Donna McDine's Energy of Serenity Podcast

Creating Safe Mental Spaces

• Donna McDine • Episode 4

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0:00 | 26:16

What if empowerment wasn’t about pushing harder, but about changing the very words you speak to yourself?

In this powerful and deeply grounding conversation, we explore how the power of the word, intention, and emotional responsibility shape the way we empower ourselves and others. From the clinical setting to daily life, this episode reframes empowerment as an inside-out practice rooted in how we define our own reality.

Our guest, Lisa Hendrickson, a licensed certified social worker, shares her years of experience in helping individuals find their voice and reclaim their inner authority. She offers practical rituals for clearing old mental narratives, setting healthy boundaries, and using affirmations to heal. These insights are especially vital for anyone navigating heavy transitions, healers, and those who want to lead their lives without burnout.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The Power of the Word: How the things we say to ourselves set the tone for our entire day.
  • Self-Empowerment through Affirmations: Why starting your day with specific declarations of who you are is essential for growth.
  • The "Active Ingredient" of Gratitude: How simple, small steps of gratitude allow your life to unfurl positively.
  • Creating Safe Mental Spaces: How to move through the fear of being seen and heard in order to thrive.
  • Clinical Compassion: The role of forgiveness and self-kindness in the journey of conscious living.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen inward, and lead from a place of clarity, integrity, and calm strength.

If you’ve been feeling drained, stuck, or disconnected from your personal energy, this conversation will help you reset and realign.

Connect with Donna McDine

Connect with Lisa Hendrickson

SPEAKER_03

When women get together, there's judgment, there's critical, there's all kinds of different thoughts that are going on in your mind. But if you bring down the wall a little bit and create a safe space where everyone there is cherished and everybody is welcome. And we are all meeting on neutral ground because there's imperfection to go around. Everybody has it, but also everybody has perfection.

SPEAKER_00

Hi, I am Donna McDein, and welcome to the Energy of Serenity Podcast. Here we unleash empowerment through the power of the word. Join me and my guests as we share stories, tools, and insights to help you feel grounded and aligned. Let's dive in. Great. Hello. This is Donna McDon of the Energy Serenity Podcast. I am thrilled to invite and applaud the fact that Lisa Hendrikesson is here today. And I'm sorry, I just butchered your last name, but we're going to keep this real. Lisa is a licensed certified social worker. And we've known each other for many years now. We first met during COVID and we've remained connected. And we often talk about the power of the word and how that can really set the tone for someone's day, whatever they may be going through, just an ordinary day or something really heavy. So I know that Lisa brings in that beautiful power of the word into her clinical setting with her clients. And Lisa, without getting too specific with your clients, how do you incorporate the power of what they say to themselves to give them the empowerment to feel good about themselves?

