[00:00:00] Joanna: I have thought, wow, if I had known this earlier if I had known my path earlier, imagine where I'd be now, except I couldn't have known it earlier because all of that was my path.
And I know that a hundred percent to be true. And so it's a hilarious point that I allow my ego to have for a moment. And then it's brushed to the side because I feel even emotional saying this like I am so deeply trusting of everything that I've had to navigate in my life to get me to this point.
[00:00:28] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath depth and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention. Gratitude and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.
Welcome back to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. This week, my guest is Joanna Haines and Joanna is a transformational guide and therapeutic mentor. She supports her clients and accessing new ways of being through alchemizing old stories, beliefs, and traumas that are living in the system. She blends her modalities in a way that meets each client exactly where they are and supports them in moving towards that, which they are desiring.
I enjoyed our conversation. I learned so much from Joanna about the different modalities that she uses and how she's able to help personalize everybody. All of her clients, their personal journeys, and especially this point that she made about personal growth not a destination, but it is a unique journey that we each find ourselves on. I enjoy that conversation and I think you will as well. Take a listen.
[00:01:56] Aneta: Joanna, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so happy to have this conversation with you.
[00:02:03] Joanna: Me too. Thank you for having me.
[00:02:04] Aneta: And I would love to ask you maybe a first question. I loved looking at your website and looking at your content and learning more about your story. Your story especially is one of transformation and continued growth, and I know that you spend a lot of time working with your clients on it. So maybe you could start just telling us a little bit about where your curiosity and this personal growth and development started, and especially use your language of combining therapeutic approaches and ancient mystical modalities.
[00:02:41] Joanna: Yeah, thank you for that question. I think that one, I just really love that you have spoken the word continued, like continued transformation into the question, because I think it's just so important to remember that it is that journey. And every time you sort of get somewhere you think you're supposed to sort of be and you're like, I got there, something else comes.
And I feel like that's sort of been a critical part of my journey is just learning that there's always something else that I'm being called towards. And so kind of just going with the flow of that. And when I stopped resisting that, it started to become a much more fruitful journey but the beginning as cliche as it sounds, really did start with yoga and the physical asana and just having a space to go in and kind of be in your body and move your body and connect to it and not only that, but to be around a whole different world of people than I was kind of exposed to.
The yoga teachers in the community came there and just saw how there was a different way of living life. And I was living a life that opened a huge portal of curiosity for me. And so I deep dove into yoga and did my teacher training but was mostly just a student for many years.
And then there kind of came this point where the physical practice felt complete, not forever, but it felt like enough. And I was like what else is here that I'm yearning for? And then really started to dive into different types of explorations into the stories and the traumas that lived in my system, things that I was gripping to believe. Different kind of movement, more like somatic movement that was less guided and directed the way that yoga is so that I could start to feel where my body wanted to go, where my system wanted to go versus being told what position to take.
So this is just my journey, but it sort of started there and then continually evolved. And then really the amount of curiosity that I had around resolving trauma and alchemizing trauma for myself, how transformative that was. And then I was deep diving into training for my clients around that because you can only go as high as you're willing to go deep.
So Yeah, I know this is such a big question. So really it started with yoga as a point and I just continue to follow the threads I have no idea where it's taking me, but it's been a process and a journey for sure.
[00:05:14] Aneta: I love yoga as an entry point. And I think for many of us in the Western world, it's a great place to begin because you said, you think you're going into it for whatever reason. And then you find yourself in the practice, in the body, making that mind-body breath connection. And so how long would you say on your journey of practicing yoga before you started saying, maybe there's something else as you said, I think like I need to go deeper. This isn't necessarily the end of the story for me.
[00:05:46] Joanna: Yeah. Great question. And in hearing that, I'm noticing that I think there were phases within that of the process. And so at the beginning, it was literally to like get lean. And then very shortly after that, it became what are these teachings they're speaking of?
