Hi, I’m Leda, and if you’re here, I want to tell you you’re not alone.
You’re not alone if you wake up dissatisfied with your life and unsure what the problem is.
You’re not alone if the title of wife, mother, or coworker doesn’t feel like enough.
You’re not alone if you suffer from persistent and unexplained physical pain.
You’re not alone if you feel desperate to know your true Self, if you crave deep understanding more than dark chocolate or wine, or if you harbor the secret, terrible fear that you’ll never be able to hear your inner voice and become the woman you were meant to be.
I have been there, and I PROMISE your life doesn’t have to feel so hard.
These days, I’m a life coach who teaches women how to hear their inner voice and use it to live more joyful lives. I do my best to live in the present moment, and I take pleasure in simple things like my garden or a cup of coffee. When I find myself riding the fear and worry bus, I’m able to get off quickly and use the experience to learn something new about myself.
For many years, though, I had no idea who I truly was or how to feel awake and alive and happy. I was lost in a fog of swirling thoughts, sinking into murky confusion.
Like my mentor, Dr. Martha Beck says, I had to “live it to give it.” And boy, did I live it.
MY STORY
At 21, when the war torn country I lived in became too dangerous for me, I left my family behind and moved to the U.S. to join my fiance. We got married with just a handful of friends around, both our families still in danger back home. I had a B.S. in Nursing and worked for several years as a pediatric nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit. But when we had baby boys, I recognized how difficult it was to balance everything without nearby family to help.
So I became a stay-at-home mom. I volunteered as a coach for my precocious sons’ gifted student groups and organizations like the PTO. I made our home a beautiful space full of love and support. I built a social life for my family and myself.
I became so engrossed in my roles as wife, mother, volunteer, nurturer, and miscellaneous things-doer that I forgot myself.
By the time I turned 50, I had accomplished what appeared to be a lifetime’s worth of success. But when my second son left for college, discontent and confusion hit me like a ton of bricks.
Standing in quiet rooms of an empty house, I felt invisible. Without conversation and chores to fill up my mind, past traumas and difficult questions came rushing in.
Now what? What should I do with my time? Do I need to go back to nursing? What if I don’t want to? If I take away titles like wife, nurse and mother, who am I as a human being?
I knew a voice inside me had the answers, but it was so slippery I couldn’t grasp it. I spun into a personal loneliness that lasted for several years.
I tried to break through by joining a social group. I made friends who were totally my own, and we went to concerts and dinners and laughed ourselves sick. But even that wasn’t enough.
One day I sat at the foot of our stairs, blurry with self-pity and sadness I couldn’t escape. I heard the empty house buzz around me and tried not to cry.
As I sat on the steps with tears in my eyes, I heard a soft voice inside of me say, “Get up, girl! This is YOUR life. It’s time that you took charge of it.”
My body stood up all by itself. My back was straight and my head held high. Suddenly I saw that I had been waiting for someone else to fix me, for a magic permission slip to appear that said ‘Here is exactly what you should do next.’
I realized that self-love was my responsibility, and if I wanted a change, I had to be willing to do the work.
So I did. I had survived war, separation from family and lifestyle I knew, difficult childbirths and challenges along the way, a marriage with many ups and downs. I had lost my parents, my career and my identity, and now I was on my way to finding my Self.
I began to read spiritual self-help books by mentors like Eckhart Tolle, Martha Beck, and Pema Chodron, and slowly, slowly, I began to apply small changes to my life. I look coaching classes and eventually enrolled in Martha Beck’s life coaching school.
Over the course of a thousand small steps, I learned to rest and play, to be still and feel, to tune into my heart so I could make inspired choices and take creative action.
The decision to become a life coach was easy. I remembered how much I loved to teach my patients, their parents, and my sons and their peers. I knew I could bring the same kindness, gentleness, and play into my work.
After I received my certification in Martha Beck’s pragmatic approach to coaching, I sought a way to feel and hear my inner voice more clearly. When I found Abigail Steidley’s mind/body coach training, the pieces clicked into place.
Today, I use a powerful system that combines my personal intuition, years of study, and experience in nursing and energy healing with my coaching training to help women transform confusion into confidence and sadness into joy. I’m a damn good coach, and I make you this promise:
As long as you’re willing to do the internal work, you can banish indecision, fear, and confusion.
I know reinvention is possible because I did it, and I’ve helped dozens of midlife women do it too.
You do have an internal GPS, and you can learn how to use it. You do have the ability to live an authentic, open, and joy-filled life.