Aiga Smite Interview on Holistic Healing, Root Causes and the Mind-Body Connection

Multi-award-winning holistic healing specialist and author Aiga Smite is the founder of Healing with Gaia, where her work challenges the idea that true wellbeing begins and ends with treating symptoms. In this deeply personal interview, she explores the philosophy behind Beyond Symptoms, the connection between mind, body, emotions and energy, and how her daughter’s extraordinary health journey led her into holistic healing, conscious parenting and profound inner transformation. She also reveals why intuition, personal autonomy and looking beneath the surface have become central to her approach to healing.

Aiga Smite, Holistic Healing & Wellbeing Expert

What does looking “beyond symptoms” mean to you when you work with someone’s wellbeing?

Looking “beyond symptoms” means recognising that a symptom is not necessarily the whole story. Our bodies communicate with us, and rather than focusing solely on making a symptom disappear, I believe we can become curious about what may be happening beneath it.

This is the philosophy at the heart of my book, “Beyond Symptoms”. I look at wellbeing through interconnected layers: physical and nutritional health, emotional experiences, lifestyle, environment, energetic wellbeing and, for those who resonate with it, metaphysical or spiritual aspects.

Every person is unique. Two people experiencing the same symptom may have completely different underlying factors. I therefore encourage people to observe their individual patterns. What was happening when something began? How are they nourishing themselves? What stresses are present? What does their environment look like? Are certain emotional or behavioural patterns continually repeating?

For me, holistic healing means seeing the human being as a whole rather than reducing someone to a symptom, diagnosis or individual part of the body. It is about becoming curious enough to look deeper and developing a more conscious relationship with yourself.

How do you explore the connection between physical symptoms, emotions, lifestyle, and energetic wellbeing without assuming they all have the same root cause?

I begin with curiosity rather than deciding beforehand what something means.

In “Beyond Symptoms”, I explore several layers that I believe can influence our wellbeing: nutrition, emotional stress, lifestyle, environmental exposures and energetic or metaphysical factors. Their significance can be very different for each individual, and sometimes several layers may be involved.

Self-reflection therefore plays an important role in my approach. When did something change? What was happening emotionally? How are you sleeping and nourishing yourself? What continually drains you? What brings you back into balance? Are there repeating patterns you haven't previously considered?

I also believe deeply in personal autonomy. In my own family's journey, we eventually chose not to continue within a cycle of ongoing medical checkups and interventions and instead followed the path that felt right for us. That was our personal decision, not an instruction for anybody else. Every individual and family has the right to make their own informed choices about healthcare and support.

Holistic wellbeing, to me, is about asking deeper questions and becoming an active, conscious participant in your own wellbeing.

What have Reiki, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), and mind and body awareness taught you about where different healing approaches can complement one another?

My journey has taught me that healing can have many layers and that no single modality needs to hold every answer.

Reiki profoundly changed my understanding of energy and presence. EFT gave me another way of exploring emotional experiences and patterns, while mind and body awareness taught me to notice the relationship between thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and our responses to life.

My journey has also included meditation, mindfulness, nutrition, natural living, nature, spiritual development and different forms of holistic therapy. But perhaps one of the most transformative aspects has been my own deep inner work.

I began examining emotional wounds, inherited patterns, beliefs and the energy I was carrying. This naturally led me towards conscious parenting and considering how my own healing could influence the environment I created around my daughter.

Rather than continually asking, “What needs fixing?”, I began asking, “What needs understanding, nurturing, releasing or changing?”

For me, holistic healing isn't one therapy or technique. It is a way of understanding the whole human experience and recognising how deeply interconnected its different aspects can be.

Why do you think learning to listen to the body is often difficult, even when people know something feels out of balance?

I think many of us have been conditioned to override ourselves.

We push through exhaustion, ignore stress, suppress emotions and sometimes remain in environments or relationships that don't feel right because we believe we should cope. Eventually, being disconnected from ourselves can begin to feel normal.

Listening can also be uncomfortable because sometimes we already sense what needs to change. Our body might be asking for rest while our mind demands productivity. Our intuition might be telling us something isn't right while fear tells us to keep everything exactly as it is.

My own journey taught me to question, observe and listen more deeply rather than automatically handing my inner authority away.

Listening to the body doesn't mean assigning a predetermined spiritual explanation to every sensation. It means developing awareness. What keeps repeating? When do I feel depleted? What creates tension? What makes me feel alive? What am I tolerating that no longer feels aligned?

When we reduce some of the external noise, we create room to hear ourselves again. For me, that reconnection is fundamental to holistic wellbeing.

Where do you think holistic wellbeing is most often misunderstood or oversimplified today?

Holistic wellbeing is often reduced to individual practices: Reiki, crystals, supplements, meditation, organic food or whatever happens to be the latest wellness trend.