And so learning about some of the texts and the theory behind why we're doing it. So you know, like I've been practicing yoga for over 20 odd years and I would say. The first 10 were maybe a little bit more asana-focused with some sort of thought process, of course, in there. And then after the next sort of decade catapulted me into other inquiries.
[00:06:29] Aneta: And so the work that you started around trauma and you talked about resistance and maybe things that we are holding somatically within the body itself. Were you aware of that? Was that a journey that was happening in parallel to this discovery that you're on with yoga or did it just build one on top of the other? I think just curious.
[00:06:48] Joanna: I wasn't aware of it at the time. It wasn't in my conscious awareness. It wasn't. And then I can't honestly remember my entry point into that. I really can't. But it was like, there's this thing that I had no idea was there. And when it got liberated, there was an opening for a whole other wave of life force in a different way to come in. And I couldn't have done that with my mind. There's no way I could with my mind because I didn't know it was there.
[00:07:20] Aneta: Yeah. I feel like it's so interesting. I feel like many people within my circle, have all sort of gone through a similar experience of starting with yoga, doing some meditation, really focusing then on mind, mindset, mindfulness, and now entering into the somatic space.
And figuring out how you drop deeper in the body and how you release things that are no longer service? And so talk a little bit about your somatic experience and for those that aren't as familiar with it, what does it mean to somatically release something or to invite in some nonchoreographed movement, as you said?
[00:08:01] Joanna: I think it's like, simply put for me, when I think about it, it's coming from the bottom up. And not needing to understand what's happening because if you try to understand, you're taking yourself out of the process and you're not allowing energy to move in the way that it needs to move to complete something or to change it to something new.
We constrict it with story and we constrict it with logic. And so really when I think about it. I mean, this is very high level, just like simplistic. I just really think of it as allowing ourselves to be guided by what's coming up. And sometimes we need support in our somatic sort of journey of just tuning into what's this story.
What's this gripping? What does that want to say? Sometimes it's just listening. What does this ache in my heart want to say to me, rather than trying to figure out how to heal the broken heart? It's like, just listen to what it needs to say. And in that tuning into the body, you can hear something that you couldn't have heard before and in that hearing, you can liberate it or allow it to rest.
It doesn't mean that it didn't happen. It doesn't mean that it's not true anymore. It just means that you've acknowledged it with the reverence that it perhaps didn't get in the time that it. Sort of happened in the body, if that makes sense.
[00:09:16] Aneta: Yeah, it does. So when you start on your journey, I want you to talk a little bit more about how you work with your clients. Because I know you have some beautiful programs that are available, but did you start the process for yourself and your healing process? Like, were you doing this type of work before or did you have a whole other career?
[00:09:37] Joanna: So I mean, I have had multiple careers in my lifetime. I used to work in the corporate world and then as I was transitioning, I think a lot of people have a similar story. My entry point was food as a holistic health coach. And then I realized that I didn't want to be negotiating calories with people anymore because I could see like I could see the map, but they didn't want to talk about it.
They wanted me to just tell them how to fix it with food. So that's when I started to be kind of lean into different modalities that were like, how can I work with people to like, get them to the essence of who they are and what's standing in their way. And so, yeah, my journey wasn't like this from the beginning. It started in the corporate world.
[00:10:19] Aneta: Yeah. How do you use all of these learnings to help your clients and maybe just talk a little bit about some of your signature offers and programs?
[00:10:27] Joanna: Yeah. So I find it quite hard to put language to, again, because it's not linear and everybody's in their sort of phases and we're multi-dimensional, but really what started with some of this stuff was obviously transformational life coaching, but then I got really into human design and I went deep dive like I've done a ton of training and I was loving it, except that I was getting tired of telling people who they are.
Like this is your chart. This is who you are. And what I was seeing is that sometimes they wouldn't resonate with their gifts. And then I realized that a lot of trauma happens in your gift because it's the most natural way to express yourself.
In the early years, it's like this is how energy wants to flow. I'm a storyteller and I'm a creative. And then somebody shuts that down. So this is where the trauma and I could see the trauma being stuck in their charts. But I was like, how do I support them in liberating this? But I also have to be very careful because I have to know where I'm taking people.
