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The Power Transformation Podcast with Alethea Felton is where unstoppable resilience meets life-changing success. This Top 5% ranked show dives deep into the extraordinary journeys of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and visionaries who have shattered obstacles, conquered adversity, and redefined success on their own terms.
Hosted by resilience expert Alethea Felton who has thrived with autoimmune disease since birth, overcome severe stuttering, and turned setbacks into stepping stones, this podcast delivers raw, inspiring conversations packed with actionable strategies for personal and professional growth.
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The Power Transformation Podcast
124. From Addiction to Healing: Faith, Loss, & New Beginnings with Gina Economopoulos
Some journeys break you, but others remake you.
Author and Inspirational Speaker Gina Economopoulos’ life is a testament to resilience, healing, and the unexpected paths that lead us home to ourselves. From growing up in a large family to navigating health challenges, spending time as a nun, and battling addiction, every chapter of her story shaped her in ways she never imagined. After experiencing profound loss - including the passing of her significant other/boyfriend - she found deep healing in an unexpected calling as an end-of-life doula, helping others find peace in life’s most sacred transitions. Her journey is a powerful reminder that even in our darkest moments, hope, faith, and purpose are always waiting to be rediscovered.
Connect with Gina:
Episode 124's Affirmation:
I inspire myself and others to find hope, strength, and purpose in every challenge.
I invite you to leave a positive message with your insights, feedback, or uplifting message.
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What if I told you that hope can be discovered even in our darkest moments and that the struggles in your life can actually lead to your reclaiming of your life's purpose? Well y'all, let me tell you. My guest today, , epitomizes all of that. She is a captivating and inspiring, resilient speaker for all audiences, and she is so vulnerable in everything that she shares. She is our guest today and, with that being said, welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast.
Alethea Felton:I am your host, Alethea Felton, and I want to jump right into this interview. But first, thank you to those of you who have been with me since the very beginning. I am grateful for you and for those of you who may be new to this podcast, welcome, welcome, welcome. I am so thrilled that you are here, and it is because of you, my audience, that this podcast continues to thrive and will continue doing so. And go ahead and follow and subscribe, as well as share this episode with at least 10 people that you know. Go ahead and text them, email them and let them know that they need to listen to this interview and follow the Power Transformation Podcast, because we are a movement and there is no stopping us.
Alethea Felton:Now we're going to jump right into this interview and, as customary, we always begin with a positive affirmation here on the Power Transformation Podcast. So I will say the affirmation once and you repeat it I inspire myself and others to find hope, strength and purpose in every challenge. It is my honor to have this incredible woman as my guest today on the Power Transformation podcast and, as you heard a little bit from the intro, has a story. I mean I could see her story being a movie because it is so loaded with so many experiences in a great way. So welcome, gina, to the Power Transformation Podcast.
Gina Economopoulos:Thank you, alethea. I was looking forward to this, since. I met you before, so I'm happy to be here and with your listeners.
Alethea Felton:Thank you, I am too. And audience. I want you all to know I am serious about that. The first time, gina and I had our Zoom because I screen all of my podcast guests. But, honestly, it's also a chance, I think. Personally, I think it's a way for podcast guests to see okay, do I really want to be on this person's show Because there's a lot of people out there. But my whole point is that immediately, gina, instantly, I felt such a connection. I just liked her spirit and I was like she seems like a lot of fun and I like people who are just authentic. And so, with that being said, I want to start with just a fun, lighthearted, icebreaker question, just to kind of get us going. Okay, all right, gina, my question for you is what is an ideal weekend for you? How do you like to spend your weekends?
Gina Economopoulos:Oh, fun, that's it. No, no, what. What I do is on my weekends. Uh, I like to, I like, I enjoy golf. So if we have a great, if we, if it's a nice sunny day, even in November, on the New Jersey shore, uh, my boyfriend and I will gravitate and go to the golf course and my weekend is also like Sunday, is like a time of also of just rest, rest, you know, just rest and and see what's out there. And we live by the beach. So you know when, when it's a nice day, even in November, I grab it. We gravitate to the beach, we gravitate where heaven and earth meet. So that's that's what I mean. I'm very easygoing. I'm not a life of the party out there person anymore. I'm more like okay, let's uh hone in, you know, in in the in the weekend, uh, we have some sometimes. If we have some events like to watch my niece go play soccer or things like that, then I enjoy that. I like outdoors, so I really enjoy being out there.
Alethea Felton:And I really appreciate you giving that particular answer, because I knew, of course, that you lived on the Jersey Shore, but I'd like to find out things about my guests and to hear that you enjoy golf. I really, really like the fact that you said that, that you enjoy golf. I really, really liked the fact that you said that because as a kid so I will tell you outside of mini golf, I've never played like real golf. But growing up as a kid which might be a little strange I loved watching golf when I was a kid and a kid I mean under 10 years old I was watching golf matches. I didn't start that young, yeah. No, I don't know what attracted me to golf. I don't really watch it anymore, but I know as a small kid something about golf fascinated me. I have no idea why, but the fact that you play is quite interesting, wow.
