[00:00:10.730] - Candi Broeffle

Good morning and welcome to Green Tea Conversations, the radio show that delves into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine to bring you the local experts who share their progressive ideas and the latest information and insights needed so you can lead your best life. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, publisher the Twin Cities edition of Natural Awakenings magazine, and I am honored to bring these experts to you today on our show. We welcome Leah Martinson with Visionarium Health Coaching, Bodywork, and Energy Healing. Welcome to the show.

 

[00:00:43.420] - Leah Martinson

Thanks, Candi.

 

[00:00:44.740] - Candi Broeffle

How are you today, Leah?

 

[00:00:46.790] - Leah Martinson

I'm doing really well. How are you?

 

[00:00:48.670] - Candi Broeffle

Good. I'm so glad to have you on the show today and so excited to get into this conversation that we have so people can really learn about you and what it is that you do. And so, of course, I always like to ask people, the first thing is to introduce our listeners to yourself. Let us know kind of what brought you to doing health coaching and energy work and bodywork and kind of brought you to where you are today.

 

[00:01:16.730] - Leah Martinson

Well, it's an absolute honor to be here and I'm excited to be able to share a little bit about my journey and just the work that I do and just invite people to be on a path to wellness, wholeness, and healing. For as long as I can remember, I've been very drawn to integrative, or what used to be called alternative approaches to healing and health and wellness. I think I was kind of born outside of the box and have always kind of lived a life on, I guess, an unbeaten path and just really dive into things that are different or, I guess complementary maybe, to what is mainstream or traditional or considered to be mainstream or traditional. I went to massage school first, a year after graduating high school. I knew that I wanted to be in a profession where I was helping people heal, feel good, and just support them in health and wellness. Before I even finished massage school, though, I knew it wasn't going to be it. That wasn't my end-all, be-all career. But I did love it. And so I've been doing it for over 20 years since I graduated from massage school.

 

[00:02:30.880] - Leah Martinson

But right after massage school, I went and did an undergrad at the U of M in psychology because I have always also been interested in kind of like the psyche and what makes us tick. And with a Psych undergrad, usually, the path forward is grad school. I did enroll in a program in somatic counseling psychology in Boulder, Colorado, called Naropa University, moved out to Boulder, and didn't go.

 

[00:02:57.590] - Candi Broeffle

Oh, wow.

 

[00:02:58.700] - Leah Martinson

I decided that I wasn't certain that that was what I wanted to do. And it was a private school. It was really expensive. Even though I was interested in it, I wasn't sure. And so I worked in hospice care and did massage and love both of those. I started working in nursing homes when I was 16 and did elder care and then I also did PCA work for children with disabilities all the way up to the elderly in hospice. And so I just kind of continued that in Colorado and did a little bit of finding myself and really focusing on my own health and wellness because I wasn't doing great at that time. Honestly, I was in my twenty s. I struggled a lot from just childhood trauma and things that I hadn't really processed or dealt with and so I really took that time in Colorado to get that jump-started. I was seeing a therapist consistently and just really trying to find my way because I knew that if I wanted to do anything that was going to help people heal, I had to be healing as well alongside them. And at that, I was probably running from my trauma and stress and anxiety more than I was leaning in and working through it.

 

[00:04:13.150] - Leah Martinson

So I took that time to really do that. I came back after about a year and a half. My family is here in Minnesota and I am definitely a family girl and I want to be near them. And I started the Masters in Social Work at the U of M and after a year decided not to continue. I just felt like that just wasn't the right path for me either. It is valuable work, it's important to work and it's also very stressful work and it is within systems that we are finding to be pretty broken. And I didn't want to be stuck in that system. I wanted to be free to really help people feel and grow in the way that worked for them, not in the way that was prescribed by a system or a professional. And it was when I was at the U of M doing my undergrad that I found the graduate program for Integrative Health Coaching because that was also at the University of Minnesota through the Center for Spirituality and Healing. And so in 2011 I went even though I wasn't even all that sure what coaching was, but it just sounded like this is where I'm supposed to be.

