FROM FORCE TO FLOW

PRIYA KAMALA GIRI

Bespoke Coaching for Visionary Leaders, Priya Kamala Giri is a force to be reckoned with. Her powerful  presence will enlighten you, for her words are pure gold. She is the essence of authenticity, having  found her voice is a world that kept trying to change it. Her story is one of transformation, of leadership  and of staying true to herself through it all. 

Start us off with how you got into this world of healing and on this journey to alignment?

For me, it’s really been a lifelong journey. I had some realizations early on as a child, and kind of a perception that  things didn't quite make sense, that things weren’t what they seemed. I don't really talk so much about my story per se, I  mean, I have quite a story, but for me, my story has been about realizing that I'm not my story.  For that reason, events that have happened in my life that have profoundly impacted me, they  have really been like a shedding of that skin, and to the point that it really no longer defines  who I am. My life has been a continuous process of death and rebirth of identities and old  belief systems, or even wounds that maybe were defining me at that time. 

So going back and telling that story would be defining myself in relation to that which actually  happened for me to realize that that's not who I really am.
My curse has been my blessing, my biggest difficulty has been my greatest growth point.

So for me, part of that has been realizing and seeing certain things young that broke the  innocence that was there. In reality, what that woke up, at least one of the things, was the will to find a deeper innocence,  and not the naive innocence of childhood, but a deeper innocence or faith and existence in  myself. This is something that can’t be broken. When you have had experiences that  have broken you, or have taken you to the brink of total hopelessness or failure, you have  to find something more.

Where did you make the leap from a victim mentality to a mentality of strength and  empowerment?

First of all, one of the things that I constantly remind myself is that the path is the goal, that this  life is a never ending journey. It's always a continual process for myself. So anytime I catch  myself being a victim, I try and catch myself because we are so imprinted by this way of  thinking. I keep my eyes and my heart open, to continue to see myself with compassion and to weed out  those patterns. To circle back to your question, there was not one point, because I think that I  had that realization very young as a child, but I couldn't integrate it, I saw a mother, who was so  deeply identified with being a victim and being a martyr, and who had a lot of ancestral abuse  and trauma. So I had to work through those patterns with myself, and it started at a very young  age. Then as I continued to grow, it was a continual weeding out of that garden. 

I think that one of the biggest turning points for me was when I found something that was really for  me, and in this spiritual healing, meditation and transformation world, there is so much of  everything. I had to go through a lot of disillusionment and things not working to really come  to a place where I realized that my life and my direction was all within my power and in my  hands to create. I think that was the turning point for me, somehow coming to that place, and if you know anything about human design, I have a three-line in my profile, which is all about  trial and error. It's the entrepreneurial line, but it's all about finding out what does work through finding what doesn't work. 

Was that when you decided to go full throttle into coaching?

My path has been one of breaking my own limitations or breaking any limitations that have  been internalized or have been set around me. I think that I came to a point where it was time  to break that glass ceiling inside of myself and to see what else was possible, and in my life and  career to be honest. What happens for me is when I line up inside, something shows up on the  outside. So the big shift in my life and business have always come from a deep internal alignment, and suddenly there will be something in my life that shows up, that is the next level that I've been vibrating to, like magic.

You said you have always been a part of peoples growth, what does that look like today in  terms of clients?

Although I have an extensive background that supports my work, I work very intuitively.
I find people also come to me because they intuitively know that I'm the person that they need to work with, either through referral, or just through the energy.  Often people do an entry level one on one session, or a month long, deep dive. Then for people who really know the potency of a transformational container, it’s a six month or a year membership, where we can really go deep, because in one session, you have an experience, but over a period of time, you have a real transformation and that’s ultimately what everyone really wants, and what I’m here for.

What was one of the biggest challenges you had to surmount on your journey?

 I'm going to speak to something that applies across the board to all the challenges that I faced  and it was to be able to see myself anew. This really speaks to the heart of my work because it  is all about the image of ourselves that we have. When we form an identity, it is usually always  around a painful situation or something that was difficult. We crystallize that event into some  form of self or identity in order to be able to deal with the specific event and the problem is  that we trap ourselves in that event and we have a hard time getting out.

We're constantly repeating that persona and  attracting situations so that we can prove to ourselves that is what's real. This is how we find a sense of consistency, because our brain requires it as a foundation or solidity and unless we find something deeper in ourselves, we need to create  that consistency with outward things and it's usually recreating our old patterns.

So the biggest challenge for me and something that I've struggled with, that I can support  people through now, is being able to help them shed their skin and recreate themselves as a  new person with a new identity. Believe me when I say one of the hardest things to do in life is  to let go of a self image, especially one that helped you get through difficult times.

In your opinion, do we ever find that “one self” or persona or is it an endless evolution?

I think it's different for everybody. For some people, it's really a process of like, crystallizing  who they are and having a solid center. For me, it's been a constant rebirthing and shedding  process, because I am a very mutable being and that’s just my nature.

What is something that you want to manifest for yourself?

I would love to have a really amazing retreat center one day. I will dare to say that I have  amazing taste in all things, and so I would want that to come together and offer the best  gourmet healthy food, meditation, transformational growth, teachers, celebration and just have the  most beautiful environment someone can ask for. It would be a place where there's nothing  being imposed on anybody, where people can really just come to be themselves and be able to sit with themselves in order to find their inner truth and strip away those layers.