You've probably heard me say before that we were not meant to do life alone. This is exactly why I am sharing my personal story in an interview with Clifton Pope, host of the HFWB podcast.
Does my story resonate with you? Are we similar in that each of us has gone through a season in our lives when we felt like we weren't where we are supposed to be or dreaming that life were different some how.
I share my story to inspire you. To give you the courage to try something new even if the "how" doesn't make sense.
If you're struggling with the transitions of life and would like help moving to the next phase, book your free Rediscover You (👈click) call today.
You've probably heard me say before that we were not meant to do life alone. This is exactly why I am sharing my personal story in an interview with Clifton Pope, host of the HFWB podcast.
Does my story resonate with you? Are we similar in that each of us has gone through a season in our lives when we felt like we weren't where we are supposed to be or dreaming that life were different some how.
I share my story to inspire you. To give you the courage to try something new even if the "how" doesn't make sense.
If you're struggling with the transitions of life and would like help moving to the next phase, book your free Rediscover You (👈click) call today.
Thanks for listening. Follow me in Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 1:
Hello, hello, my friend, Welcome to this edition of Start in the Middle with me, Christy Fellaini. I have an extra special treat for you today. I was recently interviewed by Clifton Pope for his podcast and he so graciously shared with me that interview so that I can bring this to you Now. If you are new to Start in the Middle, you are absolutely going to love this episode because you are going to learn more about me, about my business and about why I have a heart of service for women, just like you. So if we know each other, I would bet that you are going to learn something new about me.
Speaker 1:
Now, the biggest reason that I want to share this interview with you is because I truly believe that my story is going to, in some way, shape or form, resonate with your story.
Speaker 1:
And if you have followed me for any amount of time, you know that I often say to my listeners, to my clients, to my friends that we were not meant to do life alone, and so we are meant to do life in community with each other. And part of that community is sharing our stories, Because maybe through my story you're going to see a way out of how you may be currently feeling stuck. Maybe, through my story, you're going to feel more motivated about grasping and hanging on to your purpose and what you were created to do in this season of life. So if this story resonates with you, or if this story sounds like any number of your girlfriends, please share it with them and reach out to me so that we can begin conversations about how we can help each other move through life together, simply by sharing the gifts that God has given us. So enjoy part one of my conversation with Clifton Pope.
Speaker 2:
Of course, raising a family, then divorce happens, then, at the same time, kids grow up and everything, and there was that constant fear and challenge of, okay, what's the next move? How am I going to overcome this next challenge? Kind of give the people who are listening to the podcast series today basically your background story and how you were able to overcome those obstacles to put yourself in the position you're currently in.
Speaker 1:
Yes, of course. So I started having my children pretty early in life. I had my daughter when I was 21. And my husband and I had gotten married very early in life and we consciously chose, you know, to start our family. But during that time I was also trying to go to school and you know I had bigger aspirations. You know, it had always been ingrained in me, you know, that your path was go to high school, go to college, then start your family, once you've chosen that forever career. And so obviously that wasn't the route that we had chose.
Speaker 2:
And so yes, yes.
Speaker 1:
So what I found with my pregnancies was that I tended to get very sick, and so I wasn't able to keep up with both going to school, having a job and starting our family, with both going to school, having a job and starting our family. So the one thing that the one piece of the equation that kind of fell to the wayside was going to school. So I went ahead and we started our family. I worked for a short amount of time and we got ourselves to a position where I was able to stay home with the kids. So absolutely love that Love being that mom that was available to them.
