Awaken Your Inner Whole Woman
Awaken Your Inner Whole Woman
The Art of Wellbeing! Say YES!
Latasha Matthews, an insightful licensed professional counselor and corporate wellness advocate, joins our conversation to unlock the journey of awakening your inner whole woman. Latasha opens up about her personal experiences and the transformative power of saying yes to well-being. She shares her reflections from the pandemic era, how redefining priorities shaped her path, and the role of societal expectations and aging in her decision-making process. As Latasha walks us through her journey and other revelations, we explore the profound impact of identifying what truly matters in life, encouraging women to align their actions with intention and clarity.
Our dialogue unfolds into the empowering practice of unlearning outdated behaviors and cultivating curiosity without judgment. Latasha and I highlight the significance of making informed health care choices and how this empowerment feels like a gentle breeze of reassurance. We delve into the courage required to challenge entrenched beliefs and the liberating effect when we prioritize our own well-being. Through personal stories and professional insights, we underscore the vital balance of yes and no in setting healthy boundaries, urging listeners to step into their full potential and activate their life's purpose. Join us for a session that promises a profound shift toward embracing your true self.
Learn more about Latasha Matthews @ www.latashamatthews.com
Learn more about Natolie @ www.awaken2power.com
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Welcome to Awaken your Inner Whole Woman, the show for spiritually rooted women who are hungry for change and growth. I am your host, natalie Warren, and my mission as a personal development strategist and inner healer is to inspire, educate and motivate women worldwide to stop limiting themselves and settling for less than what they want and were created to be. If you are ready to transform your life by getting out of your own way, hearing your soul's voice above the noise and activating your life's purpose, you are at the best place. Let's tune in to today's episode of you are at the best place. Let's tune in to today's episode of Awaken your Inner Whole Woman. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Awaken your Inner Whole Woman podcast.
Speaker 1:I am delighted that you are here, you're back. If this is not your first time, and if this is your first time, I know it's not by chance that our paths have crossed at this time and at this season in our lives, because what I know about you, whether I know your name or not, I know that you are here because you are ready to awaken Awaken to the truth of who you are, awaken to consciousness, awaken to healing, awaken to consciousness, awaken to healing, awaken to your full potential, and I am on that journey with you. So I want to welcome you into this space, welcoming to you into this moment and today I am not alone and I want to welcome our special guest, a friend, a colleague, who I have had the pleasure to get to know Wow, it's been Natasha nine years. It's been nine years in this and so, if you will, natasha Matthews is joining me today. We're going to have a serious but fun conversation about the act of saying yes to well-being. Natasha, introduce yourself, let us know who you are.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, thank you for having me, natalie. Hello to everyone who's listening in. I am Natasha Matthews. I'm a licensed professional counselor. I do all things in the mental health space. I am a corporate wellness advocate. I do more corporate training for women in leadership and I am just here to share my journey. I'll keep it brief about who I am and get into the experience that I've had.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think I mean as we talk. Obviously we're going to learn so much more about you. I have had the privilege to have a backseat ride on the journey as you have evolved and you've grown, and I am just delighted that so many other people, so many other women who are listening, will get to come into our conversations as we have them, and so the act of saying yes. My thought, first, is that there must have been some things in life that had you get to the point to say yes, because I know we can oftentimes not make that a priority. So share a little bit about how you have evolved over the last few years. Maybe that includes some challenges that you've had to overcome, that you personally have had to say yes to your well-being.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'll start with that. So the evolution of this active yes it started with me really focusing on saying no. For those who may be listening and know me, probably, about eight or nine years ago I decided to take this journey on learning how to set healthy boundaries, and that came from some work that I did with a therapist that really taught me the importance of saying no. And so I went on this journey to really begin to use my voice to say no often about lots of things, and really found, as I grew and evolved, that I was great at saying no, but I didn't have a lot of clarity on what was important enough for me to go after to say yes. And so that journey came from eventually identifying that, tasha, you don't need to say no to everything. You really need to be sure about what's most important to you in life that you really want to fight for and that you can say yes to.
Speaker 2:And so I'll pause there, because that came with, as Natalie said, lots of challenges, lots of things that I had to really die to as far as my business and then my personal life. One area I'll share is just the aging process. The aging process will really have you sit and reflect on what's most important in life, because as we age, we start to think of mortality, we start to think about things that we have maybe been fearful of doing. And then I began to redefine OK, well, not from a fear perspective of him running out of time, but I have been doing some things that perhaps society told me that it was important to do as far as career, as far as relationships. And then I had to really pause and say, well, what do I really want to do?
