On the Path with Claudia Roth
A conversation about alignment, wholeness, and the courage to listen to your inner voice.
There are some people who carry a kind of quiet authority—not loud, not forceful, but deeply rooted. Claudia Roth is one of those people. A spiritual guide, mentor, and writer, Claudia helps others reconnect with themselves through the lens of self-leadership, spiritual awareness, and embodied wisdom. Her work invites us to slow down, listen more deeply, and trust the truth we already know—even when that truth asks us to change.
In a world that often glorifies hustle, Claudia’s message feels like a necessary antidote: an invitation to move from performance to presence.
Claudia doesn’t offer a script. She invites a deep remembering. She shares her time and wisdom not from a place of ego, but from a place of wholeness and abundance. She has been a close friend and mentor of mine for over a year and has played a significant role in my own path toward healing and integration.
In this conversation, we explore identity, inner knowing, and what it means to choose wholeness—not as a destination, but as a practice.
We also talk about:
What happens when the tools (like yoga or meditation) still leave you stuck inside the cage
Listening to the body’s "no" without overriding it
How ambition and alignment can coexist
Why the spiritual path is more like a spiral than a straight line
The difference between identity and essence—and what happens when you let go of the labels
Claudia’s wisdom is a gift, and I’m honored to share this conversation with you.
Let’s begin.
On Finding the Path
Katie: How did you find the spiritual path—or shall I say, how did it find you?
Claudia: The path found me when I was about eighteen. I was sitting on a number nine bus in London, passing Knightsbridge, and suddenly, I heard a voice. It wasn’t mine. It said: "You will have two careers." I hadn’t even started my first career yet.
The message stayed with me. After that, I became drawn to self-help books. Louise Hay was just starting out, and I read everything in that space. Eventually, I realized most of them said the same thing. Then my career took off, and the voice faded. I became very successful, living a life built around achievement. But looking back now, I can see how that moment on the bus revealed the truth.
Katie: I relate to your point about how all the self-help books say the same thing. They’ll give you tools to get out of the mental cage—running, meditation, etc.—but how do you actually find the door?
Claudia: It’s a profound question, and that cage was very familiar to me. In my case, the cage was beautiful five-star hotels—that whole lifestyle. For others, it might look different.
First, we often don't even realize we’re in the cage. That's the first trap. The tools we learned through our conditioning—the ones the mind uses to solve problems—will never get us out of the cage. I was fortunate. My mentor showed me how my way of dealing with problems was exactly what kept me stuck. That changed everything for me.
Katie: What did it feel like to start stepping out of the cage?
Claudia: It's hard to describe because it’s a mind question—the mind that keeps us stuck. It's like trying to explain what a lemon tastes like to someone who's never tasted one.
There’s a vastness. A peacefulness. But even those words fall short. It’s a felt sense. A knowing. It’s not performative—it’s embodied. Your shoulders relax, and a steady calm spreads through your body. It’s very conceptual, and the mind can’t cope with it.
On Listening to the Body’s Wisdom
Katie: You have such a calming and grounding presence. In our time together, I’ve learned so much about body consciousness and listening to my inner wisdom. One big shift for me was learning not to fight my body. Can you talk about that?
Claudia: That was my path too. I lived mostly in my head. I was healthy, yes—but disconnected.
Years ago, I was in a spiritual community in India and saw a sign for a workshop on "body consciousness." I had no idea what it meant, but something in me said yes.
That session changed everything. It was the first time I was guided to connect with the body’s consciousness—its own wisdom. And once you open that space, it unfolds naturally.
From then on, I became deeply interested in what was happening in my body. I now check in with my body before I say yes to anything. I ask: Does my body feel joy here? Does my heart align with this? That’s how I’ve learned the truth of body, mind, and spirit alignment.
It doesn’t mean there’s no struggle—that’s another illusion. Life goes on. But you gain the awareness and the tools to shift yourself out of the cage when you find yourself back there.
On Stillness, Alignment, and Everyday Spiritual Practice
Katie: For someone just starting out, how do you know when you’re in alignment?
Claudia: Start with stillness. Just get quiet.
We live in a society that tells us to run, to do, to collect more. It’s very noisy. So the first step is calming the nervous system.
Stillness looks different for different people. It doesn’t have to be hours of meditation. It could be five minutes of deep breathing in the checkout queue. But it shifts the nervous system. It says, You’re safe. And from that space, new choices become available.
Katie: I love that example. That’s how you move from a compartmentalized spiritual "tick list" to integrating these practices into your actual life.
Claudia: Exactly. In the beginning, a morning routine can be very helpful. But once it becomes mechanical, we need to check in: Is this becoming part of my conditioning?
I used to fly regularly to New York for meetings where colleagues would engage in heated discussions. I didn’t want to be drawn into that energy. So I kept a little post-it note tucked into my papers that said, "breathe" with a smiley face. It helped me stay centered amidst the noise of everyday life.
Katie: It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind. I’ve learned that when I’m rushing, stressed out, or overwhelmed, that’s the universe telling me to slow down. Last summer, I ignored the signs—ended up rushing while chopping something and dropped a knife on my leg. In the past, I would have blamed everyone around me. These days, I see it as a (somewhat aggressive) sign from the universe to pause.
On Identity, Essence, and Breaking Out of Old Patterns
Katie: When we start asking, Who am I, really?, it can feel destabilizing. If I’m not my role, my job, my trauma—then who am I?
Claudia: It’s such a powerful—and confronting—question.
Most people don’t want to go there. We think we know who we are: I’m anxious. I’m a perfectionist. I’m a helper. I’m a mother. We cling to these labels because they feel safe.
The mind, driven by the ego, is terrified of the space beyond them.
I’ve had glimpses of that space—and it’s beautiful. But we can’t start there. The ego fears it will lose everything. So we begin gently. We cultivate awareness. We witness our patterns—not to judge them, but simply to see them. And we meet what we see with love.
Katie: So how do we begin to gently break out of our conditioned patterns?
Claudia: Awareness is powerful. Like your example with the knife—you saw what was happening.
Everything today is designed to hijack our consciousness. So the clarity to recognize it is a superpower. When I am aware of how I feel, I can breathe. I can connect with my heart.
Self-awareness, when unpacked, has many layers. And meeting each layer with grace is the work.
On Growth, Spirals, and True Presence
Katie: One of the most powerful things you’ve taught me is that the path isn’t linear. Sometimes we revisit the same lessons again and again.
Claudia: Exactly. Growth is a spiral, not a staircase.
Sometimes it feels like you’ve descended. But you’re touching the same lesson with greater capacity. The body must be ready to hold a new frequency. You reassess, reevaluate, gain new understanding, and move up again—always at a higher spiral than before.
That’s why consistency matters. Not as performance, but as practice. As Marianne Williamson says: you wouldn’t go to the gym once and expect to be fit for life. The inner work is the same.
Katie: And it’s so tempting to want the gold star. The final badge. Like, I’ve done the thing! I’m healed!
Claudia: There is no badge. There is only deeper presence.
And the more we surrender into that, the more spacious life becomes.
Katie: Thank you, Claudia. Your wisdom always feels like a homecoming.
Claudia: Thank you, Katie. And thank you for holding the space so beautifully.
Want to Connect with Claudia?
If you’d like to dive deeper into Claudia’s work, here’s where to begin:
Follow her Substack: Living From the Heart
Explore meditations, women's circles, and mentoring work at Soul Luxury
Purchase her Self-Love Journal as a first step from head to heart here
For deeper healing: Private Emotional Freedom Retreat
Her presence is the practice.
A beautiful, rich, empowering conversation, thank you both 🧡