SPEAKER_03

Well, first, thank you. I am privileged to be part of this podcast, honestly. I am thrilled myself. So in a clinical setting, you know, people, first of all, are very hesitant to come to speak to a total stranger, which is honestly understandable, right? It's it's a scary thing to do. A lot of people take a lot of time to make that decision. So when they come, it's very important to open the space and make them feel safe enough to share. Some people share right away, some people it takes time to do that. But how I use that in my clinical practice is that there's a lot of self-doubt when people come to me with a lot of self-doubt, or you know, they're beating themselves up over a certain situation, or they're questioning their intuition, or their ability to, you know, uh make the right choices for themselves, the words they tell themselves is critical. Um, we have that little voice in our head all the time that says, you know what, you should go for that interview. But what if? What if I'm not good enough? What if I don't have enough credentials? What if, you know, I feel embarrassed because I don't know the answer to the questions? Um so that voice and the words we tell ourselves, the belief system that we create, creates our experiences. So, you know, a lot of people talk about what's happening on the exterior of their lives, you know, this boyfriend, this girlfriend, this job, this family member. But honestly, it starts within us and our belief system about those external systems. Um, so when I talk to my clients, I'm like, okay, so you beat yourself up, you say, Oh, I'm stupid, I didn't get that, I'm I should have gotten that report out sooner. And at the end of the day, it's, you know, those words, even though we say them to ourselves, manifest on our exterior to the people around us. Yeah, definitely. Right? So if we say, you know, I'm so stupid, and your coworker's sitting there, and they're like, Oh, you know, wow, that feels a little awkward, right? That somebody would kind of honestly say that about themselves, and the other person feels like they have to pick up the ball and go, uh, no, you're not stupid. It's, you know. So not only does it create like an um like a tension, but it sends a message to the other person that, you know what, I'm I'm feeling lacking right now. And I'm also in internally feeling doubtful of who I am and and what I can do. So then if you keep that going, it you don't realize you're doing it until somebody brings it to your forefront of your mind. Yep. And in my clinical setting, is is that's how it comes up, right? So somebody will share, you know, exactly that. You know, I was stupid, I forgot this appointment, you know, my boss asked me to do something by a certain deadline, and I didn't get it done, and but I should have, I should do better. And, you know, I'm like, you know what? Let's let's reverse that. You know, when you put that out there and you say, I'm so stupid, those words carry further and energetically further than you even realize. You're putting it out to the universe, you're putting it out to your boss, you're putting it out to the people around you. So you're actually changing your energy, right? And you're changing you're really kind of you know changing their impression of you without you even knowing you're doing it. Right, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that's where that power of the word comes in because it's that ripple effect. Whether your words are positive or negative, that's what you're sending out. And that's then if someone perceives you as this person that just negative about themselves, doesn't know how to speak kindly to about themselves, that's kind of what you're getting back in return as well. Yes. And we really want to slay our inner naysayer so that when we walk into a room, we exert that confidence that of course we can't always, I've got this, but we want to exert that, yes, I am here, I am worthy, I'm a contributor. And it's all about those positive words. And I know even with my Reiki students and clients, I don't like to say this is your homework to the next class. I like to say energy development, energy expansion, so that it doesn't force for me, the word homework goes back to middle school and high school and like yeah, and you panic and you're resistant to it. Exactly. Exactly. So I love that that you really nurturingly point that out to your clients, that one of the first steps you can do is to speak kindly to yourself.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. And you know what I do too is you know, to kind of illustrate it, because we get into patterns, right? Um, if if we, you know, kind of say, say it out loud all the time to yourself. Oh, I'm oh, I forgot. What I do a lot of times is I'll role play. Oh, okay, great. So if I'm I'm working with a client and you know, they have the negative self-talk and they speak it to themselves often, what I'll do is change it around. They're me, I'm them. Oh, that's great. And then I start, you know, bringing in the dialogue that they normally would say to themselves. I start dialoguing with them like I, you know, right the negative. And then what's wild is that their eyes open up and go, Well, wait a minute, I sound like that. Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, like that huge uh-huh moment, like, oh my gosh, I'm beating myself up.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And there's a lot of things that happen there, right? They start seeing, you know, outside of themselves how they're perceived by other people and the energy that they get from those words that doesn't feel too good. No, no, you know, so it's kind of a cool experience.

SPEAKER_00

That's neat. I love that. I love that breakthrough. So that might so how long have you been a social worker? So for about, I'd say 25 years. So I would imagine those breakthroughs are just as exhilarating as the very first time a client broke through. It just absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, it's it's because it's a tool, right? So if you don't have the tools in your virtual toolbox as an as a child, how are you gonna know how to cope, how to have that self-esteem, how to um deal with self-doubt and and negative people and in an in a negative society when you're not taught those tools. Right. So when people get on themselves that, you know what, I should know better. Well, no, you know what, it's not your fault. If you weren't taught those tools, how are you supposed to know them? Right.

SPEAKER_00

You don't know until you know. Right. And we're so quick to speak to ourselves so negatively in ways that we would never speak to another human being like. That's and it's it's amazing to me. And we were just talking about this a couple of weeks ago, that it and when you sit there and you really pay attention what you're saying to yourself, you really you stop when you start to become aware of it and to really go on that mindset. No, I'm worthy, I'm worthy of contributing to this project or getting that interview or getting that raise. And when you really start to put your first step forward that of that positivity, it just blossoms and people see changes in you in that as well.