Gina Economopoulos:I just started playing, maybe four years ago. My partner, he loves to play and he's so patient, so that's why I'm able to play. And, matter of fact, yesterday we went out. We went to go play nine holes and I kept hitting it straight, not far, but straight.
Alethea Felton:That's wonderful, and so you mentioned that you live now on the Jersey Shore. But let's go back some leading up and of course we will get into what you do. But let's go more into the foundations of who you are. Tell us a bit about your upbringing and what it was like growing up in a household, as you did, with your parents, siblings, et cetera, and how your childhood shaped who you would eventually come, especially in your early adult years.
Gina Economopoulos:Yeah, I was born in New York, on Long Island, so I by the water, I mean I grew up going to the beach, having a pool in the backyard. From a family of eight kids, one of seven, I'm the seventh child my parents unconditionally love my family. Love I mean my family and my I should say my family, my parents. As a child, I wanted to shape myself. I wanted. My dream was to get married by the time I turned 18 and have eight kids by the time I turned 25. Wow, because that's how impressive my parents were to me and to us, to the whole family, the close-knit family. Yeah, we had our problems we all do but the same thing was that unconditional love. And for me personally, I was. You know, I grew up, I was the one, I should say, out of all the eight children.
Gina Economopoulos:I was born with a lot of health problems and a lot of difficulties. So throughout my childhood I wasn't, I was not an athlete, I was physically limited to run because I was born with a hip dislocation and I had many kinds of surgeries. I had extra calcium deposits and I, even though my parents had loved me and I experienced that love, I kind of grew up in myself with like a poor, low self-esteem, like I was sort of like trying to fit into the groups on the outside, you know, peer pressure, and so it was sort of like I was living like a facade. In hindsight I look back, because I kept smiling, I had the greatest smile. Everybody loved me. They called me Gina Lola Brigida, which is a famous sister, a famous actress, you know, and so I was loved. I was loved and then I was spoiled, but at the same time I wanted to be like my sisters. At the same time I wanted to run. At the same time I was looking at the grass on the other side, so to speak.
Gina Economopoulos:You know, as they said, and so I felt, you know, I had this like self-pity, insecurity with myself. I felt inadequate, I felt I didn't feel like I was pretty or I wasn't popular. So, growing up and think like I, once again I have to emphasize thank God for my parents' love, because that's what kept me going. You know, it wasn't a dysfunctional love, it was a love, but I had a dysfunctional love for myself because what I perceived, you know, of what I wanted and that kind of so I mean I and I I mean I speak for myself but at that age you wanted to fit into all the crowds. You want to be loved and be accepted, etc. Etc.
Gina Economopoulos:That was Gina, that was me know that was the little Gina that just wanted okay, if you were drinking, I'll go to the drinking. Or if you're doing this, I will go do this, you know I? It was sort of like, yeah, okay, I'm Gina and everybody loved me. How could you not?
Gina Economopoulos:I would say but at the same time, I just was like a unique individual and I always said that and I don't know why I felt that, but I always said that I felt because I was friends with this group and this group and this group of people in high school and then, when it came to college, talking about fun, that was my middle name, gina Fun, economopolis and my meaning of fun was drinking.
Gina Economopoulos:My meaning of fun is like let's be the center of attention, you know, let's do stupid things so that everybody will like me. And I took that and I went to a small school, which I did in Connecticut, and I thought I had fun, you know, but it wasn't like it wasn't a, it was sort of a fun trying to get people, like I said, get people's attention. I did a lot of drinking in college. I I my major was social work. I have a heart of service by nature. You know I could whatever, I don't mind, I love helping people. But at the same time I needed I really didn't help myself. You know, I was trying, I was doing every for everyone. I'm a people pleaser. And then, not only in college, I became a pool shark. So I was shooting pool in college because, hey, there's little and I'm short, I mean I may look tall here.
Gina Economopoulos:But, mind you, I'm not even five feet tall to your listeners you know, oh, okay. Yeah, so I'm this little petite, cute little person that everybody loved, but Gina did not love herself even in college days, listening.
Alethea Felton:This is what intrigues me, and we'll go, of course, into more, but based on who you were. Then let's bring it to present day. If someone were to ask you to describe yourself, how would you describe who you are now?
Gina Economopoulos:Happy, joyous and free. Wow Happy joyous and free.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, someone who loves.
Gina Economopoulos:Yeah, those are the three words that came to me. Yeah.
Alethea Felton:And something special about you, Gina, is that you are what's considered an end-of-life doula. So for a person who may be unfamiliar with what that is, putting it in layman's or practical terms, what exactly is an end-of-life doula?