 

[00:05:31.690] - Leah Martinson

And in the first year of that program, it is all about self-discovery and really getting deep into your own healing and understanding your patterns and your beliefs that hold you back or limit you. So that was a very interesting and painful year.

 

[00:05:54.230] - Candi Broeffle

Yes.

 

[00:05:56.770] - Leah Martinson

So valuable. So valuable. And it really rocketed me into the next level of my journey of healing and becoming whole and really finding my way to alignment and loving myself, which a lot of us struggle with, but it had such a profound impact on me. So before I even graduated from the program, I got a job with a local nonprofit organization for adults with severe and persistent mental illness and I helped build health and wellness programs in their drop-in centers and also did one on one coaching for adults with mental illness. And so I really kind of developed this niche and passion within coaching that really focused around mental and emotional well-being because all of it's connected, it's just one web. And so we might come into coaching because we're struggling with weight or self.

 

[00:07:12.070] - Candi Broeffle

Productivity or feeling like there's so much more you could do.

 

[00:07:18.030] - Leah Martinson

Exactly. And what it comes down to, really at the root, is how we feel about ourselves, the limiting beliefs that we develop over time and overcoming some of those that help us get to that level that we want to be at. And so I'm not a therapist. I don't diagnose mental illness or mental health issues. I don't specifically treat anxiety or depression or bipolar or any of those things. But all of our lifestyle choices and all of our beliefs and all of our kind of inner wiring contribute to that. And coaching can really help us do a deep exploration of that and what has come together to make us who we are and any approaches and tools to rewiring some of those pathways that have limited us and kept us in a box or smaller out of alignment with who we really are.

 

[00:08:20.350] - Candi Broeffle

I think it's so interesting your journey that you were on started so young for you, which is kind of unusual from the people that I talk to. You know, most of us come into it maybe in our 30s, more likely in our 40s, when, you know, we've had some life experience behind us a little, a little bit more.

 

[00:08:41.940] - Leah Martinson

Right.

 

[00:08:42.300] - Candi Broeffle

We kind of run from things in our twenty s and our teens. And you were running right into it. You were ready to face it and.

 

[00:08:53.150] - Leah Martinson

Start working on it and running into that for sure. But honestly, I think part of what contributes to that is that I was born with a progressive eye disease and I was diagnosed at the age of five and have slowly lost my physical eyesight throughout my life. And that puts a very different spin on life and perspective and the challenges that you're faced with at a very young age. So in some ways, I had to grow up fast to really my world and be able to deal with the challenges that came along with having that impairment. Disability. I don't know. People have triggers around different words. I honestly don't care what it's called. I do care how people treat me. It's interesting, but it made for a different path. And I think it did help pull me towards wanting to really make sense of my world and how I can be in it in a really healthy and vibrant way and also be alongside other people who want to do that also and bear anything that I've learned along the way, whether it was from school or a book or a relationship. Because we are all always learning all the time whether we know it or not.

 

[00:10:19.540] - Candi Broeffle

Yeah, I just find the whole thing very fascinating. I think part of the coaching journey and part of this journey that we're all on to try to find our path is really our need to seek intuition, our intuition and our inner knowing. And perhaps the eye disease that you have and losing your sight really helped to increase how quickly you were developing your intuition, developing that inner knowing.

 

[00:10:53.090] - Leah Martinson

Absolutely. I think that may have a huge impact on that. Honestly, part of the way that I navigate the world is just what am I feeling around me? Obviously, he's a cane. I had a guide dog for a while, but just really being tuned in to my surroundings, to the people, to what I'm feeling has made it just incredible for me to be able to continue moving about in the world, moving along in my career. Being a single mom, just having to be in tune with all of that has been profoundly helpful.

 

[00:11:32.470] - Candi Broeffle

Yes. Well, Leah, we're going to have to go into a break right now, but for people who want to learn more about Leah in the work she does, visit Visionairium.com and that's Visionairium.com. You're listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM 950 the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we will be right back.

Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we're visiting with Leah Martinson of Visionarium Health coaching, bodywork and energy Healing in Minneapolis. So, Leah, just before the break, you were telling us about your own journey with your vision loss and how that helped you to also kind of probably develop your intuition a little quicker than you may have otherwise. And one of the things that we notice a lot with people now that we're entering into 2023, it's just like every other year, right? We're going to start focusing again on our goals and what our health goals are. It could be our career goals or family goals, but a lot of the times, most of us kind of focus on our health goals. And you as a health coach, you have a bit of a different approach that you take with people.

 

[00:12:55.910] - Candi Broeffle

And so I really want to get into that more with you to help us to understand how you help people with your health coaching.

 

[00:13:04.830] - Leah Martinson

Yeah, I love how you just kind of mentioned about intuition. My tagline is illuminating your path through insight. A little bit of captures kind of how my coaching works. And the goals are important. We need some type of guidepost and some type of structure to what we are working towards, because if we don't have clarity on what we're working towards, it's really hard to stay committed to doing the hard work to get there. So having those goals, having that clarity is really important. Reaching those goals, there's a lot of different approaches and we can break them down into baby steps and come up with life hacks. I don't remember where I heard that term, but it's very popular nowadays. Something that can often get missed is really doing that deep dive into our beliefs and patterns of thought that can contribute to holding us back and keeping us small. And so within the coaching we do a lot of exploration of those limiting beliefs and maybe even identifying where they came from and how they may have served you well at one point in time. It's not a matter of trying to get rid of these beliefs or patterns of thought or have a fight with them and win the battle.

 

[00:14:30.320] - Leah Martinson

It's how to live in harmony with them because our brains are wired to protect us. And so those thoughts and those limiting beliefs came in at some point as a form of protection. And so trying to get away is a pretty useless site. But if we come to understand we'll first see what they are kind of bring them into light from the shadow and understand where they came from understand how they served us at one point in time and then really kind of right size the thought for belief as well. That's just simply a thought or that is a belief that came from this place. It's not true. Because we get stuck in this trap of thinking that these limiting beliefs or these thoughts that we have are the truth and they're really not. And so once we're able to really kind of understand that, we make space for finding what our truth actually is. How we truly feel about ourselves, like how we came into this world feeling about ourselves. We didn't have insecurities and a lack of confidence and a bunch of fear when we were born. We were pretty whole and pure and understood that we deserve love.

 

[00:15:42.140] - Leah Martinson

And along the way things happen, traumas happen, difficult childhood experiences and even things in adulthood that kind of bring us away from that truth. And so the coaching process, a big part of the coaching process is finding your way back to that. And so we talk about it. We do a lot of mind body type practices like meditation or some type of movement and breathwork and things like that. Because all of these beliefs and ways of thinking also live in our body. It's not just in our mind. Our bodies get patterned in a certain way when we're thinking or believing things. And so to really, really get deeper into that connection between the mind and body can help us move forward and heal some of those patterns and beliefs. I think it's not a secret that a lot of our approaches have kind of separated the mind from the body that's been really harmful to us because they are not separate and they do not operate independently of each other. And so we have to kind of bring them all online together and working in harmony again and there's work done by a lot of different people.

 

[00:16:57.900] - Leah Martinson

I am not good at recalling names. I've read so many books and the.

 

[00:17:01.530] - Candi Broeffle

Things I'm the same way I can.

 

[00:17:04.250] - Leah Martinson

Never remember, don't always remember where they came from. But there's a lot of talk and research around the gut, in the heart being a second and third brain, because there's nerves and other things that are living in our guts, in our hearts that communicate with the brain. So to think that our mind and our body operate independently of each other are separate is just completely false. Any approaches that bring you deeper into that connection and really exploring how do you feel in your body when that belief or that thought comes up. Because sometimes your body is going to react to a trigger before it even registers in your brain. And so if you can notice that trigger, the minute your body starts reacting, it's going to be a lot easier to bring yourself back into a place of balance and neutrality so that you can move forward instead of getting completely sweeped up by a trigger that causes the feedback loop of anxiety and stress.

