Amina Change Your Life

Latest Episodes:

Understanding Millennial Burnout and How to Overcome It with Anne Helen Petersen May 16, 2023

Show notes

Are you a millennial struggling with burnout? Do you dream of finding a way to balance your work and rest? Anne Helen Petersen gives us the historical context that set millennials up to be the "burnout generation" and tells us what we can do about it.

Anne Helen Petersen, is a writer, researcher, and burnout expert with a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Texas. Anne is the author of four remarkable books, including "Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation" and "Out of the Office."

In this episode, you will be able to:

Discover the societal and personal factors that lead to burnout and how to address them.
Uncover the influence of Boomers and the Greatest Generation on today's work and responsibility norms.
Embrace the "good enough" mentality, recognizing the value of your efforts, even if they're not perfect.
Learn the significance of rest and non-linear growth as essential tools to combat burnout.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00:05 - Lowering the Bar and Good Enough 00:01:13 - Introduction to the Burnout Generation 00:02:09 - Anne's Journey to Writing about Burnout 00:08:08 - The Role of Boomers in Millennial Precarity 00:12:57 - The Effects of Micromanaged Childhoods on Millennial Burnout 00:13:31 - High Expectations and Lowering the Bar 00:14:59 - Ambition Trap

00:25:50 - Surrendering Control 00:27:03 - The Perennial Flower Metaphor 00:29:51 - Gratitude and Restoration

The resources mentioned in this episode are:

Read Anne Helen Petersen's book, Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, for more insights and strategies for addressing burnout.

Quotes:

"If you can't put it on LinkedIn, somehow, it's not an achievement." - Anne Helen Petersen

"How can we lower the bar for everyone?" - Anne Helen Petersen

"Lowering the bar is giving yourself permission to be who you are in that moment." - Anne Helen Petersen

Connect with Anne Helen Petersen

Instagram: @annehelenpetersen

Newsletter: Culture Study

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai

How to Prevent Burnout and Prioritize Self-Care: LIve Coaching Session May 09, 2023

Show notes

Today on our Live Coaching Episode, Pilar Torcal, a designer and illustrator with an incredible fast-paced career shares the truth about her relationship to burnout and how her mindset has contributed. In this episode, we unpack Amina's four part framework on burnout looking at biology, visible labor, invisible labor, and tolerations. Don't miss out on this opportunity to transform your wellbeing and take your business to the next level.

In this episode, you will be able to:

Utilize powerful burnout prevention techniques focusing on self awareness, limiting overwork through invisible labor and releasing tolerations.
Understand how visible and invisible labor, tolerations and biology can lead to burnout.
Develop the essential skill to honor your true nature and hold boundaries around your work.
Transform your scarcity mentality and shift your confirmation bias around opportunities.

My special guest is Pilar Torcal

Meet Pilar Torcal, a talented designer and illustrator hailing from Barcelona. Growing up in the 80s, she dreamt of being a gymnast and an archaeologist. Pilar's career flourished in New York, where she worked with small studios and major digital design agencies. Eventually, she returned to her hometown to embark on her independent journey. Today, her impressive client roster includes big names like Wired US, WWF, Puerto de Indias, Microsoft, Fast & Co., and TEDx. Pilar's insights on managing burnout are invaluable for entrepreneurs, as she's learned to navigate this challenge and maintain her creative passion.

Connect with Pilar Torcal

Website: https://pilartorcal.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pilartorcal/

The key moments in this episode are: 00:02:20 - The Burnout Epidemic 00:03:08 - Pilar's Burnout Journey 00:06:27 - Biology and Burnout 00:10:57 - Tolerations and Values 00:13:33 - The Three Causes of Overwhelm 00:15:04 - Overcoming Underearning 00:16:45 - Flipping the Confirmation Bias 00:19:01 - Making Miracles Happen 00:27:00 - Limiting Beliefs Around Hard Work 00:28:36 - Prices as Portals 00:29:47 - Healing in Community 00:31:01 - Follow Pilar's Work

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai

How Managers Can Support Employee Mental Health May 02, 2023

Show notes

In this podcast episode, Amina explores the significant impact managers can have on employee mental health. Highlighting findings from a study by the Workforce Institute at UKG which showed that 70% of people report that their manager has a greater impact on their mental health than their therapist or doctor and it can be equivalent to the impact of their life partners. Amina shares her personal experience with a toxic boss in a corporate environment and how it affected her well-being and relationships. To help listeners deal with similar situations, she provides tips for a stress reduction toolkit and emphasizes the importance of self-care and self-compassion. By acknowledging the role managers play in mental health, we can advocate for workplaces that prioritize employee wellness.

