Annie and Marie discuss Marie’s recent success running her pilot YHC course with a spiritually-minded international community of women that included members from three different continents. Marie shares her experience in holding space for identity evolution, and bringing women back to their felt experience and bodies to be able to shift their lives and catalyze their dharma. She shares how self-massage and mediation were the keystone habits for her clients to begin to step into “self-navigation,” and how the experience of coaching ultimately taught her how to lean back and trust in her own dharma and evolution.

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How the habits of Ayurveda lead women back to their dharma
• What kinds of questions to ask to bring people to realizations and melt old patterns
• How to help women come into their bodies

Links: 

• Marie’s website
• Marie’s Facebook 
• Yoga Health Coaching

Show Highlights:

• 6:45 – When teaching a YHC course, it is important to not just teach the material, but to tap into intuition: sensing when lightness or focus is needed in your clients can help to create a much more pleasant experience and more effective overall course.
• 10:00 – Coaching calls are a great place to just be present and hold space for clients to explore their problems and come up with the answers themselves. Asking very simple questions can bring people to felt experiences and deeply held beliefs.
• 18:00 – Oil massage can help dissolve old patterns and beliefs, and build self-love and self-compassion. By using an affirmation like “I am safe, I am loved” while doing oil massage, we can bring that truth deeply into our very being.
• 22:40 – Shifting from doing to simply being allows for intuition and inner wisdom to shine through. Creating a way to make meditation a part of daily life is often the most important step for implementing this habit.
• 25:00 – YHC courses are really all about leading your clients to a place of self-navigation. By starting with the habits, we can lead people to their intuition so they can then lean into their own wisdom.
• 31:00 – People in the corporate sphere are the ones who currently influence the world. By tapping into this population and helping them step deeper into who they really are, we can help shape the world itself.

Favorite Quotes:

• “These habits are here to bring us closer to what we are actually here to do.” – Marie Harder
• “As women, it is very easy to disassociate from bodies, and yet the habits are about reclaiming the body and becoming friendly with it.” – Annie Barrett
• “Everything changed, and they didn’t want to go back to their lives as they were.” – Marie Harder
• “When they got into integrity with their body, it allowed them to get into integrity with what made them come alive.” – Annie Barrett
• “When we don’t offer our course members our own story, our own vulnerability, they often have a hard time experiencing breakthroughs.” – Annie Barrett
• “Just being there with them and holding space – that is a tremendous value.” – Marie Harder

Guest Bio:

Marie Harder, PhD (Media Studies), is a Yoga Health Coach from Hamburg, Germany. Her background is in theatre, editing, and Systemic Coaching.

After burnout, severe disease, and a decade of ‘masculine’ meditation, she was called to a quest for methods for ‘women’s liberation’ as real, raw, and tangible experience. She found the habits from Ayurveda and Yoga as integral building blocks.

In her PhD work, Marie explored cultural ‘stories’ mainstream movies tell about women’s empowerment and disempowerment. And these dynamics are neither created exclusively by ‘the system’ nor ‘men,’ and also live in most of us women.

In her programs, she teaches how this knowledge around cultural pitfalls, together with tools from Ayurveda and Yoga, can become a lifestyle of embodied presence, integrity, and connection.

Marie leads online courses in German and English, and trainings and retreats for women in Germany. Visit Marie’s website and connect with Marie on Facebook and Instagram.

If you went on the Rapid City, South Dakota Retreat, this show is a great recap of what we did, and will be a reflective experience for you. If you are interested in what happens on Yogahealer retreats, this podcast will give you an idea of what we do so you can consider attending the next one (I think you should!). And if you are thinking about leading retreats for your clients or course members, or you already do, this podcast will give you excellent ideas for transformative retreat activities.

The theme of this retreat was Stepping into Your Future Self, and it was really about our personal and collective evolution. And as are all things Yogahealer, it was a collaborative affair. So tune in to hear more about this amazing experience!

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• Everything you need to know about Yogahealer’s most recent retreat
• How the retreat helped its participants step into their future selves
• Why you should come to the next retreat!

Links:

• Banyan Botanicals
• doTERRA
• Rachel Peters Website
• Check out details for Mexico Retreat

Show Highlights:

• 3:00 – The scenery was beautiful, the food delicious and nourishing, the swag bags filled with goodies, and the added activities collaborative and powerful.
• 5:00 – We considered why we came to the retreat: We came for connection. We came for fun, for exchange of ideas, for exchange of energy. We came to get clarity around our dharma. We came for breakthroughs, and we got them.
• 6:00 – In order the consider the future self, you must consider the past and present self. Who are you? Where have you been? And who will you become next? List out your old tendencies and your new desired tendencies, and consider what you might need to give up from the old.
• 10:45 – The way we usually spend our time may not be the way we need to spend it to become our future Selves. By taking the time to designing the ideal calendar for ourselves, we can take actionable steps forward toward that next Self.
• 13:30 – Brooke Bailey, Heather Stewart, Kelly Gardner, Mary Sullivan, Rachel Peters, and Sarita Linda-Rocco share about the connections, personal development, confidence, vulnerability, business savvy, self-exploration, and actionables they developed at the retreat.