 

[00:18:06.310] - Candi Broeffle

Yeah, I think the thing that I loved and appreciated so much about coaching when I was learning coaching in my program and I know you said in the last segment it was a really long, hard year for you to go through when you were going through your coaching training. And I think that's pretty much how we all feel as we go through it. I remember telling one of my instructors at one point, I am so sick of thinking about myself, I can't even stand it anymore. I'm so sick of thinking about every thought that I have and realizing it because you become so aware. And that's really what it's about, is becoming aware and then being able to have choice in the matter and you get to decide, do I react or how am I going to react to this? Instead of just doing it automatically.

 

[00:18:55.630] - Leah Martinson

Yes. And it's so important for coaches and therapists or anybody else who's going to be working with people on a deep personal level to have that awareness, because triggers are going to come up when you're working with clients. And if you don't have the awareness and the ability to bring yourself back to the present moment in state centered, you're not going to be a very effective coach.

 

[00:19:16.790] - Candi Broeffle

Yes, thank you for saying that because triggers come up for your clients, but what the client is saying to you is going to trigger oftentimes will trigger something in yourself and you need to know, why is this triggering for me and what is this about? So instead of automatically kind of just assigning it to the person, it really has nothing to do with that person.

 

[00:19:38.490] - Leah Martinson

Well, our clients often hold up mirrors for us. So even as the coach, it's an opportunity to come into even deeper awareness and continue to learn.

 

[00:19:49.450] - Candi Broeffle

So tell us a little bit about, like, if somebody came to you and really, you know, oftentimes we come and we present with something that might be a little different than what's actually going on underneath. Right? So I might come to you and say, I really have to lose £40 this year. It's like imperative that I lose £40 this year. Kind of give us an idea of maybe some of the approach that you would take with that.

 

[00:20:15.940] - Leah Martinson

I mean, I would ask some questions to get some clarity around what it is that's driving that need or that desire, maybe a medical issue that's becoming a concern. And that's a big part of it. Maybe it's more of a self image and that kind of thing. So just kind of getting some clarity on where that's coming from and also exploring values because our core values really, really inform how we operate and how we want to approach the world. And so different values might inform a different way of going about weight loss. Or maybe we come to find out it's really not about a number. It's about how are you feeling in your body? And so we might do some work around exploring and identifying how you want to feel in your body and have that be wrapped into the goal somehow. So it's not so focused on a specific number or the way that you look to the external world. It really comes back to how do you want to feel, how does this impact you and what do you feel is going to be best for your own body and your own path and for you?

 

[00:21:27.260] - Candi Broeffle

Because you do have the bodywork side of your business as well. I'm curious how you incorporate that in with some of your coaching.

 

[00:21:36.920] - Leah Martinson

Sure, yeah. Some people like to come and have a coaching session and then receive bodywork afterwards because it's more of a passive service, it's relaxing. It helps you drop into your body even deeper after doing all of this unpacking verbally through the coaching, just laying on the table and really letting it all sink in and really letting yourself feel into all that transpired and even just kind of let go of some of the winding that can be really helpful. And also just human touch is so important. No matter who you are, where you are, or what you're working on, we all need that connection and we all need that safe and healthy, loving, compassionate touch. And so it can just be beneficial no matter what's happening in your life. And it doesn't have to be in conjunction with coaching. It's just a really healthy thing to do for yourself. And it sends a message to yourself too, that you love and care for yourself enough to do this, to engage in this service and be taken care of in that way.

 

[00:22:38.180] - Candi Broeffle

Yeah, I love that I love that you offer that you can create packages around that as well. I think it's so important, especially as you're kind of unpacking a lot of that. It can get very stressful and you really kind of get into your head a lot with it. So to be able to have that connection to the body again and be able to process it, I think would be such a valuable thing to be able to do. And like you said, you don't have to do that. But what a great opportunity to be able to work with somebody who does both and can offer that as a package.