Gina Economopoulos:To put it in layman terms, it's a non-medical practice of being with someone who is dying, leaving this world, transferring, going to, whether it's heaven or Buddha. That's what an end of life do is being present to the dying. Make it simple, more simpler.
Alethea Felton:And it's very interesting that you would have this passion and also a gift to ensure that people transitioned free at peace and to make that experience as beautiful as possible. And for some audience members they may think beautiful, how can you make death beautiful? But from my experiences, but also through my faith, it can be something where you're ushering someone into that next level. And this is what brings me to this question Part of your journey you mentioned early on that you did a lot of drinking. You mentioned early on that you did a lot of drinking. Let's talk about that aspect of this social drinker.
Gina Economopoulos:How did that social drinking eventually affect your overall life? Well, it just you know the social drinking because I escaped life. My drinking was escaping life. I was a runner, not running physically, but running from my life, running from Gina, running from who I was. And plus, I carried so much pain in my life, just whether it was through rejection or physical pain or mental pain.
Gina Economopoulos:I used the drinking socially but it was sort of like a medication for me to say okay, I know how to get rid of it. I know how to get rid of it. You know I I want, I don't want. You know, I want to be someone that maybe other people want me to be, or I don't want to be who I want to be. So with drinking it's a mood alterner. You know it takes you anyone who drinks. Ok, some people could do one drink, fine, some could do one, two, three, and it gets you dizzy, whatever. But it becomes someone you think you want to be but you're really not that person.
Gina Economopoulos:Yeah, and that's that's what I was seeking for is trying to find the Gina inside me of what I wanted to be. And I thought drinking at first it was socially. In college I did a lot of my drinking because it was escaping. It was escaping, it was being the popular person at the same time. It was just a way of denying my light. You know, denying everything is trying to be that fun person. I mean there's certain meanings, there's fun, but then there's make up fun, like I thought drinking was fun and and uh, and it's not for me, it's not, I can't, I, I that's not, that's not my, that's not in my category anymore. Yeah.
Alethea Felton:And, and the reason I bring it up and we'll come back to the end of life, doula but what I'm doing is painting a picture for the listener or the viewer, especially because, as humans, I think that our lives are so multi-layered and that certain decisions that we make in our life that may not seem as favorable does not determine the outcome of who we are as people, because we all have a challenge or challenge in the past.
Alethea Felton:We've all had struggles, but there is still a level of worth that we all have in spite of the choices that we've made. And one of those key principles for me in my life, gina, has been faith, as it has even been for you, which leads me to the fact that your story, even with the book you wrote that we'll talk about your story, is filled with resilience and faith. So take us back to a pivotal moment of your life, gina, where you were led to actually join a convent convent, and tell us what were you seeking and how did that experience as a nun shape your view of your life's purpose, as well as your faith.
Gina Economopoulos:Yes, there was a time in my life, before being a convent, where it began my faith journey. It was the death of my mom. My mom died back in uh, january of 2000, not 2000, 1992, and I was 23 years old. I'm done, I'm, you know. I left. I graduated from college, living with my family for a couple of years. I was bartending, which I thought that was my life fun, right, still searching, one would think at the age of 23,. You would love yourself, but I didn't. And my mom was diagnosed with cancer and terminally ill, four to six months to live. She had bone cancer.
Gina Economopoulos:I happened to be at home at this time with my dad to take care of her and that, in a sense, was like I felt, like my role throughout my life is that I always I felt like the black sheep. My role was like it always happens to Gina, poor Gina, poor Gina, poor Gina. So by this time, poor Gina, poor Gina, poor Gina. So by this time yeah, it figures. You know, to me it was like it was the greatest gift to take care of my mom. But at the same time I'm like why me? Why am I here? Why don't I have my eight kids by now, why don't the? But, needless to say, you know, my mom died.
Gina Economopoulos:I was raised Catholic but I, at this point, when my mom died, I did not have a connection with God. I didn't. I left. I didn't leave the Catholic Church, I just didn't believe in it. I stopped going, I didn't believe in. It's not that I didn't believe in God, I just stopped going to church. I was, I didn't have time for church or God. So when my mom died, it was I died too. So when my mom died, it was I died too. And I look back now talking about faith, no hope, no love and no God. And I experienced that when my mom died, I was in hell, in my soul and my life and everything.
Gina Economopoulos:So after you know, here, having this dark pain and experience, I started searching. That's what Gina goes for. She searches. Maybe we could call it perseverance, but I call it like just trying to find answers. What is the purpose of life? And that was my first encounter of death and heaven. I was like what is the purpose of life? Why do people live and die? And in that back to my catholic roots. And then it's. I did another. I did a 360 degree turn, because here I was living a life of a party scene. Mom dies, finding God. Come back to my roots and I'm like a Saint Paul's conversion, like, uh, he got knocked off the horse, I got knocked off the bar stool. I got knocked off the bar stool. I say it's like, oh, I found God. I found the resurrection that we experienced, that Christians experience on Easter. I didn't realize it, but it had to be through my mom's death. And then, in that it was like, okay, I'm going to be a nun, boom, boom, boom. Because, to remind you in the audience, I'm here.
