Episode 12 - Healing After Loss, Faith After Pain: Gina Economopoulos on Boundaries, Recovery & Self-Discovery
By Jessica Garrison
Trigger warning: alcoholism
Our next guest, Gina Economopoulos, is trustworthy, humorous, reliable, responsible, spiritual, beautiful, godly, and positive. She has had an adventurous life, taking on many different roles trying to find herself, and now she is here to share her journey to authentic living.
While discussing how to confidently set healthy boundaries, Gina dives into her story of searching for self-discovery. She’s the 7th of 8 children and says that she was the child with all of the health problems. Constantly comparing herself to her friends and her siblings, Gina became lost and insecure. All of her siblings went to college, and she did the same but took up drinking as a coping mechanism. She was known as “Gina, The Life of the Party,” and people love the life of the party, so she filled this role hoping for fulfillment. Sadly, her mother passed away from cancer, so Gina pivoted in a new direction: faith. She sought God, even becoming a Catholic nun for over a decade. But after all that time, she was kicked out of the convent, again faced with the decision of what to do now. I can only imagine the disbelief and loss of direction after something like that happening, Gina didn’t let this end her journey to finding herself.
She reveals to us that she was mistreated and abused emotionally in the church setting, which just brought further complications to her emotions. She had no sense of boundaries or self care, but she knew that she was looking for love and peace. She had to ask herself, what does Gina want? We should be asking ourselves this same question of what do we truly want out of life? Gina loves the beach, so she moved to the Jersey Shore and started building a life for herself there. Even when you’re trying to figure things out and don’t think you can take on anymore, life throws curveballs, but it seemed like Gina was getting hit with something greater. She had to go through multiple losses, to the point where she thought she wasn’t meant to be happy. I know this is a thought that many people have after experiencing tragedy after tragedy, but let Gina be a reminder to never give up. She could’ve stopped trying to achieve her goals, but she didn’t. She continued to persevere and used her heart of service to help others who need it.
Gina is full of compassion and has been her whole life, but now she knows who her true self is and is using this character trait to serve others as well as herself. If you think I covered a lot in the blog, there is even more to hear during the episode. Gina goes into much further detail, and there’s nothing like hearing the story straight from the source. It’s been anything but an easy journey for her, but I think this episode will inspire so many people to keep going and get the idea out of your head that you were never meant to be happy. It’s your life, and only you can make it what you want it to be.
Ways to Engage: Instead of asking yourself, “why me?” ask yourself, “why not me?” Flip the narrative you’re telling yourself on its head and look at your situation from a new perspective. Not everything that happens to us is for the better, but with this technique we can eliminate the victim mentality and recognize our blessings and opportunities in disguise.