We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alix Walker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alix below.
Hi Alix, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
When the pandemic hit, I was the owner of an international marketing and branding agency. For years, I had been working with female business owners and coaching them on their marketing, but when the world shut down, I spent my days talking to these women not about business and marketing ideas but about their fears, about being a mom and navigating these times as best as possible for their children. Essentially, I was talking them off the ledge. Looking back, we were all hanging on by a thread, and life started to open up to something greater. My business coaching morphed into life coaching as my clients were craving more purpose in life, more healing, more simplicity, more personal guidance.
At the same time, my spirituality deepened. Being from New Orleans, I had always had an interest in the metaphysical and the unseen, but life has a way of closing you off and stripping you of all your wonder. In 2019, the death of a loved one set me ablaze to reconnect to my spiritual essence and something greater. I started to feel alive again, and when Covid hit, it gave me time to explore this even further. I craved being in nature, putting my hands in dirt. I started learning about energy, which led to immersing myself in learning about and working with my chakras.
For several years, I rode the fence of being a marketing and branding expert and a Spiritual Life Coach, but I felt torn between the two. I’d go from one powerful session where I would connect a client to a deceased loved one to another meeting discussing Facebook likes. The writing was on the wall – I knew which path was aligned for me and which one was not.
This year, I took a leap of faith and closed the doors of my marketing agency and dedicated my life to my Spiritual business. I say the word “business” lightly, as this is not work for me; this is my life! I understand how incredible and important it is for people to heal, yet they don’t know how to do it on their own. Every day, I am humbled by their stories of abuse, mental and physical pain, PTSD, molestation, injustice, lack of self worth, and the list goes on, and I am honored that my clients choose me to be a part of their journey to healing.
As we begin to heal, we have to face the things we’ve been avoiding. In order to get to the light, we have to walk through the darkness. This often deters people from even want to begin because they are afraid to face what they have been avoiding. The world is waking up on a massive scale and people are showing up for themselves, ready to heal. That’s where I come in.
Through my own spiritual healing, I lost 30 pounds of weight that was resistant to diet and exercise. In fact, it was weight I was holding onto because I felt unsupported and was literally and figuratively carrying all the weight in life. I healed burnout and adrenal fatigue. I balanced my hormones and learned to regulate my nervous system. I was able to peel back the layers of ego and protective layers that I had built around myself, and I tapped into my most authentic Self. Freedom was my new motto, and I set my Wild Woman archetype free. I started actually LIVING for the first time in my life. I had the courage and strength to finally leave a 15 years emotionally and mentally abusive relationship. The back pain that debilitated me for 12 years disappeared! I healed 3/4 of plaque psoriasis from my body. One of the most impactful and magical experiences of my life was having a spontaneous Kundalini awakening, which has been an absolute gift of not only being bestowed with the insight and knowledge that comes from this but also learning how to work with this energy. There are many other miracles I’ve experienced on this journey, so many that I could write a book! Every day, I burst into tears of joy, of gratitude, for being exactly where I am and for getting the opportunity to help others create the same happiness in their lives.
Now in my practice, my clients are experiencing their own healing in different areas such as trauma, inner child healing, pain management, nervous system regulation, PTSD, divorce, abuse, cancer, and so much more. As a spiritual life coach, my ultimate objective is to guide my clients to their deepest healing of mind, body, and spirit so they can create a life of joy, authenticity, and freedom. They are supported with different healing modalities such as meditation, sound healing, energy healing, chakra knowledge, holistic health, and journaling. They are given the space to explore their authenticity, release their fears and traumas, and are held accountable for making the great changes they want for their lives.
When the world shut down, my old life died, and my old self went with it. With death comes rebirth, and in the space in between, we all have an incredible opportunity to become a better version of who we need to be to create a more beautiful life. Cultivating a life of freedom takes some introspection, self-honesty, and integrity to lead from not only authenticity but also love.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Alix, but those closest to me call me Ali. The most important role in my life is being Mom to my teenage son. I am also a dog mom and a plant lover, and I am blessed to be surrounded by the most incredible and supportive tribe of friends and family.
My passion in life is my spirituality, and I am honored to be able to walk this path both personally and professionally. My services at Sanctuary include Spiritual Life Coaching, Holistic Health Coaching, Chakra Healing, meditation and sound healing. My mission is to help people heal in mind, body, and spirit.
Spiritual Life Coaching combines the accountability of life coaching while helping clients to find a deeper understanding and a greater purpose in life. These are one hour sessions that can be done in person, virtually, or on a phone call. Each week, clients walk away from their session with customized healing tools to help them with their needs. Combining spirituality with life coaching allows clients to recognize their blockages and work through past traumas and limiting beliefs so they can create a life of joy, freedom, and abundance. We address the mind, body, and spirit. Clients also have the option to get additional holistic health services such as meal planning, grocery shopping, crystal shopping, plant shopping, and exercise regimes.