Gina Economopoulos:I entered the nunnery about 29 years old. I was still searching for that purpose in my heart, in my life. I was still searching for that peace within me. So I figured the sisterhood. I figured that would be it. You know, I give my life to God. I love God. I give my life to God. My faith is growing. This is it, this is it. And. But, as you can see, it's not. I'm not a nun anymore, none of this. But anyhow, I was in the convent for 12 years and I know you asked me about my comment and how's it shaped me and my faith that, once again, I just kept pushing.
Gina Economopoulos:I just kept pushing. I experienced a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, a lot of betrayal, a lot of rejection. It was so much. But at the same time, aletha, I didn't have it in me to say you know what this is wrong? Because I was so broken within me that here I was with a community. You know, god bless them. At that time, in my heart, in my situation, my experience, it was dysfunctional. And when you have two sickies come together, you don't make a wellie. They say, that's right yeah.
Alethea Felton:But that was my experience. That's right yeah.
Gina Economopoulos:But that was my experience. I did not know better, I didn't know who I was. Yes, I had that faith. Yes, I tasted the resurrection, but at the same time, talking to you now, alethea maybe that held me through kept pushing me through, because I had made final vows as a nun, like marriage. Yes, yes, exactly, I married God. I was in front of like 800 people laid down my life, the vow of poverty, chastity, obedience to this community, not only first to God, to the community and to the people of the Bronx. And I love the people of the Bronx, I love God, this community. Not that I didn't love them, we just didn't gel, we just didn't click. So after years, after being in final vows, like I said, it's marriage, it was just a hardship, challenging difficulty. They asked me to go away to get some help. Okay, I'll you know I would do anything because I had a ring on my finger.
Alethea Felton:I had a ring.
Gina Economopoulos:And all along, up until the real challenges and the difficulty, all along they kept saying you belong here, you belong here, and me I trusted them because they're the voice of God that I believe at that time. And then at the end, they said you don't belong here. And me, I trusted them because they're the voice of God that I believe at that time. And and then at the end, they said you don't belong here anymore. And it was after and, and it was sort of I mean, I, I personally, felt like I was kicked out, or I felt like I was pushed against the wall. I did everything I could, you know, and there and there's that saying you poured your blood, sweat and tears you know, it's like you.
Gina Economopoulos:You, you empty yourself and in a way it's like Jesus emptied himself, you know, and so I kind of I emptied myself, but then it just didn't fit. So I had to move on, and at this point I was broken. Uh, I did, I did have my faith. I just couldn't, I didn't understand it. I didn't understand why, like my questions were God, you chose me and now you don't. You know, you married me, now you don't. And so it was, in a way, it did shape me, but it didn't shape me.
Alethea Felton:Now it shaped me in hindsight yeah, I want to say it didn't shape you instantly but it did exactly, and wow that that is so amazing. You would even say that because, as I'm listening to you, I'm sitting here like wow, although it was so uncomfortable and painful, gina wouldn't be who she is today had she not gone through that.
Gina Economopoulos:Yeah, wow, it's so true. And also I know when I was in the midst of it it was so painful and even to this day I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Even back then I remember saying to myself thank God it was me that this was happening to me, not another sister in the combat or not it because it would break them. I'm surprised. I mean there was a point, alethea, that I was so broken that I wanted to leave, broken that I wanted to leave. I could have left. It wasn't like I was, you know, glued to them, but I knew if I left I would have had to put myself in a real treatment center. So I was like I got to keep going because I did go away.
Gina Economopoulos:I did go away to a treatment center, but it wasn't my own. I mean, it was through the community. They wanted me to go away, which I did, and it was a lot of hard work. But yet, if I quit, if I had stopped then to say you know, look what you're doing to me, which I wish I wanted to say I leave with nothing on my back because I didn't have anything. I lived a life of poverty, so I had a full habit, nothing. But if I had decided at that moment, which I was going to, to say why am I putting up with this stuff? Why am I you know my family people saying why are you? You came from this big family, a big community.
Alethea Felton:And I was curious as to what was your family or people who loved you thinking Well, my dad was still alive.
Gina Economopoulos:He loved me unconditionally, whether I was in the combat attic whatever I did.
Gina Economopoulos:I had some of my family's members saying it was a cult, uh and um, ironically, when the sisters asked me to go away, I had a couple choices and one ways to go a therapeutical place and um, they they kind, they said to me maybe you need to look at, maybe something happened to you when you were a family, when you were a child with your family. So I'm like, okay, I'm thinking, and so one time, right after that, I was with my family for some reason and I asked them, and my brother says now, who put Gina in the closet? Let's figure this one out.
Alethea Felton:But nobody did, nobody did.