SPEAKER_03

And you know, and that's so true. I mean, men and women do it alike, obviously. But you know, um, I I love empowering women, you know, because we are unfortunately, you know, most of us are socialized to, you know, have the self-doubt and to feel critical about our bodies and to feel judged. Um you're not pretty enough, you're not skinny enough, you're not, you know, and all those things that all of us have experienced in some point of our lives. And women uplifting women, it's it's been so important to me that, you know, because it's a belief doesn't mean it's true.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. I I love that. I love that because I often, when I speak to my girlfriends about uplifting one another and cheering one another on, we often touch on the subject that if you tell a young child that they're stupid and they're useless, that's what they're going to believe about themselves.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So it's our duty as women to switch that story around, no matter how late in life we may meet someone.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So leading into that, we've had some brief conversations about what you've been formulating in your mind and really wanting to put pen to paper and create and bring to life a beautiful sanctuary for women to come, for women raising women. And I'm putting you in the hot spot for this now because I really would like you to talk about your vision for this group, this gathering that is not going to be a one-and-done deal.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So please share with the listeners of Energy Serenity Podcast what your dream is and how you're going to start bringing this to fruition. It's so desperately needed.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Um, well, as you were talking, I'm I started to kind of well up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

So I see that, but that's wonderful because that means you're making a breakthrough.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. It's um it resonates, you know? It resonates. It's um everybody goes through their journey as a woman. And, you know, we are pulled apart in so many different ways and competing with each other in so many different ways for various different reasons, right? Um, but as I've been a social worker for so long and just living life as a woman, um, the more women I talk to, the more I see a need that we gotta pull a sisterhood together, not pull it apart. And when I'm around other women, I can't I feel like I'm home. I feel like, you know what? We have more in common than we do separate. Absolutely. But again, it goes back to a belief system, right? It's like when women get together, you know, there's there's judgment, there's critical, there's there's all kinds of different thoughts that go on in your mind. But if you bring down the wall a little bit and create a safe space where everyone there is cherished and everybody is welcome, and we are all meeting on neutral ground because there's imperfection to go around, everybody has it, but also everybody has perfection.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely, and I love that, I love that yeah, and I often I often tell my girls, and you're a mom of adult women as well, do not allow anyone to dim your light. True, shine brightly, yes, not and don't dim your light to make other people more comfortable. No, we're all meant to be on this earth as bright as possible, absolutely and raising one another up, and when we do that, the conflict dissipates because the more we raise that energy in beautiful communication and listening to one another, it it's felt to the universe.

SPEAKER_03

It really is, you know, and it's you know, when women in my vision is that to create a space for women that we don't have. There's nowhere to go for a woman in her 30s that's going through maybe a you know recent marriage or you know, having a child and she her head's spinning and she has no one to lean on. Right. Um, you know, a woman in her 40s or 50s that may be going through a divorce or more children, um you know, a woman in her 60s, 50s and 60s going through menopause that just needs to lean on another woman that could possibly lift her up in that moment because that woman's had the experience that woman is going through right now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And it means the world.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it really does. Because when you get when you have that opportunity to speak and just talk to one another in casual conversation with no expectations, all of a sudden another woman in that group was like, Hey, I did I went through the same thing. In my case, this is what I did. Right. And take it for whatever resonates with you if it helps you to make the next steps in your journey. And when you start to realize that we may all be at different steps in our journey, but we have, like you said earlier, we have more similarities than differences. Yep. And it doesn't matter your age, your background, your education, the color of your skin, your religious beliefs or non-beliefs, it doesn't matter. We're all women walking, you know, a not so easy journey at times.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. You know how many women I talk to in all age groups that say, Well, I don't have any friends. Yeah. I don't have anybody to really talk to. I don't have, where do I go to meet people? Where do I meet? I'd like to have a girlfriend. I don't, where do you find them? You know? And in that, you know, it's funny because I was just talking to a client this week, and I'm like, this is this is something that's been inside of me, that's been, you know, kind of forming in my mind, and I feel a pull to do it. So I I thank you for allowing me to um express that and bring it forward.

SPEAKER_00

Because it will come to fruition, and listeners, believe me, when this comes to fruition, Lisa is the woman to be lighting this torch for everybody to be coming in because there's no holds bar and with no judgment, no ridicule, no expectations, it's just a joyous time to get together to hold the space for one one another. And when women start to experience that other women are holding the space for them, right, it just it's gorgeous. It really is. It's and it's just beyond uplifting. And to know when you leave that group to go back to home or go to work, you know, wow, these women have my back. Can't wait to see them again, whether it ends up being virtually or in person, because if COVID taught us anything, there's no bounds, that'll just be the outlines of your community. And it will be huge. It will be huge. And there's going to be people clamoring to join in.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I just I get excited thinking about it because I know what it means to me. I mean, you know, I know what it means to me to to have a circle of women that have so much to give and they don't even know it. They have no idea the gifts that they are given the person sitting next to them, and the energy that's created between women coming together and and and sharing and feeling safe to do that. It's just it's nothing like it.

