Meet Dawn L Johnson 💃 Your guide back to your authentic dope self

Meet Dawn L Johnson 💃 Your guide back to your authentic dope self

30Women30Stories, Athena Village, Member Stories

by  | May 3, 2021 | 2021, 30 Women 30 Stories

Meet Dawn L Johnson 💃 Your guide back to your authentic dope self

Coach Dawn L Johnson Life | Mindset | Wellness Advocate

A 20 plus year wellness advocate of all things healing from the inside out. Podcast host, leadership, deep self awareness, highly intuitive, empathizing, relationship building, mentoring.

Minneapolis/St. Paul MN US

Superwoman by Alicia Keys

My Story

PERSEVERANCE

My successes came from mistakes, despite struggling in silence

HUMBLED BEGINNINGS

As a young girl I realized quickly that leadership was my biggest strength

More about Dawn

I coach dope ass Women and Men to unlearn past behaviors and gain freedom from mind drama of all the lies you’ve ever believed of yourself.  Through my heart centered coaching practice I will guide you to connect with your inner light. Let’s take this healing journey together.

Where to Find Dawn

Uncomplicating Self-Care

Uncomplicating Self-Care

Member Stories

by  | May 2, 2021 | Collective, Rachelle Niemann

Photo credit: Logan Nolin – Unsplash

Self-care is a term that is used a lot these days. When we take the time to explore the depths of self-care, we help ourselves create environments that support our long-term well-being. And it’s clear we all need to practice self-care consistently.

Self-care can be challenging even when everything is going smoothly and your emotions are well-managed. It can get harder during times of change, stress or anxiety, but this is when it’s even more important to lean into self-care that supports well-being and our truest selves.

Keep It Simple

Self-care doesn’t have to be complex, expensive, or time-consuming. Look at working it into your regular schedule and days rather than something you need to set time aside for or be an “over there” thing that seems just out of reach. Self-care can be done throughout the day in little spurts to maintain your energy where you want it to be and to reset or change states when needed or required.

It’s also very personal and has to work for you and your current state and self. Not everything will work the same for everyone.

It can be as simple as asking yourself, “What do I need in this moment?” or “What can I do that is loving and/or supportive to me?”

Pause, breathe, connect with yourself, pay attention and offer loving kindness. This is the perfect time to start asking yourself what you need in the moment and adapting your self-care practices.

When Self-Care is Hard

If you are struggling with self-care, focus on simplifying and lowering and removing barriers to action. “What is the simplest thing I can do for my self-care right now?” Take a very simple action now and worry about how you don’t want to do it later.

There is a reason it is called a practice. This means we can get better at it all the time, and we can try different things to make it work for us. Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice is perfect! Self-care is an unending element that allows us to feel and embrace self-love.

Practice Self-Care in Community

If you’re a member of Athena Village, join the monthly Self-Care Connection Salon to enhance self-care, have life-giving connections, and invoke self-love.

Through interactive sessions, we will look into simplifying and integrating self-care practices into our daily routines. Let’s come together to explore and connect with each other and self-care. We will talk a little, reflect a little, and have space to actively practice self-care together. Some things we can focus on include:

Creating and/or simplifying your self-care practices to create more ease around caring for yourself

Having open discussions around the benefits, challenges, and nuances of self-care

Tools and practices to help with integrating self-care into your daily routines during the holidays and beyond

I look forward to connecting with you there!

Rachelle Niemann

compassionate. holder of space. heart-connected.
calm.

RachelleNieman.com
Meet Sharon Payne 💃 Healer Musician

Meet Sharon Payne 💃 Healer Musician

30Women30Stories, Athena Village, Member Stories

by  | Apr 30, 2021 | 2021, 30 Women 30 Stories, Sharon Payne

Meet Sharon Payne 💃 Healer Musician

Sharon Payne, Healer, Songstress

Writer, editor, musician, healer, project manager. Looking for new ways to jump start the next phase of my life!

Twin Cities MN US

My Song

I couldn’t choose just one!  so Get Up by Mary Mary “what are you afraid of? don’t you know what you are made of?”!!
and But the World Goes ‘Round performed by Liza Minelli from New York New York.  It’s a song about mojo!