Gina Economopoulos:It was just my own perception of myself, it was just my own being, it was just the way I grew up, where I, when I grew up, or it was just with all the physical problems, it was all that. But yet, you know, during this incident with the nuns I am I look back now it was truly God carrying me through, because he would put like an angel or something like more strength to get me through it. Okay, I'll do it. You know, there was a time where I didn't want to. You know I wasn't going to do it, but then somebody would talk to me Okay, I'll do it. I'll do it and I'll see what the future holds. I'll do what the future holds. I'll do it with the future holds.
Alethea Felton:So it leads me now to wondering once you left the convent maybe not by full choice, but it turned out to really be a blessing for you and once you left out of the convent and here you were, although left with some of these broken pieces and maybe not with the exact healing you were seeking as you went in. Let's talk about then. Where do you go from there? How did you start to build this supportive network towards healing? When did you say okay, now, this, this is my new life, I need to start picking up the pieces and, on top of that, just kind of talk about what led you to healing fully from the alcohol and ultimately becoming this end of life doula. So you have the floor to take it any way that you want to. What was that healing journey like?
Gina Economopoulos:to take it any way that you want to. What was that healing journey like? Well, when I left the convent, I went to go live with men with disabilities here in New Jersey adult transition I was like a house mom. It was the best thing ever for me because I'm in my 40s. It's the late 2000, 2008, whatever, 2009. Didn't know what the world, didn't know nothing, because I lived an austere life, slept on the floor, had nothing, nothing, nothing. So, living with these men with Down syndrome and ladies with autism that, to me, was a great transition because I did experience healing from them and if you're ever among anyone with disabilities, down syndrome, it's such a blessing and such a gift.
Gina Economopoulos:I always said you know, here we say they have disabilities, but, to believe it or not, they have ability to love where we, as, who are normal, have a disability to love. So we're the disability people. That's what I've learned a lot, and there were so many other things I learned. But that was my transition time and that's where it was the beginning of of healing. But at the same time it was the beginning of back to drinking again, because now I could drink fully, you know, like I don't have to hide it in the convent or you know, hey, I'm free, I could go to the bar because, you know, you never see a nun in a bar in a full habit. So it was like something. I gravitated to something once again take the pain away. And so that's what I did, and I did that for two years and it was like, once again, it was a blessing, it, it was a great blessing. And then at the end of the two years I was there, I was, I was kind of itching in my own skin where I just was like tired of serving this, like not only being a house mother for those two years but even prior to that as a nun. You know, I, we took care of the elderly, the, the youth, the dying, everyone. It was sort of like I was always hands on and serving the gang members, helping them out.
Gina Economopoulos:And so I wanted to do what Gina wanted to do and what Gina loved was the beach. And so it was my first time ever to rent a winter rental, which I never knew before because I'm clueless and I'm in my early 40s. And thank God I had furniture, because I wouldn't know how to get the furniture. That's how blind I was with a lot of things of life. And thank God I had a handful of friends that helped me on the way, saying do this, don't do this. And then, of course, I had to get a job. But my dad was still alive at the time, very supportive, helping me out to get back on my feet. You know, as parents like I will help you get back, and so I. So I had to get a job, and what did I do?
Gina Economopoulos:I went back to bartending, because that's the only thing I know how to do in my life at the time was bartending, nunnery, which one? I went back to bartending because I needed to make money. Plus, it was sort of like a social yeah, because I didn't know anyone. When I came to the shore it was like, you know, social atmosphere. Okay, because I have a personality. Plus, hey, everyone, you know, like this and I'm surrounded by drinking, which I'm very comfortable with. So there was one day when I just started working and trying to get my life back in order, all right, and trying to figure out what God wants me to do, you know, took a break from the service work, and then that's where Danny walked in. A gentleman walked into the bar, he ordered a beer, we talked, we talked, we talked and it was like, wow, this guy is nice, like very new in relationships, very new. And I and I do have to say this is two years after I left the nunnery when- I met.
Gina Economopoulos:Danny, and but prior to that, if I met a guy, whether it was in a bar or on a train, I would tell him everything about me being a sister getting kicked out. And I'm like thinking it's a great conversation Over sharing. Yeah.
Alethea Felton:Over sharing and.
Gina Economopoulos:I'd be like hey, you know, do you want to take my number? We'll go out for pizza, sure, sure, and I'll never hear from them. And then a friend of mine who's a mother of eight children you know who's in the world says don't tell them you were a nun or a sister. Too much information. So when Danny came in, I didn't say I was a nun, but I was like okay, I'm holding back my tongue Because I'm very open and honest. I mean, give me a couch, I'll tell you my whole life, you know.
Gina Economopoulos:So that's how I looked at it and because I always felt when you talk and share things, healing takes place, whether we know it or not. You know, that's how I looked at it and I wanted to be healed, that's all. I wanted to be full, whole again. So when Danny came, so here we talked, talked, went out, went out and then it comes to find out that he was an alcoholic and so and he was drinking at the time and I did not, to be honest, I did not know what an alcoholic was. I thought it was like a bum under the bridge with a paper bag. You know that was my why?
