Mindfully Integrative Show

Mindful Chat with Loretta Turner -Mindfulness Leadership & Coach

Subscriber Episode • • Season 1

Share episode

Subscriber-only episode

Send us a text

Loretta Turner 
It only works if you do
COACHING/CONSULTING/YOGA

http://www.lorettaturner.com/


Are you feeling stressed, tired, or Metabolism imbalanced?
Take advantage of our free mindful steps to help improve your well-being.
ENJOY ONE OF our Books



Mindful Ways Health Wealth & Life
https://stan.store/Mindfullyintegrative


Ask Us for help with Medical Weight Loss & Improve Metabolic Health
Www.mindfullyintegrative.com

Let's Work on Your Optimal Wellness Journey!
Sign Up For Discovery Call
https://stan.store/Mindfullyintegrative

Enjoy the Show and Get Bonus Episodes
Subscribe For Just $4 a month

Enjoy one of Our Mindful Book Collections HERE


Check Out our YouTube Channel

Join Our Mindfully Integrative Private Facebook Community

Get 15% off Pharmaceutical Grade...

Damaris Grossmann:

Hi, how are you? This is Dr. Damaris d. And this is the mindfully integrative shell. And I wanted to say thank you so much for joining in. And today's mindful chat is with one of my great friends. She's a speaker, a leader and author well, soon to be big author, and she's a yoga teacher mindful leadership. And she has been a great friend of mine, her name is Loretta Turner, and I can't wait for you guys to meet and get to talk and chat with her. Hey, how's it going today, Loretta,

Loretta Turner:

it's going great. It is a wonderful Friday, or I met in the world, which is San Diego, and I am equally grateful to be connecting with you. And in this way, I've no way I know that we've known each other for a long time. And obviously, I've moved across the country, but it's always so exciting to see the different ways that I stay in touch with people. And this is really exciting.

Damaris Grossmann:

I know. I mean, it's like I find it with all the changes with like, you know, this past year. It's like, the love and hate for videos. But now I feel like I connected so much I can connect with anyone anywhere at this point. It's like okay, there's no excuse for me not to find some time or space. So glad I found some time with you. And we got to connect for this podcast. So I always kind of start the show when kind of saying what is a little story or something that people don't know about you a little fun fact.

Loretta Turner:

So funny. I I share this all the time. So I'm sure that people do know this about me, but always share it no matter what. We're originally from New Jersey jersey girl moved to San Diego for years now. Think I'll stay here long term really do love it out here. And with being a jersey girl, what comes with that is God I'm a huge, huge pizza fan. I'm a diehard New York Giants fan. I have a very aggressive sweet tooth. love a good cannoli. Yeah, those are just some fun facts about me always love sharing, like where my roots are.

Damaris Grossmann:

Yeah, and you love pizza so much. Don't you have a tattoo? I do have a pizza.

Loretta Turner:

If it was in more of an accessible place, I would show it to you. Right, right, right. But take some moving around.

Damaris Grossmann:

No, no, it's just but yes, totally. Yeah, we share that love for pizza. And as I try to not have it as often, but I do like it. So, overall, you know, this podcast is about combining traditional and Integrative Health and how things have kind of transformed in your life and your story to be better do better and highlighting inspiring people like yourself. Now, would you like to share a little bit about your story and how you kind of came into being a teacher in many ways?

Loretta Turner:

