The U-Turn Moments That Transform Our Lives with Alexis Artin

Your body is constantly talking to you—a hidden conversation happening beneath your conscious awareness. Yet in our neck-up, screen-focused world, we've disembodied ourselves from this essential wisdom. Meet Alexis, a transformation coach and founder of Soul Sway, who transitioned from working with A-list celebrities in entertainment to helping women globally reclaim their authentic power.

During this captivating live conversation, Alexis takes us through her own "U-turn" moments—those profound wake-up calls that forced her to reevaluate everything. From childhood trauma where her emotional expression was invalidated during a family tragedy to hitting multiple rock bottoms including cancer and postpartum depression, she reveals how these experiences became doorways to transformation rather than destinations of despair.

The most striking revelation? Everyone has some form of addiction. Whether it's scrolling social media, overworking, food behaviors, or the constant need for external validation—these patterns stem from what Alexis calls "untreated shame." Like cockroaches that scatter when exposed to light, shame thrives only in secrecy until we shine awareness upon it. True sobriety isn't just about substances but about awakening to these unconscious patterns and bringing them into consciousness through embodied awareness. As Alexis powerfully states, "If you don't have freedom in your body, you're never going to have freedom in your life." What would your body say if it could speak? This question alone might be the beginning of your own transformative U-turn.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Alexis's Return
• 2:11 Crisis Response and Personal Patterns
• 8:03 The U-Turn After Heartbreak
• 12:55 Recognizing Our Various Addictions
• 14:59 Embodiment and Listening to Your Body
• 18:35 What Your Body Would Say

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back everybody to the Truth About Addiction. Today's guest has actually been on my podcast before and she's such an amazing speaker with really profound insights into health, wellness and spirituality that I brought her to my live speaking event in LA. And so today's episode is the snippet from our live conversation completely unplanned, and it's packed with such profound insights that I really think you guys are going to get something valuable out of it. So she's back.

Speaker 1: 0:41

After working with many A-list celebrities in television and film, alexis transitioned her passion and skill set for fostering potential and obtaining results to the world of self-development and transformation. She has worked side by side with some of the most rever, most renowned female empowerment and embodiment companies, which inspired her to channel her uniquely varied expertise into creating a coaching practice serving clients across the globe, as well as Soul Sway, a global movement membership. Now Alexis is on a mission to help women disrupt the status quo projected onto feminine identities and own the true purpose of our lives. Enjoy Never good enough is leaving me for dead, but perfection's just a game of make-believe. Hey, gotta break the pattern. Find a new reprieve. Breaking the Hi babe.

Speaker 2: 1:59

Hi, I think your mic is over there. Oh my God, two mics. What's going on? Yeah, it's a double mic situation. Okay, you're going to have to bear with me, because my aura ring already told me that I should be asleep. I'm just, I'm doing my best, hi, spoken like a true growth coach.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Overheard in LA. Spoken like a true mother of two Boom yeah Under 10. My aura ring told me I should be asleep. I should definitely be asleep, hi.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Hi, I'm like leaning all the way in. Let's do it.

Speaker 1: 2:31

So you're not sober, no Right and a lot of people who are here I was like actually I don't know if she is A lot of people who are here are not sober right now, but I'm not like sober right, right.

Speaker 1: 2:47

So this is really important, you guys right, because that's not what this is about. It's not about physical sobriety, right, it's about mindset and that's your whole ethos. So when I'm bringing up this topic of okay, there's a thousand things we can't control every day in our lives, from the smallest to the biggest. Right the traffic on the 405 to the house that burned down, that our friend worked to the bone to build. Okay, when those things show up in your life, when those things show up in your life.

Speaker 2: 3:31

What do you do? And can you give me an example? I mean, I can give you a myriad of examples, but I think that that the real, like root of that answer is getting very, very honest with yourself. Um, because there is so much that happens in times of crisis, so, like I'll take you back.

Speaker 2: 3:58

I was, like I think, five, six years old and my aunt and uncle's plane crashed and everybody in the plane but one who actually wasn't on the manifest the only person not on the manifest was the only one to survive true story. But the plane crashed and everybody perished and I was five or six at this time and I remember the phone call coming in and somehow it's spreading through the house what had happened and while I think I was too young to comprehend the travesty of a plane crash and what that actually really meant, I energetically knew something awful had just happened and life as we knew it would never be the same and the way that my very dramatic body processed that was like I screamed and I cried and I wailed and I fell on the floor and I'm slamming around, you know, and I just remember my father turning to me and going stop it. You're not helping, stop being so dramatic. And the way that I later on processed all of that as I got older and I was able to actually have a comprehension of what had happened and why my dad did that and all the things right.

Speaker 2: 5:21

It's like in moments of crisis, so many things are reactive, they're not responsive.