Alethea Felton:no, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, like everything you see on tv exactly like that.
Gina Economopoulos:So, and and here he was a retired cop, so I'm like, how could he be an alcoholic? So, um, and, but he had encouraged me to go to al-anon, which is a 12-step program, you know, for those who have, you know in a family disease or so I went to Al-Anon.
Gina Economopoulos:I figured this is the way I'm going to stop Danny to drink. But I realized you know, I learned the hard way. You can't stop him to drink. You know it's a disease.
Gina Economopoulos:I learned about alcoholism. I also learned when I was in Al-Anon hearing other people's stories about growing up in a dysfunctional family and you know what they went through, their feelings and everything like that. And I was like, oh my God, I felt like that when I was in the convent All the fear, all the rejection, all the like. Let's hide everything. So my first thought was that in hindsight, when I looked at this moment, I remember being in this one meeting saying my convent, the sisters, was one big alcoholic without picking up a drink. You know they had all the isms like manipulation and hiding and running. And plus I was sick too. Like I said, it was two sickies can't make a wellie.
Gina Economopoulos:So here I'm learning about Al-Anon and he's going to to his meetings and he's getting sober, he's going to this treatment. I'm like okay, because when he was sober he was a great man, like, and he loved me. For me Like uh, he always said he loved I was like wow, oh my God, you know. And I and I saw the love in him and the love, and we did, we had that love. And then, uh, one day he found his, he found his sobriety, finally out in the west coast in arizona. And so he he said you know, gina, would you come out here? I said I'll go wherever you go, even if it's a tip up to for your sobriety, because, once again, alethea, this is it, this is my life. I'm not going to get have the eight kids, but I may have a white ticket.
Gina Economopoulos:Fence you know, to love and to be loved, and that's another thing we all yearn for.
Gina Economopoulos:And um, so he went off to Arizona and he drove cross country with his mom and they got into a tragic car accident and the mom died and he got burned up Tragic story and and this was all in Indianapolis. And so of course I got that phone call that morning that that makes your whole life 360 degree turn. You know, your future ripped out of you, but Danny was still survived. He survived that accident and so I went out to. What did I do as a, as a good woman, girlfriend is to go out to Indianapolis to support him, to be with him.
Gina Economopoulos:We got involved with the, the AA meetings over there and the Al-Anon and a group of people came to help us supporters to, to a couple, jim and Brenda. They were so awesome to us, led us into their house, loved us. They each had, you know, a number of years of sobriety and we're like this is it? This is it, god, you know, but still, I still really didn't know much. You know, here I am thinking okay, danny, you know, god, you saved Danny from me, even though he was burnt on like 50% of his body. Well, uh, we, we ended up settling out there, we got engaged, everything was great, got a wedding date, but little behold, his disease act up and he picked up again, and so he started drinking and I'm like why are you?
Gina Economopoulos:drinking and that's what I've learned. You know, as alcoholics we drink, our pain emotional. We can't handle anything and he saw his mother burn up Like he was in this fire. So not only physically, emotionally, he drank. But what did I do? Instead of like being compassionate to him and helping him, I like kicked him. I'm like I can't believe you're drinking like this because I was sick. I was still a sick puppy and then ultimately, a few months after that, he died.
Gina Economopoulos:I found him dead uh in his apartment so this is, this is, you know, leading leading into my. The pit of my death, of my pain, is when I found Danny dead. Uh, he, he ended up falling, hit his head and and he died. I mean, he was dead for a few days before he was found, and this was in Indianapolis. So now my heart was broken with the sisters, and here I kept chugging with God, and now here with Danny, I was flatlined, my God, I was totally flatlined, my God, I was totally flatlined. I was shattered, my heart was shattered. I would always say this is the way I would say it when you break glass, those pieces, you could put them together, but when a glass is shattered, you can't put them together. What do you do?
Alethea Felton:with it. It's just not the bigger pieces, but it's those little grainy shards of glass yeah.
Gina Economopoulos:Almost polarizes. But what do you do with it? You throw it away.
Alethea Felton:That's right and that's how I felt.
Gina Economopoulos:Yeah, that's how I felt. I was at that point where I'm thrown away. I'm yeah, that's how I felt. I was at that point where I'm thrown away. I'm simply existing. I'm like yeah.
Gina Economopoulos:I've been trying my whole life to find purpose. I've been trying my whole life to find that peace within me. And here, after Danny's death, after everything I've done and even like I knew, like Danny loved me for myself and that was the first time I experienced it. And here I'm telling God, I says you know, he loved me for me and the sisters love me the way they love pizza.
