If we’re honest, we can probably all think of a time when we were encouraged not to express a certain emotion we were feeling. Unfortunately, many children have grown up to be adults who aren’t very skilled in showing emotions responsibly. My guest today is on a mission to bring emotions back—in the best way.
Christie Mann is on a mission to be a lifelong learner and dedicated leader. She is an author, spiritual psychologist, leadership coach, learning consultant, trainer, speaker, and yoga/meditation teacher. Christie created The Adventures of Li’l Sass, a series of personal development books for young people. She’s a proud member of CTI’s faculty; CTI is the Coach Training Institute, which is the world’s largest and oldest in-person coach training school. Christie shares with us how she had a dream, and what she did to make that dream come true, along with the work she does with organizational leaders around emotions.
Most of us probably experienced something as a kid when our emotions were “not allowed.”
Show Highlights:
- How Christie became motivated to bring emotions back, to help kids and adults access emotions in responsible ways
- How Christie was thrust into a leadership position at age 13, when her father went to jail; it was only after she “stuffed down” her emotions for years that she finally found healing
- The book series feature “Li’l Sass,” a character who learns how to deal with different emotions
- Christie’s dream is to have the books in every home and to someday have them made into an animated cartoon, a video game, and a curriculum
- The red cape and the emotional wellness badges from the book
- How Christie conducts leadership coaching around emotions
- How adults will express emotions more openly if they benefit a child
- Why we are more whole and effective when we allow spaces for emotions, and why emotions shouldn’t automatically equal vulnerability
- The results are a deeper connection to self and to those around us
- Creating space for self-care as coaches: learning when to say NO and how to carve out spaces for ourselves
- How saying NO creates space for what REALLY needs to be there
- Christie’s personal example of a paradigm shift that she had to make—and how she allowed it to unfold
- How she felt when she finally held her books in her hand for the first time
- What it takes to put together a book
- Finding support as a self-publisher and learning what to let go of
- Why Christie is dedicated to sharing a message that kids need to hear and understand in order to increase emotional intelligence
- How this movement fits perfectly into the coaching goal in helping someone be whole, creative, and resourceful
- Christie’s takeaway message: “We all need to feel safe in our emotions as human beings.”
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