Answering the call of your purpose with Gwenda Smith
Full transcript of call
Luanne: So welcome everybody to another episode of Awaken Your Purpose – Answering the Call of Your Purpose and I’m very excited! I’m Luanne Mareen of luannemareen.com and I have the beautiful Gwenda Smith as my cherished guest today.
So before we jump in with Gwenda, I just want to remind you this podcast really created something that I wanted to share with people because I come into contact with a lot of inspirational people and I always ask the question, how did you get on Purpose? What led you to there and so I want to share with you these people who you know that you take away just something from the conversation here. So welcome everybody and welcome Gwenda!
Gwenda: Good morning Luanne! Good morning everyone! It’s such a thrill to be here, thank you.
Luanne: Wonderful! I’ve been waiting for this one for a long time so just quickly, I just want to say you are a spiritual mentor and a teacher, healer, a seer, a divine angel channel and you’re extremely spiritual and your life’s work has been to really guide and mentor those to to living a soulful life and I really love that! So we’re just gonna jump in, what do you do right now?
Gwenda: I do all of what you have just said actually Luanne yes, every day I spend with people either on their own or online or in a group. I write that everything is very much soulful so all of my work around guiding people to be their own light of healing, guiding people home to their truth. I saw some interesting things about truth the other day but guiding people home to their truth meaning taking them back to the essence of who they are and not who they’ve been framed to be and it’s my absolute delight then, there’re healings. So people that come who can’t seem to get past whatever it is that’s troubling their physical self out into their energy bodies and I love doing the healings. I’ve had the most amazing experiences as have the people that have come seeking healing channeling the angel guidance so that’s what takes up my days.
Luanne: Yeah so you say, I mean you’re over in Perth WA Australia?
Gwenda: I certainly am. I’m over the rabbit proof fence yes.
Luanne: Yes and I love it because I remember my first experience of seeing you and it was in a group that we both belong to and I was just mesmerized. I was like, “Wow!” Just the way that you did speak the truth and I just booked in straight away. I knew that I had to work with you, I was like “oh okay yeah” so I took that action and it was amazing! So thank you for sharing all that beautifulness with us.
So, I want to ask you a question – what led you to do this work today?
Gwenda: My immediate response Luanne is my soul. Because I’ve always had, I can say from the age of 4, the most bizarre experiences but I’ve just had this knowing. So I’ve followed my path and when family used to ask what are you going to be when you grow up, and I don’t know if people do that anymore with children these days but our extended family always did and from the age of 8, I would say I want to be a nurse. So my dream was to be a nurse and I used to have presents even before mum said before I was 8, family would buy me the little nurse’s kit so I would run around with a cloak and a thermometer and a little bag or a doctor’s kit. It just seemed mom said it was just something. Everyone seemed to think that they would buy for you and so I began as a nurse and when I reflect now, everything that I’ve done has been around health, wellness, well-being. And it doesn’t matter when I came out of nursing, I continued this journey into the holistic side of wellness.
Luanne: Okay, so Gwenda, I want to just ask you a little bit more about the nursing. So what led you into this healing? What was the transition piece like? So how many years were you nursing for?
Gwenda: I started nursing when I was 16, I finished in my 30s. I did step out for a little while after having a car accident because I went into theater, to become a scrub nurse in the theaters. The human body just intrigued me so much when I was on the wards. And I noticed a distinct difference between how people recovered from the same illness or the same surgery, the same accident and they’d be on the same treatment, they’d been on the same medication and yet every person would recover differently and I noticed even from an emotional mental stand, they would be different and that got me thinking and I was really curious about it and then I wanted to know more about what went on inside the body.
So there was an opportunity to become a theater scrub nurse specialist, and I was there for that and I absolutely loved it. Oh it was just an awesome experience! Brilliant! I mean I loved maternity, seeing new life arrive into the world but theater and then what could be done was just incredible. But you know what, you’re right. There was a lady and I tried really hard not to tear up today because it still impacts me even all these years on. So it’s only still a very young nurse and she came to theater, so this is in the 70s. And she was going to have an abdominal tumor removed which then was very rare not now sadly but we only got down to what’s called the augmentum and it’s a beautiful shield that protects your inner organs and it was all gray and lumpy and it’s not normally like that, it’s usually really pretty. If you can imagine most people go, if you can imagine the insides and the surgeon said, “suture up” and as I handed him the suture and everything, I was sort of quizzical and he saw the quizzical look on my face. You never questioned the surgeon ever and he said, “well nurse, you can see the same thing as I, this lady has 14 days to live” and I was just blown away. My head was spinning right in my mind as I was doing the suture part with him thinking where did he get that from within 14 days? Why not 30? why not 21? Why 14? And then he went on to say that I was to go with him to give her the news now that it was not ever and it still is not the protocol.