Speaker 2: 5:29

I don't see the man who was talking about that before to Dan, but there is something that is so primal that happens. The animal body, the animal instincts and impulses kick in that are so black and white and they're so predator prey and they're so certain that there is not a lot of space for certainty. There's not a lot of space for that spiritual sense of certainty, you know, for your soul, your source of unconditional love, to be as present and to be as balanced with that primal nature that you have. Be as present and to be as balanced with that primal nature that you have. And the whole you know the whole dynamic, the whole room, the whole space is in that reactive space, that primal animal, you know, survive or die kind of space. And so you have to realize that within yourself and all the way around you a massive imbalance is happening and you've got to get to the truth and you've got to get to a place of self-certainty inside of that truth in order to have any shot at rebuilding I'm picturing little alexis.

Speaker 1: 6:42

She was so cute, oh she was so.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And it reminds me of little Sam, when I questioned my mother about the prescription pill use and what that taught me in that moment, right, which was don't trust yourself, don't ask those questions and, better yet, self-abandon at all costs and become whoever you need to be to make mom happy, and this was a learned pattern for decades, right? So if you have a dad who's literally making your experience invalid by saying stop, how do you get from that place to who you are? To have said what you just said? Were you living out patterns that were harmful to you? By not feeling your feelings, by trying to shut things down, by being in a certain state in your nervous system? Did you hit a bottom in order to find?

Speaker 2: 7:42

healing.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Because you don't get from there to here without some shit.

Speaker 2: 7:49

Oh, there are so many bottoms and the thing is I've had spiritual bottoms, like being suicidal. I've had physical bottoms, like having cancer. I mean, you know, I've had, you know, emotional mental crises like postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, I mean there, I mean we could have a whole other conversation for a long time about all the bottoms that I've hit. Um, but the best thing about those bottoms were the I call them U-turns, but not like U-turns, like a regular U, but U like Y-O-U U-turns. That are these really pivotal moments where we come home to ourselves or that forces us to look in the mirror and to call ourselves into action, to call ourselves into. Some sort of transformation or transition needs to happen here, and what is it going to take? What does that look like? How do I, how do I get there? So I'll give you an example of one U-turn that happened to me. I remember I was, I used to work in entertainment at a very high level in the entertainment industry, and I was at a show of one of my bosses who was performing and I had just broken up with somebody and it was a nasty breakup.

Speaker 2: 9:28

And during this time period my boss loved motorcycles and my ex-boyfriend was still building a motorcycle for my boss. So they had a relationship. I'm giving you the backstory, not that you really need it. Anyway, what happened was at this show, in the green room, backstage, my boss let it slip to me that the guy who broke my heart when we broke up like two or three days ago, had already moved in with somebody else. And I was so unprofessional that night I was crying in the green room. I'm like going to my friends on like grips on the stage and like what happened, like what's wrong with me.

Speaker 2: 10:09

And we had a friend who was at the show that night, a very dear friend, who was a very spiritual person, and she said you spoiled brat, you don't realize how good you have it. I'm not gonna go into this. Woe is me victim act. She was a little harsh, a little much, but she was like you need to start a gratitude journal, you need to be doing this, you need to be doing that. And I drove home like half in shock because I felt like I'd been assaulted by her and half like hysterically crying because I, oh my God, like not only did he like break my heart, now he's like pouring lemon juice on it, it was just. It was a bad night.

Speaker 2: 10:49

And the next morning I went to talk to my friend who her eight month old baby had just died. And the day that the baby died her husband turned to her and said I don't love you anymore and I'm leaving. And she and I are talking and I say I don't understand how you're breathing. And I are talking and I say I don't understand how you're breathing, I don't understand how you get up and you walk around like someone who's alive. I can't imagine that you feel that way. Right, like what you were saying in the beginning, like I can't imagine, I can't imagine, right. And I said can you just tell me how you, how you do that? Walk me through how you're doing this? And she said read this book. And she gave me conversations with God.

Speaker 2: 11:38

And that book was a motherfucking u-turn and it started me on this journey. It was gonna be another I don't know five to eight years before I got out of entertainment and into empowerment and all the other things. But that was a moment. That's beautiful, but I think baked into that is ask for help. You know, it's like I didn't just sit there and collapse in on myself. I didn't just spiral. I didn't, as Dan said. I don't know if he's still here, but like I didn't just sit and cry for four days I went to somebody that I thought could help me and I asked what she could offer, because I didn't want to suffer like this anymore.

Speaker 1: 12:27

I think that's really important and I think that's why I'm on such a mission to do what I'm doing, because if I had to reduce down the one thing that I think kills our spirit and if you have a problem with addiction kills us it's untreated shame, and shame thrives in secret we all have addiction.

Speaker 2: 12:55

There's not a person in this room, in this world, that doesn't have some form of an addiction, but it's. What is the addiction to? Is the additional work? Is the addiction to scrolling social media? Is the addiction to what you're eating? Is the addiction to working out? Is the addiction to beating yourself up? Is the addiction right like? Is the addiction? No, I I'm. I have to live up to what the expectations are of me.