My Mojo Stories

Songstress

Healer

More About Sharon


Sharon Payne wears many hats 
 and she loves each one!

She is a life-long learner with an inquisitive mind and the curiosity to ask “why” and to seek new growth. Sharon is a successful project leader with over 20 years of experience in the educational assessment and survey research industries, working in both business development and project management. In addition to project leadership, Sharon is a natural communicator with exceptional interpersonal, written, and verbal skills and has been a writer, editor, and writing instructor. She often takes on freelance writing and editing jobs.

Sharon has been a musician since as far back as she can remember. Her early musical experiences including singing “God Bless America” at a family reunion at age 4! She has sung in numerous choral groups over the years, has played the piano for over 40 years, and played the bassoon from grade school into her 30s. Music is one of the most important ways that Sharon keeps her mojo alive, and she has recently taken up playing classical guitar as well.

Sharon has studied the healing arts of Reiki and Qigong and is a Reiki Master, trained through Stone Circle Reiki, and a Qigong Level 3 Practitioner, trained through Spring Forest Qigong. She hopes to expand her healing practice during the next year, to bring the benefit of energy healing to many.

Finally, Sharon is the mom to a totally amazing 22-year-old son, whom she adores with all her heart.

Where to Find Sharon

Meet Kristin Maija Peterson 💃 Visual Artist

Meet Kristin Maija Peterson 💃 Visual Artist

Member Stories

by  | Apr 29, 2021 | 2021, 30 Women 30 Stories

Meet Kristin Maija Peterson 💃 Visual Artist

Visual Artist I Graphic Designer I Writer I Beauty Hunter and Environmentalist I Collaborator I Loves Meaningful Conversations, Good Stories, (and Puppies!)

Eagan MN US

Sade’s “Hang On To Your Love”

My Mojo

I love Lisa Townsend‘s approach to telling her mojo story that I decided to use the same question-answer format.

How would you define your mojo?

Mojo is showing up as your true self, not through the lens of how others expect you to be, or you assume they want you to think and behave. It’s pure acceptance and love of who you are as a human being and being able to love and accept others for who they are even if they drive you bonkers sometimes. It is a life force. It’s also having convictions in what you believe and value.

Have you always had mojo?

Oh, hell, no. Thinking back when and how mojo appeared in my life, there is a common thread. It’s always been in times of genuine camaraderie. It’s being thrown into a new situation with new people, finding friends who know how to tease you just right that you don’t take yourself too seriously and are there with a shoulder when you are hurting. In time you gather a bunch of private jokes and stories that connect you like glue. This is where I thrived.

While these early experiences with my mojo were formative, my mojo has shifted through the years and times when my mojo would be absent all together. My life partner is an entrepreneur in the truest sense, and that means taking risks. We had three mortgages out on our house to finance his venture while in the process of raising capital and putting a son through college. As other twists of fate happened, we lost our home, our credit, our stability, as many did during the Great Recession / Housing Debacle in 2008.

If we did not have resourceful friends, we would have been homeless. The irony is that I was so busy with client project work and yet, it was not enough. Banks were hell-bent on foreclosure and refused to work with homeowners behind in their mortgages.

Since then, we have moved seven times in 12 years. We mended our credit, but again, it took 12 years to do so. Things are much better now. As scary as those times were, in the end, they were a gift. I have more compassion and empathy for people. I cannot judge because I have no idea what that person has gone through or what they are currently dealing with on any given day.

It was really tough calling my mojo back. The first was carving out space for creating art in the tiny shoebox townhome we were renting. I set up a table in our bedroom. It became an alter place where I would conduct my art practice and start finding a clear direction.

The second was realizing my happiness, worth, and success is not tied to my partner, nor is his happiness, worth, and success is tied to mine. In other words, we support, love, and celebrate all that we are and do together, but we are also individual people.

I am still hoping to find my mojo that comes from genuine camaraderie. I think as the struggles of the past 12 years are closing, and as I can open up, not be afraid all the time, the mojo I crave may just find me when I am not looking.

If your mojo was a color/animal/place, what would that be?

  • Color: Coral Pink. I was never a big fan of pinks, and I’m not a girly girl, but lately, I am drawn to it. It’s an unapologetic way of saying I am not all boots and blue jeans.
  • Animal: A horse. Specifically, a spirited painted mustang. Besides, mustangs have stocker legs, just like I have.
  • Place: An old-growth forest with a creek running through it.