Gina Economopoulos:That's how I explained it, I mean, and so I was. So it was another pivotal, you know, moment in my life that I was, I was dead, and and at that time after that, like a few months after that, I was with my sister, because at this point I couldn't live. But I was with my sister. She lives on a lake and I just started. That's when I began my writing. I wrote everything out, I wrote the pain of Danny, but then all of a sudden I wrote pages of pain as a sister, like real pain, that I never told anyone what was going on within those walls, that was happening to me, that I never told anyone what was going on within the in those walls that was happening to me, that I experienced, you know. It was like, oh, and that all came out. That all came out.
Gina Economopoulos:I wrote 186 pages. I put that aside. Uh, then I decided I said let me come back to Jersey. Danny was dead, mom was dead, his mom was dead. Uh, it's not only that I lost the home here in jersey, but I lost the home in my heart. Um, and I, I was, I mean, I, I don't really remember exactly I understand that through, yeah, but.
Gina Economopoulos:But then there was a time where I decided, I decided. But I looked back. It was God. You know the way I look back. God did for me what I could not do for myself and I went into the rooms of AA. I went to an AA meeting because I wanted searching again. My purpose, my search is like why are you sober and Danny's not? I don't understand it. He was sober, he was doing the right thing. He gets into an accident and then you know what I mean, like how, how he lost his mom. You know, like God, why, why all this? And why are these people in these rooms that are sober, have years of sobriety and like this? I couldn't understand so as.
Gina Economopoulos:I continue to go into these meetings? I did not. I was not an alcoholic at the time, I did not think so. So I, I just went in with anger. I identify myself as a desire not to pick up, you know, just just to be, just to be there. You know, and, and I was there for about 10 months, and then, all of a sudden, about a month before that, a friend of mine came up to me and says you know, gina, you come to these meetings every day. You don't say you're an alcoholic, but what is your relationship with alcohol? What is my relationship with alcohol?
Gina Economopoulos:And then I, once again, I had to go back to all that pain and, yeah, alcohol is my best friend. To all that pain, and, yeah, alcohol is my best friend. Ah, you know, I had blackouts, like I had the pain of an alcohol. You know what we experienced when we come into these rooms, and what did I want to do is I wanted to escape denial, run, manipulate all this. So, on April 2, 2015, I raised my hand and I said my name is Gina and I am an alcoholic. And I was like, oh my God, where did that come to? Yeah, and then, and it's like you would think you know now, in hindsight, once again, it was the worst day of my life, but it was the best day of my life. You know when we look back life, you know when we look back. But when I said that, everything, my whole body, my spirit, my heart, opened up and when it opened up there was so much pain, more pain, because everything I was carrying, my insecurities, my fear, my anger, my resentment, my grief, everything, everything I was carrying, my situations just opened up and I felt like somebody saying to me now, what are you going to do with this? You're going to go drink it away like you normally do, or are you going to go on your self-pity couch, which you normally do like isolate, and do all that? I mean, what do you want to do? And I was like I want to live. I mean, what do you want to do? And I was like I want to live because up until then I did not want to live.
Gina Economopoulos:Up until then I wish I, you know, I was like you know, take me, god, I would never kill myself, but take me, take me. Oh, I woke up this morning. Oh, crap, I got another day to live here, you know. But. But there was a moment where I was like, oh my God, and. But it didn't happen overnight, it was a one day at a time. And and I did, I joined. They would say the club, or I'm a, I'm a member of it. Today, I participated.
Gina Economopoulos:It has helped me so much in living life and to answer your questions about where my healing and everything took place, like you had asked me that you know of later on in life. This is where my healing has taken place so much because I come to find out who I was. I'm an alcoholic, but yet I'm also. I come to find out I'm a child of God, because being an alcoholic doesn't. It is who I am. But being in recovery is most important, like being a sober child. I'm a woman of faith. I'm a woman of faith that is sober today. Because now I like Gina, you know, now it's like because I have a program, a program to help me not only stay sober but to heal, to grow in my sobriety, to grow in my love for my God, which my higher power, which I choose to call God, which is my God now.
Gina Economopoulos:Because when I first came in I'll just share this real quick when I first came into the rooms, everyone would talk about God and at this point I hated God with a passion and I was at one point I was afraid to say it because people's like no, you can't hate God. Yes, I can, I have every right to hate God. And that's how I felt, because. And then people would say to me oh, but no, you know, god loves you. And I'm thinking to myself, cause they did not know I was a sister and so I would think to myself you know, yes, I can hate God.
Gina Economopoulos:I'm divorced to him. I know who he is. I was married to God. You know it's like, and it was. It was sort of the way I looked at it was that it was like a husband and wife. You know separation, you know I always say, I always say God, you're sleeping on the couch tonight I don't want to talk to you.
Alethea Felton:I mean because he knows my heart.
Gina Economopoulos:Yeah, and so so. So then, of course, I reenter a new relationship with my God, and it's a much deeper one, much more spiritual than I ever have.