I value many of these things, but none of them alone represents holistic living. To me, it means looking at the entire ecosystem of a person's life: nourishment, thoughts, emotions, stress, movement, rest, relationships, environment, energy, spirituality and the relationship we have with ourselves.

My own life has become an ongoing exploration of this philosophy. I'm 37, yet people regularly estimate my age as somewhere around 22 to 26. I find that fascinating, not because looking younger is the purpose of holistic living, but because it makes me reflect on vitality and how nutrition, stress, emotional wellbeing, lifestyle and our inner world may influence how vibrant we feel and appear.

Holistic living isn't about perfection or never experiencing difficulties. For me, it is about consciously creating conditions in which we can thrive physically, emotionally, energetically and spiritually while remaining curious about how interconnected these different aspects of ourselves really are.

What are some practical signs that the body may be asking someone to slow down, reflect, or make a change?

The signs can be very individual. Sometimes we notice tiredness, tension, changes in sleep, digestive discomfort or simply the feeling that our body is struggling to keep up with our lifestyle.

At other times, the signs may feel emotional or energetic: irritability, overwhelm, feeling continually depleted or losing our sense of joy and connection.

Rather than immediately deciding what a particular sign means, I encourage observation. When did this begin? What was happening in my life? How am I nourishing myself? How am I sleeping? Which environments am I spending time in? Which relationships leave me energised and which leave me depleted? What emotions have I been avoiding?

Environment is another important part of my philosophy. In “Beyond Symptoms”, I explore becoming more conscious of our food, water, household products and everyday surroundings.

We don't necessarily need to transform everything overnight. Sometimes change begins with something simple: more rest, better nourishment, a stronger boundary, time in nature or addressing an emotional pattern.

Awareness comes before change, and learning to notice these patterns can be a powerful starting point.

How can someone learn to distinguish genuine intuition from fear, habitual thinking, or wishful thinking?

For me, developing intuition has been closely connected with clearing away the noise surrounding it.

Fear can be loud. It creates urgency and presents us with worst-case scenarios. Habitual thinking often sounds like conditioning, everything we've been taught we “should” believe. Wishful thinking can tell us exactly what we desperately want to hear. Intuition feels different to me. There is often a quieter knowing beneath it.

Meditation, mindfulness, Reiki, breathing practices, nature and deep inner healing have helped me strengthen that connection. This became particularly significant during my daughter's health journey. We were given frightening predictions about her future, yet something deep within me never fully accepted that those predictions would become her reality. Following that inner knowing changed the direction of my life.

I believe discernment grows alongside self-awareness. When we understand our wounds, triggers and habitual fears, it becomes easier to recognise when they are speaking.

Nobody else can dictate another person's intuition. It is an intensely personal relationship that develops as we become more connected with ourselves. Sometimes the quietest voice within us becomes the one that changes everything.

Your own healing journey began during a deeply challenging time involving your daughter’s health, so how did that experience shape the way you understand healing today?

My daughter's health journey completely changed the direction of my life. She was diagnosed with serious chronic health conditions when she was very young, and we were given frightening prognoses about her future. Something within me couldn't accept that those predictions had to define her life.

I immersed myself in holistic healing, nutrition, Reiki, natural living, emotional healing and energetic work. But one of my greatest realisations was that I couldn't focus solely on my child. I needed to look deeply at myself.

I believe children can mirror their parents emotionally and energetically. This led me into profound inner healing and conscious parenting. I explored my wounds, generational patterns, beliefs and energy, asking myself: “What can I heal within myself, and what kind of environment am I creating around my child?”

We embraced nourishing food, holistic therapies, home education, freedom of self-expression, nature, travel and reduced stress. We also eventually chose to step away from continual medical checkups and follow our own path.

From my perspective as her mother, I believe this entire holistic journey, including my own inner healing, contributed tremendously to her recovery and saved my child's life. This is our lived experience; every family must make their own informed choices.

If readers could change one thing about the way they approach their own wellbeing, what would you encourage them to start with?

I would encourage people to reclaim their relationship with themselves.

We live surrounded by voices telling us what health should look like, what we should fear, what we should buy and how we should live. Somewhere within all that noise, it is incredibly easy to stop hearing our own voice. Begin with awareness.

Notice what gives you energy and what takes it away. Look at your nourishment, environment, relationships, stress, emotional patterns and beliefs. Ask whether the life you are creating genuinely supports the person you want to become.

Don't be afraid to look inward. One of the greatest lessons of my journey has been that sometimes, when we desperately want circumstances around us to change, the deepest transformation begins within ourselves.

Heal what you carry. Question inherited patterns. Become conscious of the environment you create around yourself and your children. Spend time in nature, nourish yourself, create space for joy and learn to recognise your intuition. Most importantly, remember that your wellbeing journey belongs to you.

You don't need to change everything today. Start by listening. When awareness changes, choices change, and small choices can transform the direction of an entire life.

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