We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Gerlaine Reliford recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren Gerlaine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

That time I was screaming, crying, pulling my hair, standing by the door, and feeling horrified. Although, nothing happened. There was no trigger. Just me feeling afraid of nothing. That is the life of a person with General Anxiety Disorder.

The boyfriend I attracted at the time was an energy vampire who fed on my constant anxiety attacks. So he purposely triggered me when he could. Then, when I did not have these senseless anxiety attacks, he intentionally set me up for a bad day.

This chaos was all too much. General Anxiety Disorder was not a life that I signed up for. No one would choose to live this way. Even the boyfriend that I seemingly chose was just attracted to this anxiety in my nervous system, and the anxiety inside of me was attracted to him.

Every day I ingested more and more anxiety pills. The side effects were making me crazy. If I did not take medication before the anxiety attack was in full swing, my nervous system would have been completely overwhelmed. The attack was ten times worse than when I was self-coping.

There had to be a way out. I prayed, and I prayed. I took action. I searched, googled, and asked friends. What could help me live a better life? This medication, indeed, was not working.

First, there were Dr. Joe Dispenza’s meditations. Blessings of the Energy Centers 1 is my favorite. I meditated daily during the final month of my relationship with the energy vampire boyfriend.

As a result, my countenance was becoming more peaceful. What energy could the bad boyfriend zap from me now? Since I was changing so much, he could not trigger me as he used to. It was not the same. He was not as interested, and he let me go.

Dr. Joe mentioned that he worked closely with HeartMath to document his meditation practices with his clients. After some research, I purchased my Inner Balance Trainer from HeartMath. Unfortunately, using the device by myself was not much fun. So, I joined a three-month journey with the HeartMath + Toning Experiment group I found on Facebook.

This next part changed my life. If you solely desire to achieve a thing, all of the providence will move to make it happen for you. For example, I stopped having anxiety attacks on this three-month HeartMath Practice + Toning Journey.

It took me about one month to notice that I had not picked up my anxiety medication bottle. Only one pill was left, and it stayed in the bottle until I threw it away. There was a refill waiting for me that I could cancel because I did not really need it. I had been anxiety proofed through regular practice.

So, I did the sensible thing and became a HeartMath Certified Trainer. Learning this science-based approach to dealing with stress is the best thing I have ever done. My business is AnxietyProof™ Coaching. Now, I help people to connect with mindfulness, breathwork, and meditation to regulate and reset their autonomic nervous system. In other words, bye-bye anxiety.

Lauren Gerlaine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m not only a client. I’m the AnxietyProof™ Coaching President.

Practicing what I teach is how I live. Queen of Forgiveness was coined by a mentor of mine many years ago. My business of sharing the message was on and off. I never felt comfortable teaching when I was not living the message.

Of course, the message did not start with anxiety. It started out with forgiving myself and others in my life. Then, I began speaking about things like Ho’oponopono and the 10 Steps to Radical Forgiveness. The forgiveness message was for me, and the more I learned, the more I shared.

Sharing my own journey has always been a focal point of my teachings. My personal journey and the stories of friends, family, and followers are critical to all our growth.

Over this last year, I learned that the basis of all unforgiveness is rooted in different forms of anxiety and stress. AnxietyProof™ Coaching was born out of a desire to help myself quickly and efficiently take care of my anxieties, stresses, and unforgiveness.

Even from a young girl who wanted to get up and head the Sunday School lessons at my church, it has always been my passion to learn, teach and grow with others.

AnxietyProof™ Coaching is a set of HeartMath Techniques, NLP strategies, mindfulness, and meditation. Many practices can be executed in just a few minutes. We focus on methods that can fit into a daily lifestyle more than techniques that require you to alter your life.

Life change is what we are here for. However, you can not change your life by changing your life. Instead, you change your life by making simple shifts. I teach simple modifications to make more remarkable changes in your life.

I am very proud of this new distinction in my coaching practice. Instead of reaching out to a massive audience of people searching for forgiveness, I am now helping people dealing with the deranged monster of anxiety. Together we will work to slay this monster so that it is not living in your life or the lives of the ones you love.

Practice makes better, and continued practice makes AnxietyProof™. The methods that I share are science-based and have over 400 peer reviews. My techniques are mixed with the science of Heartmath, NLP, ancient breathwork, and meditation practices.

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

Being an entrepreneur sparked in me from a very young age. Watching my mother sell Amway products to church members, friends, and others was all I needed to see. I knew that I wanted to do business and work with people.

Over the years, there have many challenges. The biggest challenge has been perfectionism. Then there is inconsistency. I am dealing with Attention Deficit Disorder. And I used to have General Anxiety Disorder. Also, I had a slipped disc and Degenerative Disc Disease to keep me distracted.