What does your mojo help you do?

Be true to me. Make better decisions. As I was telling Kelly and Village, it helped me take the leap from working for clients to taking on my vocation as a visual artist full-time.

Is your mojo around all the time?

It’s showing up a bit more these days – sometimes it sneaks in around the corner to say hi, I’m here. Other times, it’s a full-on bear hug. I am more likely to ask for what I want and say no to what doesn’t serve me. I’ll see how it goes as things open up post-COVID where I can fully join in the world again.

When do you feel your mojo most?

There are three places I can name. One, when I am just past the point of the anxious beginning of a new painting (or drawing) where things start to gel, and flow sets in. I pretty much forget to eat and lose track of time. It’s total bliss. Second, hanging out with my partner, going on a day trip somewhere, getting lost in our own fun exploration, and back and forth banter. We have some deep conversations when we are away from home. Third, it’s the place I mentioned. Walking through an old-growth forest, feeling that this is where I should be, right here, right now. I am complete.

More About Kristin Maija


After 25 years as a graphic designer, I have transitioned into my vocation as a visual artist, conducting a studio art practice and showing my work. Mediums include watercolor, graphite and color pencil, pen and ink, printmaking, and the book arts. I also write and often craft stories to accompany my artwork. The underlining theme of my work is to reveal the unexpected beauty in wild and messy spaces I discover in the natural world with the belief that if people find something beautiful, they will want to protect it. The audacious idea is to be able to use my work to create spaces for dialogue around climate change and ways we can all come together to form resilient and equitable lives, not just for humans but for all life on earth.

 

Where to Find Kristin Maija

 

Meet Erin Metz 💃 Therapist in private practice

Meet Erin Metz 💃 Therapist in private practice

30Women30Stories, Athena Village, Member Stories

by  | Apr 28, 2021 | 2021, 30 Women 30 Stories

Meet Erin Metz 💃 Therapist in private practice

Erin Metz (she/her), Psychotherapist

Curious. Creative. Compassionate. Calm.
Steadfast believer in new beginnings, creating change and knowing (& loving) oneself.

Minneapolis/St. Paul MN US

“I Am Woman” Tribute to Helen Reddy from the 2020 ARIA Awards #Livestream
Helen Reddy passed away this year. Spotifiy audio version is the original recording of I AM WOMAN.

My Story

Sometimes we know.  We know what we want, who we want to be, what stories we want to create.  Sometimes we reinvent ourselves or discover ourselves for the very first time by struggling with change.  This is a story from many years ago of finding and listening to my essential self.

I sit alone at my kitchen counter, glancing around the room and notice at once the missing backpacks, piles of school books, and dropped sweatshirts.  The voices of young people laughing, talking, and blaring music that had so often filled this space are gone and I feel it.  I feel the absence of my children.  I feel the emptiness, greater than in my house, I feel it in my heart.

I am in transition as it is so often phrased.  My children have gone off to college, off to live on their own and begin lives that are independent of me.  How strange, I too, am beginning a life independent of my children.

I was not much older than my son is now when he was born.  I was so excited to welcome him into the world and to be a mother and yet I knew I was very young and that there would be many things I would miss out on while raising children. One day, I told myself, when they are grown, I will do all those things I was putting on hold.

And now that “one-day” is here.  It’s an interesting expression, vague, distant and without much direction.

I was swimming in uncertainty, reaching for a place to belong, to feel like my essential self

I started that journey with much anxiety, fear, doubt of my abilities at making a career change this late in life (doesn’t seem like it was that late now!) and more fear.  But I pushed forward because it was my “one-day.”

My first memory of wanting to be a therapist, wanting to help people was in third grade, while I didn’t really have any concept of what a therapist was at the time, I knew it was connected to my essential self. But, life, expectations from others and my own personal growth filled the space of years, marriage, children, work and divorce came and I told myself that when my children were grown, then I would go back to school and make a career change, become a therapist.

I started to question what I was doing.  Was this the right decision?  Was I in over my head?  Am I too old to make such an investment and change in my life?   I felt overwhelmed and unsure.

