Mahara Wayman [00:00:06]:
Welcome to The Art of Badassery, where I explore what it takes to live life on your own terms, break free from the status quo, and unleash your inner badass. Whether you're a rebel at heart or simply seeking inspiration to step outside your comfort zone, this podcast is for you. I'm your host, Mahara Weyman, and each week I dive into the stories, insights and strategies of those who have mastered the art of badassery and are living life to the fullest. They smile when no one is looking.
Mahara Wayman [00:00:41]:
Welcome to the Art of Badassery podcast. I'm your host, Mahara Wayman, and I am thrilled to introduce our guest today, Sonya Guzman. She is an integrative somatic coach and a true badass in every sense of the word. Sonya's story is very powerful. She spent a decade pushing herself to the limit as a driven, high performing, high achiever, only to realize that she was struggling. It took hitting rock bottom for Sonya to finally realize that something had to change. And through her own journey of healing and self discovery, sonya has become a leading expert in helping others tune into their wisdom and personal power so they achieve their limitless potential. Get ready to be inspired as Sonya shares her insights on how to achieve true badassery by tapping into your intuition and hacking your body's wisdom. So, without further ado, let's dive into the world of badassery with Sonya Guzman. Welcome, my friend.
Sonia Guzman [00:01:48]:
Hi, Mahara.
Sonia Guzman [00:01:49]:
Thank you so much for having me here. I love this.
Sonia Guzman [00:01:53]:
So exciting.
Sonia Guzman [00:01:55]:
Yes, so good.
Mahara Wayman [00:01:57]:
So I've said quite a bit, but I would love for you to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your company and then we'll dive into your journey and all of the juicy wisdom that you have to share with our listeners.
Sonia Guzman [00:02:11]:
Absolutely. So I am the founder and CEO of Happy Heart, Love and Life, Inc. And this actually started as business consulting while I was off on leave and I was feeling a little bit better and like you said, the ever high achiever and the busy body, I wanted something to do. So one of the professionals I was working with had a coaching program and I wanted to support her in getting that out to more people. And that's where the concept of my business consulting came in. And I started looking into that and I thought, like, what would I want to call my my business? What would I want to call it? And it just really felt aligned. I had the life on paper that looked so good and I was so unhappy and I wanted to love my life really badly, but I didn't. And so that's where the whole concept behind my business came through. And as soon as I opened that up, the world unleashed on me a myriad of opportunities and what felt like divine guidance to find where I needed to be and how I needed to serve in the world. And make an impact. So that's where my business came along. And I am now an integrative somatic coach because a lot of what was going on with me was manifesting in my body and it was not medically explainable. So it was really powerful to understand the mind-body connection and just how it can either work with you or against you. And it was pretty powerful that my body was talking to me and I needed to learn to listen.
Mahara Wayman [00:04:05]:
I'm going to jump in here because for some people, this idea of the body talking to us is just not in their realm. Right? You got a cold. You got a cold. Got a belly ache? Belly. Can you remember and share with us what was the turning point for you where you finally listened? Because I think for many of us on a journey of self discovery, there comes a time when it just clicks.
Sonia Guzman [00:04:30]:
Yeah. So my body got really loud and I would say I've always had kind of physical manifestations of what's really happening in my subconscious, but I never listened to it was always mind over matter. It was always brushing it aside. It was trained behavior for me to ignore the clues and cues that the body was giving me for what was actually happening around me. I just knew the shutdown. And so this particular situation got really loud. It was actually around. I'm just going to spill the beans.
Sonia Guzman [00:05:14]:
And just be completely frank. I was, yeah, this is juicy. Get ready. Some of you might judge me, but I don't care. Okay.