In this episode, you will be able to:

Learn the impact our leaders have on our mental health.
Consciously select managers during the interview process.
Learn the importance of setting boundaries with managers that affect your mental health.
Explore the concept of shadow work and how it can impact the relationship we have with co-workers and managers.
Name it to tame it and other self-awareness tools.
Mindfulness, therapy, and support groups as coping mechanisms.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00:05 - The Impact of Managers on Mental Health

00:02:28 - The Importance of Good Mental Health

00:03:47 - Supporting Mental Health at Work

00:05:13 - Coping with Toxic Managers

00:10:08 - Using Body Scans and Breath Work

00:12:43 - Setting Boundaries

00:14:27 - Shadow Work

00:16:51 - Mindfulness and therapy

00:18:44 - Moving On

00:19:23 - Seeking Help

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai

Resources

The Body Keeps the Score

What Happened to You

The Dark Side of the Light Chasers

How to Harness Your Nervous System for Emotional Resilience with Amy Bonaduce-Gardner Apr 25, 2023

Show notes

Through her work as a nervous system coach, Amy Bonaduce-Gardner has helped many people suffering from emotional and physical distress, unlock the power of the autonomic nervous system. By helping clients reconnect with their bodies, Amy is providing an unexpected path to well-being, leaving us to wonder: what other secrets of the body are yet to be discovered?

In this episode, you will learn the following:

Discover the vital role your nervous system plays in your emotional and physical well-being.
Grasp the different stages of sympathetic nervous response and their impact on your overall health.
Uncover the Fajardo method to accurately pinpoint whether you're in a sympathetic or parasympathetic state.
Realize the profound connection between autoimmune disorders and the importance of a parasympathetic state.
Harness the power of movement and trauma release to stimulate healing and personal growth.

My special guest is Amy Bonaduce-Gardner

Amy Bonaduce-Gardner, a seasoned teacher and the owner of Prism Movement Studio, has been helping individuals transform their lives for the past 25 years. With a degree in psychology, training in The Fajardo Method of Biomechanics, and training in movement and dance, Amy's background is both diverse and impressive. Her work focuses on the relationship between the nervous system and physical and emotional well-being, providing relief for clients with unresolved physical and emotional challenges.

[00:00:05] - Understanding Nervous System Work, [00:03:32] - Calm vs. Rest and Digest, [ 00:07:45] - Who Can Benefit from Nervous System Work, [00:09:06] - Childhood Adversity and the Nervous System, [00:13:15] - Understanding the Seven Stages of Stress, [00:16:20] - Identifying Your Stage, [00:20:14] - Adverse Childhood Experiences, [00:21:09] - The Link Between Sympathetic States and Disease, [00:22:51] - The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, [00:25:32] - Mapping the Tongue, [00:26:41] - Shifts in the Nervous System, [00:27:01] - Where to Find Amy Bonaduce-Gardner,

Quotes

"Nervous system work can be described in many different ways, and there's lots of different ways that people go about practicing nervous system work. So some people might meditate, some people might take a yoga class, some people might go to the gym. I think there's lots of various ways that you can approach it. For me, the nervous system work that I do is more about the process of allowing your autonomic nervous system to take in more sensory information."

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai

Connect with Amy Bonaduce-Gardner

Website: Prism Movement Studio

Instagram: @PrismMovementStudio

How to Recognize and Address Burnout at Work Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

When Amina's own career came to a grinding halt due to burnout and autoimmune diseases, she had to reimagine what ambition, purpose, and career meant to her—and soon, to those around her. Through her innovative approach to tackling burnout, Amina has discovered that true success lies in embracing the natural cycles of life.

In this episode, you will be able to:

1. Discover the key factors behind burnout and how to successfully manage them.

2. Learn the art of balancing visible and invisible labor to enhance overall well-being.

3. Uncover the significance of emotional labor in workplace fatigue and its potential impact.

4. Grasp the fundamentals of the Healthy Mind Platter framework, a tool for nurturing mental health.

5. Implement powerful grounding exercises for sustaining a well-balanced nervous system.

Join host Amina AlTai in a captivating conversation around burnout and how to address the challenges faced by Millennials and Gen Z professionals.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00:05 - Linear Trajectories vs. Cycles
00:01:13 - Burnout Epidemic
00:05:01 - Burnout Phenomenon
00:06:10 - Visible and Invisible Labor
00:08:58 - Framework on Burnout
00:11:55 - The Problem With Excessive Emotional Labor
00:12:25 - The Healthy Mind Platter
00:17:41 - The Importance of a Healthy Nervous System
00:19:03 - Taking Agency Over Burnout

Quotes

"Even taking one to 2 hours a week to sit and do nothing, not even meditate, will actually make space in our brains for greater creativity and for us to really live into our highest contribution."