Luanne: Exactly
Gwenda: That now, I think how divinely orchestrated the whole thing was just incredible. I went with him, he wanted the ward to let us know when she was awake enough to be spoken to which means, if you’ve ever had an anesthetic you’re really groggy; you can’t really open your eyes properly. So, she wasn’t what we would write as conscious, not conscious in the spiritual sense awake.
Anyway, on the way there he said that I was to hold her hand and while he gave her the news, wow and I had so much respect for this surgeon and to this day, still he was brilliant but I was so like, “wow what’s going on here?” And when we got to her and he spoke to her, she knew right away who he was and she started to smile but she was trouble opening her eyes and he placed his hand over her heart and the minute that he did that, she was trying to force herself to be awake. She just innately knew that there was something amiss, I took her hand and introduced myself and now she was frowning and he said to her that she was to go home as soon as she was awake now she was really trying to get awake and she was to be home for 8 days. There was another timeline, 8 days. And he said to her in that 8 days, enjoy your time at home, enjoy your family, you have 14 days to live and we walked away and left her crying.
Both myself and the surgeon were actually… I was crying, the surgeon was teared up, he was such a lovely man, he’s passed now and it was an incredible one to see it still affects me. I can still see her but on the 8th day, I was on the ward because if our theater was closed or our list was finished, we were sent to the wards and because I was a senior scrub, I was most often sent to the surgical ward because I knew what had taken place with those patients and she came in to be admitted and I admitted her to the ward. So here’s another coincidence or what and she was as he said, she was really sick so she didn’t recognize me which I think I’m thankful for and Luanne, I laid her out on the 14th day and it just changed my life.
From that day, I vowed and declared as I was laying her out, that I would go on a path of understanding and helping people.
Luanne: Wow and did you stay in nursing for much longer after that or was that the turning point where you went? I’m just getting such goosebumps you sharing that and thank you Gwenda, was that when you went there’s something else now I need to go?
Gwenda: No I didn’t. I needed to learn more, I needed to understand more. They say, if you’re saying you need, you ought, you must, you should, then you’re not doing the right thing. I’m afraid I don’t agree with that. I needed to stay nursing. I loved it, I loved my nursing. I had, I loved being a nurse. We were very different then and my commitment to being a nurse was everything my heart was about and I know I just felt in myself there was so much more to experience, not knowing even though I’d made that vow that I was going to find out more about this business of sickness, illness, disease. What goes on? I didn’t know what that was going to unfold into and just how much it was bringing forward the light of the divine healing through me and the work that I would do but of course as I said, it’s all orchestrated and it was known from above way beyond my conscious mind.
So I stayed quite a number of years and I moved to Perth to get more experience, I thought I would get more experience in the theaters, it was quite different and I didn’t actually have as much excitement but I did and I will always remember this person.
AIDS came into being while I was in Perth just before I came up actually and I’d been in a theater and there was a whole lot of hubbub outside the theater door. A lot of noise, there was shouting, it was anger and things and the surgeons they needed us now we all looked at each other because that’s just not what you hear in the theater. Here we are, and I underscribed and went out to see what’s going on. It was actually nurses, other theater nurses and assistants standing over the top of a patient arguing and being really disrespectful that none of them were going to scrub or assist him as they looked at him and they were saying this over the top of this patient because he had HIV.
Luanne: Wow
Gwenda: And I walked up to them and I was not a senior nurse at that hospital and I walked up them and said, “I would ask you all to leave” and as I did that, one of the anesthetists came out and he was furious with them and he ordered them to the change rooms and I put my hand on this young man who was in tears and I said to him, “I will be your scrub nurse” and anethodist said “thank you nurse”.
