￩ Making the Unconscious Conscious: Zalak Raval’s Journey from Rock Bottom to TEDx
2 May 2025 in General waffle
At 27, Zalak Raval was upside down – literally – on a nightclub pole, when a moment of unexpected clarity struck. It wasn’t exactly the place she imagined having a life-changing realisation, but it marked the start of a powerful journey.
A promising legal career behind her, a difficult divorce fresh in her past, and years of internalised trauma left unexamined, Zalak found herself lost. What looked like success on the outside masked a deep disconnection from herself. But that upside-down moment sparked something: a refusal to keep living a life shaped by invisible scripts she never chose. She began to rebuild – not just her career, but her entire sense of self – through gratitude, meditation, and the slow, difficult work of becoming self-aware.
Now a Senior Associate practising Corporate Securities law in Washington D.C., Zalak hasn’t just rebuilt her life. She’s helping others rebuild theirs.
In 2024, she published her first book, 50 Shades of Shit: How to Unlearn and Rewire Our Unconscious. It’s part philosophy, part practical toolkit, and part brutally funny memoir, written for people who are quietly (or loudly) falling apart and searching for something more honest.
It was this raw honesty and clarity of message that caught the attention of TEDxGMU, who selected Zalak from 450+ applicants to take the stage and share her story. The resulting talk – brought to life with animation by Superdoodle – centres around a deceptively simple, yet powerful idea:
“We cannot cure what we do not know.”
Zalak’s talk dives into the uncomfortable reality that many of us live under the influence of our pasts without even knowing it. We adopt beliefs, fears, and habits from early experiences – especially traumatic ones – that quietly shape our relationships, decisions, and sense of self.
“It’s not the traumatic event itself that often causes the most damage,” she says, “but the unconscious thought patterns it leaves behind.”
Her mission? To help people make those invisible patterns visible. To create space between impulse and reaction. To understand the “why” behind the “what.” And to give people the tools to stop living from old stories that no longer serve them.
At the heart of Zalak’s talk is a quote by Carl Jung:
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
For Zalak, this wasn’t just a compelling idea – it was her lived reality. In 2018, after a complete collapse of meaning and stability in her life, she realised the problems she faced weren’t simply external. They were patterns she’d internalised for years – beliefs and behaviours inherited from a painful childhood. She had to unlearn what was familiar, question the “normal” she had grown up with, and start choosing differently.
In her TEDx talk, Zalak introduces three simple but profound tools that helped her reshape her life from the inside out:
1. Understand Your “Normal”
Your thoughts, your habits, even who you love – these are shaped by your past. The first step is seeing that clearly. Zalak encourages people to examine their intentions: Are they based on love or fear? Guilt or self-worth? By making unconscious motivations conscious, we get back the agency we didn’t know we’d lost.
2. Get Selective With Your Thoughts
Zalak challenges the belief that we aren’t in control of our thoughts. She used meditation, movement, and gratitude practice to retrain her brain, not to ignore the pain – but to focus deliberately on what heals. “The mind isn’t magic,” she says. “It’s a muscle. The more you train it to focus on the positive, the stronger it gets.”
3. Slow Things Down
In a world that glorifies speed and constant productivity, Zalak found unexpected strength in stillness. Creating a pause between stimulus and response allowed her to question old scripts and make new choices. “Those tiny moments, those pauses, are where new beliefs – and passion – take root.”
Above all, Zalak hopes her talk helps people realise they don’t have to wait for rock bottom to change. “If someone watching can begin to say: ‘I am going to make my own invisible visible,’ then this work is worth it.”
She wants people to walk away not just inspired, but equipped – to see their own patterns, question inherited beliefs, and slowly begin the process of unlearning and choosing again.
If you would like to read more about Superdoodle’s process when working on this project, read our blog “Bringing Zalak’s TEDx Talk to Life With Animation”.
And if you’re curious about working with Superdoodle to animate your story, get in touch. We love collaborating with people doing meaningful, emotionally intelligent work like Zalak Ravel.