Favorite Quotes

• “We came because we want depth in what we do, we want a reality check, and we want to be deeply satisfied.” – Annie Barrett
• “You don’t show up to one of Cate’s courses and expect to sit around. You are going to be going places.” – Annie Barrett
• “When we let our light shine, we allow ourselves to be so much more potent in the world.” – Annie Barrett
• “Part of stepping into my new self is to step back and remember what it was like to step into my old self.” – Heather Stewart
• “This has been so powerful for me in opening myself to my own vulnerability, and allowing myself to authentically be who I am.” – Kelly Gardner
• “How am I going to create the kind of friction and fuel needed to ignite this next phase?” – Rachel Peters

Annie Barrett of Olympia, WA and Jessica Graham Robinson of Lander, WY discuss how the YHC program informs their parenting, how the values of homeschooling/alternative schooling relate to yoga and how to create support systems for ourselves and our families. They also describe what a balanced family day look like in relation to the chaotic nature of most days in most busy moms’ lives.

If you’ve ever struggled with motherhood and entrepreneurship, this podcast is for you.

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How to be a stellar parent, teacher and business owner at the same time
• What you need to know to balance family and work life
• Why you should practice self-care as a parent

Links:

• Patty Wipler, Hand in Hand Parenting
• Waldorf

• YHC Blog: Waldorf & Ayurveda: A Daily Rhythm for Parenting Freedom, By Jessica Graham Robinson

Show Highlights:

• 10:10 Jessica discusses how the concept of pulsation relates to raising a family, running a business, having discipline and enjoying freedom
• 13:10 Jessica talks about the habits that help her balance family life and work life. Earlier lighter dinners and a morning routine (dinacharya) are keystone habits for her.
• 28:34 Annie and Jessica discuss the importance of support systems and accountability partners in being successful.

Favorite Quotes:

• “Bookends, what we do in the morning and in the evening creates a container for how the rest of the day goes.” – Annie
• “In the evening, taking the time to visualize the day ahead. What is my intention and how does it flow? Rehearsing it and having a clarity of what tomorrow is.” – Jessica
• “There are going to be days that don’t go smoothly but when we know what rhythms feel like, we know how to get back there.” – Annie
• “Find those people who are going to lift you up and raise your vibration.” – Jessica

Guest BIO

This episode is for you if you’re all about personal and planetary evolution, if you care about evolving not only your own habits, but also the habits of your family. Even if you’re NOT a parent, you’ll get a lot out of this podcast because it’s really about how you collectively evolve with your core peeps.

What you’ll get out of tuning in

• How to get your core peeps on board with doing family meetings (i.e., WIIFM- WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?)
• How to create a structure and agenda for an effective family meeting
• How the family meeting supports personal and planetary evolution

Links

• Annie’s website
• Annie’s blog on How To Run an Effective Family Meeting

Show Highlights

• 11:25 – WIIFM – What’s in it for me? How to create buy-in for getting family members on board with the family meeting.
• 15:40 – Annie lists the seven ways her family meetings make family life more harmonious.
• 17:45 – Create a shared set of family agreements in order to ensure that your family meeting structure is sustainable.

Favorite Quotes

• “If there is one thing I have learned about evolution on the yoga path, it is that people evolve faster in a group than on their own..” – Annie Barrett
• “WIIFM looks a little different for each person. For teens, good food at the meeting creates buy-in. Also, you really have to hone in: what does the teen or the kid need or want? What does your seven year old need or want? What’s going to satisfy that person to get them to buy into doing a weekly meeting?” – Annie Barrett
• ”Here are seven ways in which our family meeting makes our family life more harmonious:
  1. We agree to a set of collective values/agreements to live by (see below) and we repeat and practice them.
  2. We take time to focus on what’s going well.
  3. We check in on each other’s projects and pursuits and cheer each other on!
  4. We have a structure for handling conflict so when conflict comes up, we can process it appropriately and with care rather than acting out in a reactive or damaging way.
  5. We learn and practice compassion. The family meeting forces you to sit and see things from another’s point of view, and this is crucial for harmonious relationships.
  6. We check in about busy schedule so that the weeks run more smoothly. We prioritize having fun together.
  7. We check in about menus and food and collectively take part in family nourishment.” – Annie Barrett
• “The meeting is a weekly place to review values, practice compassion, work on interpersonal communication skills, and learn to keep a schedule.” – Annie Barrett
• “Yoga is about connection and evolution. May your family meetings foster both!” – Annie Barrett

In this episode, Annie Barrett speaks to Dana Skoglund — Yoga Health Coach to Yoga Health Coach — and learns how Dana has mastered the Yogi superpower of bending time. Dana shares her best strategies and tips for being productive and effective as a Yoga teacher, Yoga Health Coach, mother, and entrepreneur.