Speaker 2: 13:17

We all have addictions. We have a variety of addictions. It's just, you know, it's an addiction to staying safe, it's an addiction, to just name it. It's. There's so many of them out there. So, so, having sobriety, you know, having a sober life, is about kicking your superpower of awareness in turning the volume up on that inner awareness. Right. That's why it's not just, you know, mind or spirit, the body is such a big part of that. That's what I mean. That's why soul sway is a thing. It's like so many people are, you know, even in zoom calls. It's like neck up, waist up, like we have completely disembodied in so many ways in our current culture that we lose such a primal piece of the puzzle.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Okay, this is amazing. So let's take these two concepts of asking for help, because I always compare shame to a cockroach. I used to live in a lot of cockroach-infested apartments in New York City. That's what you do when you're 20. And every time I would slip out of my then boyfriend, now husband's, loft bed to go to the bathroom. I knew there were going to be a lot of cockroaches, but then, if I turn the light on, they scattered. But that's exactly what happens with shame. So when you ask for help, you shine a light on the thing you're most afraid of or most ashamed of. Now, if we combine asking for help and dropping into the body, what do you have to say about that? So at the time that you asked that woman, how did you do? How are you doing what you're doing? Right? I feel like you were still very Cerebral, right. It was head up.

Speaker 2: 15:11

I've always been a yes, I've always been a body person. I've been a dancer since I was little. I've always been a body person, but not a body person like I am now. There was definitely a further disconnect.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Yes, so if somebody needs help with the work you do in the world, with something like going to someone and saying I am struggling, mm-hmm, what is the practice that incorporates mind and body?

Speaker 2: 15:36

well, first, before you even get to the practice, the body is constantly talking to you, constant, it's, it is literally your number one source of feedback. And the brain will lie to you, but the body, body can't. The body cannot lie. So which? What are you listening to, first of all? Second of all, um, what is the body telling you when you're actually listening to it? Right, I mean, this is part of the practice, but it's also just the basic awareness of what leads to even having a practice. Right, but what is the body communicating to you? Are you listening to it? Are you taking its advice?

Speaker 2: 16:14

90% of communication is nonverbal. How aware are you of the conversation and the dialogue that your body is having with you and then with other? Right? So I mean, there's so much, there's so much unpacking to do about the body. But if you think about it, when you, when you think about the visual of someone dropping to their knees, that's the visual of somebody that's going I need help. Right, it brought me to my knees, it surrendered me. I mean, everything about our body tells our story, right, but what is it to embody, asking for help?

Speaker 2: 16:54

You know, it is to understand that sometimes we take the symptoms of the body and we make them mean something else. We wanna label a sensation right. We wanna go oh, I have butterflies in my belly. That means I'm nervous, that means there's something I should be scared of and so I am going to protect myself, rather than going wow, I have butterflies in my belly, that's really interesting. Let me just sit with that sensation for a minute. Let me breathe into that sensation. Let me send a little love into that sensation. Let me have a dialogue with that sensation. What are you here to serve?

Speaker 1: 17:34

are you actually afraid of something?

Speaker 2: 17:35

maybe you you're just excited, right. So there's a whole bevy of things that you can uncover once you start communicating with the body, but the body is actually there to serve you. That's it I mean think about your relationship with your body.

Speaker 2: 17:50

What does it do for you? All day Meets every demand, sometimes demands you aren't even asking for. It's breathing for you. It's digesting for you, for it's breathing for you. It's digesting for you. It's eliminating for you. It's circulating blood and oxygen for you. It's removing waste for you. Recycling over and over and over again, all without an ask. And then you say get up and make me a sandwich body, I'm hungry. And then you look in the mirror and you go oh you, fat fuck. You know, and I'm like people do that. I have clients who say that to me all the time. This is what I say when I look in the mirror.

Speaker 2: 18:23

I'm so ashamed of myself, right, and women with trauma history and all of these things. I mean there is just so much that the body holds and the body holds it all. The body keeps the score right. So there's just so much to be said. I know I'm like going on and on because I'm super passionate about it, but like there is so much to be said for bringing the body into your experience. Your body is how you live your life. It is the. It is the, the embodiment of you. Know, not just serve me, serve me, do what I want. Demand, demand, demand, and you just give me what I want and then, at the end of it, maybe I'll be nice to you, but probably not Like. Imagine if your body was a small child and you were treating it that way. Still not good enough. Still not good enough. No, I'm going to need more for you. No, I'm going to need more from you.

Speaker 1: 19:19

So powerful what you're talking about.

Speaker 2: 19:21

If you could give everybody here one practical takeaway about something they can control, a practice to become more embodied, If your body could speak if your body actually like a fucking cartoon character you know your legs had a mouth and they were like hey, what would they say to you? What would your body say to you, Like it was a small child and it had the ability to speak up for itself and ask for what it wanted and what it needed, what its experience is of how you've been communicating with it or ignoring it or bullying it? What would your body say? Awareness is the key to unlocking all the doors of freedom, but if you don't have freedom in your body, you're never going to have freedom in your life. Hmm, Amen.

Speaker 1: 20:18

No-transcript.