Sonia Guzman [00:05:25]:
So I had been in a high performing role in my corporate role as a solution specialist, kind of like a relationship manager, and I was completely drained. I had a completely different life then. I was part of a religion that was very culty. And so I had tried to be that submissive wife. And in the corporate world, I was this very high performing individual, very well respected on the team. And at home, I couldn't get anything right. It was terrible. It was just a terrible contrast. And you brush it off and you're like, oh, this is culture. This is this, this is that, machismo latinos, blah, blah, blah, and the religion and this is how it is. And I really wanted to be happy in my marriage. And I was very dedicated and very focused. And when I left my role because I thought it was eating into the energy that I had for my home and my family, I decided to switch roles and I went into a different role. And as I was transitioning out of the role, well, don't I discover I had fallen in love with my boss because he was nice to me.
Mahara Wayman [00:06:55]:
Okay. I see why you see?
Sonia Guzman [00:06:58]:
Yeah.
Sonia Guzman [00:06:59]:
No flirting, no impropriety. Like I was the biggest prude under the sun and just like so locked. Capital b, bitch.
Sonia Guzman [00:07:11]:
Frankly, when it came to men, and flirtation.
Sonia Guzman [00:07:15]:
That was not at all part of my agenda or way of being. I was a total professional at work. And so it was when I was talking with a friend about my old boss and going into the new role and their qualities, well, that was a Friday. All weekend, all I could think about was him. And I was like, what is going on here?
Sonia Guzman [00:07:37]:
What the hell?
Sonia Guzman [00:07:42]:
He's just nice to me. Where is this intense sensation and emotion coming from? Like, what is gone? And so Monday, I'm driving to work.
Sonia Guzman [00:07:52]:
And you haven't heard this story yet. Monday I'm driving to work, and I'm.
Sonia Guzman [00:07:58]:
Like, I don't like him. Like, what is going on? And I work.
Sonia Guzman [00:08:02]:
I worked.
Sonia Guzman [00:08:02]:
I lived just out of town. And so it was like a 25, 30 minutes drive. And the whole drive, I'm like, I don't like him. And Mahara, I was shaking. Like, shaking. I could see my hands and my arms on the ceiling, and I was sweating, and I was like, I don't. Every time I said I don't, and then I said, I do, and everything stopped.
Mahara Wayman [00:08:30]:
Okay. I got the shivers. I got the shivers. You heard it here first, people. That the body. Well, maybe it's not your first time you've heard it, but what? Literally, when you were denying something that was real, you had an immediate reaction, physically shaking, the sweats. And the minute you leaned into the truth, it all stopped.
Sonia Guzman [00:08:58]:
Yeah. And you got to realize, this is, like, a very Christian toting individual who has spent the last ten years of her marriage completely dedicated to everything outside of herself, everybody but herself. And so to have that acknowledgment was like lighting myself on fire.
Mahara Wayman [00:09:28]:
So let's jump right in, because I know everybody at home thinking, okay, so what did you do? Did you keep going to work?
Sonia Guzman [00:09:37]:
Yes, I went to work, and I was, like, so nervous. I was sitting at my desk, and.
Sonia Guzman [00:09:48]:
He always used to come in a little bit later in the morning, and I was always in really early. And when he walked by, I was.
Sonia Guzman [00:09:57]:
Like, shit, he smells good. And so I started like sorry. Go ahead.
Mahara Wayman [00:10:07]:
Senses are totally alive. Your sense of smell, your sense of touch, everything's brighter.
Sonia Guzman [00:10:12]:
Everything like, just like, where the hell has this been? Like, what is this stuff? And as I'm sitting there, I'm like, what is wrong with you? What is wrong with you? You cannot be having these thoughts right now. What is up?
Sonia Guzman [00:10:31]:
And so, as per usual, I shut it down.
Sonia Guzman [00:10:37]:
And I'm going to say something right.
Sonia Guzman [00:10:38]:
Now because I haven't talked about this with so much candor, knowing that people.
Sonia Guzman [00:10:43]:
Are going to hear this.