A Chakra Healing session includes a combination of crystal healing, energy cleansing, and sound healing. The client is guided through an interactive meditation – we go through the chakras, but ultimately your energy leads us where it is needed the most. Every session is different, but overall themes I see are inner child versions coming to the surface for acknowledgement and healing, in addition to deceased loved ones sometimes coming through to deliver a message. These sessions can be done in person or virtually, as energy healing can also be done from a distance. Spiritual Life Coaching clients also have the option to do this during a coaching session.
I also offer meditation and sound healing for private sessions, groups, and events.
All people are welcome! I work with women, men, couples, members of the LGBTQIA community, people of all religions, cancer survivors, military and veterans, abuse survivors, business owners, and anyone who is ready to heal so they can create a happier life.
Additionally, I make a line of botanical products, such as an Energy Cleansing Spray, to help people raise the vibration of their space. All products are made in small batches using only natural, organic products. I even use herbs and flowers from my own garden!! Using proprietary blends of oils and herbs, each product is created with love and intention, in addition to being charged with crystals and sound healing.
Artificial and synthetic fragrances and products are not only bad for our physical health, they also inhibit our energy from flowing freely. Because of the health and spiritual implications, creating all natural botanical products is very special to me. In addition to making products that are good for our health, I love the creation aspect of nurturing the herbs and flowers, harvesting them, and creating beautiful things that make us feel better in every sense.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I’ve worked since I was 13. My junior year of high school, not only was I maintaining a 4.0 GPA, I also had two jobs. I worked every day. After two years in college, I left because I was tired of wasting time in class and wanted to get to work full time. When I was 22, I had SEVEN jobs. I worked every single day of the week, most days pulling double shifts at different places.
To say that I was a “hustler” is an understatement.
When I opened my marketing and branding agency in 2017, I went all in. I worked constantly – evenings, weekends, holidays. I remember working on Christmas and New Year’s. I wore this hustle mentality as a badge of honor, yet it nearly killed me. I was stressed to the max. I had little patience. I had nothing outside of work.
I eventually learned that I was in a state of burnout and adrenal fatigue, that my hyper independence was actually an abandonment wound from not having a father present, and that my constant need to “work” was a way for me to feel worthy. My self-worth was tied to my doing, to my accomplishments, to my work because I had no sense of self. I didn’t know “WHO” I was. Sure I thought I knew myself, but every day I was self-abandoning. I had no hobbies – my only hobby was work. I made no time for myself because that was a weakness… or so I thought.
When Covid hit, I didn’t know what to do with myself or my free time. Who was I without work? You see, I had been so “busy” working that I was really avoiding the fears, traumas, blockages, and limiting beliefs I was holding in my subconscious. When the quiet started to settle in, this gave space for everything to come flooding to the surface. It was hard, it was dark, but it was so worth it! Healing everything that I was avoiding helped me create a beautiful life.
I had to unlearn “the hustle,” and once I was able to see it from a different perspective – from not being immersed in it – I realized that it never felt good. It prevented me from actually LIVING and enjoying life. I was always one step ahead instead of in the present moment, but I couldn’t be in the present because I was avoiding acknowledging and feeling difficult emotions.
As business owners we are taught that we need to hustle. One time, someone told me, “how much do you want it? If you’re in your car listening to music instead of working on your personal and professional development, you don’t want success enough!” When I would listen to music, I would then beat myself up over not wanting success enough. We deprive ourselves of joy and happiness because the drive for success feeds our fears, our feelings of never being enough, and so much more. A break is needed. A pause is a gift, and a breath is a treasure. We forget that these tiny things make the world of difference. Our bodies need rest. We are not machines meant to be ON 24/7. We are humans – cyclical, rhythmic beings that need rest.
In one of my favorite quotes, Rumi says, “Never give from the depths of your well but from your overflow.” In order to give to the world (our family, our work, etc), we have to pour in first to nourish our spirit so that we can then serve others. Pouring in is an act of self-love – loving yourself enough to show up for YOU first so that you can show up as your best self in every other part of your life.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
The most important factor for my success and my overall wellbeing is having a daily routine, a way to pour in before my day gets started. My day has to start at 6:45am, so I wake up at 5:00am to give myself a good chunk of time before my responsibilities begin. During this time, my routine includes drinking an oat milk matcha latte for clean energy and hormonal balance. I light a candle to initiate my practice of journaling, meditating, doing yoga, and doing breath work outside as I watch the sunrise. The actions of the routine fluctuate depending on my needs of the day, but that time is dedicated to me each day. This keeps me grounded throughout the day.
Full disclosure, I am NOT a morning person. I like to sleep in as late as possible. However, life got really overwhelming and I was having a hard time. I knew I needed to do all my spiritual tools but I kept making the excuses that I didn’t have the time. Then I realized that the only way for me to get the time to pour in was to make the time and wake up early. At first, waking up at 5am was HARD, to say the least. By 7:00pm, I was exhausted, but after two weeks I started to get into the groove. I felt better in every sense – more fulfilled, more emotional balanced, more peaceful, more full of life.
Having a morning routine helps me to show up as my best self in my personal and professional lives.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sanctuaryspiritualcoaching.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/sanctuaryspiritualcoaching
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