You can't just point people towards trauma and leave them there. And so that's when my curiosity started to peak about where trauma lives in the body and how to support clients and liberate that. So the way I work with people is forward-facing. We want to orient to what it is that you're desiring or wanting to create.
And then allowing the traumas to come up or the stories or the beliefs or the patterns to come up as they naturally would when we're facing this way. Because I also think that a lot of people are like trauma hunting all the time and it's like, keep going. And if you're only living in that space, then I mean, what's the point if you can't live in the now with some kind of peace?
So the way I work is dancing between the two and that's different for different clients. And that's why I also love longer journeys with them because we get to see patterns come and meet them over and over again and kind of dance between the real creation and expansion and evolution.
And sometimes the sitting in the mud and sitting in the darkness and working through that together, too. So I kind of weave the human design and astrology and gene keys as entry points into exploration and possible trauma resolution.
[00:12:36] Aneta: That's amazing. I just did my chart this year and I saw that you're a manifest generator as am I. And so for those that aren't as familiar with human design talk a little bit, maybe you can share about how it works and what are some of the benefits for someone who may be curious to explore a little bit more about their gifts.
[00:12:56] Joanna: So human design is a modality that takes sort of all your birth information and generates a chart and it's a blueprint. It's a map of your cosmic constellation of how life force energy kind of wants to flow through you where you have sort of the gas pedal on per se, in some areas, and where you may be a little bit more receptive to the world or wait where you may be open to conditioning in the world a little bit more sensitively.
And so when you get to see your map and when you get to talk about your map and learn about it I think that it helps you make sense of something that you felt inside, but there wasn't language for. So when I learned about my human design type, when I learned about these things, I was like thank you for validating something that I understood on a cellular level, but not intellectually.
And it's almost like this proverbial permission slip that you get, and then that's just the beginning because then it's like. But then how do I have the somatic experience of knowing these things about me and allowing life to just flow through me in these ways? So I just think it's a beautiful entry point into self-discovery and actualization, but it is by itself and knowledge by itself. I don't think it takes people the whole way.
[00:14:10] Aneta: Like anything, right? Once you learn about something, then the curiosity will prompt you to ask another question and to go a little bit deeper and go a little bit deeper.
So I love that you said that because anything in and of itself is probably not enough, but it's what you choose to do with it and where you go next on the journey. And I just wanted to read something and I hope I can read the writing that I read on your website that I thought was so beautiful and I wanted you to kind of talk about it.
You said together we unravel old stories, move towards authentic expression, align co-creation, and new waves of moving through life, coming into harmonic resonance with your unique essence and expression. That's pretty beautiful. Tell me about what that looks like when you're working with your clients and they're able to feel this and get these results.
What is the process I know it's different for everybody, but what are some of the major milestones you would say in the work that allows people to get to this harmonic resonance where their unique essence and expression?
[00:15:20] Joanna: A couple of things come to mind. One that happens in a lot of micro-moments, a lot of micro-moments add up to that. And when we look for ourselves, like when we look for the solution, that's going to awaken us one day to that. It doesn't work because there's a lot of fine-tuning along the way that we're like, I got to connect with that feeling in that moment. And now I know what it is. I can continue to locate when it's not happening or when it's not present and then get curious about why it's not present.
So I just want to preface that because it's sort of the long game, not just this thing that happens overnight. But I do think it's about becoming clear about what we want and it can start with sort of the goals. But then when we take it like layers and layers deeper, it's like why?
And the more that you do that, it's like you're mining through different stories. I need the money because it proves that I'm worthy or I need the money because I have to be safe. Why? Because I don't feel safe. Why don't you feel safe because I didn't and then when you locate the core of it, then you can come back out of it and build what it is you desire, but from a place of truth, not from a place of brokenness or unworthiness or story.