Sonia Guzman [00:10:46]:
And I remember feeling the shame of not being able to feel happy in my life. I had this beautiful, newly built home in a gorgeous neighborhood, and this, like, all the things all the things that I could have possibly wanted more than anybody growing up expected of me and in our culture, in our environment, pushing against the grain, which was the culture of the religion. And so it was like, what is wrong with you right now? Are we seriously here right now? Is this a movie? When am I going to wake up?
Mahara Wayman [00:11:40]:
First of all, I want to say thank you for your candor, and I love that you're sharing this with us. I think it's so interesting and it's so powerful that you recognize that it's so possible to have all the outside things, but to be empty on the inside. And you and I both know as coaches, we see this all the time, but it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way. So I just wanted to put in there that I recognize, and I honor you for sharing that with us, because it's true, and it doesn't have to be that way. So I'm curious if this realization, if it led you to your superpower, because we're going to end up talking about your superpower. So you're at work and you have this realization. You're kind of feeling I think you're feeling the shame of, wow, how can I not be happy? And how can this make me happy? And this goes against everything that I've ever how I've been raised. How did you handle it?
Sonia Guzman [00:12:43]:
Well, first of all, I was like, what the hell?
Sonia Guzman [00:12:46]:
The guys never looked at you that way, been nothing but respectful.
Sonia Guzman [00:12:52]:
And I think that's where it went for me, is I was treated with so much dignity and respect and so much admiration from not, like, accolades, because he wasn't that kind of boss, but you knew what you needed to get done, and he respected your autonomy and the work that you did. And so it was just pretty powerful to know that he didn't need to support me in that way. Was always guiding and leading. We had a lot of conversations around strategy, but it was never like that. So I knew that this was a big deal because how could you go and not be looking for that and have it show up for you? I wasn't in, like, with the guy.
Sonia Guzman [00:13:46]:
I was, like, in love with the guy. Just wild, like, these feelings of love towards this person.
Sonia Guzman [00:13:56]:
And, yeah, we'd work together for a few years, but still, like, what the hell? So it floored me, and it doesn't sound pretty. It's not the standard thing. So I went home, and I was, like, beside myself and just trying to process what on earth was showing up for me. Like, where is this coming from? Why?
Sonia Guzman [00:14:20]:
How have I been flirting?
Sonia Guzman [00:14:22]:
What's going on here? And I ended up so that was a Monday. The Tuesday, I went to work, and I had a friend who was in the same religion as me, and she was working, and I was leaving that role. And she was a very good successor for that position, and she was going to apply for it. And I'm like, don't do it.
Sonia Guzman [00:14:48]:
Don't do it.
Sonia Guzman [00:14:49]:
Our religion is very much us and them, and we keep to ourselves. And this job sucks you in. And this, that, and the other thing, it's dangerous. Don't do it. And that was the first time I admitted what I was feeling. I admitted it to her. I'm like, I think I'm in love with my boss. I don't know how this happened. I don't know what to do. And she obviously knew me, so she felt she had this beautiful compassion for me to be like, oh, my God, I can't believe you're going through this. This is wild. Like, can't even and so that was a little bit of validation. Somebody who knew me and knew both my world, to acknowledge that this was something that was very much out of character and needed some attention, and something was going on here. And by the Wednesday, I told my ex husband, my husband at the time, what was happening, what I was feeling.
Mahara Wayman [00:15:49]:
Okay, I just want to acknowledge I'm going to stop you here because we're listening and we're like, wow, this is so amazing. But I want everyone to just take a moment to just sit with what Sonya has just shared with us. Because from a Friday to a Monday, from a Monday to a Wednesday, you found the courage to share this secret that you had just and it wasn't even a secret for that long. It was only a two day old secret, or a three day old secret, but an incredibly powerful secret. Where did you find the courage, after a lifetime of everything that you've described, to stand up and say, hello, we need to talk?
