This is a sharing of an extraordinary story about a Pinay who is a Lupus survivor and have turned her life's challenges around to help others. This is Anna Garcia who is a Law of Attraction Coach and who has been helping people around the world unlock their minds since 2011. Before then, 43 year old Anna of Croydon in Sydney's inner west, had an 'unsettled' life. She enrolled into Law at Sydney University but left shortly to study Visual Communications, then leaving to become a full time missionary for four years.
While she was a missionary, Anna was diagnosed with Lupus. Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that can affect many different parts of the body. The exact cause is not known, but it is probably a combination of genetic and environmental factors. She shares that on a bad day, this caused the retina of her eyes to bleed that caused her vision to be all black or have swirls of black; and worse being in bed for a month with swollen feet. With other issues she found difficult to come into terms with in the mission, she left the place.
Four months after being back on the "outside", Anna met Sheldon now her husband, in a dance for Singles for Christ. Sheldon who is also of Filipino heritage is a partner in a big construction litigation firm. She and Sheldon has been blessed with Allegra who is now 11 years old.
Anna became a Visual Arts and Religion teacher at Santa Sabina College, worked with a photographer, became a life coach and wrote a parenting book. She also explored culinary school, cake decorating, Zumba teaching and even had a 6 month experience in hosting Sandigan radio 2RDJ.
She is the third child of Greg and Agnes Maliwat. She has two older siblings - Liz and George, and younger brother Michael. The family migrated to Australia in 1980 when Anna was three years old.
To get a personal insight into Anna and what she does, we are glad to share her responses to a few questions we asked.
Please share a brief explanation of what a Law of Attraction Coach does.
I was coaching since 2011 but started specialising in the Law of Attraction in the last 5 years when I became intrigued with how our thoughts affect our experiences.
The basic premise of the Law of Attraction is that LIKE energy attracts LIKE energy. If your focus is on health and well-being you are more likely to attract experiences of health and wellbeing.
A person who talks mainly about sickness, is likely to be the one who has the most sickness. The person who talks mainly about prosperity is likely to attract more prosperity.
When we think of buying a red car, suddenly we see red cars everywhere. This is how like energy groups together.
Everything from what we see, to our thoughts and feelings are made up of energy at a microscopic level.
As a coach I help people focus more on what they want, because people unconsciously naturally think about what they don’t want.
I work with their mindset so they can overcome limiting beliefs and attract better situations.
Can you give an example of a case you helped a client with as a Law of Attraction Coach?
I once had a lady who really wanted a baby because all her friends had one, however she was constantly noticing how she was missing a baby.
I helped her see, if she wanted a baby, she needed to talk about her baby being present (already in spirit) not being missing.
This is an easy mistake we all make. We think “I don’t want to be without a baby” and “I want a baby” mean the same thing. They are very different vibrationally.
I told her to talk to her baby who is already present. Long story short, she became pregnant very quickly.
What had been the impact of COVID-19 in your profession and other activities?
The nature of my work is largely online on Zoom so there was not really an impact on me. If anything, I met with more clients because people are questioning what to do with their lives during this time.
I’ve had more requests to speak on interviews and podcasts than ever before.
Tell us about your book "Put the Baby back in My Tummy. What inspired you to write it?
I was very blessed to have a baby because I had Lupus at the time and was told it would be challenging to fall pregnant.
I did fall pregnant but was told by doctors she was meant to be a miscarriage. Fortunately, we discovered there was a heartbeat.
A doctor said she should not be alive and if so, she would be deformed. Instead, Allegra arrived fully healthy. However, I did not expect the challenges that came soon after.
Allegra had so much sass and personality (true artista) it was driving me crazy. From not sleeping to only eating when I wasn’t looking, to diva movie star demands. I was constantly sharing entertaining stories about her.
One day I got the idea, I might as well write and illustrate a book, some memoirs about her life. That’s when I wrote “Put the Baby Back in my Tummy”.
I had never written a book before, or self-published, so it was a huge learning curve. I had a lot of fun with that book. It was a way to turn ‘stressings into blessings.’
What would you consider fondly to be your biggest achievements?
There are many that stand out for me. One is being able to have a baby and self-publishing my book. I also got to be the unofficial ‘dad’ of my sister’s twin babies. Her soul mate passed away so I stepped in.
Taking ownership of my own health. I decided I wanted to be well and spent 15 minutes a day visualisation a healthy body. My blood test Lupus DNA went down without medication and my doctor was bewildered. He said he had only seen this in 2% of people. I managed to put myself into remission without medication.
Also dreaming big in travel. I created a board of all the countries I wanted to visit. We couldn’t travel in the beginning because we were broke. But I used to imagine travelling and now 33 of those countries came true!
There are other things like studying French cooking (when I was a really bad cook) and now I have a food Instagram page. Also signing up for being a radio presenter of Sandigan. As well as training as a Zumba instructor at one stage.
Overall, I’m proud of following my dreams, willing to give things a go, even things I have no experience in or could be laughed at if I get it wrong.
On the flip side, what challenges have you faced and overcome?
I overcame the challenges with having a baby. I overcame huge challenges with my own health.
Another challenge was every time I followed my heart and changed my career, I knew at times people wouldn’t approve. There is a load of information out there and everyone is telling you their way is best. I learnt to listen the voice in my heart.
When I became a life coach, not many people knew what that was. They thought I was a basketball coach.
Fortunately, some people understood. Tita Violi encouraged me to have a ‘Life Matters’ Coaching segment on radio.
There were some tough days getting clients. But now I have been blessed to work with so many amazing clients around the world.
What else do you want to achieve in life?
I want to expand the work that I do internationally.I feel like there are many people who are lonely or suffering anxiety, not realising they have infinite resources within them.
So, I want to spread this message, be an international speaker and touch millions of people’s hearts by being the best I can be in the field of thought.
I have a free handbook people can download called '5 Fundamental Mistakes in Manifesting' on www.annagarcialifecoach.com Alternatively I am on Instagram @annagarcia_lifecoach and I do inspirational posts and videos for people to reflect on.
I also want to travel more and expand my YouTube channel and one day build a house close to the ocean.
If you are able to, are there aspects of life or what you have done you would change?
I don’t think I would change anything about my life.Looking back, all the problems and pain I went through gave me so much insight which is what I am able to pass onto clients now.
I have wonderful life with my husband, daughter and extended family and friends. Plus, we have a 7-month-old puppy named Disco.
What advice would you give people who are having difficulties in personal life or in their professions?
I would tell them to talk lovingly to themselves and zoom out of their situation to see what in their lives are going well.
The more we can tune into what is going right, the more our life starts to turn around. Law of Attraction is building the momentum.
Everyday gratitude is extremely helpful. Blessing those that you find difficult. 15 minutes prayer time or meditation helped to quiet the mind of worry.
And always tell yourself how much you are well looked after by the universe, God.
Lastly, how do you define success?
For me, success is the feeling of JOY.
I discovered in my coaching journey you can have plenty of money and still be unhappy. I coached people completely wealthy, successful in business but not happy.
I’ve met beautiful people, not happy.
I’ve me super intelligent people not happy.
Success must be the joy in the journey. This is the indicator that we’ve followed our soul’s voice.
It’s in the simple things and the big things. Spending time with the family, taking a walk, watching a sunset, laughing, enjoying career, doing the gardening, basically doing anything that lights you up along this journey of life.