Gina Economopoulos:I incorporate not only the tools of the program. I'm back working with scriptures from this Holy Bible app healthy solution instead of being in a negative solution by holding my pain, running from my pain, being very fearful, paralyzed by fear, with grief poor me, poor me, look at me everything. Oh, look what life is happening to me. And now it's like, oh, look, look what life is happening to me. Now it's like, oh, look, look what life is happening to me. And and and I also realize, life goes on. And so in my sobriety, I experienced my dad's passing grief, but I was able to grieve in a healthy way instead of like my dad, like my mom and Danny. So everything I do today, I do it soberly, I do it with.
Gina Economopoulos:God, yeah, I do it you know, soberly, I do it with God, yeah, in my, and I also do it with the tools of the program as well as with God, and some days are great. Some, you know, it's challenging.
Alethea Felton:It's a day, yeah it's a day by day journey and I thank you Gina, for that, because it's it's so interesting. Sometimes when I interview people, I have a clear direction as to, okay, exactly which way I want to go. I can say I like the way this interview has gone because it was my intention. Where, you know, with you being an end of life doula, I said that's very different. It's something that the audience could really learn from.
Alethea Felton:But in you speaking about your journey specifically with alcoholism and how you ended up joining Alcoholics Anonymous and just the whole journey with that, I can see now that that's what needed to be the crux and the heart of this interview, because there are so many people out there people even that I know who who do have this ongoing relationship with alcohol, and a lot of it stems from their own trauma and their own lack of self-worth. And we don't have a lot of time left at all in this and I could always have you to come back in the future to talk more specifically about being an end of life doula, in terms of, even with your sobriety, what would you say to say a listener who is facing setbacks and challenges and maybe they use alcohol as a comfort to them. What would you say to them to get them to heal? Say that they're already at a point where they know this is taking control of their life. They really want to stop, but don't know what to do. What would you say directly to them?
Gina Economopoulos:Of course I would say you're not alone.
Gina Economopoulos:Do not give up and there's so many resources out there, especially Alcoholics Anonymous all over the world and not to be afraid. And it is the greatest step courage. It's courage to step into a room the first meeting, or even to admit hi, I am an alcoholic. And there is courage in each one of us, because none of us wants to be alcoholics and none of us, you know, wants to be in that pit of pain. And there is a solution. That's my last final word. There is a healthy solution that you can find in gaining sobriety and living a life happy, joyous and free.
Alethea Felton:Shake the dust off your feet and walk. Tell us about that briefly.
Gina Economopoulos:Yes, that is my book title. It's exactly what my story is all about. That I came to realize it's you. I kept shaking the. I realize now. I kept shaking the dust off your feet, no matter what, no matter when I kept walking forward, no matter when I kept walking forward. And it's of course, it's a scripture from the Bible that Jesus commands his disciples that if you're not welcome, if whatever may be, just shake the dust off your feet and keep walking. And I encourage us to continue to keep walking and shake the dust, because there are miracles and there is purpose in our lives.
Alethea Felton:And if someone listening or watching wants to learn even more and connect with you, how can somebody go about finding you? Are you online? Do you have a website? How can we buy your book, even?
Gina Economopoulos:You can find it on Amazon. Shake the dust off your feet and walk with my name. I do have a website, ginaeconcom. You can also purchase the book through Amazon, and I'm also doing Twitter, not Twitter, instagram and Facebook. Remember, I was a nun, so this is all new to me.
Alethea Felton:I've been a nun for 16 years.
Gina Economopoulos:And I'm doing TikTok, go be it. Oh, okay, because, to be honest, yes, I want to promote my book and people to read it and know that they're not alone, but it's also continuing to spread that message of hope and strength in all of us.
Alethea Felton:Mm-hmm, all of those years that you spent in the nunnery and just truly understanding who you well, knowing who you are now in comparison to where you were then. What words of wisdom I don't even like to say advice, but what words of wisdom would the present you speak to that young woman who was in the convent? What would you say to her on a day, particularly where she was having just a really hard, difficult day? What would you tell her?
Gina Economopoulos:I love you and don't give up. And you got this.
Alethea Felton:Well said. What a powerful transformative story. And I was not exaggerating when I said somebody needs to do a movie on your life, because I sure would watch it and you are incredible.
Alethea Felton:Girl, I'm serious, you are incredible and you know I have met some extraordinary people and humans and I truly hope that we may stay in touch. You are an inspiration and a light to me, Gina, and I am so blessed to have met you, and I continue to hope and pray nothing but the best for you going forward, and thank you again for being a guest on the Power Transformation Podcast Wow.
Gina Economopoulos:And thank you for your service and for your being a host on your podcast and for spreading the word of hope.
Alethea Felton:Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Power Transformation Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe, leave a five-star rating and write a review. It helps us inspire even more listeners. And don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone who could use a little power in their transformation. Until next time, keep bouncing back, keep rising and be good to yourself and to others.