Speaker 1:Wow and I love that. I mean, I think your shift, as I heard you describe it, was not so much focused on the no but focused more on the yes. Describe it was not so much focus on the no but focus more on the yes. And I think, as you were speaking, I remember conversations we've had and one of them was around the pandemic timeframe where you started saying I want to say yes to some more stuff, I want to live. Do you recall moments in this journey that really solidified the yes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so during the pandemic, I remember one of the big pivotal moments was my hair journey. Right, that was one that I think people evolve into making some decisions, but there was a time where I felt that I had more definition regarding my hair. Now, my hair wasn't all the way down my back, but I wanted it styled a certain way and I didn't realize that, even with short hair, I was in bondage to it. I needed to go to the shop every couple of weeks. I wanted it very straight, I needed to be crisp, I would do all the styles and all the colors and all of the things, and then we didn't have an opportunity to do that anymore.
Speaker 2:So all the things that mattered prior to the pandemic, it was taken away and you really start to recognize. For me, some of these things became ritualistic idols where I continue to do the same pattern over and over again because it gave me some gratification, and then I found that it wasn't a need anymore and I began to say, okay, well, I don't need that anymore. And so I, you know, transition into a natural style, just something that was more freeing. You know, not for any sentimental value, but just because we have a fear of saying yes to something new Right.
Speaker 1:I love that you said that, because saying yes could bring up things for us right Fear, resistance, uncertainty, all of that, and as you described that I just thought about how many listeners are in that space right, it's like if I say yes, then that means and so your hair was a great example of that, because many of us hold so much value with our hair, but you were willing to let it go, and so the yes is about letting go. Letting go.
Speaker 2:And then, if I would add anything to the yes, the yes is also not defining what the no was. I think a lot of times we feel if we say yes, everything before the yes was a lie, no, it was truth for that time. It doesn't mean that that wasn't valuable. It just isn't serving you anymore. And so I do believe that we don't have to be this or that we live in a duality it's this and that, and so I had to offer myself that that worked for that season, but where I'm going, it doesn't serve me for this season.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love that. I love that evolution right About each season. I am a different version of who I am, so understanding it and knowing that and as you said, that too I thought about. As you're saying, yes, it sounds more empowering Once you're able to get past the fear.
Speaker 2:As you're saying.
Speaker 2:Yes, it sounds more empowering Once you're able to get past the fear the me being forced into a decision.
Speaker 2:I would say it was the pandemic and I'm sure I would have got to that evolution, but the pandemic was the road I took to get there.
Speaker 2:Other times I've really had to say yes is really to my physical well-being, making decisions with medical doctors and changing course and knowing that I want to see something different in the future, and so it is scary and empowering at the same time to be able to move forward in a different decision. So I don't want to act like there's not this. Oh my gosh, I'm making a different decision, involved in making that decision, but it can bring a level of peace and clarity when you made the choice and not allow someone to make the choice for you. So definitely very empowering when I am working with women or my clients and you say this often and I think I say this often as well you get to choose. I get to choose to go left, right, in the middle, do a circle, but the choices are ours, and sometimes we don't realize that, sometimes we don't want to know that we have those choices, but the choices are ours.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right. I love that you brought that in there. Like this act of saying yes to our well-being is a choice, and sometimes we're forced into it, like you gave the example, and I certainly can raise my hand right on the force but then there are times when we can just choose. Yeah, and we can just choose. But you brought in another piece of this is sometimes we don't want to choose because choosing makes us responsible. Talk more about that. Talk more about it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. As I put down the no and began to pick up the yes, I had to really sit with. I don't really know what I want to do. I want somebody else to make the decision for me, whether you learned that from your childhood, or you went to a college and somebody told you you needed to do this. Then you start working on a job and then the boss tells you to do this. Or maybe you're in a relationship and your mate is is guiding you, or I want you to dress this way or look this way. But I had to really sit back. Next two years, this next one year, do for business. Do I want to, you know, be on social media and say all the things? Do I want to go network in person and meet people? I get to choose. Either way, it's my course. If it doesn't work, I can take another course, and so it's. It's being getting clear on what you want to do and what you don't want to do, and then adding some risk in there, taking some chances.
Speaker 1:Right. I love that you brought that up, because I'm just tickled at my own journey of that evolution of not wanting to be responsible and then how I hear it now, and others right, and everybody's in their own space as you're growing, so don't feel bad if you're not there. But the other person that I think we blame or we want to put responsibility on that you didn't say was God, and I hear it so God hadn't told me, or I'm not sure. No, choose. This power of saying yes to our well-being is about activating the power of choice and choosing it each and every day, waking up saying I choose it, I choose it, I choose it. So what would you say to someone who's struggling to say yes to their well-being? If they may find themselves in that space, what could be helpful for them?
