We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessenia Galvan-Lloyd. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessenia below.

Jessenia, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

Five years ago I was more stressed than I had EVER been. I had always struggled with stress and anxiety but life was throwing curve balls at me that I was not ready for. To top it off, my back was aching so badly that I couldn’t stand or sit up for too long without needing to lay down.

My body couldn’t take the stress anymore. I wound up in the hospital for 4 days. I couldn’t eat or drink anything and I needed emergency throat surgery. This was my wake up call and a hugely defining moment for me.

I KNEW I could not go on living like this. So one day on a whim, I went to a yoga class. It was hard, it was hot and uncomfortable, the sun was beating down on my face…but I decided to go back the next day. And the next and the next.

I started to find teachers I really resonated with and knew to find a shady spot instead of being in the direct sunlight. I started to notice that my stress was a little more manageable and my back wasn’t hurting as much.

Yoga became the one hour a day that allowed me to feel like I could lift my nose above water and take a deep breath. I was hooked.

Six months after my first yoga class, I enrolled in a yoga teacher training. I thought “yoga is helping me SO much, I have to share this with my community!”

Now I feel more comfortable in my body than ever, yoga is a tool I use daily to manage my mental health and the stress of life, and I have the privilege of sharing yoga with my community which I am so grateful for!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As a young girl I was so confused by all of the suffering in the world and around me. I had a burning desire to make the world a better place. That has been the through line to all the work I have done in my business and brand JNGLSOUL (pronounced jungle soul). It started with me getting very real with myself. I had accomplished a lot, I had plenty of jobs with fancy titles, I traveled the world, I met lots of amazing people and I was still completely dissatisfied with my life. I knew I needed to stop running and do my own internal work and healing.

That was five years ago. I went on my healing and self mastery journey. Along the way I found tools that completely changed my life, gave me clarity and made me feel comfortable in my body for the first time ever. For the first time, I was actually consistently moving towards the goals and dreams I had always had: help people, create a thriving business and have creative freedom in my personal projects. A light bulb went off for me – this is how I can make the world a better place! I jumped in to my yoga and life coaching programs so that I could share some of these powerful tools that were giving me what I always craved: satisfaction with life.

Now I have the privilege of helping my clients create a mindset and habits that helps them achieve their goals and dreams. I help them learn to love and accept themselves along their journey. I help them feel good in their bodies.

What makes me the most proud of my work is that I watch my clients go from being stuck, afraid and frustrated (just like I was) to feeling joy, satisfaction and ease in their bodies.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

2022 was a difficult year of business for me. I worked on several new offerings that completely flopped. I put time and effort in creating each one and once I released them, I had no response. This was devastating to me. It made me question my business and my abilities. It made me question if I was doing the right thing at all. Above all it completely rocked my confidence in myself. This was an all time business and personal low.

I pulled back for a while. Putting anything else new out there felt too vulnerable and scary. Then I started watching the show Alone. Where 10 people brave out into the wilderness completely alone and try to outlast the others for a big money prize. I sat there watching in astonishment. These people were starving, freezing, lonely and there was no end in sight….but they still didn’t quit.

This was so motivating to me. I thought, “these people are out there being hunted by bears and starving to death and all I have to do is sit behind a computer, be creative and brave enough to put something out into the world again?!” My fire came back.

I took the lessons from that show about persistence and applied it to my business. I stopped taking it so personally and I also decided that there was nothing else on Earth I would rather be doing so I better give this my all.

I completely changed my attitude and mindset. I started listening to Les Brown every morning so he could give me the motivation when I couldn’t find it within myself and I got back to it.

I started creating again, putting myself out there again. I reminded myself of all the success I had with clients, the mountains I watched them climb in their life, the victories they had because of our work together. I started looking at my “failures” as a redirection and a lesson in persistence and resilience. That was an extremely difficult year but because of it I changed my attitude and my mindset and now I am more unshakable than ever!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to completely unlearn the hustle mentality that had always been ingrained in me. I would work myself to the ground, often getting sick and twice even winding up in the hospital because of it.

I finally realized that this hustle mentality was actually destructive to my mental and physical health and because of that I wasn’t giving my best to my work, my clients, myself or my life.

I had to learn how to rest and slow down. To some these things come naturally but to me these concepts were completely foreign. I didn’t know how to rest or slow down… it felt so uncomfortable and even made me angry. “Rest?!” I thought. “I rested last month, I don’t have time to rest again!!” This was the mentality I had to unlearn.

I needed to learn that my worth was not based on my productivity. I had to learn that play, rest and pleasure were just as important as serving my clients through my work. I had to learn that I was inherently worthy as a human being. I had to learn that I was and always had been enough just as I was.

Contact Info:

• Website: JNGLSOUL.com
• Instagram: @JNGLSOUL
• Youtube: @JNGLSOUL
• Other: TikTok @JNGLSOUL

Image Credits
Sky Bear Aguilar Edwin Serrano