Speaker 1:
You know, at all times being able to take them back and forth to school, you know spending that good quality time that you know a lot of us moms have the opportunity and some don't have the opportunity during those developmental and those very nurturing years. And so, as the kids started getting older, a little bit more independent, that's when I decided, okay, it's time for me to go back to school. And so, of course, being that mom who has always been there to help nurture the children and all that, I decided a career path not based off of what I truly wanted for myself, but what I thought would work best for the family. And so that is how I became a teacher, you know, because in my mind, being a teacher meant that I could still be that hands-on mom, that I would still have the opportunities to, you know, be with them during the holidays, to be with them during the summer, and things like that. There were times that I absolutely loved it and there were times that it just was not feeding my soul, and so, again, a lot of people use COVID as kind of a mile marker to the next best thing.
Speaker 2:
It changed the world and it created a lot of mile markers for many people, myself included. That's how, ironically enough, I started health fitness wealth business was because of COVID.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yes, and you're absolutely right. I think that, depending on what your mindset is and how you feel about the way COVID affected your life, I think for a lot of people it really showed them how vulnerable we really are and how precious time is to us and how precious having the gift of being able to do what it is that you truly want and desire and feel inside of you, how precious it is to tap into that.
Speaker 1:
And so the biggest struggle that I saw being a teacher during the time of COVID was this the insurmountable pressure that was put on us as teachers.
Speaker 1:
You know, at first, when it first started happening, they were trying to keep school going, you know, normal or as normal as usual, with us teaching online, you know, and and really working hard to get the kiddos and the families bought into this online space, and so some families took it more seriously, some families not as much, and so that was a lot of pressure on us as teachers. And then, when we went back into the classroom, this you know, whole new set of expectations that you know that was placed on us, and I remember one of the biggest things that they were constantly talking about was self-care self-care, but they weren't showing us what that looked like, you know. And so you know me and I've done some talks on this before, but you know me being, you know, late forties, early fifties for me, self-care was like, okay, I might go once a month to get a massage or I might spend a little bit of extra money on getting my hair done, or this week I feel like I need a pedicure.
Speaker 1:
And so during this time when they're telling us, you know, you need to practice self-care, practice self-care. Those things were not what was going to lessen my stress level, as being a classroom teacher during COVID-19, having the, you know, the partitions on every single desk and trying to space the children out and them not being able to, you know, to go and do all of the special classes that they were used to doing, you know, it was just a whole brand new realm, and so what I ended up finding was actually what self-care is to me now, and that is finding a coach, you know, finding a life coach, and really digging deep into what self-care truly is.
Speaker 1:
And it is taking care of your mindset, taking care of your brain, taking care of those neurological pathways that have been dug deep inside of us for years, that are causing us to do the same thing year after year after year, with the same result, and then wondering, gosh, why is it that I can't change? And so once I found my own coach and really started digging deeper into the coaching world while I was still teaching, I was like this is amazing. I mean, it is amazing to get into the depth of my own thinking patterns and how they were of time and effort that I was putting out into something that really wasn't feeding me back.
Speaker 1:
And so that's when I really started looking into you know what it would take to share this information with other women, and I found the life coach school. That is where I received my first certification and then, after I had started, you know, building up my coaching practice and working with other women, you know I thought okay. I thought okay, I need to be more prepared myself, in that I want to be able to help women on every facet. You know, I don't want to have to turn someone away if they're dealing with something. That's a little bit deeper than what my skillset was.
Speaker 1:
And so that's how I ended up getting my trauma informed certification, you know, because I just wanted to be able to pour into whoever it was that needed my help and needed the skills and the strategies that I utilize and am able to help them create the life that they truly want for themselves.
Speaker 2:
I love that pathway of the journey that you just painted, christy, because the one thing that stood out to me out of everything you just said was just self-care.
Speaker 2:
I mean, that's one thing that COVID basically taught us while we were on lockdown is that we got to develop like that, that personal development routine kind of the world we can be able to start our day the best way possible and just literally take care of ourselves.
Speaker 2:
I mean, most people don't like take advantage of, like, the first couple of hours of them being up before they actually get their day started.