Sonia Guzman [00:16:37]:
To be honest, I think it came from being in that environment where you had this self righteous morality. And I'd never really been in an environment where I could make mistakes. Like, everything was a sin. And so I think my biggest fear, and I can pinpoint this to the age of 14, I can't tell you the exact circumstances around it, but was to be a hypocrite. That was one of my biggest fears. It was just I did not want to be a hypocrite. And it felt like one day was too many with this kind of disparity in my reality, internally and externally.
Mahara Wayman [00:17:28]:
Wow. So what I'm hearing is that from around the age of 14, when you realize that hypocrisy existed, it's almost correct me if I'm wrong. It's almost as if from that moment on, things began to shift and you kept going in your world as what was expected of you. But perhaps inside your reality was changing. Changing, changing, shifting, shifting. Until you're in your grown woman in the marriage, you're unhappy, and it's like all of a sudden, something happens, and all of the learnings just come to fruition, and you're sitting there, different person. You must have been, like, a completely different woman.
Sonia Guzman [00:18:12]:
Absolutely, instantly. Because all the things that I thought about myself that I value were staring me down the barrel. And I was like, no, I don't want that. And I knew that I grew up in this religion, and I had it. And when I was a teenager, I stopped going to church and participating and being in the community, and I moved out early, like, really young, and I lived my own life. But then I lost a friend, and it was like she was really young. I would have been 22, she was 28. And I was like, what if I'm wrong? What if they're right and I'm wrong? And I went back and I made this commitment, like, this must be the right place for me to be, and I need to make it work. And, okay, I don't believe everything that in my core. I just don't see it that way. But maybe they're right. And so I need to deny that. So this began literally a decade from 22 to 33, a decade of self denial, of not honoring anything that I thought was real in the world or my perspective. And so in that moment when things materialize, it's like, well, damn, I've been trying, but this ain't working.
Sonia Guzman [00:19:51]:
I'm not drinking the Kool Aid.
Sonia Guzman [00:19:53]:
Not really.
Mahara Wayman [00:19:55]:
Sonya, I love what you've brought up, this idea of sometimes, despite our best tensions, we let fear be the driving force of our action. Right. You just explained a beautiful example of you doing that, and so many of us, I'm sure, can relate to that. Like, what if I'm really not as smart as I think I am? What if I'm not as whole or as good or as pretty or all of those things and you give something or someone a chance? Whether it's an organized religion, a relationship, a job, there's lots of times I think that women and men, of course, succumb to that fear. But it's part of being badass is that you're willing to question it. And I think that's what's so beautiful about your story and any conversation that I've had with you is your willingness to question. And now, as a somatic healer, I know firsthand that your questions are good. They're really good, especially when you link it back to how we're feeling in our body. I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about your superpower today.
Sonia Guzman [00:21:15]:
Right. What is my superpower?
Sonia Guzman [00:21:19]:
My heart?
Mahara Wayman [00:21:21]:
No, you got to answer this one.
Sonia Guzman [00:21:30]:
So I would say.
Sonia Guzman [00:21:37]:
That my superpower is knowing that there is a space. There's space and room for each of us as we are in our true experience.
Mahara Wayman [00:22:01]:
So I want to say this back to you to make sure I understand. Your superpower is a recognition and an understanding that every person matters.
Sonia Guzman [00:22:18]:
Yeah. Just to break it down.
Mahara Wayman [00:22:20]:
Every person matters and there is enough space in the world for everyone.
Sonia Guzman [00:22:26]:
Yeah. Yes. Because if I, and I'm going to explain that because obviously we've all heard that. We've all heard that we're valuable because we're human lives matter. Yes, that is true. The world has been up to this point, structured in a way that creates stability for the greater population, but at the cost of the individual. Sorry, I have a hair. What do I mean by that? Yes, the structures that have allowed society to evolve to the point where it is today and all the things we've created has been because of the stability of the structure that were in place. So women had to play a certain role within that structure. Religion played a certain role within that structure. Enterprise played a certain role in that structure. And those who led the enterprise led it a certain way because it was necessary at the time in our evolution. But we know so much more today about our human potential, our brains, our bodies, medicine. And so while we want to reach for the things we know and that feel familiar, what we know today and what's available to us today is so much more powerful and we can actually shift the structures to create room for the individual with a deeper understanding of who they are and what drives their behaviors.