So what it looks like with me is we kind of orient towards what it is you want, and then continually question why we also do work. Like I work with the Akashic records. We'll go into your field. We'll see what stories, what messages, what things are being asked of you in this moment. We would spend time in your human design chart if that feels aligned.
Then sometimes we slow it down and go into literally like somatic experiencing and just teaching the nervous system that it's safe to come back into a more regulated state. So again, it's not a linear answer. I apologize, but it's sort of all these pieces as and when each client needs them.
[00:17:22] Aneta: That's so amazing. And what do you find in terms of the clients that come to you who are naturally curious? Like are there any indications? Is there something that typically happens that would prompt someone to reach out to work with you? Or are they referrals coming in?
[00:17:37] Joanna: That's a really good question. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. But referrals, yes. And also some things through social media for sure. But yeah, I mean, some people have no clue what anything I just said is, they're just like, someone said that you might be able to help me not feel so agitated and defensive in my life all the time. And I'm like, you know let's start there. So this can be intimidating if you don't, it's like, what's human design?
What are the Akashic records? What's your soul's history? What is this stuff? And so it's also about yes, calling in the aligned clients that are going to go there and meet me there because that's where my magic is. And so I don't need to do that with people who don't want to go there and meet people where they're at.
It's like, we don't need to blow your system with all of these tools when we might need to slow down a little bit. And so that's now why I have changed some of my core mentorship packages into two separate pathways, there's kind of more of a restorative version and an expansive version because I was noticing that people are desiring something similar, but there are two different places in their journey.
And sometimes it's about, like, healing, slowing down, letting the nervous system regulate and take what it needs. And other times it's like, let's go, let's create, let's fly. And I'm so here for that too. So now I sort of have little space for both people depending on where they're at in their journey.
[00:19:08] Aneta: Titration is so important. I mean, on any somatic journey, and, I think we've all seen or heard of experiences where people are in experiences where they are not fully supported or titrated appropriately, and they can have a horrible experience. Sometimes that happens with somatic breath work too. They might need restorative.
They might need to be grounded and they're in an activation session that is not appropriate for their nervous system at that moment. I love that you're creating these two journeys and you've identified that people need something a little bit different. And you, of course, can help them decide which one would be most appropriate for them.
[00:19:45] Joanna: Absolutely. All that to say within one journey, sometimes we're at different phases of it. It's just sometimes it's easier to put language to something so people can feel two different things. But in my journey just like the seasons, sometimes I'm like, let's go. This is so good. It's so big. I can create. And other
[00:20:01] Aneta: times I'm like slow down, stop.
So how long ago did you work in corporate? How many years ago did you work in corporate?
[00:20:10] Joanna: I left my corporate job about five years ago. I was doing my holistic health coaching on the side when I was working in my corporate world. And then when I had my son it was sort of a, well, son, and then COVID all that kind of happened. It was a really good time to just really reevaluate. And I was like, yeah, this is the time to go all in. So that's when I just cut the ties with my safety net. So to speak.
[00:20:37] Aneta: And I left around the same time. I remember I think it was January of 2019. It was the last day and also the first day of starting my business. And I'm glad it happened before COVID actually, because I might not have made the same decision. Sometimes that's helpful when it happens. Do you look back on that time in your life and say, you know what, I've learned a lot of things. I'm able to bring all of this like nothing is wasted. Or do you look back and go, I wish I'd thought about leaving sooner.
[00:21:07] Joanna: Both, but mostly let me say this. I have thought, wow, if I had known this earlier if I had known my path earlier, imagine where I'd be now, except I couldn't have known it earlier because all of that was my path.
And I know that a hundred percent to be true. And so it's a hilarious point that I allow my ego to have for a moment. And then it's brushed to the side because I feel even emotional saying this like I am so deeply trusting of everything that I've had to navigate in my life to get me to this point.
And I wouldn't understand how profoundly precious everything I'm experiencing is right now. Had I not lived that version of my life. And so it's never a mistake. It just never is, even when it feels like it is it's not.
