We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dawn Deiman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dawn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?
One of my Life Coaching clients started their journey with me feeling completely overwhelmed by life. They were suffering with terrible anxiety and in a trauma response tried to micro manage every external thing in their life, including their relationships with family and friends. This is a common conditioned coping skill among people suffering with anxiety and sadly it destroys a lot of relationships for the anxious individual. It perpetuates a cycle of feeling alone, stressed, unworthy and keeps them in a victim mentality. The ego mind actually builds an identity around anxiety to justify it’s extreme thoughts. Sometimes our advanced brains can work against us if left on auto pilot. Soon the person believes this identity is actually them. To change it, heal it or release themselves from it becomes yet another fear. The fear of losing the “self” that they believe is surviving. Thankfully, I’m here to tell you it’s just old programming and like your smartphone we can update your own technology at any given moment!
During one of our conversations they mentioned they would be visiting their son’s home for the holiday and they were already feeling anxious about going. In the past, they always felt unwelcomed by their daughter in law and in the uneasiness of the environment there, they felt their connection to their grandchildren was diminishing. We spent a lot of time on how to practice staying mindful & present in everyday life. I have tons of successful techniques and skills for this. It’s easier than most realize.
What a lot of people suffering with anxiety don’t realize is that their dysfunctional coping skill of trying to control future circumstances, in the hope it will ease their anxiety, actually removes them from current life which is happening “right now”. By doing so, they themselves are diminishing their current relationships with family and friends by not being fully present. They truly are missing out on their actual life “now” because they are existing in an illusory projection of what they think life should be. A false reality. For this individual, THEY were diminishing their relationship with their grandchildren by avoiding the present moment while focusing all their attention on controlling a future situation that wasn’t even happening.
I’m happy to share that when they got back from their visit, they showed me beautiful pictures of them playing with their grandchildren. I loved hearing how they described with detail all the amazing games they played and the laughs they had. I listened as they were moved to tears about how they felt a loving connection once again to their family and even their daughter in law. They said the mindfulness techniques I had taught them were used A LOT when they caught themselves getting swept up in that negative, anxious thought pattern. Each time they were able to become grounded and shift into presence once again. At one point they said, “my grandson looked at me, almost as if he saw me get out of the stressful thoughts in my head. He smiled and said your turn, handing me the dice for the board game”. They went on and on about how they enjoyed listening to every giggle from their grandchild as they played board games, kicked the ball back and forth outside and so on. The presence could be felt in each word of their story. How easily they could have missed out on all those beautiful experiences by being trapped in a thought stream. How easily they could have lost that relationship to their grandchildren, son and daughter in law. Life is meant to be experienced, not controlled! These are the subtle yet enormous changes working with me as a Life Coaching client can transform your world from one of struggle and suffering to one of peace and enjoyment.
Dawn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a living example of everything I teach. My path started when I was a teenager suffering with debilitating anxiety disorder and panic attacks. I was only 14 at the time and my panic attacks were landing me in the emergency room several times a month, convinced I was dying! My hands would tingle and go completely numb. Heart would race, Speech would become difficult and sometimes I would become dizzy and even faint. After numerous brain scans, heart monitoring and various medical tests, my parents were advised to take me to a psychiatrist who’s answer to my problems was let’s put her on Xanax to control her anxiety. Here’s the thing about Xanax, it’s a bandage to cover the superficial wounds of anxiety but NEVER gets to the root of the problem! After a while the dose they start you at isn’t enough. You become used to it and then need more. I became an anxious zombie and at my highest dose was taking 12 pills a day!
I also became agoraphobic. Which means your mind tries to control the anxiety by telling you to avoid places where you experienced it. At first it was movie theaters. Then stores with fluorescent lighting (I’ll explain in a minute). My high school. Friend’s houses. I think you get the idea here. Before long I was imprisoning myself to my home, put on home tutoring and watching my high school experience and whole life go by. What’s with the fluorescent lighting? Common with anxiety and panic disorder, change in lighting and sounds can often be an intense trigger for an attack.