Mahara Wayman [00:25:00]:
I love this. Can you share thank you for that. But I would love it if you could share an experience in life where you've seen this happen so that our audience can go, oh, yeah, I get it because sometimes we can get lost in the conversation and I just want to have a concrete example of why that's important. I love what you said. So can you just give us an example?
Sonia Guzman [00:25:34]:
Yeah, I'm going to use a very like it sounds really fluffy, but it's actually pretty deep. I saw on LinkedIn this week somebody posted and asked the question, do you take a call seriously when somebody takes the meeting driving? Okay, sounds really like a really open question. But what I tuned into was that they were answering the question with the judgment that they don't take it seriously in the way they asked the question. And instantly I got really like I could feel it somatic triggered and I had this intensity of beating my answer to the response. And then I was thinking about it like why am I, do I have this intensity about it? And here's the thing. It was a white man asking the question and when you think about sitting in an office like we are right now and being able to focus fully attention on this call, that's a luxury that's not available to everybody. You know, when it comes to and I'll use my own example in the corporate world, the first before my healing journey, that was a struggle. I had no example of anybody I didn't look like I was struggling, but I was struggling. I didn't have any examples in my life where people were professionals or executives or in that environment. My dad was in construction. My mom was a house cleaner. And then she did own her own restaurant. But she struggled because she didn't have any kind of framework to pull from. She was figuring it all out without any examples. And so I was very comfortable with physical labor. But knowledge work was really challenging. And what I didn't know at the time was that I had trauma brain. And so actually being active allowed me to pay attention to things. Keeping my focus on one thing was extremely draining and challenging because that's not how my brain works. I am focused on multiple things and me being able to be here focused is a work of skill set and hacking my own system. Right? And so when I used to take calls on the road because I had to travel, those were the times when I could focus the most on the topic at hand. My body did not go into freeze the way that it did when I was sitting still, because sitting still is not available to you when you are in trauma, when you are in survival mode.
Mahara Wayman [00:28:49]:
So I want to make sure I'm understanding. When you saw that post in LinkedIn, you were triggered and the trigger had an immediate Somatic effect. So, in other words, absolutely. Body responded immediately. And I love that you are far enough along on your healing journey that you were able to get curious and ask yourself, hey, what's going on? And what you determined was that you were triggered. And while you felt that the question was posted from a place of judgment, you also had your own judgment that you brought to the table.
Sonia Guzman [00:29:30]:
Absolutely.
Mahara Wayman [00:29:32]:
So to loop this all together, your superpower is being able to recognize situations like the one you just said very quickly and allows you to stand apart because you could recognize that you could now stand apart and you're not affected. Somatically or you can look at it from both sides.
Sonia Guzman [00:29:59]:
Because I can see that just because I had a different need does not negate that person's need to have focused attention in a call. But I also acknowledge that there are many people, like many working parents, but predominantly mothers, who don't have the luxury of sitting in an office and being left alone.
Mahara Wayman [00:30:27]:
So here's the real question. It's beautiful that you have this awareness. And as a coach, I know that this is a superpower, but what do you do with it now in everyday life? In other words, we want to know, did you respond to the post or did you just smile and go, okay, not needed, I'm curious.
Sonia Guzman [00:30:48]:
I did. And I took a dig too. I did respond to the post. One thing anybody who knows me will know is I will air my own dirty laundry. I don't mind. It doesn't say anything about me. It just is the fact of my.