I considered not continuing, but when I played that out in my mind, it repeatedly left me feeling disappointed and empty.  I was looking for clarity from every place I thought I might find it; the instructors, friends, fellow classmates and my children, yet the clarity was inside of me all along, I just needed to listen.

Many years and a number of transitions have passed.  I believe transitions are a way of life, a constant on our journey.  They often begin with a loss, ask us to let go of the familiar, face uncertainty, and struggle with acceptance. But they also give us a chance to discover and use our strengths, to imagine a new possibility and new beginning.  A chance to redefine ourselves and a chance to honor our essential self.

Without question, I have learned my essential self is something inside me that gets stronger with every transition I navigate, and every new beginning I embrace.

More about Erin


Therapist & Educator best describe my work world parts, but my world view is also greatly influenced and enriched by my mom, nana, wife, sister, daughter and friend parts (not to mention, the creative, curious, quiet, pensive parts). There are so many different parts to all of us, the numerous, often moving parts that make up our whole, authentic self.

With over 25 years’ experience working with children, couples, families, and individuals, I bring a broad range of skills and training to my work as a therapist, educator, and consultant. I approach each interaction using a strengths-based mind-set. Together we will identify your strengths and lean into them to find solutions to challenges you are experiencing. My areas of expertise and special interests include; anxiety, divorce, separation, family transitions, childhood trauma, child behavior, and parenting.

Where to Find Erin

Meet Rachelle Niemann 💃 Holder of Space

Meet Rachelle Niemann 💃 Holder of Space

Member Stories

by  | Apr 27, 2021 | 2021, 30 Women 30 Stories, Collective, Rachelle Niemann

Meet Rachelle Niemann 💃 Holder of Space

Rachelle Niemann

Creative, thoughtful, technically savvy, guide, holder of space, all about instilling inner peace and helping us all know self-love.

Arizona US

Judah & the Lion – Suit and Jacket

ain’t trading my youth for no suit and jacket

I ain’t giving my freedom for your money and status

So don’t say I’m getting older

Cause I’ll say it when I do

My Story

With every act of self-care your authentic self gets stronger, and the fearful, critical mind gets weaker. Every act of self-care is a powerful declaration:  I am on my side. I am on my side, each day I am more and more on my own side.”
– Susan Weiss Berry

Growing up I didn’t have much feminine energy present, and I really only started to understand the difference between masculine and feminine energy and qualities in the last five years. I had very strong masculine influences that shaped my identity growing up. This caused me to think that only the masculine was valuable. I ended up being surrounded by mostly men studying electrical engineering and entering the workforce in a very male-dominated field. I did fine at work and felt comfortable working with mostly men, but I was left feeling like something was missing and that I was having to put on a façade every day.

Since then, through my journey of self-discovery and healing, I was lucky enough to experience the beauty that lies within what is known as the softer side of our humanity. Up until that point, I had no idea what I was missing.

I’m learning more and more that I get my mojo from recognizing the value and power of feminine energy and embracing that my truest self and greatest strengths come from that space.

I appreciate my analytical mind, and I appreciate my vulnerability and emotional self even more.


Recognizing that this is where my power comes from and doing things
from a place of deep love has opened up a whole new world for me. Knowing that
I can be my most vulnerable and authentic self, be okay with being and showing that I am deeply impacted by what I see and feel around me, and holding space for and nurturing myself and others have enabled my truest self to come forth. This is where my magic and my mojo come from. Letting myself see value in feminine energy and understanding that my core values are driven from this space has empowered me to do work that is much more meaningful. I understand the process and discomfort that comes with self-discovery. Healing and holding space for transformation toward self-love and inner peace is my truest work, and this includes helping to navigate the complexities of our human selves and developing self-care that is driven from and supports self-love.

More About Rachelle

Author of Breaking Free from the Hustle for Worthiness and guide and XChange facilitator focused on cultivating environments to support well-being. My facilitation, writing, and workshops are created to help us lean into and proactively choose well-being as a way of being. Through discovering my own path to well-being and inner peace from a place of extreme anxiety, lack of identity, and unmanaged thoughts and emotions, I am dedicated to creating intentional action from a place of true experience and compassion.

 

Where to Find Rachelle

Email: rachelle (at) rachelleniemann.com