Absolutely. Gosh, so much story to tell. But when I think about my story, like in a rearview mirror, I see now that like, things that make me me are that I am black woman, right woman of color, high achieving person who values being outdoors. I love being outside, I'm naturally an outdoors woman. And as a Libra, right, as a person with an October birthday. I'm all about the scales. I'm all about harmony. I'm all about justice, right? And always wanting to be on the right side of history. I am always up for learning. And I always get so excited for opportunities to be able to talk about myself and the different ways I describe myself because it really wasn't until I tapped into mindfulness, and different mindfulness practices that I was able to see myself in these ways right? Before discovering mindfulness, it was I would never be able to describe myself in the ways that I just described, I just didn't know myself well enough. So yeah, I just really appreciate this opportunity to be able to have this conversation and to be able to again, look in the rearview mirror, look at my history and say, Okay, this is who I am now, because of all these things I've gone through. And so thinking about my story and mindfulness, and you know, what sparked this journey for me, I, I started my mindfulness journey. 2009 so a little while ago, I was all of like, I think 17 years old, I found yoga. I found yoga when I went to college and it's funny because I had been a dancer all my life. So I had body awareness right, I knew my body pretty well in terms of having coordination. And you know, just understanding like how to turn and twist and jump. But yoga took that like, body awareness like to the next level, it went from just like, knowing my body. To just like, again, learning to know myself and There was this huge shift and this huge unlocking and me and being able to move my body and stretch and balance and do all these things. And also with that start to understand my own emotions, my own habits, my own triggers, I got introduced to pranayama breathing techniques. And yeah, I mean, I was just so intrigued, I was just so in love. Like, I remember I went to my first yoga class with, you know, roommates, classmates, people that I had just met at school, and they were like, okay, yeah, that's fine. Like, maybe I'll go again, and I'm like, I need to go tomorrow. Like, I just could not get enough. I was just so intrigued. And it just, it drew me in. And, yeah, I'm sure I'll talk more about where it's led me. But that's, that's where it began? Oh, I?

Damaris Grossmann:

Well, you and I are very close, because of yoga and mindfulness in a way, it's something that I feel like if you can't even, it's part of who we are. Right. And it's part of an extreme part of our journey. And where we have come for yourself, I feel like your story has, obviously, different levels to it, and parts that are, you know, very inspirational for many to hear, and people do need to hear. And I, I appreciate you as a minority black woman discussing being successful, taking the time to grow, and especially in a lot of the changes in the world that have come and where it has been for you. How have from the difference steps for you, would you like to go into that, you know, one from maybe the beginning of this yoga journey to where you are now. I mean, you're a master's degree in, you know, you can discuss that, too.

Loretta Turner:

Yeah, yeah, I can definitely, I can definitely touch on that. Um, and I think you bring up such an excellent point that, you know, you appreciate that I'm having this conversation about mindfulness from the perspective of a black black woman. And, you know, I thought about that a lot last year, you know, what does it really mean for me to be a black woman in this country, especially, you know, with so much focus and so much attention on black lives. Last year, I felt like I was having so many conversations with people of all backgrounds, right, other black people, you know, white men, people from all backgrounds, and it was just so interesting to hear what people thought about black women, what they were supposed to be what they were supposed to be doing, you know, what black woman thought and I just got so like, frustrated, because I'm like, I'm none of that. Like a lot of those kind of in those conversations, I realized like things that people saying were saying about black women, it was just like, I'm none of those things. Right? So, you know, my work over the last year, two years has just been really redefining what does it mean for me to What does being a black woman mean for me? And in thinking about my mindfulness journey, you know, I grew up in a household with with black individuals, right, my siblings and I were black with my parents are black, you know, cousins, aunts, uncles come from big black family. And it's, you know, we valued health care growing up, like I was blessed. And I would even say, privileged in that way that I had parents that valued health care, we always had coverage, you know, going to the doctor was super normalized for us. And there are also challenges in that too, because going to the doctor was very normalized for us taking medication was very normalized for us. And again, a blessing and a privilege to have access to health care. But in the household I grew up in, it was very normal to just take medicine all the time. And so when I went away to college, and when I found yoga, it was a big shift. And you know, just being completely candid. I've struggled with asthma my entire life. I was born with asthma and just respiratory issues. And so medication was always a cure for that. And then when I found yoga, when I found pranayama, breathing techniques, my asthma shifted, right, I started to heal myself from the inside out, I realized that really? Yeah, literally, I realized that the lungs and the muscles around the lungs were muscles and they could be strengthened. They could be lengthened, they could be worked out so that I could be a stronger breather. And I remember, like coming home and explaining to my parents that I didn't want to see the doctor about asthma anymore. I didn't want to necessarily be having to take medications and having to go on steroids, right? I was very, very, very confident that I could heal my asthma with yoga. And I just remember that at first. It's funny now cuz my mom goes to yoga every week. So it took years and years of having to convince my family like that this Whoo, crazy yoga stuff works. But there's definitely a barrier there. Right. There's a barrier there and having parents who were very healthcare focused. And also I think just coming from a black family, where you don't really see yoga, normalize or mindful. Listen up, normalize, they were just like, What the hell are you talking about? You're going to use yoga to clear your asthma, you better be carrying your inhaler. You know, that was a conversation for a long time. So yeah, in thinking about, you know, the background and where I come from, it was just, there were some challenges in going on this mindfulness journey. But yeah, I just kept with it. And I kept just, you know, studying and learning from others. And honestly, I didn't see a lot of other black women to learn from. I mean, a lot of my, a lot of my mentors in the beginning of my journey were white women, people that you typically saw at yoga classes, people that you typically saw at Lululemon, that's who I was connected with, in beginning, that's who I was following. And I learned a lot for them from them, rather. But the beautiful thing is that I was learning these wonderful practices and meditation and mindfulness from them, but then also recognizing like, I am a black woman, so how do I come back to my community? How do I circle back around to people that identify, like I do, and start to normalize this. And it's been such a blessing to be where I am now. Living in San Diego. So on top of mindfulness and yoga, I became a yoga teacher, I'm a meditation meditation teacher. Now, I spent a lot of years 10 years teaching yoga, I still do that. But my other, my other passion, my other career, is in nonprofits. And so I've been able to over the last couple of years merge all that together. Living in San Diego, now I have a master's in nonprofit management in leadership, I work full time as a grants manager, serving primarily communities that are people of color people that are dealing with poverty and crime, and just all sorts of challenges in their neighborhood, right, I'm giving back in that way, supporting those communities, with, you know, a lot of different resources. So I do that work. And then, on top of that, I have merged my mindfulness into a business, I am a mindfulness and leadership coach, a lot of my work is actually focused with working with women of color, black women, especially people who were in the nonprofit sector, or people who are just doing community work, just merging all of that together to say, look, mindfulness is important. Yoga is important. Meditation is important. It's not just for white people who go to you know, who go to Lulu lemon, we can use different tools, different techniques in mindfulness and bring them into our communities to help our communities here heal, we can bring them into our professional spaces, so that we, as an organization, or as a group of leaders, can be doing the best work possible. So I