Sonia Guzman [00:31:09]:
Experience in the moment. Right. I responded to say, essentially, we should honor that people have the autonomy and wherewithal to make their own choices. And that's where my superpower comes in, is, yes, I hear you. But at the same time, I'm here to help others find their own perspective and honor it while still honoring the space that the collective needs.
Mahara Wayman [00:31:45]:
That's beautiful. And you've painted a great picture of how your upbringing led you to this point. So if you guys haven't realized it by now, she really is badass because it takes to do all of this. But I'm curious. You've touched on it a little bit, but would you mind if you were to speak to your younger version before you had this epiphany or journey of healing? Tell us a bit about her, and I also would love to know what would you say to her today? Tell us who you were before you were badass. Sonia Guzman, the younger version of you.
Sonia Guzman [00:32:34]:
Well, I think I was always a happy kid, but I carried a lot of negativity like my parents, negativity, trauma, generational trauma, and I was never taught to regulate my emotions, so my biggest response was to shut them down. My emotions were always too big for those around me, and I never fit in the box. I never belonged in the box. And so I had some people in my family that really cared about me, and so I did feel that love from them, but mostly I was judged for being to something or other. And so I went along, and I was pretty happy. I had sometimes bad attitude, and I was reactive, but at the same time, that's pretty normal for a traumatized kid. But I wanted to get along with everybody, and I wanted to really I wanted to enjoy life. Like, I was always a creative. I was always fun loving, and I had my moments and in my memory, because I didn't have that emotional support or outlet and support in regulating myself. I always remember myself as being very charged, but I was very well liked, and I was very social, so it couldn't have been that bad. Obviously, I was never excluded from school events. I was always in the plays and the shows and the things. So I think I was a very charismatic kid, but very anxious kid, because when you don't know how to regulate your emotions, there's a lot, and you try to look for stability in things. And there was a lot of upset because there was a lot of instability. And so, yeah, I was a kid wanting to really love life, but I was challenged to know how, and I was carrying a lot of other people's burdens. And what would I say to myself? Have fun. It's okay. You are safe you are loved and you will find your people someday that really help you feel good and love yourself too.
Mahara Wayman [00:35:27]:
That is so beautiful. That is so beautiful. I would be remiss if I didn't loop back to the original story that you shared with us with such grace. You did mention that your first marriage dissipated on Tuesday or Wednesday. You told him I burned it to the ground.
Sonia Guzman [00:35:53]:
I did.
Mahara Wayman [00:35:55]:
How many years ago was that, out of curiosity?
Sonia Guzman [00:35:58]:
That was in 2017, where I said and I tried to stay in it, I tried to continue to deny my truth, but finally I was actually on a flight back from Columbia, and it was like we had tried and had a good vacation, seeing his family, but when I was on the plane, I was like, let this thing crash. I don't want to deal with my life. And that's when I was like, no, you can't wish ill on all these people just because you don't want to deal with your life. This is over. This game is over. And so I literally did everything I needed to do. Thankfully, I had a good financial background and I was able to say my piece. And within three weeks, I had moved into my new house back in the city and I was on my own. And against all of my good judgment.
Sonia Guzman [00:37:01]:
I started the relationship with my boss, my former boss, and five years.
Sonia Guzman [00:37:07]:
So that was 2017 and 2023. I have a nearly six month old child and we're engaged. And I have flourished in an environment where I am fully able to be myself.
Mahara Wayman [00:37:28]:
I honor that. I do honor that. And Sonya, I'm so touched by your candor with me today and with our listeners, and I'm so incredibly happy for you. Now, Sonya and I have been friends for about two years now.
Sonia Guzman [00:37:47]:
Yeah, I hunted her down as my friend.
Sonia Guzman [00:37:51]:
I was like, I like you, you're going to be my friend.
Mahara Wayman [00:37:55]:
Pretty much what she said. And I'm like, who are you?
Sonia Guzman [00:37:58]:
Okay.