 

[00:23:11.380] - Leah Martinson

Yeah, and I have had people who are kind of interested in coaching, but a little bit nervous about it. And it's a big step and it's a big deal to do that deep work with somebody. And so they might come for some massages first and just get to know me and get comfortable with me as a provider before they feel ready to open up. And that's a really nice way to move forward together.

 

[00:23:31.140] - Candi Broeffle

Great. Well, we have to go into another break. So for people who want to learn more about Leah and the work she does, visit Visionairium.com and that's Visionairium.com. You're listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM 950 the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we will be right back.

Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, and today we're visiting with Leah Martinson with Visionarium health coaching, bodywork and energy healing in Minneapolis. So, Leah, just before the break, we were talking about your health coaching and kind of your approach that you take and I really wanted to get into with you because I know your approach might be a little bit different than what other people are thinking when they think about health coaching. And one of the things that I think is really important for us to really get into as we're moving into 2023 even further. So we're just starting off 2023. But I keep hearing in the circles that I am in how 2023 is going to be a significant shift for people and that we are moving into a time where we need to or where we get to I always hate saying need right coaching.

 

[00:24:56.440] - Candi Broeffle

We always say get where we get to make a change of really taking our personal responsibility. So what is it that we are responsible for and letting go of our expectations. So not only the expectations we have for other people, but the expectations that we think they have for us, or even that they do have for us and how that's going to look. So let's talk about that a little bit. And I know that might sound a little confusing to people, so hopefully as we get into this, it makes more sense. But I know so many people in this world are considered like the caregivers of their family. So let's just say this. They're the caregivers of their family. They're the ones that drop everything and take care of everybody else's needs. Something happens in the family that's the person who everybody turns to. They're the one who comes in and kind of makes it right or helps to take away any pain or discomfort that other people are feeling. And they're seen as just a highly, highly valued member of the family. And I think in some ways they also get a lot of love and a lot of emotion that they're looking for as well in what they're doing.

 

[00:26:23.000] - Candi Broeffle

But what is it about that maybe is holding back for what could possibly happen for people?

 

[00:26:31.920] - Leah Martinson

Yeah, I have quite a bit to say on this because I myself am a recovering murderer. I had no boundaries for a very long time and would always put other people before me, other people's needs, other people's wants, other people's desires. It made me sick in my 20s, kind of before I got into the coaching program when I was out in Boulder, Colorado. Part of what stopped me from going to grad school is I just completely crashed. I was not taking care of myself. I was not prioritizing my well being, and I was always there for anybody else. My family would joke about, like, the people that I kept in my life, they're like, you're always taking in strays. So there's people that have, like, an affinity for stray animals, and I had an affinity for people who were hurting and wanting to help them. And what I came to find out in my own path of self discovery is that behavior that I was engaging in was complete avoidance of facing and healing my own pain. And I think that is not an uncommon experience for people. So when we put our attention and our focus on others and helping them feel better, we don't have to deal with our own stuff.

 

[00:27:49.690] - Leah Martinson

And then we also feel this reward when other people feel better because of something that we did for them. And you can see how that might be a little bit damaging to our well being or cause health issues because you operate with very high levels of stress when you have that much pressure on you to be the person for everyone else engaging in self care. And eventually that takes a toll. And it absolutely can lead to chronic illness because any chronic stress can lead to illnesses that would otherwise be preventable. It also sends a message to other people that they're not capable of handling their own things, of caring for themselves. And so the more we do for others, the less we are empowering them to learn to do for themselves. And so that personal responsibility comes in when we set boundaries for ourselves. And it also encourages others to find ways to do things for themselves. And maybe ultimately they do need help, and that's okay, but it doesn't have to just always be you or for me, I learned it doesn't have to just be me. There's this whole world full of millions and millions of people.

 

[00:29:02.500] - Leah Martinson

And if we were all contributing an equal amount of taking our own personal responsibility and tending to ourselves and then when we are well enough being able to offer our support to others who are still on that path of finding their own wellness, things would look a lot different. Wow.

