Christina Nylese

Christina Nylese is a Holistic Health and Recovery Coach who empowers others through her personal journey of transformation. After facing challenges such as homelessness, alcoholism, disordered eating, and codependency, Christina discovered a holistic path to healing—one that helped her reclaim her life, find purpose, and live with abundance.

With raw honesty and deep insight, Christina shares how the mind and body hold the innate power to heal when given the chance. Her work is a compassionate guide for anyone ready to overcome personal struggles and embrace a life of balance, empowerment, and true well-being.

You share so vulnerably about your own battles with addiction, perfectionism, and codependency—what gave you the courage to turn your personal journey into a book?
I’ve always been open and transparent about my alcoholism, but not so much about my other addictions with food, relationships and perfectionism. Until I was writing the book I didn’t even realize these were parts I hadn’t healed yet. Once it started to flow out of me, I never gave a second thought as to whether or not to share about it, because I have always felt that keeping my secrets doesn’t serve me or those who are suffering in silence.

You describe your book as both a memoir and a guide. How did you strike the balance between telling your story and offering actionable tools for healing?
It was actually pretty easy and came very naturally. I think I’ve always had a “natural healer” part to myself, and that became obvious when writing. I have been practicing mindfulness my whole life and wasn’t even aware of it. It’s like it found me, not the other way around. Once I became a coach focusing on mindfulness practices, it all came to me very easily, so naturally weaving the mindfulness tools into the storytelling was seamless. Also, you can’t tell a story that you want people to relate to and then leave them hanging. If you’re going to talk about a problem, you also need to offer the solution.

One of the central themes in your book is mindfulness. How did developing a mindfulness practice change the way you related to your struggles?
Mindfulness allowed for me to spend more time in gratitude than in feeling sorry for myself, shifting me into a growth mindset. I was creating a space within myself that felt safe, where I could focus on something other than my fears and anxieties.

What role did self-talk play in your healing journey, and how can readers begin shifting from inner criticism to self-compassion?
I was a self-defeatist for most of my life, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I always saw the glass as half empty and everything was a drama. I now teach what I have learned, which is that if we want to change a behavior, we must revisit our thoughts. Our thoughts are what create a feeling, which is what inspires an action, which becomes our way of being. It’s how we form habits. If we practice mindfulness, we will notice our thoughts and the feelings and self-talk it is invoking. It’s at that point of awareness that we can choose another thought and a more compassionate way to speak to ourselves. When we practice this over and over, we rewire our brains to think, act and speak to ourselves differently. The default is not longer self-criticism but love and grace.

You talk about nourishing the body through rest, movement, and food. Can you share a few simple practices that helped you reconnect with your physical well-being?
When I talk about nourishing ourselves through rest, movement and food, I am talking about from the inside out, meaning, it’s about more than nourishing the physical aspects of ourselves. My approach helps people to change their perspective on how they use rest, movement and food to connect the mind with the body and nourish on a more holistic level.
I always start with 10-minute mindfulness practices because it’s a manageable amount of time and can be easily incorporated into your day. New habits take time and can feel overwhelming, so the ten-minute practice delivers a quick win.

Rest: I use essential oil therapy for sleep, so this is a practice that will not only prepare your mind and body for rest, but will involve all of your senses, connecting the mind and body in a “winding” down state. The kind of oils used is extremely important too, since they work on a cellular level to ease stress, promote relaxation and enhance emotional well-being. You can start by rubbing an oil like Lavender on the bottom of your feet before getting into bed, or diffusing by your bedside. You’re not only getting the sleep benefits but all the other benefits the oil offers as it works at the cellular level.

Movement: It’s as important to look at movement as a way to nourish the mind, not just the body, and to practice movement to open up your intuitive mind. Again, when we make that mind body connection through movement, all parts of us benefit - the physical, emotional and spiritual. My favorite way to do this is to just walk outside without a device. Walking without the distractions is a great way to practice mindfulness, ground in nature and cultivate awareness of what is happening in the physical body as well as the mind. Practicing curiosity and non-judgement keeps our minds free to notice what is happening. It also gives us a break from the constant running on autopilot and creates space for creative downloads to come in. It can even help with decision making.

Food: A simple practice I love that nurtures my relationship with food is sensory eating, where you take the time to examine your food using all of your senses. It forces us to slow down, acknowledge our food choices, appreciate the food we are eating and recognize whether or not we are even aligned with the food we’re eating. The key here is slowing down so that we can make the mind body connection. Of course when we slow down when eating, we are more likely to stop when we’ve had enough, even before we’re full, digest more easily, move energetically instead of sluggishly and feel a sense of gratitude.