Mahara Wayman [00:38:01]:
What I'd like to do now is just I'd like to learn a little bit more about somatic intergrative. What exactly do you mean by that? So thank you for sharing your story and your background. Now let's talk about what it is that you do today and what a difference you're making in people's lives.
Sonia Guzman [00:38:19]:
Absolutely. So somatic is everything referring to the body? So the body, if you think about your body, a machine that has electrical impulses to tell you what's coming next, like prompts as to what's coming next, what you need to do, whether it's hunger, food, you're thirsty, water, all these things that are like unconscious function. And then we have the subconscious, which is the way that we wire in our understanding. So from the age from birth to like seven, we are in, I want to say a theta state, but I might be wrong about the state. But it's kind of like a hypnosis state where we are very suggestive in the way that we learn. And that's why those very early years are very formative years for the way that we apply transformation and store it in our brains so that we don't have to think about the things that we do in our day to day life that are part of self care growth, being a human being, an adult and our experiences throughout life. Imprint. Well, the way that if you think about our system and polyvagal theory which is like fight, flight, freeze and our autonomic system and basically our entire nervous system is designed to cue us without us having to think and make a conscious decision. So if we see a bear and we don't know what a bear is and we don't know that a bear can eat us, we may not respond the way that we do with that knowledge. But the beauty of the wisdom of the body is we can sense that the bear has an intention that doesn't serve us.
Sonia Guzman [00:40:16]:
So we run the other way and.
Sonia Guzman [00:40:20]:
Those are like not conscious factors within us. Well, with the same token, all of these mechanisms that helped us survive in our very primitive environments when we were in nature are still available to us in our body in the modern world. The difference is we make sense of it very differently and everybody's experience is very different. And so when we're in new environments we may not respond in the same way that is conducive to the current environment based on our previous programming. And so even though you logically know something and cognitively it's in your prefrontal cortex, your limbic system or your primitive brain, which is that alert system is not aware of what you know and therefore the imprint that was put in there early may actually be working against you. So that's the somatic piece is understanding the mechanics of the body and how it imprints and how our thoughts and beliefs impact that. And then we have the intergrative from the sense that okay, our world very much wants to tell us. In business, we are a professional and we are this and we are that and we have a facade that we play. But the truth is everything that you do, everything that you think, plan or do is executed through the body. So even though you're in a professional environment executing your job the way that your machine is operating your body is going to impact how you show up to do that job. And it's either going to take a lot of energy or you're going to be fueled and impulse to do the things that you need to do. So if you have this belief in yourself that you're not good enough and I'll use my example in this case feeling like I had to be submissive and not have a voice at home meant that when I was at work in the corporate environment and meeting clients. I remember this one time, I never really stuttered, but I was so anxious and out of it that I literally couldn't even say my name.
Mahara Wayman [00:42:56]:
So what you're explaining is a disconnect and a discord absolutely.
Sonia Guzman [00:43:01]:
So integrative in the sense that your whole being is present at every interaction and engagement in your life, no matter what. So, yes, I do business coaching. Yes, I do. Leadership coaching. Yes, I'm entrepreneurship, but that's not on its own. It's all about how you see yourself in all of these environments that are going to influence you. And that's why tapping into your wisdom and understanding what's happening under the hood is really important. And your body is the key to that. Because the way you and I might have a conversation and I might tell you a memory consciously, but until I start tuning into my body and I realize what that memory felt like, I am so far removed from that story because I am a completely elevated person compared to who I was back then. I'm not going to say different because I am very much me, but I have different beliefs and operate in a different way. So therefore, I'm elevated from where I was before because I was limiting myself. But I didn't remember that. I felt shame in that moment until I was telling you the story. And I felt like the heat on the back of my neck and I felt like the pressure inside of my head. That's not my reality, but in my body. I haven't told that story in public, and therefore the imprint of that feeling, that's what shame feels like in my body.