"52% of the US. Workforce is burned out, compared to 43% pre pandemic. And I would actually say that the numbers are probably higher than that because I have a front row seat to this with my coaching, both my one on one practice as well as inside of corporate."

"I think a lot of what we're socialized to believe is that our careers are linear trajectories upward, that we're always moving skyward that couldn't be further from the truth and that couldn't be more disconnected from our humanity."

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai

Resources

My worksheet on mitigating burnout leveraging my framework

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

How to Align Business Practices With Social and Economic Justice Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

When Kelly Diels, a feminist entrepreneur, faced an internal crisis of having to use business tactics in direct conflict with her principles, she had to find a creative way to do business in a way that honored her values, her team, and the collective.

Kelly is a feminist educator, writer, and coach specializing in feminist marketing for culture makers. She works to raise awareness about how business-as-usual formulas reproduce oppression and develops alternate feminist marketing tools to help us do better.

A feminist since she was eleven, Kelly went on to study political philosophy, so when she became an entrepreneur, she immediately realized the conflict between her personal beliefs and the business tactics she was being taught. After a personal breakdown and going through a start-stop cycle of trying to build something that was in conflict with her values, she realized that economic justice meant everyone in the equation needed to be flourishing. She now works with people who have non dominant identities to help them understand and navigate the conditioning and trauma that comes up when challenging the status quo. Kelly believes that tending to one's emotions and nervous system is essential for success.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. How to Balance Principles and Business Tactics to Achieve Success

2. What is Economic Justice, and How to Create It in Businesses

3. How Economic Justice Helps Everyone Thrive

4. Kelly's Three-Part Framework for Economic Justice

5. What Strategies are Needed to Create Demand and Generate Leads as Culture-Makers

[2:10] How Kelly came to this work
[4:23] Why many teaching methods don't work for every identity
[5:15] What is economic justice
[7:34] How not taking care of ourselves undermines the collective
[8:18] Why asking "how can I make this more affordable" is asking the wrong question
[9:56] Making the numbers work
[11:28] Cultural conditioning and how doing the math supports our nervous system
[14:14] The power of somatic practices and therapy
[17:17] Money and feelings of survival
[19:24] Creating demand as culture-makers
[21:15] Business systems and The Flywheel
[23:16] Entrepreneurship and chronic illness
[26:24] The onus of change doesn't rest solely on our shoulders
[29:05] The power and challenge of being the "first, the few, or the only"
[31:21] The power of community care
[35:24] How employees can be participants in economic justice
[38:54] How culture makers and historically excluded folks can leverage their ambition to pave the way

Quotes

"If you have a non-dominant identity and you're supposed to be signaling authority, you're going to get punished for that online. So what I think economic justice is, is that every human has the resources they need to flourish."

"Vulnerability is the opportunity for relationship. We have to show each other our needs to actually be in loving relationships."

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai

Connect with Kelly Diels

Website: KellyDiels.com

Instagram: @kelly.diels

How to Transform Your Money Mindset for Financial Growth: Live Coaching Session Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Khadijah, a grounded soul with energy and vivacity for life, must confront her deep-seated people-pleasing tendencies and accept her self-worth in order to level up her business and achieve her goal of shifting culture.

Khadijah is a multidisciplinary creative and brand strategist from Erbil, Iraq. She is a Visual Arts graduate of LaGuardia High School in New York City, a Barnard College alumni in Middle Eastern Studies, and a graphic design student from Shillington College.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. Turning Chaos Into Order: How can we use our creative energy to level up, transform our lives and businesses, and find stability in the midst of chaos?

2. Redefining Identity: How can we explore and celebrate our cultural identities and create meaningful representations of ourselves in the world?

3. Money Mindset: What are the deeper issues behind money mindset, and how can we redefine our value and worth through our daily routines?

[4:30] Khadijah's challenge
[6:14] The big learnings and takeaways
[9:13] Exploring people pleasing
[11:00] People pleasing as a trauma response
[13:15] Reframing the "niche" business
[14:49] Reframing the limiting belief that there isn't enough work for Khadijah
[17:36] Khadijah's three examples that debunk her limiting belief
[20:30] The challenges with identity
[22:50] Moving towards what calls you
[23:48] Shaping Khadijah's thought-leadership
[28:03] Next steps and actions

Quotes

"People pleasing is often a trauma response. It's what we've done in the family system to stay safe, to stay lovable, to not be abandoned. And you and I are both Arab. A lot of Arab cultures are collective cultures, right? Collective culture and codependent culture can sit side by side because oftentimes, we are told to defer to our elders or it's really patriarchal. So we're taught oftentimes to abandon ourselves or to put others first. There's this big, huge reclamation that's happening for you that's saying, no more."

