How to enjoy the present (dialogue with sherpa Sarah)

In this episode you get to meet my dear friend Sarah Hohmann, a business owner and team and research development  expert. She is sharing about her techniques how to make most of your day and create enjoyment in the midst of uncertainty and whatever else life seems to bring us, 

Enjoy!
Warmly,
Sibylle

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Transcript

Sibylle Georgianna: 0:10

Hi there, I am so excited to be here today with Sarah Holman. She's a psychologist with an organization of background, and the owner of the team development solutions. company and I am extremely thrilled Sara, you've been like enriching my life for I don't know how many years even before you got your a Master's, in organizational psychology, we, we pursued the passion of self leadership. So will you catch us up on who you are and what you do? As you as to what you want to share?

Sarah Hohmann: 0:43

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Um, as you mentioned, before, I was in the organizational psychology program, the master's program, that's where we first met. And I really, it's exciting. And I, I was really, I really loved self leadership, I love that concept of it. And I've made that into a project, especially with, you know, encouraging people and helping people to find their own path. And through that, when I graduated from the program, I set off on to my own endeavor to, to help you with, you know, what you were doing with self leadership, and also pursue my own passion in statistics in helping other people with their thesis because that's what I was doing in the program. And I honestly, I loved it. I love doing that. And I loved helping people to, to achieve their goals in whatever means, especially in the, you know, in academic programs,

Unknown: 1:50

yes, and one of the things really and this whole area of academia and teaching mentoring, I really enjoyed how you really well deserved that award that you even won for that for that communal contribution that you gave to the program there. I really am so grateful that that I get to keep picking your brain keep you keep having you as one of the sherpur see or for your perspective on especially work life balance Now, of course, yeah, that's really like apart from who doesn't like work life balance, but if you if you look back at what resources you found to be most beneficial for your own pursuit of personal development or even self leadership and or any any podcasts or classes or books or publications or how do you

Sibylle Georgianna: 2:45

you know, pursue that personal development of that viewer, you know, health and sanity and wellness and all that.

Sarah Hohmann: 2:53

Well, I've mostly I go online and I look through forums of how people have helped them themselves, just in general as a lot of journaling forms and like little prompts because I actually I love journaling that's one of my favorite things to do. And I read through the joy of journaling that was one of my favorite books and I think my to go to resources have been ever since I was little the power of positive thinking by Norman Vincent Peale that's always my like fallback book when I just need a little boost up. And I also have recently I've been into the the town judging by Louis zoo, it's a book that was made in like the sixth century a very simplistic ideas like keeping things simple and appreciating like the good things that come to life and let you know, let things go let things come in. And I always found it's very simple, simple, like wisdom, but you can always come back to it, you know.

Sibylle Georgianna: 4:01

And I think you know, as you even describe it this idea of meditation, yes. virtuality the idea of gratefulness and gratitude. those principles have been around and you know, they there is that we practice them, they help the body, the mind the spirit, and it's beautiful that you can you know, even the resources you listed that it's the the thread, perhaps in those resources as well. That you can partner with these long standing, you know, practices and really see how beneficial that is to you. That is exciting to hear. Oh, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. And so how long do you think or is this like one of your systems or a process to to kind of get clarity and and funnel from overwhelm to focus that you met you you do the journaling? Or do you just do it as like an as needed or if you tell me a little bit more about that,

Sarah Hohmann: 5:01

of course, sometimes it is as needed. But a lot of times, it's sort of like like, how Like, you know, you get up and you brush your teeth, so you know, you, your teeth are clean throughout the day. And or, you know, you brush your hair in the morning, it's sort of, if I keep up on the journaling, then other things don't get built up, you know, within my mind, and I don't get overwhelmed. So it's sort of like chipping down. My, the thoughts that sort of cloud my head in a way, and just, you know, just begin the, as I always say, begin the day, with a clear open mind, and I meditate I journal, I write down the feelings that I'm feeling, and then I can go about my day, you know,

Sibylle Georgianna: 5:48

that's awesome. Awesome. So is there also a way or process that you use with customers, or the clients you work with to help them with their stresses? I know, supporting people in academic research is probably they're probably the most stressed ever, you know, stage in their development? Oh, how would What do you help? Or how do you help your customers?

Sarah Hohmann: 6:12

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it really also depends on how they perceive information and how they learned. Are they visual learners? Do they need to do anything short, like draw out? Or, you know, color for a little bit? Did they need to, like, listen to music? Do they need to, like sit down? What How did they? What what's usually their go to, I think that's kind of what I pick up on first. And from there, I say, you know, what's a good idea, maybe going down this route, like, sort of, in case, if they're really into meditation, or like, maybe I need to sit down and sit quietly for a little bit, then I'm like, hey, that definitely works for you. Or, hey, I need to write this out and then read it back, then that definitely, I think, the most important thing that I urge my clients to do is, try, try it out, and see if it resonates with you. And that's the way it's gonna stick.