[00:21:58] Aneta: I feel the same way as you. That's why I always say, I don't think anything is wasted. Like if you can take all of it, the good, the bad, everything you learned, the relationships, of course, all of it and say, okay that was where I was supposed to be and now I'm able to be where I am. And so I always have this conversation with folks. It doesn't matter what their age is. I always tell them it's never too late to decide to make a change.
It is never too late. There is a path available to you. We can focus on the vision and figure that out. So, do you have any advice for people who maybe are listening and they're in a job that they hate, or they feel like maybe they're in a relationship that's hard and they just are scared of the unknown, Is any coaching advice there for folks that maybe are still waiting to leap or that don't trust enough to do so.
[00:22:53] Joanna: Yeah. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is, that we're not all designed to leap, right? Some of us it's energetically correct to take that huge leap and be like, Whoa. And other people are here to build it in increments. So also, don't look to somebody else to figure out how to walk your path, feel into what it is that's being called of you in those moments.
And then the other piece that I feel called to say is that the micro-moments, I said it earlier, but they're the things that add up. And I don't know how to get out of this career. It's like, do you even know what you want to move into? What piques your curiosity? Is there something, even a book you can read because everything that you bring into your field is impacting you?
So if you sit there in confusion and fear and do nothing. It's where you will stay, but you don't need to walk into your boss's office and quit at that moment just because you've decided that you're ready for more. It's like, well, what is more today? What's more today? Today is, you know what? I'm not going to go to those after-work drinks anymore because it doesn't serve me and I don't like it and I'm ready for something else.
So I'm just going to cut this one thing out and I promise you it feels in those moments that how could this change, but it does. Because you just keep deciding in each moment and then one day you wake up and you're like, today's the day because look at everything else. I've just been chipping away at her. So I would say never underestimate the micro moments. Spend time imagining something different and allow that to guide you sometimes or very often.
[00:24:29] Aneta: Do you do vision boards?
[00:24:31] Joanna: Yes, I do them on Canva now because I don't have magazines these days. But I do spend a lot of time imagining a vision board in my mind.
I will dedicate time imagining what it feels like to be living in the timeline of, sorry. And this is another important piece I wanted to mention is when you have the bigger vision and it feels too big, like almost too big for the nervous system to hold, hold it, put it over there, but then come back to what could I do?
What are the seven steps before this? If it's like I'm buying a house in Costa Rica, well, that's not possible right now. Hold that vision. Could I go there? It's too far. Could I go to Mexico? Get yourself in these baby steps that start you feeling like you can taste it and break down the big vision into bite-sized pieces. So I guess it's the same thing differently, but yeah.
[00:25:26] Aneta: I love that. I agree with you. And I asked about the vision boards because I do it every year and I love having the image it's in front of me right here. I look at it all the time. But I do have other than plans going backward, what's the next six to 12 months, et cetera.
So I love this idea of holding the vision, but then also taking the daily aligned action in that direction. So do you remember when you decided internally in your heart where you're like, I'm not going to be here long term from that moment when you made that spiritual decision to the time when you did leave.
[00:26:03] Joanna: I would say a couple of years.
[00:26:05] Aneta: And I think that's so important to tell people is you don't have to take that action right away. You can do all the other little steps in advance, like you said, to titrate and to get your nervous system more comfortable with the small steps. And you don't even have to share.
I remember I signed up for yoga teacher training and I was like, okay, this is the first thing I'm going to be doing. And I don't know if I'll teach. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I do see it as part of my future. So I'm going to do that now. And was it hard? Did I have that many 225 hours to figure out how to do over 200 hours?
No, but it was aligned with the vision. And so. I was happy to do it and it felt good. And I felt like I was taking steps in the right direction.
[00:26:54] Joanna: Absolutely. I love that. I think it is important to let people know about the timelines so that some people it happens quickly. For some people, it happens longer. But this, I feel is an important nuance that if you remember that the goal isn't necessarily the quitting of the job it's in the execution of your dreams.
