We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lynsie McKeown. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lynsie below.

Alright, Lynsie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

Oftentimes when we think of trajectory we think of it as a linear, upward path. However, life is messy with twists, turns, forward momentum, sidesteps, setbacks, and even complete stall-outs. Although frustrating and confusing, all of these multi-directional movements have given me information that is invaluable for the next step and direction.

In one of the most confusing and painful times in my love life, I found clarity and inspiration for my purpose. I had recently made the difficult decision to end a relationship with someone I dearly loved. We simply wanted different things. He wanted children and I knew with my whole being this was not the correct path for me.

It was the holidays and he had already quickly moved on. I was feeling broken down, alone, lost and in the dark place that I call, The Pit of Despair. I came across a New Year’s Eve retreat at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, PA. I booked it immediately. I drove 6.5 hours to get away from my grief to a place I had never been, surrounded by strangers, to be with a teacher I had barely heard of. I didn’t escape from my pain, but what I discovered over those 4 days was a lineage of yoga that resonated in my bones and opened my eyes to a completely different approach to yoga.

Something shifted within me and I received clarification on my purpose; to serve women and help them break free from habits, beliefs, and patterns that keep them stuck, small and unfulfilled. I had no idea how to create this but it sparked a light in my heart. From that moment forward, I dove into deep study within this tradition. I began the ongoing learning of how to trust the guidance that comes from within and to soften in times of difficulty. I learn over and over again that I am always guided, and that often what I need most is waiting for me on the other side of pain, difficulty, or challenge. Without the loss of that relationship, I wouldn’t have had the desire to go on that retreat. Nor would I have found the path that would guide me to a deeper calling and eventually lead me to my true love and the work that is aligned with my heart.

Lynsie, 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 find that the evolution of my work comes not from systematically planning out my education and career path, but from intuitive guidance and a willingness to follow it.

For example, long before social media was popular and I had a SmartPhone, I was stuck in a dead-end job and kept having this powerful pull to go to Costa Rica. I had never been and knew nothing of the country, or why the heart pull to be there was so intense. I had been practicing yoga for a couple of years and one day I had a customer walk into the bar I was tending and mention he had just returned from an amazing yoga institute in Costa Rica. I should go. I looked it up when I got home and my heart knew this was where I needed to be and I was meant to get my yoga teacher certification. From there much has changed and evolved with each new heart pull and my willingness to follow it, even when it makes no sense, is scary, or feels impossible.

Fourteen years later, as an empowerment coach and mentor, I specifically work with women who yearn for more fulfillment, a pace of life that is self-honoring, nurturing, and generative. But they have no idea how to create this life for themselves because they are caught up in the chaotic nature of our world where they feel they have to do more to be more, self-sacrifice their own needs, and constantly be producing and caretaking. Even though they are exhausted and depleted, they feel they are not doing enough.

I help them unravel the conditioning that keeps them cycling in and out of overwhelm, anxiety and confusion so that they can experience the freedom and ease that comes from honoring their pace, claiming their space, sacred rest, and nurturing the divine feminine aspects of themselves. It is a journey to wholeness that leads to greater fulfillment, abundance, clarity, and the ability to be steady, calm, and centered even during the most challenging times in life.

My HEAL | TRANSFORM | THRIVE approach is an integration of the ancient wisdom of Tantra and Himalayan traditions of yoga with modern methods of neuroscience alongside Goddess archetypal work. I weave the practices of yoga asana, pranayama, meditation, yoga nidra, mantra, and spiritual inquiry along with neuroencoding techniques, in a way that allows women to fully experience and embody the various aspects of the Goddess archetypes. A woman must feel and experience it in her body to integrate the beliefs that she is beautiful, strong, powerful, capable, intuitive, steadfast, and worthy.

If we truly want to thrive, we cannot bypass our healing. Healing starts with Rest & Restoration. By resting an overactive nervous system we restore our connection to our body’s innate wisdom. From there, we can do the deeper work of Discover & Dissolve, where we explore the beliefs, patterns, and habits that keep us from living in natural rhythm with life and fulfilling our desires. This is the stage that transforms us so that we can step into the next stage of thriving where we Awaken & Align. We awaken the dormant parts and energies that have been ignored, pushed aside, or forgotten. The Goddess archetypes help give clarity on what those parts are and how we can awaken them so that we can come into wholeness, stay inspired, and aligned with our heart’s guidance.

Women choose to work 1:1 with me or join my Awaken the Divine Feminine program. This is a sacred community for women to take this journey together so that they can be nurtured, held, supported, not feel alone, and experience the bonds that are created and the power that is unlocked when women gather to do this sacred work.

My heart explodes with awe, reverence, and pride for all the women who have just enough trust in their guidance to step into sacred circle with me and allow themselves the opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives. It is an honor to witness the extraordinary inner transformations that make them a magnet for what they truly desire. Their commitment to themselves not only creates extraordinary transformations for them but also creates a firm foundation for future women to stand on and rebuild a world that honors women and their unique gifts.

