Lynn Gilmartin

Pictured: Lynn Gilmartin and Maura McCarthy Gilmartin

Lynn Gilmartin was a toddler when she came to Australia with her family as an Irish immigrant. Her career in marketing at one of Australia’s leading casinos led to a hosting role on local TV, and now she lives in Los Angeles where she is the anchor of World Poker Tour on Fox Sports. For Lynn, her mum’s commitment to spiritual learning and positivity have been pivotal in guiding her ability to recognise and accept all the opportunities that come her way.

I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1984. In 1986 my family moved to Australia, which seemed to be the thing to do for many Europeans in the eighties. My father was offered a great business opportunity, so off we went.

My mother always had a part-time job while my brother, who is seven years older than me, and I, were at school. When I was in primary school, Mum got a job as a sales consultant for a cosmetics company. Prior to this, she never really wore make-up. Suddenly she found herself in this wonderful world of creativity, and make-up artistry became a big part of her life. As a kid I’d always be playing with her palettes of shadows and lipsticks. She’d have drawers and cupboards overflowing with cosmetics. I’d often be her model at home to test new products or techniques on. All those lessons have come in quite handy now!

Make-up became her own creative expression. She loves to always look her best, which makes her feel her best, so you’ll very rarely see my mum not made up perfectly. While I have a bit of a barefoot-loving side, I have adopted her enjoyment of seeing myself as my own canvas. It’s another beautiful way of embracing our creativity and treating our lives as works of art.

Growing up, I’d always hear my mother listening to cassette tapes of audio books and lectures in the bathroom as she did her make-up each morning. She still does this, and now so do I. She’d listen to all kinds of New Age authors, such as Louise Hay, Carolyn Myss, Wayne Dyer and Abraham Hicks, sharing their philosophies on self-love and living a fulfilling life. These philosophies have played a major role in the most important lessons my mother has taught me.

While I wasn’t often actively listening as a child – and throughout my awkward teens I probably rejected a lot of it – growing up surrounded by all kinds of personal-growth and love-filled wisdom set a strong foundation in me of self-awareness and taking responsibility for my own life and happiness. My mother taught me to nurture myself with love, which then enables me to share that love with others.

My mother’s love of the self-development aisle of the bookstore stemmed from quite an ordeal she went through in the early eighties, when she was in an accident that caused a small haemorrhage in her spinal cord. This was before I was born, and she was in no physical condition to carry a baby, but when she fell pregnant not long afterwards, she persisted through it. She suffered from so much pain throughout my younger years. She developed all kinds of severe allergies and saw countless doctors to try and help her, but without much success. It was when she discovered alternative medicine that she truly began to heal, and that is what triggered her passion for learning about the mind–body connection and various kinds of esoteric teachings.

One subject she was really drawn to was astrology, and she’s been studying it now for about twenty years. For her, it opened up a whole new understanding of herself and of others. Our family and all of my mum’s friends (and my friends!) are always turning to Mum for advice from their charts. She’s like an oracle. It’s hilarious how many times my friends have said to me: ‘Can you ask your mum what is going on in my chart right now?’ Astrology has really unleashed her true gift of helping others.

Astrology is just not the horoscopes you see in the newspaper. It’s much, much deeper and more specific than that. Mum will often blow me away with how specific her readings can be. It’s mostly about having an awareness of our emotions and how they’re affected each day by the alignment of the solar system.

Mum has given my entire family so much priceless guidance throughout our lives. Once she began her journey of personal growth, we all followed suit and went on journeys of our own. As a kid, I remember seeing Mum and Dad go to seminars and bookstores together, and while mum began studying astrology, my dad studied reiki and reflexology. I feel so lucky to have such awesome parents.

I’m not from a family of performers, so I’m not sure where this desire came from, but I’ve always had a deep love of performing. ‘I want to be an actress!’ It was something I used to declare often, as a child. My parents have always supported this dream, or any dream my brother and I have had. Mum would drive me to all kinds of acting and dance classes. I started them when I was around five years old. If I wasn’t hiding in my room with the family’s video recorder filming fake news reports or rehearsing for my primary school’s play, I’d be choreographing dance routines in my neighbour’s garage to The Immaculate Collection by Madonna. I simply loved putting on a show.