 

[00:29:21.960] - Candi Broeffle

There's so much in that in what you said. I think it's really hard for people to really kind of consider this, because in some ways, I think they see that as people who are really high caregivers, who are the people who are taking care of other people's needs and making things right for people. When they hear us say, it's time to take care of yourself and time to really face those things that maybe you're being distracted by by doing all of this for other people. In some ways, it sounds really selfish.

 

[00:29:59.700] - Leah Martinson

Right.

 

[00:30:00.160] - Candi Broeffle

And we have this whole thing in our society about we can't be selfish. Being selfish is just looking on to yourself makes you a narcissist. Which by the way, drives me crazy. Everybody in our society now is a narcissist and we have to quit using that word unless it is actually a clinical diagnosis. But when we're talking about really taking that time to allow other people to maybe experience some pain or some discomfort that can feel so triggering for people who are in that carrier role, it's.

 

[00:30:44.740] - Leah Martinson

Hard just thinking just as a mom, it kills me when my daughter struggles with something or is hurting. But if I fix it for her, she doesn't learn resilience or autonomy or how to problem solve. And so I can stand close by and hold absolute love and care for her and support her as she figures it out. But the minute I swoop in and do it for her, I'm making the problem worse in the long run.

 

[00:31:19.450] - Candi Broeffle

I often thought about when my son was young, some of my best memories are the really hard times. Some of the funniest things I've ever gone through were things that I thought were the end of the world at the time.

 

[00:31:33.310] - Leah Martinson

Yes.

 

[00:31:34.220] - Candi Broeffle

Some of my stories that I get to share with people are those things that I thought was going to be the end of me. And so if we can allow other people to have those stories and have those moments and have those struggles and then be able to see it on the other side of it, what a gift to be able to give to somebody.

 

[00:31:56.630] - Leah Martinson

Yes. And part of being able to do that is having that deep level of self awareness when you notice that urge or that pull to jump in and caretake or help to be able to pause and just kind of put the flashlight on yourself like what am I. Feeling? What is happening in my body? What's happening in my mind? What is the driving factor here? Is it my own discomfort with somebody else being uncomfortable? And by me helping, I'm actually just making myself feel better because I'm uncomfortable with their discomfort or actually really, truly need help right now in this moment. And if they do, what is the most appropriate help, not the quickest fix.

 

[00:32:40.580] - Candi Broeffle

Yeah. And it is hard. It's a skill we all need to learn, I think about being the person. When I was the child, I was the person who was always the kind of go to person. Candi will take care of it. Candi, just ask Candi, what should we do in this situation? Because I don't know why. I just always had the I was always the take charge person. And after a while, you just get really tired of being the one that has to take charge, of being the one that has to make the decisions. And you can get really resentful in that.

 

[00:33:20.830] - Leah Martinson

Yeah. And that's another really good gauge. If you feel resentful of the actions that you're taking or the help that you're giving, that's a good indication that it's out of alignment.

 

[00:33:34.870] - Candi Broeffle

It's not what you can choose to do. You can choose something different.

 

[00:33:43.190] - Leah Martinson

At what point we decided that self care is selfish? I mean, I guess by textbook definition it is. But why is that a bad thing if all of the research shows us that caring for ourselves is the most loving thing that we can do? Because when our well is filled, we have more to offer others.

 

[00:34:09.150] - Candi Broeffle

Yeah. And I think a lot of times, too, about people who are in addiction and active addiction. And they always say, you have to hit rock bottom before you can start to work your way up to the top. But that's scary for us to do. That's scary for us to allow people we love. It might not turn out that way. Right. They might not have the ability to do that. But yet how many times has it helped your help? How many times has that actually garnered the success that you were looking for?

 

[00:34:46.490] - Leah Martinson

Yeah. And, you know, addiction is a whole huge topic, and we have a lot of really false assumptions about what addiction is and what people who are struggling with addiction need way beyond the scope of our talk. But for people who are really interested in learning more about that, like looking into any work by Gabor Mate, it's a completely different perspective. And just showing the evidence that addiction is always, always linked to trauma and hitting bottom might not necessarily be what's needed. It's healing that trauma.

