too.
Mark [26:39] And once you’ve connected into nature, I’ve just got a visual ~ as you’ve connected into nature, and you’ve connected to the ‘All That Is’ and there’s an incredible flow-state. How powerful would your Reiki energy be as you’ve just walked out to nature and you’re laying hands just above the person you’re working with?
Connecting Flow-State of Nature with Reiki
Alex [27:09] Yeah, it would be so much stronger. I’ve never actually thought about that before. Maybe that’s what I need to do for my next Reiki session is go for a big walk beforehand, test it out.
Mark [27:21] Just curious to see ~ just that flow-state that nature facilitates for you and you being. And the clearing and the all the energies are opened up. As you leave there, and you know when in reiki your hand switch on ~ the warmth in your hands can switch on? I’m wondering how much energy would be just radiating out of your hands to the energy of the person you’re working with?
Alex [27:51] Yeah, I would say a lot. I mean, I find myself doing that with trees when I’m outside. I just go and put my hands on a tree. I can really feel that connection and that warm energy. And it’s like this energy of universal love ~ the lifeforce and I can feel that with the trees. So yeah, using that energy on another human would be so powerful.
Mark [28:17] And also imagine laying your hands on your own heart?
Alex [28:21] Yeah.
Mark [28:23] What healing?
Alex [28:25] Yeah, such beautiful healing.
My Advice to a Younger me
Mark [28:29] Alex in part of the conversation as I asked the guest, what piece of advice would you have for a younger version of yourself embarking on her journey?
Alex [28:47] That’s a good question.
Alex [28:53] I think I would say that everything is okay.
Alex [29:02] Keep going within ~ keep listening to your own intuition because that is always right. And you don’t need to listen to other people. Find what is true for you and go with that. Take it as far as you can.
Mark [29:24] Follow it.
Alex [29:25] Yeah.
Being True to Me
Alex [29:28] I think I spent a lot of years not knowing how I was and what direction to go in. And I listen to a lot of people that I shouldn’t have and fell into a lot of situations I shouldn’t have had. So, if I had known then that I have all of these strengths and the resources within me, I wouldn’t have been through some of the stuff that I’ve been through. However, I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t been through that. So, it all matters.
Mark [30:02] It all matters. Yeah, if we ~ I can sometimes imagine when we’re going through the healing process we wish we hadn’t gone through it. Once we come out the other side of the healing process, another layer lifted. It’s like, yeah, that was the ~ sometimes be a painful gift, but it is a gift.
Alex [30:22] Yeah, there’s always a silver lining.
Mark [30:25] That’s right. It’s how do we ~ how do we bring ~ be mindful of and remember that silver lining?
Alex [30:35] Yep. I was telling a friend yesterday, actually, that I know that I could have gone two ways coming out of the trauma that I did. I could have become a very negative person and seeing the doom and gloom in life everywhere. But I made a choice very early on that I didn’t want to be that person. So, I feel very grateful to myself that I made that choice. And I feel really blessed that I can see the positives in everything and see the beauty in the world around me. Because I love living this way. It’s amazing.
Connecting to our Birth Right
Mark [31:16] And you deserve to live this way.
Alex [31:18] Absolutely.
Mark [31:19] It’s your birthright.
Alex [31:20] Absolutely.
Mark [31:21] Well done.
Alex [31:23] Yeah.
Mark [31:24] Alex, thank you for the opportunity to connect to you via your Facebook group. It’s interesting how the connections open up and as you said before, we seem to attract people into our lives. It’s those certain points is there ~ how can people in Sydney ~ if they wanting to say hypnotherapy, some energy coaching, how do they get in touch with you?
Alex [31:52] Yes, you can look up alexknysh.com ~ So that’s Alex Knysh or I’ve got my Facebook group – Better Life Solutions. I’m also starting a meetup group, a monthly meetup and I’m launching that next week. So that’ll be via video chat to start with, but face to face connections. And so I’m looking to build more connections with people through that.
Mark [32:25] Thank you for the lovely work that you’re giving to the world.
Alex [32:30] Thank you, Mark. And you too.
Mark [32:32] Thank you for your healing and the light that you’re bringing and the connection you’re bringing is going to make the world a much better place to be in.
Alex [32:42] Okay. Thank you for having me. really lovely.
Mark [32:46] Namaste to you and I look forward to the continued connection in the in the communities with you.
Alex [32:53] Thank you likewise,
Mark [32:54] Namaste.
Alex [32:56] Namaste.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai