How can you harness ego states to live your best life? How can these states impact the way we live? In this episode of Your SuperPowered Mind, host Kristin Maxwell and guest Dr. Kathy Gruver talk about the importance of identifying ego states. Also, they will tackle handling the said ego states to avoid self-sabotage.  Dr. Kathy Gruver is a health practitioner, a two-time TEDx speaker, and national TV host of the series The Alternative Medicine Cabinet. Tune in and listen as Kristin and Kathy tell you how to shift these ego states to gain confidence, calmness, and courage within you. 

Kristin Maxwell:

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Your SuperPowered Mind. I’m Kristin Maxwell. And in this show, we explore the process of transformation and give you tools and strategies that you can use to transform your own life. Today, I am very excited to be talking to Dr. Kathy Gruver about using ego states to show up at your best in life. And you are in for a treat because I’m going to tell you, Dr. Kathy Gruver looks like she has done everything, and it’s all interesting. She’s a leading expert in stress and communication. She’s an award-winning author of seven books. She’s a health practitioner, two time TEDx speaker, and host of the national TV series, The Alternative Medicine Cabinet. She’s also a natural health practitioner who has been featured as an expert in numerous well-known publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Glamour, CNN, and many, many more. So Kathy, or Dr. Kathy, or Dr. Gruver, welcome to Your SuperPowered Mind.

I started doing massage when I was in college. And I thought that would be a great addition to those award-winning film roles I was going to get when I moved to Hollywood. And the film roles didn’t come, but the message stuck. And from that point, I just said yes to things. I just let everything unfold in front of me. I had a game plan, but it was loose and fluid. And interestingly, I ended up getting everything I dreamt of as a kid, but not as an actor, as a healer. So I knew I’d stay on stage forever, now I’m a speaker. I knew I’d write books. I thought they were going to be like fun comedies. Now they’re non-fiction.

So I got everything. It just went differently. And I realized I loved helping people, whether I was directing theater to get the best performance out of people, or encouraging them to make better health choices, life choices, inspiring them to decrease stress, and have better communication. So I just follow the breadcrumbs.

Kristin Maxwell:

Yeah. That’s lovely. What a great… And did those breadcrumbs show up pretty easily, or did you sometimes have to wait? I’m just curious. I’ve been listening to a lot of entrepreneurial shows recently where people are talking about how you have to open into the process, but there’s so much angst along the way often.

Dr. Kathy Gruver:

It’s so funny because you look back and you go, Oh, it seems so easy. And of course, from far away, you can look back and see that when you’re in the middle of it slogging through, you’re like, this is a nightmare. And I remember a couple of times when I left Los Angeles and quit my acting career and moved up to Santa Barbara, that was a huge transition for me. That was a huge time of just floating where I didn’t know what the heck was going on. And I’m not a floater, I’m a swim or get out of the pool kind of person. So sitting in that was so uncomfortable to me. And with 2020 being… Also, for so many people sitting in that uncomfortableness of that stillness, I actually found that I enjoyed that and I embrace that stillness to really focus on what I wanted, set those boundaries, set those goals. So I think that’s one shift that I’ve found, is I’m not necessarily uncomfortable floating anymore. I understand and appreciate the purpose of that.

Kristin Maxwell:

Yeah, that’s so awesome. I do work with so many entrepreneurs and one of the things that have been so interesting for me is I completely relax and trust the process now. They are so uncomfortable because they need to be uncomfortable because there’s something they’re learning from it. So anyway, this is a sidetrack. I really do want to know about ego states. So what are ego states? Just quickly, because before we kind of have to go to a break, but just quickly.

Dr. Kathy Gruver:

I’ll give you the teaser. So ego states are those just different aspects of ourselves. So most people recognize they have a different work persona than they do a home persona, then they do hanging out with the guys at the bar persona, then you do with little kids, then you do with your spouse or your partner. Ego state work is really just mapping out those states, figuring out what jobs they do, what their needs are, if they’re getting out of control, and how to bring that best aspect forward for the job.

Kristin Maxwell:

Oh, that’s great. Awesome. Okay, everybody, we’re going to go dive into those and how you start to figure out what those ego states are and how to get them under control. But before we do, can you tell people where they can find you and learn more about all of your cool, interesting work?

Dr. Kathy Gruver:

Yeah, absolutely. So kathygruver.com has all of my speaking topics and my books, and kathygruver.coach if you want to work with me one-on-one or in a team.

Kristin Maxwell:

Great. Thanks. Everybody, hang on for a moment. We will be right back and be talking to Dr. Kathy Gruver about how you can use ego states to show up at life for your best, one moment.

To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.