SPEAKER_00

And and the word safe is so important because in this busy world, I mean, there's news 24-7, the social media, the expectations of work, motherhood, sisterhood, daughterhood, everything you could possibly think of to have that time and talk about self-care to be able to gather with fellow women and be with no to-do list. Absolutely. I'm actually I'm actually envisioning right now one of your groups are going to be bring your to-do list so we can burn it. Yeah. And just it's okay. Let it go. Let it go. Yes. Let it go. And uh I I love that. Just love it. Um, I can't wait to see how this all unfurls. Yeah. Because I'll be right there attending. I I can't wait to see how it all unfurls. It's just beautiful.

SPEAKER_03

And you know, when I when I was a mom, when I first became a mom, it's just like, you know, you go through so much, you know, emotionally, physically, um, psychologically. I mean, it's just there's so many layers to a woman because we bring life to this world. Yes. Um, that I would have I would have loved to you know, lean on someone and just go, okay, I just want to just just let me cry. Let me cry and let you hold the space for me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I'm I'm gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_00

You know, it's so cool. And I love that because oftentimes people look at crying as a weakness. Yeah, no, but crying is essential because it's such a release, because then it it lets it go and then opens up more energy within you to bring forth the positivity, so true, and the clarity as to what we want.

SPEAKER_03

Wow. I'm and you know what? And the thing is, it's like as women, we are told to be strong, you know, be independent, you know, do it yourself, don't ask for help. And it's like we stuff it, stuff it, stuff it. And when we're so stressed out and we're so tense, and we we keep stuffing it, and we the where's it gonna go?

SPEAKER_00

And then we wonder why our back hurts, why we're having a headache, why we fly off at the handle at a simple request. And why we get physically sick.

SPEAKER_03

We get physically sick, right? Our body is going to manifest the stress that we give it, the trauma that we give it, right? Absolutely. So it will surface one way or the other. And being able to crosstalk with other women and talk and just if you need to cry, if you need to just get out the stress of the day, that's going to be less that you're pushing down. What you resist, you persists.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I can't wait to have you back again when this becomes an announcement for people to sign up. So in the meantime, how can people connect with you that are listening today?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I have an email that that I could uh put out there. It's uh Hendrickson H E N D R I C K S O N Lisa 99 at Gmail.

SPEAKER_00

Great. Beautiful, beautiful. And then within the show notes, too, it will definitely note that Lisa will be coming back again when she has this all planned out and ready to launch for the women of the world. And I can't wait for that. Um I've just beyond blown away your whole concept and idea of this because it gives me the chills because it's so needed.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And listeners, please know it doesn't matter what age you are, and because we all can learn from one another. And that's the essential piece of the power of the word is listening to one another and being uplifted and taking cue that we're not alone. No one's alone. And that's that's why I've created this podcast too, to really make that outreach with all different types of people coming in and chatting with me and really learning that the more we outreach to people, the smaller our world we will become, and the more connected we feel.

SPEAKER_03

And there's no coincidences, right? Absolutely. The people in our path are meant to be in our path, and you know, and that's and learning from everything that you go through in your life, and that's the enrichment, that's who we are.

SPEAKER_00

Most definitely, most definitely. And there's power in numbers.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, so so true.

SPEAKER_00

Power in numbers. Yeah. So I cannot wait for the universe to hear this interview. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your time.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you for the platform to really express myself. And um, really, you are an amazing, amazing woman yourself. So thank you. I stand in gratitude to you as well.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. Thank you. And for those listeners out there, start each day with gratitude. It's a huge way to start your day, and it doesn't have to be huge. Does not have to be huge. That's right. They will unfurl so much more positively.

SPEAKER_01

Little steps.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, little steps turn into big steps, and you're like, wow, I'm much better than I was two days ago versus now.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. Affirmations starting your day with uh with five, ten different affirmations about who you are and what you want to be and who you are going to be.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, absolutely. And always remember you're worthy. Worthy, yeah, definitely great.

SPEAKER_03

That's the truth.

SPEAKER_00

Well, namaste to you. Oh, namaste. I can't wait to stay in touch. It's been wonderful. So thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you for joining me on Energy of Serenity. I appreciate you taking the time to explore the power of the word, mindfulness, and calming practices with me. If today's episode resonated, please subscribe and consider leaving a review. Until next time, may your energy be serene and your words be empowered. Namaste.