Sibylle Georgianna: 7:15

And I think that is also such a simple but yet so powerful practice, it helps us from even just from a clinical point of view to get out of the anxiety into more of the motion of the body to to solve whatever the the stressor is, instead of having that ruminating or the overwhelm or how we're so easily, you know, basically in our head, but not in our lives. Yes. And I think it's awesome, how you, you kind of pull them out of that in that very concrete way. And so, so, and that reminds me to ask you, since you also just launched your own podcast on work life balance, and I'm going to be picking forever on. you're researching. So tell us a little bit, how would you? Is that what you incorporate? Also in your in your podcast? Like? How tell us? Tell us about that?

Sarah Hohmann: 8:10

Absolutely. My podcast is called that's not work. Because, you know, it's really about finding the joys of what you do at work and bringing them at home and vice versa. So if you find something really that resonates with you, like a hobby that you have at, at home, and you can we kind of talk about how can we take those elements and bring it into work and strengthen our work life sort of feels like that what we're doing isn't really work, but we're actually enjoying the process of it. And so I think there's a lot of insight that I brought within my personal life of Hey, I really like talking about like movies, for example. And I've incorporated that into a lot of my examples, when I go through the the master's program back in, you know, 2017 and like the assignments of relating back to, oh, you know, what, there's this movie that, you know, incorporates this concept, and I've talked about it in my discussions or something like that, you know, bringing your own personal self into the workplace and kind of balancing out with your personal life as well.

Sibylle Georgianna: 9:23

And that reminds me, didn't you annotate one of those books on self leadership for organizational psychology students with that, is that not like months and Houghton or a monk or yes of those author? I mean, that was you a contribution to that series of books that which is more geared for self help for graduate students or students in general. Right. Um, tell us a little bit about that. I thought I was fascinated by what you added to that series.

Sarah Hohmann: 10:00

Oh, honestly. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed doing like adding my own thoughts and take some because that's what they wanted to do. They were thinking of of incorporating a movie, and then how that relates to a self leadership concept. Like, for example, one of them was, I think it was like an Iron Man movie or a spider man movie. And he talked is like Tony Stark was talking to Spider Man on the suit that he was wearing. And he says, if, if you don't feel needed in the suit, then you don't need, then you can't have like the suit like, in other words, you know, you need to be okay without the suit, you know, in using those skills that it brings you in order to be really a strong person. And I was like, Hey, you know, what that relates to self leadership, there's a lot of, you know, you need to be focused on yourself and within, to really go out and lead the world and, you know, take charge in that way. There's a lot of tools that you can take in. But it's not until you recognize that, hey, I have that within myself. You know, that makes sense.

Sibylle Georgianna: 11:09

A lot of sense. And I think also, for me, in this podcast over here, get to these resources that would carry already with us. And sometimes we just have to wipe off the debris of distraction, or Yes, again, the influencers, technology has such a hit on the brain that can keep us very distracted, very kind of untethered. That's really like my the goal on this, this podcast to help people to get greater clarity to using their voice to using and really using their sound of mind in their sanity to make sane decisions is so needed, where there's, again, so many so many distractions out there. So if we think about even, like something you would want the listener to know. And we will talk more as we look at different topics, we invite other shoppers with us here. But like a takeaway you would want them even to have from our brief introduction, what we want them to know or takeaway from our time,

Sarah Hohmann: 12:14

my best practice or something that I'd like to take away would be finding ways to stay in the moment, definitely. And it could be going through the grocery store and picking out like the best foods and telling yourself, wow, you know what, I'm really happy that I'm doing this today, I'm really grateful for this opportunity. And this feels good. And I'm being productive, because I'm gathering the food I need for this week. So I you know, just find those little moments that bring you back within yourself and giving yourself gravity tude and really love where you are in life and the immediate environment, because I feel like, as we go throughout the day, it kind of gets lost in the shuffle. And sometimes we really need to go back to ourselves and like, Hey, you know what, you're a valuable person. And this this moment matters, you know?

Sibylle Georgianna: 13:05

Absolutely. And it is so simple to be in the moment and so hard anytime. I do believe that, that brings us to that more calm, nervous system response that we want to be in more more of the times we awaken than not. So I think that's a great takeaway. And then I do look forward to having your perspective on work life balance, working healthy, saying let's not work first, and all the times together. So I really appreciate your your time for this introduction. And where can i How can people reach you?

Sarah Hohmann: 13:45

I have a Instagram team development solutions. And there's also team development solutions.com on the web, definitely both ways. Yeah, just send a message, you know, reach out to me, I'm always available. You know, I'd love to hear from you guys

Sibylle Georgianna: 14:04

are wonderful. And we know that you are we'll hear from Sarah as part of this podcast. So there is going to be a way if you can't find a for whatever these reasons, although she just gave really good to two good ways to reach her and you can also always reach out and I will forward her contact to you. Okay. That is so exciting to hear about your endeavors. And I can't wait to hear more of it as we keep chatting. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for this conversation.