He was very dangerous, oh my goodness! I was his scrub and I had no fear; no fear at all. It was an honor to be his scrub nurse for his surgery and then I don’t know a couple of months later, it would have been I got called out of theatre and asked if I would escort this patient down to an MRI and I thought it was a bit odd but I said, “yeah sure” so I came out and it was the young man. And I walked up to him and put my hand on him and said, “well hello!” and before I could say anything more he said, “I know who you are” now in the time of me being his scrub nurse and him coming back, he’d gone blind because of the HIV. So he couldn’t see me but when I put my hand on him and said hello, he said “I know who you are. I’m so glad you’re here today.” So, I escorted him and we had laughs and chats and I just had my hand on his upper shoulder on the way down for the MRI and I had to take the orderly aside at one point on our trip down because the orderly was being quite disrespectful and not being professional at all out of his fear of being around this man with HIV.
So, I’ve seen the wonderful side of humans and I’ve seen the ugly side of humans in numb, in nursing but those two patients left some big marks. I mean there’s lots of stories I have that I could write.
Luanne: I bet. Wow! Thank you for sure and as I’m listening to you, it’s quite, I can feel it and just see anger that’s coming up on me when I feel people disrespecting others and they didn’t know but come on like and at least you know I’m just going to move on from there.
Gwenda: Well they had a vow and they took a vow to maintain and sustain life to the best of them and they were supposed to be the ultimate of carers. I was really disgusted with their behaviour.
Luanne: I bet it was so interesting because my mum was a scrub nurse exactly like you! So I remember and I was fascinated with the story. She would come and just share and she loved it as well when she even went to Saudi Arabia and worked there and worked on little babies and went to Russia just as the… So my hat goes off to it’s a what a calling so I want to know, so they kind of led you to where you are today but what do you believe is your Purpose?
Gwenda: I believe now my Purpose is the waymaker of divine light of healing.
Luanne: Wow just like that. Just like that! And then how did you know I always say, I love it, it’s so beautiful but I always feel like we hear, we’re here, we get these nudges and this “take this path” this is your Purpose but how did you answer the call of what you just said?
Gwenda: Well, I suppose I have answered it but it’s been more like I listen. I always have listened like you say you hear, I’ve always listened to that call of my heart or a direction of “let’s go here” always and only enough even when I came out of nursing because of injuries from the car accident and then when I could work again, I ended up being a women’s magazine here in Perth but I found that all the people I went to, to either talk to them about their business or maybe even interview a woman that was going into business that always ended up coming around to Wellness. And I found myself in a place of helping them even if they were an advertiser.
So when I look back, I’ve gone how funny I thought I was stepping out of nursing but I was still in wellness. Ao all the way along, everything has ended up that way and also my abilities to be able to naturally connect with angels and with guides, with spirit which has been my whole life that too has come to the fore in different ways in each of the jobs I’ve done.
So for me it’s been like a lotus flower just unfolding and as I was saying through the beginning, your spirit had me up till three o’clock in the morning on Monday this week with some exciting new work that they want me to launch into so it just continues to evolve.
Luanne: Yeah yes and I always think, it’s one thing to listen. It’s one thing to act and okay you’re three o’clock in the morning, okay let’s do that but to me when you said that’s like there’s joy in that too. Yes the body’s a bit tired but in the morning but why do you think it’s so important for people to do their Purpose work?
Gwenda: Well you were granted your contract of life here and in that contract is your Purpose. So for me, if I don’t follow my Purpose and follow all that feels where I’m meant to be going from my heart and the guidance that I receive, then I don’t feel I’m respecting that privilege of life here but also I’m not fulfilling and honoring my soul and that’s really important to me.
Luanne: Yeah I love that! So knowing your purpose is one thing, and I always feel our Purpose is lifelong. We get to express it in different ways like you. You did in nursing and now there’s a different expression of that but to do that work, we have to do work on ourselves like some kind of work on ourselves. So, what’s one and I know you’ve probably got so many things that you’ve done, but what’s one thing or what do you think is important to do with ourselves so we can express our Purpose?
Gwenda: Oh that is just an awesome question Luanne! You really have to own you. You know one of my favorite talks I present is “walking in your own shoes”. Whose shoes are you walking in? So it’s really important to own who you are and be happy to own who you are.