Damaris Grossmann:

thought that was a lot. No question. Yeah, no, I feel like that just even touches the surface of someone that does know you and how much you have accomplished, and how much you've, you know, you bring up such a great point, as a black woman, I mean, as myself, I'm a multiracial, black and Spanish, you know, minority woman. And I feel like it's so not touched upon how much meditation mindfulness and then also just being a highly educated, successful leader, that you are in the space. It's so important, because people, I'm so glad that you're on this show, and on this podcast, on discussing things that, you know, we don't talk about, you know, the reason, a different, you know, path of health, and also a different way of feeling and understanding your body and coming in between, you know, into self. For our minority women and minority groups. It's like, people don't discuss that, you know, and we don't really talk about things we just know, x, y, z, and that's it. And, and I really think it's, it makes a big difference, you know, discussion and, and on top of that, you're also trying to give back to the community in so many ways. I mean, we work together with the yoga and you were doing a lot of nonprofits with one national company, and, and you still do work with them. But I feel like you had done so much. And I'd love for you to discuss further, even more. So what you've done, not just in your mind list, you know, your mindfulness leadership, but Previous to that, how you've grown like do you feel that just from your move, but have you grown even the last two years since you've done your program or your growth? I feel like you have grown so much in the last 10 years.

Loretta Turner:

Yeah, thank you for recognizing that. And I'd Yeah, I'd be happy to share what my growth process has looked like.

Damaris Grossmann:

So or anything you'd like to show you don't have to set growth process, but you know, where I'd like to go with this.

Loretta Turner:

Sure. Sure. Yeah. Just thinking about. Yeah, just thinking about this journey. Again, I really appreciate these opportunities just to talk about what's happened because I get to kind of process what's happened in different ways. So what's Come up for me these last few years is obviously like mindfulness and yoga and meditation are values. For me. I've, you know, been doing this work for 10 years now. But something that I fell into as well like in in having worked in nonprofits, that was like my big girl job, right, like my nine to five job, love nonprofits love community work. And what I realized that I actually love about working in nonprofits, or honestly, just about working anywhere is I love leadership, I love the idea of just coming to understand yourself through the lens of leadership. And so when I dedicated my life, to learning about leadership, the last few years, that's when the growth happened, that's when it all change. I had moved out here in 2017, didn't really have a plan. And I'll be like, totally candid, I was kind of being irresponsible, like, blew through my money, didn't have somewhere to live didn't have a job lined up. And the way it just unfolded is I decided that I wanted to commit myself to learning about nonprofits to sign up for a master's program. That was nonprofit focused nonprofit management focus, but there was also a leadership component in it. And it was in that program, where I just really got to learn about myself, because my leadership philosophy is, leadership isn't just what you do, right? leadership isn't just your title, or your job description, or who's underneath you. Leadership is who you are. And the work that I do now is coming into different spaces and helping people understand leadership, not just your leadership style, but like who are you, right? If you were to step in a room right now and be invited, or be required to have to lead a group? What does that look like for you? Right? What are your habits? What are your strengths? What are the things you're scared of? What are the unique? And just? Yeah, what are the unique ways that you can mobilize people. And it was in that program where my growth happened, because there were so many pieces of me, you know, the version of me that moved to California, the version of me, that was living in New Jersey, the version of me, that became a yoga teacher, right, so many versions of me all came to this one space and say, Loretta, look at yourself, look at your entire life. And use all that you are use all that you've become and use that to become the leader that you've always been. And so again, it was in studying leadership, I really found growth because I had to look at myself in the mirror and say, maybe people don't follow you, because you're abrasive right? Maybe people don't follow you. Because you're not clear. Maybe people do follow you because you're funny, right? You've got a good sense of humor. And so yeah, to answer your question, that's a lot. That's where a lot of the growth happened, taking the time to study leadership to understand leadership. And as I was studying leadership, I was also bringing in mindfulness that was the beautiful blend, like being able to come into these spaces, like being an being in an academic space, studying leadership, and then also say, Hi, I'm a yoga teacher, I want to add elements of mindfulness into this. So it's been a wonderful journey. Blending mindfulness, blending leadership, and then being in the position now to be able to go back out in the world and offer that right. I offer trainings, I offer one on one coaching, I offer group coaching, I offer workshops, I offer consulting, I do a lot of work around helping people understand leadership through mindfulness through yoga, through meditation. And it's great every time I get the opportunity to teach someone else. It's also still a learning process for me, like the example I'll give is, last month on my shows on my social media, the theme that we were that I was working with was accountability, right? accountability is a huge element of being a good leader, right? You want people to follow you, you want people to listen to you, you got to be accountable. You got to say, you got to do what you say you were gonna do, right? and accountability is not just something that we do my philosophy on it is accountability is something that you be right, something that you become. And in the process of being and becoming, you have to be mindful, right? You have to look at your Bs, you have to look at the ways that you're blaming, you have to look at yourself, and observe yourself and practice mindfulness and becoming accountable. And so it was beautiful. All last month, I talked about accountability. I wrote about accountability. We had conversations about accountability, and feel like I really supported my community and educated my community on that. And in the process, as I was producing content to share, I was learning and growing along with my community. So all that to say, I just love the journey.

Damaris Grossmann:

Hmm, that's beautiful that you were able to kind of grow with them to like, and it's like, it grows on to that so you were able to touch them, but then they even brought it back and you weren't even Trying for that, but you were able to open up and grow to further.

Loretta Turner:

Yeah. And that's that's what I love about the journey that that I'm on I love the work that I do. Being in the seat of a teacher in many different spaces, also always puts me in the seats as students, you know, the work that I get to do requires that I work with people of all different backgrounds and although I am the guide or the teacher or the facilitator, I'm at the same time learning so much from the people that I get to work with. It's it's really wonderful.

Damaris Grossmann:

What, um, well, what energizes you everyday? I mean, I know we do some daily habits that you do I know I've seen you talk about it. I know we do them. I mean, you and I being pretty creatures of habit in a sense now but what are things that you do that get you energized and ready to go for your Oh, what

Loretta Turner:

energizes me what energizes me? Okay. So funny. It's like the first buyers

Damaris Grossmann:

you add doesn't energize inspires whenever that is for you.