 

[00:35:25.710] - Candi Broeffle

Yeah. Well, for people who want to learn more about the work that Leah does and to make an appointment, visit Visionarium.com. And that's Visionairium.com. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations, where we delve into the pages of natural Awakenings magazine and talk to the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, and today we're visiting with Leah Martinson with visionary and health coaching bodywork and energy healing here in Minneapolis. So, Leah, we have been talking about coaching and kind of your approach that you take with your clients. And one of the things that I really wanted to touch on today and really get into a little bit more is also your work that you do with businesses and incorporations. So whether it's a small business or a larger business, you really kind of take in your coaching approach into businesses to help them with their employee engagement and teamwork and a bunch of other things, I imagine. So tell me a little bit about what you like to do when you're going in and working in businesses.

 

[00:36:46.370] - Leah Martinson

Yeah, thank you for asking about that. It's not terribly different than what I do just in my private practice with individuals. So organizations will contract with me to provide one on one coaching for their employees. This kind of came to light in the summer of 2020 with all of the changes and uncertainty and stress and anxiety that we were experiencing with the pandemic and organizations just kind of being at a loss on how to support their employees and keep everybody's wellbeing in mind for a really, really difficult time. And we're not out of the woods yet with all of that. Most of it is virtual because that's just what worked with the Pandemic and it's so convenient for everybody that they can just take an hour out of their workday to do coaching. And so we work a lot on identifying values and just kind of the inner workings of personality and how that informs how you show up on teams and also working on things like communication skills. The particular technique that I have training in is called nonviolent communication brought to us by Marshall Rosenberg because how we communicate can make or break how well a team works together.

 

[00:38:09.310] - Leah Martinson

And in times of really high stress, like a global pandemic, we can be a lot more reactive to things at work or at home. And when we can kind of become skilled in a communication style, identifying our own triggers and being able to kind of stay in a place of neutrality in high stress situations, the things on our teams work better and the small teams make up the larger organization. I think we possibly cause some damage with this belief that work and personal life should be separate because we're not compartmentalized machines. We're human beings. We're complete and whole creatures that can't really separate one thing from another. Our makeup is our makeup. And to be expected to kind of show up in one way in one place in a different way in another place forces us into this kind of role playing and that pulls us farther away from kind of our truth and who we really are. So helping organizations and their employees understand that it's all a web, it's all holistic. We are all who we are. And to be able to kind of have integration between work and home life and have well being and wellness a priority across the board just improves everything overall.

 

[00:39:44.650] - Candi Broeffle

Too. I know working with businesses like I do as well, it's so interesting how 20 years ago or 25 years ago, the whole thing was you leave it at the door, right? When you come into work, you leave whatever was happening at the door, whatever is happening at home at the door. And we know that's just virtually impossible to do. You know if you have a child who is having trouble with addiction or a loved one who's having trouble with addiction or you're experiencing financial stress or there's fighting going on within your family, whatever the case might be, there's so many number of stressors that happen in our life, and we can't just walk in and all of a sudden put that aside and be able to work effectively. And I think that's why coaching, especially with someone like you, is so important. Because you can help the employee be able to understand why things are triggering them more at work. And that's one thing that we get to share with supervisors is it isn't really about those two people, right? Those two people who are constantly at each other's throat. There is something that's triggering between them that probably has nothing to do with the other person.

 

[00:41:00.850] - Leah Martinson

They're reminding them of something else or a situation that was particularly painful and they're reacting from that place of pain, right?

 

[00:41:08.220] - Candi Broeffle

But if we never get down to that, if they never are able to see that, they can never make a different choice. And so that just continues to happen and it gets really, really frustrating for the supervisor who has to, you know, deal with that on a constant level. But, you know, there's so many other things that's just one minor thing that can happen within a team building type of situation. But coaching can be so effective. Not only individual coaching, but group coaching and doing some training and workshops and awareness type of things. Yeah.

 

[00:41:45.280] - Leah Martinson

And it also addresses kind of the culture and tone and environment of the organization. Do we promote, prioritize and support well being?