Luanne: I love that but to get to that place of owning who you are, what’s one thing that you did? We can say well you have to own it but then people are like, “well how do I do that? Is it knowing my values or is it going on a meditation tour? I don’t know but what is one thing that you could share? I need to own myself okay start here, start here.
Gwenda: I’m going to roll that right back because I’m going on a meditation tour. It’s not going to lead you to own yourself, it is a tool, it’s an opportunity to learn where you’re not owning yourself and personal value. They are a big one for me, they are actually the foundation in all of my teaching, all of my mentor because if you don’t know (which I’ve found so many people don’t) have any clue of their personal values or they can rattle off words but then when I ask them to express how they’re living them every day it’s like, “oops we’re not going any further” they can’t express how they’re living them every day.
So going right back, how do you know to own yourself where you better know who you are so you better have a really close relationship with yourself? And that means really being in your truth. So being prepared to walk away from friendships, walk away from work environments, walk away from toxic conversations, don’t just keep sitting there and nodding your head and participating. Know when you’re uncomfortable, you are not owning yourself; so take action on that. Move away, do things that change it. If you feel that you’re eating a meal and you are feeling this is no good for me or you’re griping about carrying excess weight or having pain in your knees, you’re not owning you. You know while you’re eating that it’s not what your body needs so why continue eating it? So I say own yourself by being honest with yourself, own yourself by being true to what is not working for you. Always begin here and begin with how you’re reacting in conversations, how you’re reacting to the daily things, the daily grind you know? If you are really unhappy in the mornings then you need to stop and ask yourself what’s going on here? So you’ve really got to come home to you and begin with very simple questions to yourself; where am I in all of this? Where am I? And then take action. Small actions; small actions, no great big plans, no great big things, just little things to be more aware and start from there.
Luanne: And it’s the little steps sometimes we think “right”… we get to that point we’re so pissed off with ourselves right? Or the situation we’re in and was like, “right I’m going to change it” and we try to change 50 things in one day and then the next day, “oh that’s too much” right? So I love what you said but it’s also the ownership that is being responsible. You said, you’re with a partner or with a friend and they just keep coming to the same story and it’s like are you really taking ownership? Are you owning? This is your responsibility to change? It’s no one else’s with plenty of people out there to help you go to Gwenda, wherever but yeah I love that Queen! Thank you!
Gwenda: You’re welcome!
Luanne: So can you give us just an example like I want to kind of showcase how you work with someone and I know you do so many things but just, what’s a favorite person you’ve worked with and why? What was the outcome of them working with you and why were they your favorite?
Gwenda: Oh that’s a hot question, Luanne! The clients that continue on and I’m feel very sure that this would be the same for you, there are clients that… what’s that poem? Season rhyme and a reason. So our clients are the same. They pop in, they pop out, they might stay, they might not. So the one who was (two actually) that really comes to mind, one’s name is Joel.
And Joel has been to me over many years initially for readings or channel guidance then healing and then he sent me a message one day that sat me on my butt and he sends this message and he said, “Gwenda, I’ve got a question to ask you and I hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable. But I would like you to be my spiritual mentor” and I had not actually been mentoring people one-on-one at that point and I hadn’t really been doing spiritual mentoring as such because of a lack of understanding of it on behalf of people and what’s required, so to receive this request was like, “Wow!”
And I just felt so humbled to have been chosen because I knew that Joel had been going to all sorts of different ceremonies, all sorts of different events, meeting all sorts of different people in what you might call “the spiritual community” and online at different things. So I was so honoured to receive that and he has been an amazing student. I call him the “student of life” and he’s amazing because he’s discerning, he takes responsibility, he takes action and the changes in him; his background and what he presented with in this life versus the truth of his soul was really different. And every corner he’s turned, he’s turned it with courage and determination and he’s just stayed true to his calling, to his soul calling and it’s been wonderful watching him evolve…. absolutely wonderful. It hasn’t been an easy path for him by any means.
And then there’s a gorgeous young woman by the name of Hayley. Hayley has been amazing to work with, also very discerning, very questioning. She’s a bit like the millennials (not sure if she is a millennial) but when she first came, she was very strategy focused, very strategic and things
Luanne: Kind of sounds like in the right…
Gwenda: And there had to be lots of tick boxes and things then and what I had the greatest of time blowing those boxes apart
Luanne: As only you could do, I’m sure I love it! I love it!