Loretta Turner:

Yeah. What inspires and energizes me Actually, the first thing that came to mind was like chocolate, you know, chocolate? Yummy. And sometimes, in answering that question. Hmm. How can it not be dark? I know, I might have chocolate after this. Yeah. When I heard you asked that question. My mind immediately went to thinking about myself as like, an organism, right? Like, as one of my plants, like, like, what nourishes me, right now is chocolate, it's sunshine, it's getting out into the ocean. It's conversations like this inspires me. Exercising, moving my body inspires me

Damaris Grossmann:

doing all the work you've done.

Loretta Turner:

Yeah, just doing all the work that I get to do studying, reading, learning, all of that fills me up. And then when I think about who inspires me, honestly, most recently, the peep the thing that the people that really inspire me are people that have faced adversity. And despite that are thriving, they are being resilient, they are still showing up. You know, when I have conversations with clients, or just with people, wherever in the world, tell me their stories, they tell me where they've come from, they tell me some of the stuff they've seen and the some of the stuff that they've gone through. And they're still executive directors, or they're still parents who are you know, raising beautiful children, or they're still changing the world changing the community in one way or the other that for me is just like hell, yes. And it always it always inspires me in this way of like, Loretta, you can do anything you set your mind to because look at these people that are really doing some powerful work in the world, and they have had the worst cards dealt to them, you know? Yeah, those are the people that inspire me.

Damaris Grossmann:

Now, I mean, I could not agree with you more I feel like the other people make you better and then our cards were dealt for us our stories are there but then knowing that we're helping in you know, impact them to and they're impacting us it's like a you know, back and forth positive like circle I guess. Um, well, I enjoy always having you on but I'd love for you to kind of talk a little bit about your you always have a beautiful way of your breaths and your dharmas and and just kind of getting within and we were talking a little bit about how your growth has happened. So do you have just a little mindful tipper mindful Dharma for us before you know transitioned me I love for everyone to get to know you more and reach out to you. check you out. But

Loretta Turner:

so a little mindful tip or a little mindful Dharma Let me think Let me think let me thank

Damaris Grossmann:

you always have a lot of self discovery and wonderful words of wisdom. So I felt I feel like um, you know, people can catch you online. But you know, being that you have come through and you know, you talk about other people coming through adversity, you have come through a lot you've dealt with so much. And I don't think you always see that to you know, you do so much for others, but you have been through a lot yourself and, and I don't even think you've even dived into it fully here. You know, we're just kind of

Loretta Turner:

just scratching the surface. Okay, so what what what I leave people with what mindful tip what I get in thinking about everything that we share everything that I shared in today. So like my motto, right? The fit the the motto of my business, the thing that I tell people all the time is that it only works if you do. That's my quote, right? That's my thing. Like, at the end of the day, like you want to get it done. You got to do the work. It only works if you do and there's an additional part of that. But I like to also share, right? So it only works if you do. But you can only really do the work if you're if you are able to work and what I mean by that is if you aren't able to function and so my mindfulness tip in who you know, whoever's listening to this, if you've got a goal in mind, something you're you know, working towards striving towards just, you know, putting your, your, your heart and soul into it. Remember that, it only works if you do, right, you got to show up, you got to do the work, it's no one else's responsibility except yours. And to make sure that you're working, and doing the work to make sure that you're functioning, make sure that you're doing everything that you need to be doing so that you feel full, so that you feel fulfilled, that you feel just supported. You know, and thinking about all the success that I've had, you know, moving across the country with literally nothing, you know, and then you know, turning around getting my master's becoming valedictorian, top of my class and starting a business you know, all that I do it really

Damaris Grossmann:

lightly you went from you know, you were an a, you know, Executive Director, one business in New Jersey, from a nonprofit came over. You also even your family lost their home. I mean, you have been through on and then you go, Oh, just valedictorian. All right, just you bright, yeah, lightly, very light about it. But you've done a plenty, a book is in there somewhere. I know, I've been revised. So you got to read.