"87% of women actually ascribe genius, brilliance, ambition to men, and think of it as a male trait."

"What I'm hearing is breaking the cultural stereotypes in design. And you know how big that is? There are stereotypes everywhere in design. You get out on stage or on Instagram, and you talk about that, your books will be full."

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

Linkedin: linkedin/in/aminaaltai

Connect with Khadijah Abdul Nabi

Website: YaKhadijah.com

Instagram: @YaKhadijah

Loved this episode? Leave us a 5-star review and rating here:

Strategies to Negotiate Your Salary and Raise With Confidence Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

Hello my friends! In today's episode, we're talking all about how to ask for more money. From the stigma around money conversations, to asking for a raise within an organization, to raising your prices as a business owner—we're exploring it all. I will also get into how to communicate our value, how our mindset affects the outcome of the conversation, and supporting both yes and no decisions.

Let's delve in!

In this Episode You'll Learn:

[01:21] The stigmatized conversation around money.
[02:01] How to ask for a raise inside an organization.
[03:06] Communicate your uniqueness.
[03:25] Convey your increased value.
[04:40] Is the timing right?
[05:52] Check your mindset.
[06:39] Write a script.
[07:44] When there's a pay imbalance.
[08:17] Asking for more money as a service provider.
[09:20] Your value proposition.
[10:35] Client transformation.
[12:22] Offer options.
[13:19] Provide notice.
[14:23] Not everybody has to get onboard.

Quotes:

"We need to understand our market value and be able to communicate our unique value." [02:05]
"It's important that you connect with people that have different identities to you." [02:30]
"There's no such thing as perfect timing." [05:33]
"Not everyone is going to come with us on the journey, and that's okay." [14:34]

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

How to Build Financial Success Beyond Mental Blocks Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

Hello my friends! For today's episode, I will be talking about money, how different identity contexts affect our relationships with money, and how anyone can change their relationship with money. I will also go through all the data and how allies can help open the conversations for underrepresented people.

Let's delve in!

In this Episode You'll Learn:

[03:28] The data for different identities.
[11:25] Getting the money you deserve.
[13:20] How do we do it?
[13:50] Shift your mindset.
[16:04] Work on your trauma.
[17:04] Support your nervous system.
[18:18] Open your portals.
[18:58] Seek out resources that speak to your identity.
[19:38] Sit with your allies.
[20:18] Supporting underrepresented people.

Quotes:

"We cannot mindset shift ourselves out of systemic oppression." [10:27]
"Shame kills more dreams than fear ever does." [14:19]
"We can all do something to change the conversation and experience around money." [20:55]

Resources

So Money Podcast, by Farnoosh Torabi.

Ellevest.

Stash Wealth

22 Ways to Fight the Gender Wealth Gap

The Racial Wealth Gap May Be the Key to Other Inequities

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com.

Facebook: Amina AlTai.

Instagram: @aminaaltai.

TikTok: @theaminaaltai

How to Build a Business That Reflects Your Unique Skills Mar 14, 2023

Show notes

Hello my friends! For today's episode, I'm joined by Nitika Chopra. We talk about owning our exceptional abilities, the challenges surrounding our gifts, and the power of rock bottoms. Nitika also gets into how chronic illness has impacted Nitika's gifts, and giving ourselves permission to show up as we are.

Let's delve in!

In this Episode You'll Learn:

[03:17] How Nitika got started.
[06:39] Nitika's exceptional abilities.
[10:25] Owning her gifts.
[15:23] How much time does Nitika spend in her zone of genius?
[22:29] The challenging times around our gifts.
[33:55] Are gifts enough?
[38:23] As a brown woman living with chronic illnesses.
[44:00] Show up as you are.

Quotes:

"The thing that we're most apologetic for is usually our superpower." [14:06]
"No matter how much you try to get yourself to surrender, it doesn't happen until you have no other choice." [25:42]
"Wherever I am today, it has to be enough for you." [44:40]

Connect with Nitika

Website: chronicon.co

nitikachopra.com

Instagram: @nitikachopra

Connect with Amina AlTai

Website: aminaaltai.com

Instagram: @aminaaltai

TikTok: @theaminaaltai