So if the execution of your dreams is happening before you quit the job, like notice that I'm doing teacher training while I have a quick, because if you think that's all going to start the moment that you quit the job. We're in for a treat because it's everything.
It's all of it. And so how can you kind of be intentional and co-creative and take the aligned steps, but also remember you're in it? Like you're in the moments that are creating everything you're desiring.
[00:27:41] Aneta: That's right. And I've seen too many people who decide to leave the relationship or leave the job or do whatever big life change moment without actually doing the other work. And it's hard. It's not pretty.
[00:27:57] Joanna: Oh, it can be not pretty at the best of times when you're doing the work. So sometimes it can be quite a shock to the system.
[00:28:04] Aneta: Yeah. And I think this is a new way of looking at things so many people are starting new or exploring, allowing their curiosity, allow them to explore new things in life while they're still living in their life right now. And that's okay. I think that's another, full permission to people all the time to say, go try something. If you don't like it, that's great information. It's not failure. It's it's information.
[00:28:29] Joanna: Completely. I also think it's really important to say that not everybody is here to be an entrepreneur doing their work all the time.
Sometimes people's value is there. I love, well, one, you can love your corporate job, but corporate jobs aren't bad. And to the priority list is safety and security and that gives them that. And that may be where they spend a lot of time, but it's not their full-time job. Maybe they're something on the side and that's what they align with.
And does it matter how many hours a day they're doing it to them? It doesn't sometimes. So I think it's your choice like you get to decide what's okay. And your boundaries and limits around it. That's why it's so important. And what human design and astrology do, I think is remind us that your magic lane is your path.
Stop looking around to other people to figure out what it is that you're supposed to be doing because it will not lead you to your soul alignment or whatever you want to call it.
[00:29:31] Aneta: And going back to a point you made earlier sometimes we just don't have the language for it. And so doing or discovering some of this work does allow us to have some insights maybe we didn't have before, or to validate something you always knew to be true. So as a manifest generator, I always loved having different projects going on. Like, I thrived in working on new things and being creative.
And too often I'd heard people go, well, just stick to one thing and just kind of master it and then move on to the next. And to me that felt like I would suffocate or die, like, I mean, not to be extreme, but like, that does not sound good at all. And so when I did at least get the human design chart, I thought,
this validates why I feel the way that I do. And it did permit me to continue to be who I was and to think like, that's okay.
[00:30:24] Joanna: Yeah. Telling a manifesting generator to master one thing is putting out a lot of fire in their system. Yeah, it doesn't feel good in the system.
[00:30:35] Aneta: So for someone that might be listening we're talking about a lot of things right now and like supporting change, supporting growth, supporting, releasing things that don't serve us. If they wanted to work with you, what is the best way that they can get ahold of you?
[00:30:51] Joanna: I mean, as far as contacting me, my website is the easiest way to contact me.
And then as far as how we work together, it just depends on where you're at and what you're looking for. There are multiple pathways or, you know, single sessions just to sort of feel each other out or a clarity call or a longer journey together. So yeah, Instagram or my website are kind of the two places that I'm active and feel aligned to be
[00:31:15] Aneta: Wonderful. We'll include the link in the show notes to the website and then your other channels as well. So one of the questions that I ask everyone is tied to the title podcast about living the width of your life. And I haven't had two people answer this in the same way because I think that what a well of life means is something different for each of us. But what does it mean to you to live the width of your life?
[00:31:40] Joanna: It means to learn how to take up all of the space that I am here to take up and to share that with the people that are here to be impacted by me. And in that taking up of space to also connect with the people who are supposed to impact me and support me on my journey. So it's a collaborative journey to live the width of my life. And yeah, just to share myself with people in a way that feels meaningful and aligned.
[00:32:12] Aneta: That's beautiful. Thank you so much for being part of my afternoon today. I enjoyed our conversation and I hope that we have continued conversations.
[00:32:23] Joanna: Absolutely. Thank you. It was such an honor to be here.
So thank you for having me.
[00:32:27] Aneta: Thank you, Joanna.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living the life that they always dreamt of living.