Loretta Turner:

Yeah, and thinking about that journey and the adversity that I faced. You know, what really worked for me is like, just being able to look in the mirror and say, if you want it, you got to do the work, you got to really do the work. And I've been, you know, meditating and journaling pretty much every day and and more recently, in those meditation sessions, I'm having a conversation with a version of me that had just moved out here who was really struggling, who was down and out out of money, couldn't get it couldn't get a job, he actually got fired from a job. And so I've been having conversations with her recently, and looking back at that time, and that version of me knew deep down like if you want it, you got to work for it, you got to put your you just got to do it. You just got to put one step forward every day, you got to put the work in it only works if you do. And what I also realized now when I look back on that time was I wasn't healthy, right? It was so hard for me, like the version of me in 2017 envision where I am not like I could see it. I knew it was possible. I knew I wanted it. But it was so hard to get there like grueling, uphill climb. And I can look back on that now and be like, it was so hard, because I wasn't taking care of myself, right. So this idea of it only works if you do only works if you're taking care of yourself. I was drinking a ton I was you know, just not pulling in the healthiest of relationships, I was people pleasing, I was putting other people's needs first. You know, just like shooting myself in the foot all the time, like setting myself up for success and then saying, Okay, well, how can I How can I ruin this? Right? How can I make this worse. And so the work for me for a while was just healing that right? Getting my drinking under control, getting the partying under control, right, I moved here in 2017 at 25, and was looking for a good time, which I had, but it was getting in the way of me wanting to do what I wanted to do, to getting that under control, cutting people out of my life, right having to drop some friendships, having to drop some relationships, putting boundaries up moving out of places that weren't healthy for me. So I guess that's my mindful tip. If you really want to do the work, if you really want to achieve something and go after something, trust yourself that you can do it, know that it requires work, and know that you've got to be taking care of yourself so that you have the energy, and just the power to do it.

Damaris Grossmann:

I seriously love that. Because every day I talk about having to take care of yourself, and be healthy throughout, through and through obviously this, you know, as I say it on a regular basis, you're putting the work in, obviously you put the work in and you're letting others know that and it comes from within, you know, you got to take care of you that oxygen mask on. And you know and dig dig deep, you know, it's not a it's not a one to you know, it's not a quick quick fix up but and you've done that. And you're showing that each and every day and you show up and I love you for that. And I had I know that you hire guiding so many people, and I can't wait for them to reach out to you and for them to know you more. I'll have you on the podcast again in the show. And I know that we'll be doing, you know, conferences and such. But yeah, there's so much more to talk about. I know there is and I just would love for those to know how to reach you at this time and I'll have them in the show notes also.

Loretta Turner:

Cool. Yeah, I appreciate that. So the best place to reach me is probably on Instagram, my handle is Loretta ello r e TT a dot and then leaves le a DS like leadership. And that's a great place to reach me, that's where I'm most active. So if you've enjoyed listening to this, and you know, like my mindfulness tip, this idea of it only works if you do like, if that resonates with you, like I highly recommend go to my Instagram, because I'm talking about that stuff all the time. I post several times a week. It is what September 3, I haven't actually announced my theme for this month. But this theme is this month is going to be about connection and networking, right. So you can tune into my social media to just get like, at the very least a weekly dose of information on topics that are important. on my Instagram, I do a monthly meditation. I write a monthly blog, I have live sessions where people can drop in and have conversations with me. I put prompts out on my Instagram stories, so you can get in there and answer the prompts. And we can keep talking, right? So it's a great resource. It's very interactive, and I'm on LinkedIn to LinkedIn is another place where you can reach me my full name, and where you can find me is Loretta Turner. And just similar to Instagram, LinkedIn is just a place where I share resources. Sometimes they're not always mine, I like to share other people's stuff there too. So those are the best places to reach me LinkedIn, and Instagram. I do have a website Loretta Turner comm if you'd like to learn more about my services,

Damaris Grossmann:

awesome. Well, I really appreciate you being on the show today. And listeners are going to get a value of information, a wealth of knowledge. So thanks so much for your time, and I really love you to death that so thank you so much for being with us. Love you, too.

Loretta Turner:

Thank you so much for having me. And thank you everyone for listening,

Damaris Grossmann:

of course. And so each one of you. Thanks again for joining in on the mindfully integrative show and make sure that each day you find a mindful way. Have a great day. Bye

People on this episode

Head Shot

Dr Damaris Grossmann

Host

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.

The Private Parts of Wellness Artwork

The Private Parts of Wellness

Jessica Jolie B. the NP
On Health Artwork

On Health

Aviva Romm
Huberman Lab Artwork

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media