We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nanami Zaitsu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nanami thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any advice for Bringing peace in our lives while striving to make an impact?
We often consider art as a luxury that certain people — those with time, money, and talents — engage with. But the truth is that every single one of us is born artists and that art is essential to our everyday lives. Creating and appreciating art can vastly and almost immediately improve our well-being, from lowering anxiety to reconnecting with our deepest desires to creating a life that makes our hearts sing.
As an overthinker with a sensitive heart, and chronic health conditions, I have experienced that art brings ease and wellness while working towards the world I envision. I make pottery and poems for fun. And I have noticed that art allows me to honor my full-human self and access my deep knowing. When I am engaged with clay using my hands, for example, my mind calms down its constant chatter, my body releases its tension, and my heart opens up to meet all my emotions. And this state of well-being helps me clarify what matters and reimagine what is possible, so I can take actions based on my truth, instead of what is expected of me.
And these art’s benefits to our well-being are also supported by research. For example, in their book, Your Brain on Art, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Rose share the scientific evidence that art can help improve our physical and mental health. They say engaging in art, even doodling or humming for as little as twenty minutes, can lower our anxiety and enhance joy.
Speaking of art, I also use art tools in my coaching sessions. I believe that art is a catalyst for our wisdom, as we feel and know things before they become language. For example, my clients and I play with metaphors to work with situations that are too complex to explore at face value — whether it is to dismantle sticky assumptions, explore buried desires, or explore possibilities. This allows them to approach their lives with their utmost creativity and curiosity, free from their beliefs about what is possible. Then they move forward with solutions that are aligned with who they are, which I believe is a way for our lives to become a work of art.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a life & leadership coach certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). I specialized in supporting changemakers to make an impact while remaining whole. I was trained by my coach mentor, Dr. Martha Beck, a Harvard sociologist & life coach, in 2020. Since then, I have worked with values-led changemakers around the world, including artists, entrepreneurs, movement-builders, medicine practitioners, human rights lawyers, policymakers, and corporate executives.
In the dominant culture, we unknowingly subscribe to harmful narratives and measure our worthiness against them. And we lose touch with our deep knowing of what matters most personally. This misalignment between our truth and social conditioning manifests in our lives as chronic burnout, anxiety, unfulfillment … you name it.
Having witnessed my clients altering the course of their lives, I know for a fact: we can make an impact while also living our best lives, where the heart, body, mind, and soul are in alignment. Allowing our full-human self to lead is a prerequisite to bringing meaningful change in our communities and the world.
In my coaching sessions, I help my clients navigate the often lonely process of challenging internalized norms, breaking patterns, and reclaiming what matters. So they can clarify, imagine, and create another way of living as their unraveled selves. I feel so fortunate to partner with those changemakers who want to drive social change from a place of alignment!
All my work is rooted in the core values of 1) advancing an equitable and regenerative world and 2) challenging the status quo. As my commitment to fairer business practices, I offer a sliding scale fee option for clients in the Global South and marginalized communities where needed.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Coming from a traditional grind culture, I used to believe that meaningful work requires influencing hundreds of millions of people all at once. So I went to consult with Fortune 500 companies, global tech startups, and national and municipal governments on their strategies and policies. Despite my good intentions, the harder I worked, the more resentful, depleted, and hopeless I grew.
At first, I did not know why I felt so miserable as I had perfected the cultural script of how to live a “happy” life. Somehow I took myself to Iriomote-jima, the most remote island of Okinawa Japan, away from the culture and people that I normally socialized with. There I played like a child, exploring the mangrove jungle, waterfalls, sea, and starry night sky. Through these full-body experiences using my senses, I learned to trust my instinct, not just my mind. The people I met there helped me open up my heart and gave me utterly new perspectives. And I finally realized this simple truth: “I don’t like my life.” I wanted to live an authentic life that was meant for me.
Seeking support from coaches, I tended to those uncomfortable feelings and sensations, each of which carried important wisdom. I started reexamining and unlearning old assumptions of what I believed was supposed to do to live a meaningful life. It wasn’t until I remembered and reclaimed my values that I started moving with more ease. And this is an ongoing process for me. I journal, take a walk by the river, make art, and get coached, to make sure my life is aligned with my truth, which is in a perpetual state of change, just as everything else in nature.
Now working with values-led changemakers around the world, the impact that I am making feels so expansive and freeing to me. I am alive as I connect with them as humans and support them in making choices that are rooted in core values.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
What I remind myself of every day is that I am here not to teach or give advice, but to hold a space for my clients. Witnessing how their lives unfold, I am always surprised how little I know about my clients. This is because each of us is so unique and different — how we exist within a sea of intersecting identities and forces that affect us, how we experience ourselves and the world, and what and how we want to change. Essentially, what works for me or other clients is irrelevant to the very client in front of me.
So I respect my clients as the authority and expert of their lives, who inherently know who they truly are and what’s best for themselves. And I know that they are capable of making changes based on their inner knowing. I believe that this unwavering conviction about my clients and humanity is what has helped me succeed as a coach.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nanamizaitsu.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nanami-zaitsu/
Image Credits
Leia Vita Photography (the headshot), Mao Olive Photography (the inline photos)