Rachel Luna is a Best Selling Author, Speaker, Confidence and Mindset Coach. She helps remarkable individuals just like you get clear, confident and take consistent action, so you can do that big thing you were born to do. She also is the podcast host of REAL Talk. She is not only a survivor of her parents who had AIDS but she is a thriver and on today’s podcast she shares her story about faith and forgiveness.

What do you stand for more than anything else?

She stands for the word of God more than anything else, and try to live her life accordingly. She believes that she is here only because of God. She believes it is a blessing that both of her parents had aids while she did not. Her biological mother died when she was three. Her father gave up her custody to her godmother. So she grew up in between houses, believing that her dad did not love her and everyone she ever loved had gone. Later she found out the reason her dad gave her up was because he didn’t have money, and wanted better for her. Long after her father passed away she learned that her godmother wanted to adopt her legally, but her father loved her so much that he could not gave her up for adoption. So the lesson she stresses upon here is to pay attention to the stories we tell ourselves, because they may not be facts. She also says that if there is someone you have discord with and they are still alive, please have conversations with them now, so you do not regret it later.

How did you fight all these odds?

She actually continued to make mistakes, leading her to have two eating disorders in high school. She was anorexic. She would go without eating for days, and when she finally would get hungry, she would binge eat and make herself sick. Her father died during her freshmen year, leading her to fall into promiscuity and alcoholism. She continued to make one poor decision after another. But she did have a small shift and manage to graduate, later joining the Marine Corps. She noticed that she would have small breakdowns, and every time she had a breakdown she was able to calm and rise and have a breakthrough. This went on for a decade. She thinks that what really helped her in that cycle was her first child, because now she had a bigger purpose. She says that when we only think of ourselves we continue to make mistakes that satisfy us only at the moment, without consideration of future repercussions. But when we start thinking outside of ourselves, that is when we can make a lasting impact.

When was your turning point?

For her there was no single turning point in her life, it was incremental. At first, she hated being a mom. She was trying to build her business and wanted to do for herself. Later there was a slight shift in how she felt about her children. The first moment she felt some connection with her daughter was when the doctors thought she had a tumor. There was an innate desire to protect and care for, but not motherly love. She never felt that motherly bond until her oldest daughter was seven, and these little shifts turned her life around.

What are some core principles that you teach?

She teaches how to take faith-based confident action, and by faith, she means faith in what you believe. The first step to it is to separate facts from the stories you tell yourself. Once you do that, you can rewrite the stories. She says that resentment is poisonous. Forgiveness is not for the others, it is for you. She says that in order to move forward, she had to stop looking at things that happened to her, and rather look at things that happened for her because that allowed her to become the strongest version for herself. She says that the time and energy that is spent on the thought of things that happened to you is derailing you from the time and energy that can be focused on moving forward.

How did you become a coach?

It was in 2006, she was in Marine Corps, working overseas in a hospital. She was over $40K in debt and overweight. Her reviewing officer told her that if she lost 10 pounds, she will look better in uniform and he will give her a higher review, even though she was within weight standards. She faced a lot of abuse and discrimination in Marine Corps, but she still loves it because Marine Corps happened for her. Later she also found out that her boyfriend was happily married. Her life was a mess. So she hired a life coach, and as they were working together her coach told her that she had such an amazing story and that she should become a life coach. She found it unlikely at the moment, but because of the encouragement from her coach she did become a life coach later on, and she is grateful for it.

What is your “why”?

She says that there are some people out there who do not yet know why they do what they are doing, they just know they have to do it. For the first five years of her business, she did not know her “why”, she just knew she is supposed to, that she is called to do it. According to her, you do not have to know why, as long as you know you are called to do it. Today she knows that she does it because she truly desires women to live their lives truly self-expressed, to stop fearing from being who they really are. She also says that we do not have one life purpose, we have a seasonal purpose. So if you are feeling like you do not know your purpose, then just think about your purpose now.

What’s the best advice you have ever been given?

Speak your truth. Say what you want to say.

How can we get in touch with you?

You can visit her at rachelluna.biz

She is also active at Instagram @girlconfident