I begged my parents to get me help! I was angry! I hated the anxiety yet couldn’t let go of it at the same time. I hated the Xanax! It wasn’t helping yet I couldn’t exist without it! Or so I thought…
My mom was watching a TV talk show that was popular back in the 80’s (showing my age here) and the host had a guest on who was starting up a center for helping teens with anxiety. The universe had my back even more because the center was on Long Island, NY where I lived! She called up and they registered me for the group therapy session. Challenge here…I couldn’t leave my house and was NOT good in groups of people. So they offered me a chance to meet one on one with a woman who was affiliated with them. She was a psychologist who used hypnotherapy and specialized in teaching self-hypnosis.
My journey here was not as smooth as you might think. I was a teen who was scared and angry at the world. I wanted off those meds so I tossed them away. Quicky learning how the human body becomes dependent and I went into crazy withdrawal symptoms! So I went back on them but with the help of that therapist she assured me we would wean off them and I could manage my anxiety on my own through self-hypnosis, which is generally a type of meditation. Fast forward, in 6 months she had me off the Xanax and like she said I was managing my anxiety on my own with my practice of self-hypnosis and guided meditations. I returned to High School. Graduated with my class. Went to Prom. I was LIVING again!
To sum up my journey, I went on to deepen my practice studying all types meditation and living a yoga lifestyle. I knew that too much false hope was being put into treating anxiety and other illnesses with medication that would only leave others in that zombie state still suffering. In my spiritual journey later I self realized that my story was a gift to heal others. How could I sit by and not share this knowledge with everyone. Even if you don’t have anxiety disorder, most everyone is suffering in one way or another at the hands of their own mind! Negative self talk, body image issues, low self worth, lack of purpose and direction. These are all so easily solved with the right teacher. This is where I knew I needed to serve others. My life has never felt more rewarding watching people transform and freeing themselves from the chains their mind created for them!
My life coaching, meditation coaching and yoga therapy programs are designed to help any individual seeking a new path in life. Sometimes this can be due to health problems, chronic pain, divorce, grief, moving, really any significant change in life. Maybe you just feel tired of the same cycle of unsatisfying relationships or jobs. Don’t waste any more time stuck and suffering. Together I can help you create a life you love from the inside out!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Be authentic!!! When you take that journey of self-realization and uncover your passion and purpose in life it’s important to not get caught in “imposter syndrome”.
Being a meditation teacher and practitioner of meditation for over 3o+ years I’m very aware of the operational aspects of the egoic mind and it’s programming. I caught myself in the beginning constantly comparing myself to others in my industry and quickly those doubting thoughts were there, telling me maybe I was doing it wrong. Maybe do it like so and so. I laugh about it now but it was a real struggle at times.
Here’s the thing, everyone’s path is different! I know that sounds cliche but it really is those personalized experiences that others connect too. As energetic beings underneath the human construct we actually have a heightened sense for whether something is authentic or not. Some call this intuition or a “gut feeling”. It’s a real inherent wisdom that we are created with and it’s serves us well in our journey if we let go and trust it. So people will quickly connect to you and want to work with you when you are authentic and stay true to who you are.
It’s difficult when you lose a client to not take if personally but quite often it usually has nothing to do with you. Sometimes they weren’t ready. Sometimes their story didn’t connect with yours and that’s OK! The right clientele will find you if you just continue to trust in who you are. Life really is pretty simple. Just be you, live your life and the rest will follow. There’s a whole theory on this with Law Of Attraction and I could really nerd out on you and get into Quantum Physics but I’ll spare you those details, LOL.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Meeting each client and business partner with honesty and compassion. It’s as simple as the “Golden Rule”. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. I hold myself to a pretty high standard. I believe in giving each client 110%.
I think my biggest asset not just in my business relationships and reputation but in EVERY area of my life is “TRUTHFULNESS”! I practice living a life of truth to myself and to others. Again, it’s not a difficult concept, just live in truth! That old saying, “the truth shall set you free” isn’t a myth. When you are honest with yourself and others a lot of stress drops around you and on top of that you build trust within your community, whether it be in family, friends or business. There is a peace within a truthful existence. Others feel it and soon want to be a part of it. Goes back to that authenticity factor I touched on earlier. Stay true, stay humble and just enjoy the experience of it all!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.risingdawnyogastudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/risingdawnyogastudio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/risingdawnyogastudio/
Image Credits
Noelle Carina Photography Kim Allegrezza Photography