 

[00:41:55.500] - Candi Broeffle

Like for real?

 

[00:41:56.780] - Leah Martinson

Is it just lip service? Do we just not even talk about it all? Because we're not going there? Because there has to be an environment and a general feeling amongst everybody within the organization that this is a priority and we will support you in tending to your own well being, even on the clock. And that doesn't mean that we're having people come in to work and get paid to just like get massages and play games and talk to their employees about all their feelings. But it is saying when you're having a tough day, it's okay and there's people that can support you. We have programs in place to help you have the time and space to do the self care that's needed so that these hard days aren't so jarring.

 

[00:42:51.110] - Candi Broeffle

So let's get into a little bit more about the nonviolent communication. When people hear that sometimes it can be like, oh, we don't have violent communication in our workplace. We don't have violence like that.

 

[00:43:03.770] - Leah Martinson

It's an odd name for communication style. I will absolutely admit to that.

 

[00:43:10.510] - Candi Broeffle

So what is it? What do you do with people with that?

 

[00:43:13.550] - Leah Martinson

So it's just like the process of identifying, stating the observation of what's going on neutrally, without finger pointing, without any claim. It's just observing, well, this is a dynamic that I've observed or this is something that I experienced or that I saw happen, this is how I feel about it. So also tapping into the the feeling that's connected to it and also identifying what is needed to heal the situation, move forward from it. How could it be handled differently when it comes up again? And then just making requests around those needs being met. And also allowing space for the other person to share what they experience. Because two people having the exact same interaction are going to experience it differently. Whatever stuff they're coming into that interaction with informs how they react or experience that. So having an open dialogue, this is how I interpreted it, this is how I experienced, this is what I felt. And not assuming that the other person felt anything the same that you did or experienced it in the same way that you did, because they're a completely different person having a different lived experience. So just that openness for that conversation to kind of unfold authentically and allowing it to be safe for everybody to say, well, this is how I felt, and not taking responsibility for how they felt and taking responsibility for your own experience and your own feelings.

 

[00:44:53.560] - Leah Martinson

And then finding ways to work together of how can we support each other going forward so that the way we communicate with each other is more effective and caring and thoughtful and compassionate and all those things that we would want from communication and relationships.

 

[00:45:13.020] - Candi Broeffle

Yeah, I think one of the things I learned in a workplace I was in, we had somebody come in who would do non biling communication. And one of the techniques that we used, and it was so helpful was we would say if something was if there was a miscommunication, we would say when you said this, the story I made up in my head was this, right? So instead of saying when you said this, you made me feel like whatever, it's like they didn't make you feel anything. You felt it, but they didn't make you feel it. So when you can say what I made up in my head was this you're taking responsibility for it and the feelings that came as a result of that.

 

[00:45:55.990] - Leah Martinson

And all of that brings us back to the importance of self-awareness, because we can be very, very convinced that the stories that we are making up in our heads are true or some reality if we are not aware. And that's like, I love Brene Brown's work because of that, because she does the whole the story that I'm telling myself. And I love that line. I love things like that. Because that's taking responsibility for the reaction that you're having and opening up a conversation and inviting some clarity because the way we perceive things might be not at all what was intended by the person that we were having that interaction with.

 

[00:46:32.900] - Candi Broeffle

Yes. And it actually helps you to be able to go, this really is I made this up, this really wasn't. So you can listen a little bit easier too. So here we go. 2023 is all about building up our self-awareness. So, Leah, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for taking the time out in your schedule and helping us to kind of look ahead to 2023 and what we can look forward to being able to do in order to have a healthier and wealthier life. Thank you. I just really appreciate you being here.

 

[00:47:09.820] - Leah Martinson

Thank you, Candi. It was an honor to be here and be a part of the Natural Awakenings Community.

 

[00:47:14.730] - Candi Broeffle

Well, for people who want to learn more about Leah and the work she does, visit Visionarium.com. And again. That's Visionairium.com. You've been listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950 the Progressive Voice of Minnesota, and I am wishing for you a lovely day.