Mahara Wayman [00:44:48]:
Okay, so I love this. My next question is, what is it like for your clients? Like, when you coach them? Is it a combination of let's just sit and chat? I don't know if do you do it in person? Do you do it on zoom? What type of tools do you use? Can you share that with us?
Sonia Guzman [00:45:08]:
Yeah. So you and I are both mastery methods, certified so trained through the Institute for Coaching Mastery by Alyssa Nobriga. So that is five levels of awareness. The thoughts, the emotions, the behaviors, the unconscious and the somatic, right? So all of those pieces so the beauty of that is she's integrated a lot of psychotherapy techniques into the work as part of the healing piece. And so it is very much like a talk piece, but there's a lot of inquiry around what's happening in the body when you are reaching certain topics. There's a lot of visualization to hack and tap into those sensations and awareness. I use a lot of breath work, and whether that's like holotropic breath work in a 1 hour, 90 minutes session or a three minute quick breath, alternate nostril breathing, there's all kinds of different elements within breath work that allow you to tap into the unconscious and the subconscious. So there's that. And then I do a lot of strategy. I would describe my work as somatic strategy because we look at what you're trying to achieve and explore that with curiosity, the why, the how, what would your ideal scenario look like? So a lot of visualization and then we end up bringing it full circle with what's showing up and getting in the way and tapping into that. And I've actually been doing this now since 2020. And I have created this year, for the first time, I have outlined the way that I work with my clients. And I've actually created a framework, a proprietary framework for the work that I do. So that it's, the framework, but it's always still very much bespoke to the individual, their goals, their objectives and their challenges.
Mahara Wayman [00:47:23]:
Can I just say hallelujah? But what I love, and for those of you that perhaps aren't familiar with coaching, if there's one thing that Sonya and I and all of the coaches in our cohort have learnt, is that success is an inside job. And while we can be cognizant of and work towards outside things, we also know to go a little bit deeper. And curiosity is a part of that. And I love how you explained how the body is also a part of that. And we can use the wisdom of the body to point us and to guide us and to free us. So thank you for that. I thought that was really a beautiful explanation. And for those of you that are interested in Sonya's work, just check the show notes. Afterwards, you can see all of the links to find out more about her and this amazing work that she is doing. Sonya, before we wrap this up, what don't we know that we really need to know about Miss Sonya Gizmond?
Sonia Guzman [00:48:30]:
One thing, I'm an unleashed creative. What does that mean? It means I love to dabble in all kinds of things, whether they be intellectual, art, I'm starting to dabble in philosophy, all kinds of things. But I write music, I sing, and yeah, I'm also writing a book. So all kinds of creative modalities.
Mahara Wayman [00:49:06]:
I'm not sure you're doing enough. You would be badasses out there. Please don't think that you have to do everything to be badass. The first thing that Sonya, that many of us have done is to recognize that we are worth the effort. So I just want to put that out there. While many of the guests on the show have done amazing things and are on this beautiful journey of self-discovery, I want to make it very clear that it doesn't take much to jump on the badass bandwagon hand on heart, take a deep breath and say, I matter. Right? That's the first step to being badass in my book. Sonia, can't thank you enough. This has been a beautiful conversation. Today. We had the pleasure of talking to Sonya Guzman, an integrative Somatic coach who was incredibly gracious and vulnerable with her stories and her thoughts. We can't wait to have a part two on the podcast, so stay tuned, and thank you again for joining me. My name is Mahara Wayman, and this has been The Art of Badassery with our very special guest, Sonia Guzman.
Mahara Wayman [00:50:22]:
Thank you for tuning in to The Art of Badassery.
Mahara Wayman [00:50:25]:
I hope you enjoyed today's episode and.
Mahara Wayman [00:50:27]:
Gained valuable insights to help unleash your inner badass. If you found this podcast helpful, please leave a raid or review on your favorite platform. Your feedback not only helps me improve the show, but it also helps others like yourself discover the podcast. Until next time, keep embracing your authenticity and living life on your terms. Here's to you.