I was a very determined young girl, and meticulously organised when it came to my career. In my later years of primary school, I kept a folder with my resume and headshots which I’d organised myself, photocopies of acting agents’ contact details and all kinds of auditioning advice I’d sourced from my classes. My mum never had to organise a thing. I’d pretty much just say, ‘This is what I want to do, this is where I have to go and this is how it has to be done. Can you help me make it happen?’ So off we’d go. My mum always made me believe I could create whatever I wanted to create in my life.

When I was about twelve, however, I lost a lot of confidence and things began to change dramatically. I went through hell with bad friendships and bullying at school, and to top it all off I fell over on stage in the middle of a show and was mortified. It was then that I decided to quit acting and focus on my high school studies and getting a ‘real career’. I continued to dabble in dancing and modelling throughout high school, but I had given acting the flick.

During the years of issues with friends, I’d constantly suffer from nosebleeds. A doctor wanted to burn off some vein or vessel in my nose to treat it, but my mum knew it was an emotional trigger and was determined to help me break it. Inspired by Louise Hay, she’d have me repeat the mantra ‘I approve of myself’ in my head continuously when I felt a nosebleed coming. She was always trying to show me the light within myself and that I didn’t need the approval of the other girls at school to feel worthy. I remember she would say to me: ‘You need to love yourself,’ but I wouldn’t quite get it. It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that her messages all became crystal clear to me.

As my confidence grew stronger and I got a new group of friends in high school, my nosebleeds miraculously stopped. Even now, a couple of times per year or so when I’m having an emotional moment of weakness, a nosebleed will come, and every time it happens, it’s when my self-esteem has taken a beating. To this day, whenever that happens, I sit in the bathroom with a tissue to my nose repeating: ‘I approve of myself, I approve of myself.’

I don’t believe any child can be fully protected from emotional pain growing up. It’s all part of the human process, contributing to our personal growth as well as to our understanding of others and ourselves. My mum still reminds me that we always need to experience contrast to fully appreciate and recognise what it is that we want. If we don’t understand what we don’t want, then how do we know what we do want? While my mum instilled such strong values in me, I still had to go through a period of tough times. Experiencing rejection and lack of self-confidence has allowed all my mum’s teachings to set in deeply as I’ve grown into adulthood. I do need to love myself. I do need to approve of myself. Because depending on other people for their love and approval will never fill that empty void within if I don’t.

If I were to recall a quote of my mother’s that I’ve heard the most, it would be: ‘Always do the best for yourself.’

I was a really focused student at high school, and I went on to get a diploma in public relations and a degree in marketing. My meticulous self-organisation with my career continued and I always got myself a job. When I was at university, I’d work in my field full-time between semesters, so I graduated with loads of experience.

After completing my studies, I pursued my marketing career and secured a fantastic job at a casino, which I thrived in. I loved that a large part of my job was planning events, which constantly reminded me of my passion for performing. After three years and receiving a huge promotion at work, another opportunity came up: I could quit my secure corporate career to hop on a flight to Las Vegas to work with an online channel, reporting on the World Series of Poker, and then continue around the world to other major poker tournaments. I wasn’t a presenter or reporter, I knew very little about poker and I’d never been to the US, let alone travelled on my own.

I was overwhelmed by the opportunity and unsure about what to do: keep the secure career that looks great on paper, or jump into the terrifying unknown that feels so right?

One night I was at home, and the pressure was on to make a decision. I was crying and all worked up, not knowing what to do because I was so scared. I remember my mum sitting with me on my bed, calming me down. She told me to close my eyes and visualise two circles. One circle was staying in my current job, and the other circle was taking the new job. She had me visualise myself standing in one circle and seeing how I felt in there, and then standing in the other circle and seeing how that felt in comparison. She knew which one was making my heart sing, but she wanted to teach me how to listen to my own heart and make my decision for myself. It was that night that I decided to quit my job.

The next day I came home from work with a bottle of champagne. Mum opened the door and we started squealing in the doorway. Even though it meant seeing me leave for months at a time to travel thousands of miles away, she was, and still is, so incredibly supportive of me doing what makes my heart sing.

That was absolutely the best decision I have ever made for myself, and I have never looked back. I’ve been travelling the world for six years now, and I’ve manifested my childhood dream of living in Los Angeles and being on American prime-time television. That’s all thanks to my mother’s guidance.

With the beautifully balanced combination of make-up and self-empowerment, my mother has taught me to make sure I’m always being the best version of myself I can be, on the inside and out.