Speaker 2:
Like I tell people this all the time, christy, that one book if I have a list of 10 books, if I were to recommend one out of those 10 books to people, one of them will be the miracle morning by Al Harad, because that just gives the blueprint on how you could put together that self-care routine, whether it's affirmations, whether it's visualization, whether it's reading, whether it's journaling, writing down your goals and everything, whether it's obviously exercising, finding time for that moment of silence, prayer and meditation, or just do all of those in no particular order.
Speaker 2:
Just find, utilize at least the first two hours of your day at least just for self-care purposes. That way, we can, of course, be the best versions of ourselves that we could be, without a doubt and I'm glad that you're seeing that you're taking on that challenge, christy as far as just showing people on how they can, of course, be a better version of themselves by providing them like an opportunity to have that coach in their corner, like saying, hey, this is the direction you could go, based on what I've been through with my overall experiences, and just kind of giving them that guide to do so.
Speaker 2:
And one thing I love about your overall process, christy, is that you have like a specific three-step phase to it, like a rediscovery, a decision and kind of like that design of what suits them best, kind of break that down a little bit as far as within your practice on why those three phases are important.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I love that because a lot of times, what happens when women get to this age where they are experiencing emptiness for the first time, where they're transitioning from, you know, from being that mom and allowing their kiddos to, you know, head off into the world and, you know, stretch their wings and even with a lot of women at this age, are experiencing, you know, like career changes Sometimes, you know, divorce comes into play. A lot of transitions can happen during this time, and so we sometimes find ourselves in a season of questioning what is my purpose? What is my purpose? What is my identity? What am I here for? If I, for me, I am a Christian, and so I find my identity first in Christ.
Speaker 2:
And so oftentimes.
Speaker 1:
You know, that is where I, you know, try to I don't want to say lead my clients to, but I want to remind them that that is there, remind them of who it is that Christ says that you are. And then questioning and deciding, allowing yourself to dream, to daydream, to bring back into your mindset of what was it that you wanted when you were a kid, what did you enjoy when you were younger, what sort of things have you maybe set by the wayside that you didn't think, that you had the opportunity to come back to? And so doing that brainstorming process really kind of opens up their minds to what could be possible. You know, because a lot of times we just kind of think, well, you know, well, that's in the past, that maybe that wasn't for me, you know, and we don't allow ourselves to get back into the daydreaming part of it. And so those two things together, you know, first finding your identity, finding your worth in who Christ says that you are, and utilizing that to determine what you actually want your next step to be. And then, from there is where we get into the decision-making right, making strong, powerful decisions Once you've discovered what direction you'd like to go into. And then I help them curate it, I help them design it. What do those steps look like and what things do I need to overcome or what new patterns do I need to start to create for myself in order to bring into creation the actual life that I want to live at this point, to move myself forward and be happy with the life that I have? I hope you enjoyed that little bit of insight into myself, into my story, and again, I hope that you found it to be inspiring. I hope that in my story maybe you heard some of your story, and so, again, I encourage you go and connect with me on social media, either in Facebook or Instagram.
Speaker 1:
I do have a private Facebook group that is just for women just like me and you. It's called Empowering Women Coffee and Connection. Hook up with us there, because inside that Facebook group I share a ton of inspiring information. In fact, we just finished our monthly women's group called the Summer of you series, where we talked about the difference between self-worth and self-confidence, and I also gave two additional ingredients that help you to feel fulfilled and to help you create more joy in your life, and so connect with us inside that Facebook group If you have specific questions about this episode or you want to connect with me and see how I can help you in a one-on-one coaching container, please email me at christy at christy fellainicoachingcom.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to drop that link inside the show notes. Please go ahead and grab your free rediscover. You call All right, you guys. I look forward to hearing from you and I will talk to you again next week. Who is your life coach? I would love the opportunity to work with you as you are rediscovering the woman you were meant to be. Visit christyballardfelainicom for more information on how we can work together to ignite that passionate, enthusiastic woman who may have been tucked away for some time. Let's start in the middle together.