The idea of “Self-Healing Invitations” is unique. What inspired this approach, and how do you suggest readers engage with them?
This idea of Self-Healing Invitations was inspired by the approach we take in the rooms of recovery, which is “there are no rules, only suggestions.” An invitation is just a suggestion. The reader can engage or not engage, but if they are “working” through the book, and not just reading it, they’ll want to explore the invitations.
These exercises are there to help them move through the healing pathway using self examination. They are also in the book because they help the reader better understand the concepts I am teaching or walking them through if they can put something into practice themselves. They are an opportunity for the reader to get into action right away. Information doesn’t equate to transformation. Action is necessary. So I couldn’t write this book and not offer the reader these invitations. All the Self-Healing Invitations can be found in the book portal and printed out. The book portal also has meditations recorded by me that they can use.

So many people feel stuck in cycles they can’t seem to break. What would you say to someone who’s feeling hopeless or overwhelmed right now?
It’s not so much about what I’d say, but how I would hold space for them. It’s kind of like when someone passes away, you often don’t know what to say, but what the person really needs is an energy exchange like a hug or smile or just human touch. If I am somewhere where I can offer a non-verbal response like that, I will, because what the person who is stuck or in a dark place needs is to feel heard, seen and safe. So saying the right thing is not my first move. It’s making them feel safe. Also, in many cases, these people are used to others telling them what they think they should DO, but in this state of mind, feeling safe and heard will grow trust.

Your story highlights the importance of connection. How did community or support systems play a role in your recovery and growth?
Just like with the hopeless and overwhelmed person, community gave me a feeling of safety. I spent so many years not feeling heard and being told what to do or not do, it was a relief to find people who “got me” and that felt safe to me. People want safety more than anything. Community also gave me a lot of confidence. Even though connecting with other people felt foreign and unnatural without the booze, once I started doing it, I really opened up. I started liking that version of me better. It was a relief to come out of isolation.

You write about turning time into an asset. Can you share what that shift looked like for you, and how others can begin to reclaim their time and energy?
I stopped saying “I don’t have time for that,” a long time ago. When I felt my purpose, to help others get unstuck and heal like I did, I put my focus on creating the space to do that. I had a full time job at the time, was caregiving for my mom, and managing a side hustle as a health coach. Once I got certified and got really clear on my vision, how I thought about my time changed. It wasn’t about needing more time, it was about creating space for my dreams with the time I had. I learned a process then tweaked it over the years so it worked for me, and have since added many time management hacks and solutions for those who need it.
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We always have to start with mindset before jumping into my time management system. This means understanding our relationship with time, surrendering and accepting that we need.a new set of behaviors when it comes to time, and letting go of what is not serving us or moving the needle on our to-do lists and calendars. These initial steps are a lot like the first few steps in a recovery program. It’s been proven over and over again that we can apply the 12-Steps from recovery programs to get unstuck in our lives. I have a specific exercise for these initial steps that I offer in a Sabotage Detox session.
A quick win for anyone would be to write down your top 3 priorities, then do a brain dump of all the to-dos you can think of. Just set a timer and dump it all on paper. Then take that list and your top three priorities, and cross off anything on the dump list that doesn’t directly align with one of the three priorities. You should end up with a pretty clean to-do list. That’s something that takes maybe 15 minutes and can simply create some space on the calendar and help you breathe.

What do you hope readers feel or realize after finishing your book—and what’s the first small step you want them to take?
I want every reader to feel hopeful and more confident after reading this book. I also want them to understand that this is a resource to be used over and over again. I am going through it again in my coachable book clubs and it’s like reading it for the first time. I keep getting something different out of it and I wrote it!

I hope they leave the book with a fresh perspective on how our mind and body can heal us, if we just give it half a chance. We have all the power inside of us. We just need to tap into it.

If they have learned how to love themselves and offer themselves compassion through this process, then a small step they could take is to pass the book to someone else who needs it, contributing to the ripple effect of self-love and self-healing around the world.

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Visit Christina on her website: 
https://selfhealingessentials.kit.com
Join Christina on Faceboook: 
https://www.facebook.com/cnylese/
Follow Christina on Instagram: 
@christinanylese
Connect with Christina on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinanylese

LINK for BOOK:
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Love-Self-Healing-Unstuck-Wounds-Abundantly/dp/B0F4CXKZMW/