Annie raps with Dana about Mastering + Bending Time:

• Understand Yogi superpowers and why, as householder Yogis, learning to bend time (a.k.a. become a master of your time) is better than walking on water
• Dana’s struggles with time management and stress as a solopreneur and new mom
• Why women haven’t been getting good self-care and time-management models, and how Yoga Health Coaches can change that
• Dana’s strategies to help Yoga Health Coaches get organized and get in integrity with time via quarterly planning, time-blocking, and daily check-ins
• How Dana helps coaching clients learn time management

What you’ll get out of tuning in:

• How to balance your own self-care and take care of your business
• How structure enables presence and flow, and how they’re the keys to easeful living
• Learn strategies for getting organized using time-management tools
• Learn Dana’s favorite books and resources on task-management and time-bending

Links:

• Dana’s Productivity Resources
• The ONE Thing
• 12-Week Year
• James Clear on Productivity

Show Highlights:

• 3:30 — Here’s a quick rundown of Yogi superpowers you can nurture and develop. Dana has mastered the superpower of time-bending.
• 5:30 — It’s a common feeling among people that they simply don’t have enough time during the day to get done what they want to do. It leads to an experience of chronic stress. Dana and Annie agree it’s an issue in a culture that expects too much.
• 9:00 — Yoga Health Coaches teach people how to take care of themselves first. It’s an important skill that people aren’t doing, and it’s depleting their immune systems. We can’t be effective coaches if we aren’t taking care of ourselves, either.
• 16:15 — Learning new ways we can organize ourselves and our time, especially as we become Yoga Health Coaches, helps us and our clients.
• 19:00 — There are so many different habits and realms of learning within Yoga Health Coaching, and this highlights the importance of goal setting. What’s important for you to create next? Dana explains how to focus your attention and efforts here with quarterly, weekly, and daily planning.
• 23:30 — Dana expands on her explanation of time-blocking and creating a schedule that supports her. How can you make clear boundaries around self, work, and family time?
• 28:00 — Dana explains how she teaches the art of time-bending to her clients with meal planning, journaling, and turning the action of making better choices into a habit.

Favorite Quotes:

• “These habits we develop are kind of like Yoga superpowers.”
• “Women put too much pressure on themselves to do it all.”
• “We need to learn the skill of taking care of ourselves first. It doesn’t come naturally, and we don’t really know how to do it.”
• “There was no choice. I had to learn how to use my time differently and to be able to figure out ways to get all these new systems into place.”
• “There’s always room for improvement and ways to refine, and it’s continually expanding. But we do get to a point where we feel like we’re in charge of our time.”

BIO:

Dana Skoglund is a Certified Yoga Health Coach, Yoga teacher, and mother of two rambunctious young boys. She’s been studying Yoga since 2000 and teaching since 2004, and she has over 1,000 hours of training in the styles of Jivamukti, Anusara, and Sridaiva. Her desires to take her health and well-being into her own hands and to learn how to keep her family healthy led her to Ayurveda in 2011. After implementing daily routines from Ayurveda and noticing the profound impacts they had on her energy and happiness, she began coaching clients into these better body habits in 2013. She aims to inspire others about the importance of health habits in crafting the lives of their dreams. Dana is also deeply passionate about travel, adventure, learning, movement of any kind, and the arts.

We Learn, Master, Record, Share, Mentor.

This is one of the 10 Values of Yogahealer and Yoga Health Coaching.

We’ve pulled together Cate and a number of our Certified Yoga Health Coaches who have stepped into leadership positions this year to share their insights, tips and techniques to take your mentoring to the next level and help you THRIVE in your own business and encourage you to become a YHC Mentor.

The collective energy of the YHC Coaches and Leadership Team continues to inspire greater confidence in personal and professional endeavors that are taking their coaching and mentoring skills to the next level. Check them out as they share their tips and tricks and apply to be a YHC Mentor.

Join Annie Barrett, Certified Yoga Health Coach and current YHC Mentor as she shares her experience as a YHC Mentor and learn why she’s ready to do it again in 2017.

Annie shares her top three tips for being a Mentor

1. Spend the time to set up the systems and structures that are going to support your success in YHC and evolution.
   
2. Be proactive and engage in your learning.
3. Actively build supportive relationships within YHC.  

Jump in and take your coaching game to a new level. While you grow and develop your coaching and mentoring skills it will be deeply satisfying and a lot of fun too!

Thanks so much for listening/reading!

Annie