Featured Interviews

GAIA TV Director Melissa Tittl: “The US is still operating in a survival-based society. We are not the poorest country but our morals are based on survival, not thriving.”

Ihad the distinct pleasure of interviewing Melissa Tittl who is a writer, producer and director of original content for GAIA TV. Melissa has spent over a decade in film and television before coming to GAIA and her expertise has always been to tell stories that allow people to think outside their current reality.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Ican’t think of one moment in time that brought me to this point in my career. I feel like I have had a series of events that got me closer to what I am doing now, and I am pretty sure I am currently in a series of events that will direct me to what’s next.

I have been writing stories since I was a little girl. I always knew that my path would involve telling stories. I didn’t know the scope of what telling stories meant at a young age, but I did know that I wanted people to see, hear and feel something that moved them. When I was younger, we weren’t allowed to watch a lot of TV and Film. I spent so much time in my head creating worlds that didn’t exist and from that, I learned to trust my own judgment aside from pop culture. This, of course, made me a bit of an oddball. When I got older and started to indulge in TV and Film I really gravitated towards the directors or writers that had something to say under the dialogue. These filmmakers were thinking about the big picture and how that idea affected not only these characters in the script but the viewer watching. Once I saw that artistic expression, I knew that I wanted to tell stories like that too.

What does it mean for you to live “on purpose”? Can you explain? How can one achieve that?

The world is filled with patterns. There are things you call habits that you do every day. These are things like drinking coffee, certain workout class, possibly afternoon chocolate and the usual fight with the same kind of person. These things are a result of patterning in your subconscious. Patterning comes from the program you subscribed to as you grew into an adult and the way you implanted that patterning was to take that way of doing things as the only way given your limited knowledge of a world outside of where you grew up. There is also an emotional connection to that patterning. We try to go against our patterning by discovering new ways of thought but this disrupts your current comfort zone and we usually go right back into the unfilled patterning.

The only way to know yourself is to strip away your patterning until all that is left is YOU. The real you and that real you came here for a purpose. This is where you can discover your purpose and nothing can stop your purpose except you.

I think that when someone says “Live on Purpose”, this means finding who you are and what your purpose is, and then finding the best way to share this gift with the world. To achieve discovering the real you… it is important to disconnect, to meditate, to go into nature, keep track of your thoughts in a journal, observe yourself and ultimately find peace with your journey. This newly discovered purpose will dictate your actions and benefit not only you but for others around you.

Do you have an example or story in your own life of how your pain helped to guide you in finding your life’s purpose?

It’s funny what happens to you when you get closer to your purpose. People around you start to disappear because they no longer fit into your fake narrative supporting your existence. As I started to really do work on myself I ended up getting a divorce. I knew it was the right thing to do but I spent years after being pulled back into my previous narrative. It was the ultimate Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”. I spent a lot of time in the dark night of soul contemplating if I should go back to living blind and not pursuing who I was because it was so hard, so lonely and so painful.

However, I knew that I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t be someone I wasn’t. It was painful but the reward was I got to get closer to my purpose. I didn’t know what this life was going to be like in the future but I knew the more I knew myself the more I would find the inner happiness I was searching for. I didn’t just want to have a meaningful life, I wanted to be around people who valued me as much as I valued myself and I could only do that by leaving the people behind that were comfortable devaluing me.

The United States is currently rated at #18 in the World Happiness Report. Can you share a few reasons why you think the ranking is so low?

The US is still operating in a survival-based society. We are not the poorest country but our morals are based on survival, not thriving. When you look at who is at the top of that list you will see that they have universal health care, community, mental health programs, retirement solutions, etc. People in these countries are given the basics to be able to thrive as an individual in their environment. From the time we become adults we have to figure out how to pay for health insurance, put money aside for retirement, somehow pay for current living situations and then maybe when you are 65 you can go on vacation. There really is no time to figure out your purpose because you must survive!! Creation is only a privilege most wealthy have or those that refuse to live in a box and even then, those people that decide to live with meaning must first find something that supplies shelter first. This is not happiness. This promotes patterns and habits that feed into our negative feelings about ourselves. I do believe everyone should work and contribute to their country and people should have the freedom to choose how it is they need to express themselves but if we are going to change the world we must come from a place of abundance and not scarcity. Happiness and abundance are part of the change that needs to happen in the collective consciousness mindset that affects all of us.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I have used my podium to show some of these ideas to people. It could be on a mainstream TV show or now for GAIA where people can explore more ideas on how to thrive in their current environment. I believe it is the job of filmmakers to make art pieces that inspire people to evolve past the standard mode of thinking and feel something different and something inspiring. The “industry” is considered to be “smoke and mirrors”. Of course, it is! But, it is a mirror that reflects either the current reality around you or the reality that exists somewhere inside you as the viewer. Just choose your path wisely :)

What are your 6 strategies to help you face your day with exuberance, “Joie De Vivre” and a “ravenous thirst for life”? Can you please give a story or example for each?

Habits: For me waking up at the same time and having a routine every morning helps we get a handle on the day ahead and feel like I am creating time for me first before all of its pressures and responsibilities take hold of my life.

Focus: One of my very important habits in the morning is meditation. I do several energy clearing exercises. I then do kundalini breathwork. After I feel clear and open, I work on visualizing my day and bringing the feeling of positivity into my job, projects, relationships, etc. This may sound like a lot but actually, I go through these things pretty quickly. Maybe in another interview, I can teach you :).

Movement: Exercise is very important to me because I feel like I exercise my brain all day and it is important to have some form of movement to keep the body and blood flow supporting my daily grind. I do all sorts of classes, training routines and running.

Setting your day: I ask myself, what are my personal goals vs. professional goals? What does family require of me today? What do I require of myself and what does my job require of me? Once I am clear I make appropriate goals I know I can reach each day.

Love what you do: There are days when I don’t want to go to work or I am angry or unmotivated. There are days when I feel like I need to make a change but at the end of the day I ask myself, do I feel like what I do for a living is part of my purpose. If the answer is still yes than regardless of the situation I must keep going because this roadblock is just a learning opportunity. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I could imagine a bigger movie set or a greater concept but I love what I do and it is part of my expression in the world.

Give back: It is important to be of service in the world. Some days you can’t always volunteer at the nearest shelter but you can help a co-worker with a bad day or give someone a ride home. It is the simple act of thinking about others around you that expands your current presence.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” that relates to having a Joie De Vivre? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Go big or go home”. I know it is not super inspirational but I believe a life needs to be lived to the fullest. I want to experience all that life has to offer which I know is not all good but it is part of the experience. I think of my last breath on this planet and I don’t want to regret anything and I picture crashing into death with bravado. A life well lived.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I am working on so many exciting things. I have several shows I am either filming on location or that will be coming out soon. Electric Universe, is a show about a different theory on how the universe was created. Joe Dispenza is an international bestseller and speaker. He is also featured in the documentary Heal. Bruce Lipton is an amazing epi-geneticist and I have several sci-fi projects I am trying to get off the ground. I am also doing a massive series following Graham Hancock in Egypt. They should all air on Gaia.com for now.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Teaching children and adults how to find their purpose.

I would rebuild specific ancient monuments with precise measurements and alignments here in North America in certain areas. The reason these masterpieces were built in certain areas was to release certain energies into the world. I would like to use that ancient technology to help people strip away their patterns faster. It would be a place where I could help teach people to find their purpose using technology that does not belong to any modern day patterns. This would be my dream! If I can succeed on deprogramming people I will successfully have change a narrative the world has lived in for thousands of years.