Those not yet ready to dive into coaching but want to learn in community join my Women Thriving, Unapologetically Facebook group and listen to my Women Thriving, Unapologetically radio show on VoiceAmerica’s Empowerment channel and podcast on all the podcast sites, or join me in a workshop or retreat.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Needless to say, the beginning of the pandemic caused a lot of upheaval and forced people to pivot. I was one of those people. Pre-pandemic I taught group yoga classes, had a full 1:1 client schedule where I would travel to clients’ homes, and I had just opened my new office where I was beginning my yoga and coaching business. Being completely reliant on in-person connections I was forced to reevaluate the way I was doing business. In a time when many were forced to slow down, I was forced to speed up. I had never taught online, was technologically challenged, and didn’t have extra resources to ride the expected 2 months out, much less 2 years!

The beauty of having a solid spiritual practice is, I didn’t panic. Sure, I felt uncertainty and fear, but I didn’t get swept up in the chaos. My practices kept me centered and able to feel into what was right for me. I realized early on that it wasn’t teaching group classes online or to continue teaching yoga 1:1. The pandemic forced me to be honest with myself and see how I had been avoiding the purpose that came through for me years prior at the Himalayan Institute- to serve women in stepping into their power and presence. I’d been skirting around it and not fully committing because I didn’t feel good enough and didn’t feel I had the right resources. I was stuck in a lack mindset. Without solid income, savings, or certainty of the future, I followed my intuition instead of my fear and stepped into the unknown. I hired a coach. The fear of failure and financial stress was ever present, but so too was my heart’s guidance. It took 2 solid years of deep inquiry, coaching, learning all the tech, and tapping into my inner guidance to clarify whom I am meant to serve and how I am meant to do it. When I received the message to integrate Goddess practices into my work, I questioned it, but still listened. Since it has transformed me personally and my business has grown. I learned how toxic the dominant mindset of our culture is and how it consistently led me down a path of burnout, never feeling good enough, competing with my peers, judging myself and others, pushing against myself and beyond my limits to produce something so that I could be seen as and feel worthy.

The Goddess practices have taught me how to honor my pace, and trust that I will not be left out or abandoned if I don’t keep up with everyone else. The sacred feminine gives new insights into how to live life, run a business, create offerings and serve from a place of unity, connectivity, authenticity, abundance, and faith. I now know and trust I don’t have to do it the way everyone else has done it before to be successful. If space, time, love, and joy are cornerstones of my life and work, I must pull from a new consciousness. For me, the insights come from tapping into the grace of the divine feminine.

And when I teach these concepts and practices to my clients, they too experience for themselves there is a new way of living and being that not only feels good but creates more beauty, abundance, and joy in their lives.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

There is an ancient yogic text that has a teaching that I live by for both my spiritual practice and my business. It tells us that if you want a practice (or work) to be effective you must do three things.

First, you must practice for a long time. So duration.
Duration is showing up even when you don’t feel like it for your practice and your work. It is showing up every day, even in the smallest ways…especially in the small ways, that creates the biggest results and keeps you connected to your inner guidance and your clients.

Second, you must do so consistently, coming back time and time again, day after day, week after week, year after year. No matter how many times you fall down, get lost, or feel you are not good enough and no matter the obstacles in your path (inner and outer) continue with your practice and your work. Keep showing up.

Lastly, you must do these first two with awe and reverence. Awe and reverence often get overlooked but it is essential. Have awe for your journey and all its joys and struggles and reverence for something greater than yourself and you will never be alone. This work we do as healers, mentors, and guides is big. We don’t do it in isolation and without awe and reverence, we give our egos too much leverage that leads us backward instead of spiraling upward.

I will also add if you are a yoga, or meditation teacher, coach, mentor, or facilitator of groups, teach from a place of personal experience. I once had a mentor explain to me the difference between a mentor and a coach. A coach has the knowledge that will lead individuals to greatness. For example, a WNBA coach. You can have a coach who has never been in the game. A mentor is a person who teaches from personal experience. She not only knows but has gained exquisite insights from having done the work, stepped into the arena, played in the game, got roughed up and dirty, and gotten back up and gone back in, time and again.

This ancient text also says that when you do these 3 things, show up for yourself and your work consistently over a long time with awe and reverence, you will gain three things from your efforts. You will live with more joy, less fear and be able to create the life of your dreams with more ease.

Now, who doesn’t want that?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lynsiemckeown.com/
• Instagram: LynsieMcKeown
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenthrivingunapologetically
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynsie-mckeown
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHalu-2Qb0r8F–WXrPLrTQ
• Other: Women Thriving, Unapologetically Radio Show: https://www.voiceamerica.com/show/4073/women-thriving

Image Credits
Bethany Snyder Photography https://www.bethanysnyderphotography.com/