Anxiety took over my life for many years, and I could not teach. I needed to forgive myself and let go of the issues that seemed to be plaguing me and taking me over. Being a no-excuses type of girl, I had all of the excuses. It was a bummer.

Oh, and did I mention I was also a workaholic? I made no time for myself. I gave myself no time to rest or recover. I had no time to go to the gym, even though I wasted plenty of funds on membership.

I was almost killing myself to make a decent wage and not have time to work on my business, free my life, and help many others. My way of living could have been better, but what could I do? I was so hard-wired to this life.

So I just kept living by burning the candlestick at both ends. It took a long time, but there wasn’t any of me left—just all this pain and disease of the mind and the body. Finally, I could not stay awake for more than a few hours. My body and mind demanded rest from this workaholic lifestyle.

I became wretchedly sick. I was getting all of these diagnoses. Finally, I had to give up all the extra work and keep one job. My bad boyfriend at the time let me go (thank God). I found Dr. Joe Dispenza, HeartMath, and Toning. As a result, last year, I eradicated the anxiety from my life with what I have now put together as the AnxietyProof™ Techniques.

I received a miraculous healing from the slipped disc, Degenerative Disc Disease, and a few other physical ailments. Though I still have not fully healed from Attention Deficit Disorder. I am more focused, and I am working on the consistency part.

Now I use that gym membership that I have been paying for forever. As a result, I have dropped about 30 pounds. I am getting in the best shape of my life. I have a new and good boyfriend.

Then as life would have it, my best boy died. My beautiful dog Axel Prime. He was a heck of a dog. Difficult as ever. I trusted no one with my cunning fur baby.

I blame myself for his demise. Though, he probably passed off natural causes. It was so quick. Just two days and he was gone. I hated that I was waiting for a paycheck to take him to the vet.

He was only not eating after all. So it wasn’t too big of a deal. He had not eaten before. But after just two days, he left this earth, and I made a financial decision not to get him checked out.

These last few years, I have been through a lot. Of course, some of that “lot” was because of my baby Axel Prime, but with a smile on my face, I digress.

I have another doggie. Her name is Mama. She is my focus now. At the end of her life, I will be able to take her where ever she needs to go to be comfortable and loved.

I will not have to make a financial decision about Mama’s life because I made the decision the day Axel Prime left me: Free your life from punching a clock. Stop living check to check. Run your business. Help many people be free from the grips of anxiety.

Thanks to Axel Prime for giving me the best eight years of my life. His homegoing has prompted me to provide the next best years to my clients, friends, family, and my little Mama.

The message, the techniques, and the strategies that I am to share from Queen of Forgiveness™ and AnxietyProof™ Coaching are clear and science-based, and they work. It is time to publish the content, network with other entrepreneurs and business owners, and help more clients live better.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The big unlearning is “Life always gives second chances.” We tell this saying to children to build their confidence when they feel a loss. Like saying, “You’ll get ’em next time!” But the truth is now is the time. It is the only time. The past is a mere memory, and the future does not yet exist.

Missed opportunities are gone and usually are not recovered. For instance, when Marie Forleo, Gabrielle Burnstein, and Lewis Howes (to name a few) started gaining traction, so was I. As inconsistency gave way to their consistent business-building efforts, I became almost an unknown, and each of the beautiful named souls above has been on Oprah or Ellen.

Their businesses grew to multi-million dollar companies, while I didn’t even have an LLC. I can not recover the messages that I would have shared in my 20s. I cannot get those years back when Marie was my peer rather than now; she is my mentor.

I even saw a girl name Christianna Hurt grow from a 20-year-old broke girl to a 25-year-old millionaire in 5 years. She was teaching me everything she learned at the time, but in my inconsistent nature, I was always starting and stopping things. While she consistently moved up.

Could I be a millionaire with Christianna today? Yes. I could have. Do I have another chance to become one today? Unknown. But will I be a millionaire before I turn 41? No. Opportunity missed—a second chance at millionaire before 41 aborted.

The time to do whatever you want to do is now. It is time for me to put my messages out now. It is time for me to help my clients now. It is time to prepare my exit strategy from my job now. The second chance is just a myth until you put in consistent energy, research, learning, and effort. Then it is not a second chance as much as a growing reality.

I have the message. I practice what I teach. I help family and friends. I would love to go back and have a do-over with time. It’s time to help more people by being consistent now. Now is all we have.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://queenofforgiveness.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/qforgiveness
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/qforgiveness
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/qforgiveness/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/qforgiveness
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@qforgiveness
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@qforgiveness

Image Credits
I am part of WeAddHeart Online Group Meditations. As a HeartMath Certified Trainer, I have contracted with them to do their work weekly, and I am free to use their logo and assets in my media. All the other images are my work.