#136 Samantha Skelly – Hungry for Happiness

MEET SAMANTHA:

Samantha Skelly is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, best-selling author, and emotional eating expert who has revolutionized the weight loss industry by examining the individual and underlying causes of eating disorders.

She has shared her mission on an international platform and continues to spread her message and transform the lives of thousands of people through the Phoenix Formula, motivational speaking engagements, the Hungry for Happiness podcast, worldwide international retreats, and her Amazon best-selling book, Hungry for Happiness: One Woman’s Guide From Fighting Food to Finding Freedom.

SHOW NOTES:

ABOUT SAMANTHA

• I’ve always been so curious about the world, and how humanity operates
• How to create happiness is something I am trying to hack from my young age and did not actually know it
• I grew up in an amazing family and I have wonderful parents
• When I was 18 to 23 years old, I developed a really dysfunctional relationship of food and my body
• And it is when I could not eat like a normal person
• I was constantly thinking about food and thinking about diet
• It was just the time of my life where I felt so disconnected from myself
• And so, I began to just go against myself, shame myself and hate myself
• And I got to this place where I was like, “this is so not who I am.”
• I can remember when I was walking down the street when I was living in England, and I just thought to myself like, “Am I ever going to get back to that place of just happiness? Where I was happy for no reason and I don’t have to strive for anything and I just get to feel good with myself and my body.”
• I just kept pondering this question like, what has to give to get back to this place – to feel good.
• Couple months later, I got deported back to Vancouver which was the biggest blessing in disguise which I got to really dig into what was going on with me, with the whole food and the body situation
• I was doing fitness competition and I was really trying my best to shay my way to happiness
• After about 3 years of trying to figure out of what makes me happy and what is actually going on, I decided to really put it together after I saw the contrast between how bad I felt and how great I felt after I went to that process of healing myself
• A few years later, hungry for happiness was born
• It has been a beautiful journey of helping people get back into their bodies, heart space and help their relationship about food
• When my girl friend took me out for a walk, chat and catch up, and she kind of confronted and she was like, “You know we all know that you are really struggling with this. Let us know if you need help.”
• And it was this moment that I should get my sh*t together
• I published Hungry for Happiness on my birthday last year – February 28, 2017

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUR YOUNGER SELF?

• To just chill out
• Stop being obsess about everything
• Happiness is really easy if we allow it
• And so often, we create so many structures in order to achieve it
• Happiness is our natural state
• And when we just remove the beliefs, the source and doubts, that’s where we get to settle in to this place of happiness, but it’s not. It’s so cliché, but it is not outside of ourselves
• It’s like, I can make all the money of the world but it is not going to increase or decrease my long live happiness
• There’s a huge increase in happiness when it’s really money, if you’re starving and you have no roof over your head
• But, once you have your basic needs met, more money does not make you happier
• More trips on the world does not create that sustain that happiness, and so it truly is an inside and out game
• Material things like buying a car or getting a big paycheck, or travelling around the world, those are like quick hits of happiness
• Peace, contentment and safety is truly is an inside job
• The biggest lie in the world is time heals
• We can’t just expect that time to pass and eventually it will be healed
• It takes work, intentionality and us really going to the places that filled really sticky in order to come to the other side
• There is no time for that
• Time is a mental construct that we created
• A lot of women who we deal with are former alcoholics
• They just switch from one vice to the next, but they are actually not addressing the core
• That core wound has been present in our system for how many years, but since they did not address it, they just switch vices
• We all have addictions
• We all have those things that we need in order to feel safety
• Addiction or vices that makes us feel normal
• A lot of the world chooses food, and a lot of the world chooses smoking, drinking, social medias, sex and gambling and things like that
• But we have to recognize what is our relationship to this things
• Is it healthy or destructive?

THE BOOK

• Through out the book, there’s exercises
• Those exercise gets more clear
• It’s really where it starts
• The purpose of the book is to give people clarity on what is actually driving them to use it as a drug
• And what are those beliefs identities that people are holding on to
• It’s basically talking about the universal laws
• The reason why I love that book because there’s nothing to believe in
• It goes through the universal law around love, connection, abundance, alignment, energy and frequency
• And it is just simple. It’s like, do this and you get this result
• It’s less about in love and attraction and more about the embodiment of how to truly feel

WHAT ARE MOST PEOPLE KNOW YOU FOR?

• Right now, it’s the food and body game conversation
• I have been in that game for nearly 5 years now
• I’m in the process right now of enhancing that conversation with my new body of work where I will be launching soon
• I was no heavier than I am today but I thought I was double the size
• That’s the craziness of the mind. The mind can play some serious tricks on us when we allow it

ADVICE

• Use you breath – breathe
• If your body is jacked-up with anxiety, it’s because you’re shallow breathing and so you probably think that it is in danger
• I do breathing exercises everyday
• Every morning, when I wake up, I do a continual breathe
• For me, sleep is not actually peaceful
• I do not want to start my day from the energy from my dreams
• I want to clear it out and start fresh
• And so, every morning, I just do a simple breathing exercise to get myself aligned before I start my day

WHAT IS YOUR MORNING ROUTINE?

• I love doing a cross fit class or yoga glass in the morning
• I do love doing some meditation and journaling
• I love movement as well
• So, my morning routine is pretty extensive
• It’s my time before I start my day, where I can just get in touch with my emotions, figure out my intention for the day
• I always start with water and lemon, and coffee
• Movement, meditation, breathing work and a little bit of journaling.
• I do my quiet time after my workout
• The workout is about 2 and a half hours

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKE HAVE YOU MADE?
AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARN FROM IT?

• I feel like I make mistakes constantly all day long
• And it’s all part of being an entrepreneur
• I think, the biggest mistake that I’ve made recently is investing a whole bunch of money into a coach that was not aligned with my vision and my values
• And not listening to my intuition and doing it anyway
• Mistakes are going to come when we start pushing boundaries, whether we start doing emotional work or business, or parenting, whatever it is
• But the beautiful thing is we can always have a choice to go into curiosity or judgment
• We can always judge ourselves for it and move through it
• Breath work is so powerful for clearing out junk in our bodies so that voice is more clear

FAVORITE HABIT?

• My favorite habit is being on the water – wake surfing

FAVORITE QUOTE

• “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”

MOST THANKFUL FOR

• I am most grateful for my friends

FAVORITE FOOD

• Tacos

FAVORITE BOOK

• Complete Works

GUILTY PLEASURE

• Tons of really yummy buttery popcorn
• And crappy Netflix specials

COFFEE OR TEA

• Right now, Tea
• Chai Teas

FAVORITE MOVIE

• The Perfect Storm

FAVORITE ON NETFLIX

• Ali Wong’s Comedy

WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU?

• Instagram: @samanthaskelly
• Instagram for Hungry for Happiness: @hungryforhappiness
• Website: hungryforhappiness.com

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

• I am in the process of revising my first book to republish it
• And writing my second book
• My second book is called, “Am I there yet? Why self help isn’t helping.”

WORDS OF WISDOM

• Understanding that our heart is our biggest superpower
• When we cut out our heart space, we cut out so much growth

TO BUY SAMANTHA’S BOOK, Hungry for Happiness CLICK HERE

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