Gwenda: And now to see Hayley step into her truth and see her blossoming in the way that she is again like Joel, she’s been incredible and her connection to her true self and now following that path and the way it’s changed her. She’s recently put herself in a little bit of a difficult spot which has been very interesting, observing as her mentor and helping so those two really stand out because of their dedication and their commitment. These are two things that are really necessary to work with me.
Luanne: Yeah I always feel that with you but it also brings up the the word “mentor” as well and I feel like we all, (well we do it always) but I have had many mentors and different mentors along the way like health mentors, business mentors, all that kind of spiritual mentors as well but I always find you. It’s great to have somebody just to reflect back to you, just to be that sounding bored and kind of kick your butt sometimes if you need it. I give full responsibility to all my men to kick my butt because if I’m spinning, I don’t want to do that anymore right? And sometimes it’s painful like, “Oh, I have to turn up again today she’s going to kick my butt” I get through it but they do it gently as well.
And also, when I was doing mentoring at the beginning, like some clients would really test me but I knew that’s where I had to grow, I was like, “oh god I give too much and it’s like no injuries” and that kind of thing, it’s like, “okay, you grow. You grow with that” so and to me is it Joel? Was it Joel? You said it, he called you like he was the… he’s like can you be my spiritual mentor? I love that! That’s beautiful.
Gwenda: Hailey will tell you that, you don’t get away with anything with me and she says this is one of the things she just loves about working with me and that I am brutally honest and very direct. I just don’t mince my words. I don’t fluff it up there’s no point. I don’t see that that is helpful so I guess you need to be a little bit on the what’s the right word? You’d want to be a little bit on the courageous side? If you’re over sensitive, I’m probably not your person.
Luanne: Yeah I always see that on the website, who this work is for? So it’s not for and that pretty much separates them right? So I seem to think I see things in sales pages now I’m like, because I’m a business mentor, so like I’m looking well okay you hit all these points! It’s weird, I know it’s weird so I would like to know so where can we find you? And we’re going to put the links below so if people want to do work with you and find out all about you and if you have, we can opt in to get your newsletters and things like that. Where’s the best place?
Gwenda: The best place for that Luanne is the website which is healwithgwenda.com. That’s healwithgwenda.com and if you go to the website, (not you) when you go to the website, I have got my EBook for you as a gift and it is make this your year of power and I offer in that the steps that you can take to begin your path of really coming home to you.
Luanne: I love that! Thank you so much! We could talk for hours, I have to get you back. So can you just… I like to leave it well light or opened or authentic. I don’t know what this is but I always like to end on telling us something that not many… (let’s reframe no one) not many people know about you?
Gwenda: Oh let me look in that little black box that’s where I keep all those treasures! I have a gold box and I have a black box so this though should probably be in the gold box.
I was the first female, the first girl to be permitted to work on the milk round in Western Australia. It is my understanding that there actually wasn’t any girls working on the milk grounds around Australia at that time. I was also in the very first female soccer team so I like to do these first things but the milk round was male dominated. When I asked my dad, I said I want to work on the milk ground he goes, “I love to! Can’t that’s the boys?” And I said, “Sorry what I want to work on the milk ground dad”. So I did and the boys gave me hell! They reckon they wouldn’t be able to carry as many bottles as them because back then, they were bottles of glass bottles.
Luanne: Yes I remember!
Gwenda: And we had to carry up to 8 in our hands at a time and I reckon they wouldn’t be able to do it and then they’d say I wouldn’t be able to jump on and off the back of the ute so I’d slow everything down. Well no I did not though,
Luanne: Wow! I love that! I remember the days of the year back in New Zealand but I actually was funny because I actually had a friend and her father owned it. So she was the only girl on her milk because her dad I did oh the milk round but I remember those days! So thank you so much, Gwenda! It’s just been a privilege to interview you and to hear your wisdom and to feel everything. I’m like, “oh my goodness!” Your stories are amazing and everybody who’s watching go and check her out at healingwithgwenda.com and until our next interview. Thank you very much Gwenda!
Gwenda: Thank you Luanne very much!
Luanne: Bye for now.
Gwenda: Bye everyone!
To know more about Gwenda Smith visit:
Website : http://www.healwithgwenda.com/
https://www.facebook.com/healwithgwenda/
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