Speaker 2:what could be helpful for them. I definitely would invite them to consider what, unlearning some things that don't serve them anymore. As you brought up the conversation about God, I know that's a really difficult ask for someone who has been religiously following God in a certain way. I would invite them to be a little more curious about some of the learned behaviors and patterns that come into putting it all on God to do something or putting it all on someone else to do something. Just really sit and reflect on where that came from and really become honest about it. So that's a process. It's reflecting and noticing that this may not be the thought that gets me to where I'm going next. Have some courage, be open to changing course and trying something new, getting the support you need as you take that journey. Sometimes we want to do it alone and it's not a lone job. At times it's a collaborative community experience and then embrace the unknown as much as possible.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, thank you for those. I mean this idea of, as you described it, this curiosity, right Without judgment, and being accepting and patient and compassionate. All of those pieces are parts of our wellbeing, and you offered some great suggestions on how someone can start that process, cause it's scary. I've been there, that process, because it's scary. I've been there to challenge everything as far as what you shared, every belief, and ask yourself why is it that I believe that? Who told me? That was the question I asked myself. Who told me that it's scary but it is the most liberating thing and I'm sure you could speak to that, even just letting go of the stuff that no longer serves you how liberating it is. So what are the benefits of saying yes to your wellbeing? What does that look like when someone says yes? What does it feel like to them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll just describe how that experience felt in my body, and you and I have talked offline, Natalie, making a choice to change healthcare providers. You got to go through the whole list. You got to X people off. It takes a lot of time, Asking hard questions, making sure the person is willing to listen this high level of advocacy for yourself. But once you've done it, it feels so freeing because at this point you can't blame anyone. Even if it wasn't the best choice, it's the most informed choice that you need to make the next decision.
Speaker 2:And so for me, you know, as I go to my new provider, I feel like I chose her. It wasn't that I was young and I got this list and they said go to this person, I chose her. And so because of that, I feel I feel comfortable enough to say this is what I need. And it doesn't feel slimy, it doesn't feel. It feels like I'm a part of the process instead of allowing someone else to make that decision for me. So it it's a very freeing feeling, If I can give sensations. It feels like wind blowing on my face, not a rush of wind, just some soft wind blowing. The sun not shining, beaming down, but it's just you know, when you step outside and it's not too hot, not too cold, but you can feel the sun, you can feel all of the outside elements. That's what saying yes and meaning it feels to me.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love, I love the, the imagery that you provide. Right To explain what that feels like, because sometimes we still question like, is this, it? Am I doing the right thing? But when you describe those analogies, I know for listeners you probably are like, okay, I can have a sense of what it means to say yes and I can know the benefits of it. Like I feel like I had a choice and I chose what I wanted, because I know what I need, which was a thing you talked about earlier. When we say yes to our well-being, it's knowing what you need. Knowing what you need and being an advocate for whatever that is to get that. I'm so excited for you, Latasha, and just being able to see this journey unfold and you're saying yes to your well-being and all that you have to offer the world. Tell us more about the work, because I know we have private practices and we've moved and transitioned in many ways there. You've stepped more into the corporate space. Just speak a little bit about the work that you're doing.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, because my practice have always worked with high achieving women in corporate spaces that struggle with when to say no and when to say yes. I have done a slight pivot. I still see clients, but I work with women, helping them harness this act of well-being, this act of yes, being this act of yes. And so my company is called why To Live Well, where we are transforming the lives of women who want to actively advocate for themselves to say yes. And so I do that in training formats. I speak with women in groups and individuals that are corporate leaders that just struggle with this image that is portrayed for women to have to be a certain way in this space, to have to work all the hours to make all the decisions without having a community to support them, and so I'm so excited for that shift.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, Because it's like when you describe that you've embodied the work right, I can hear this embodiment of you and then the and you taking that into the space and people that you serve. So thank you for being who you are and sharing all of your gifts to help so many people, so many people. We're coming close to the end of time. I would love for you if you could leave a message of sorts to anyone who is listening and they're in this space of saying yes to their wellbeing. What would you want them to know at this point?
Speaker 2:I don't want anyone who's listening to know that saying yes, saying no without considering yes, really does your wellness journey a disservice. The second part of setting a healthy boundary is knowing what you need, need for your yes, and so, as we talked earlier, stay in the middle is the duality of it. Think about this and that and not just one area.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you for that. Thank you for that. So take one nugget, two nuggets or all of it, as you are listening to this podcast and seeing what you can do to implement something that was spoken today, because it's not just about the information, it's about the application, and your transformation is a part of the application of this. So, natasha, please tell the listeners how they can stay connected with you. If you have anything coming up that they could be a part of, please share.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can find me on whytolivewellcom or tmatspeaks or latashamatthewscom. Right now, I am just living out my act of yes, and what that means for me is I am taking it easy, I'm choosing not to do a whole lot, and so I'll have some things coming up in the future, but just follow me for that.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, thank you. Thank you again for being here. Thank you, listeners, for tuning into this episode of Awaken your Inner Whole Woman. I am delighted that you have been here and I invite you to come back If you are visiting for the first time. My hope is that you have been here and I invite you to come back If you are visiting for the first time. My hope is that you'll join us in the next episodes. Until then, bye for now. Thanks for listening to Awaken your Inner Whole Woman. If you liked our show and want to know more, check us out at wwwawakentothenumber2powercom. You can also leave us a review on iTunes and we would love to hear your feedback. Join us next week for another episode of Awaken your Inner Whole Woman.