An Edited Life: Jamie Molnar

An Edited Life is a series where I interview women Life Editors who are living their authentic stories. Please say hello to Jamie Molnar! I knew Jamie and I were going to be friends as soon as I saw her website–we have the same branding colors! Great minds think alike. 🙂

NOTE: Please read all the way to the end of this post because Jamie’s giving you free access to her upcoming coaching program (a $49 value!).

Welcome! Please introduce yourself and your business.

Thanks so much Sage–super excited to be here!

Hello ladies!

My name is Jamie Molnar, and I am a Balanced Living Coach for overwhelmed, overachieving career women.

I believe that modern women are expected to do way too much and be too many things: kickass career woman, amazing wife and mother, master chef, look like a Victoria’s Secret model….the list goes on and on.

The media blasts us with these expectations almost daily. But they are not realistic expectations. And I believe this is why women today are experiencing record-high rates of anxiety and depression. It is just not possible to be all those things every single day!

I am passionate about helping women break down these unreasonable expectations and pull back from their impossible quest for perfection, learn how to better manage their stress, and find more balance, meaning, and fulfillment in their lives.

How do you help women edit their lives?

I work with women 1:1 because I really enjoy the relationship that is built through that process of collaboration and support. Here are the general steps that I follow to help my clients figure out what balanced living means to them:

• Define your vision. What do you really want? What is important to you? Are you clear in your desires?
• Establish some clear, well-defined goals. Once you are clear on your vision and what you really want, only then can we create some goals that really resonate with you.
• Eliminate blocks. We identify and eliminate any blocks that you have that are preventing you from getting where you want to go. Negative self-talk? Gone. Millions of excuses why you CAN’T? Let’s wipe them out.
• Empowerment exercises. Time to get aligned with why you CAN do this.
• Motivation and accountability. Here is where having a coach really makes a difference. Isn’t it awesome to have someone to check in with regularly to discuss issues that you may have had and how you can overcome them? Or hey, maybe you need that support to cheer you on when you are doing well.

What led you to start your business?

I have been a practicing Mental Health Counselor for almost 10 years, and I have worked in a variety of clinical settings. In recent years, I narrowed my focus and specialized in anxiety disorders, health trauma, and PTSD. I have always been fascinated by neuropsychology, neurobiology, and psychotherapy and how internal stress affects the way the body functions. I truly love working in this field!

But I also describe myself as a recovering stress addict. I used to be that overachieving, nothing-is-ever-good-enough kind of chick, totally stuck on unrealistic expectations of myself–until I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer at age 29 and my whole world came crashing down. This was a definitely a wake-up call for me: my addiction to stress was literally killing me.

Since then it has been a long journey into health and wellness and learning how to heal myself.

Don’t get me wrong: I will always be an ambitious go-getter: it’s just in my DNA!

But I have learned how to calm myself, maintain balance, and tune into my mind, body, and spirit.

I became a registered yoga teacher in 2012 and even spent 6 weeks in India studying the tradition in depth. I continue to practice, study, and learn every day. I have since developed a very unique therapeutic approach in which I combine the ancient traditions of yoga philosophy with the modern applied psychology principles, and I integrate this approach into both my coaching and counseling practices.

I have quite a few tools in my tool belt now and am just really passionate about sharing this knowledge and experience with as many women as I can so that they can learn from my mistakes and live happier, healthier lives. 🙂

What does an average day look like for you?

My personality requires routine–I don’t function well without it. It doesn’t matter what kind of work I have to do, I need to be up around the same time every day (I usually wake up with the sun, if not a little bit before), eat lunch the same time, and then settle in at night around the same time.

I also need to have the same, regular self-care practices in place. It keeps me sane. I am in front of my computer most of the day, which is not healthy, so I always do some kind of exercise and I make sure to stand up and walk around frequently.

I also have a strict no phone policy in bed at night because more and more scientific research is showing that doing this wreaks havoc on your sleep patterns.

What routines, habits, beliefs, or other things help you live an edited life?

Here are 3 ways that I create balance in my life:

1. I have a morning routine.

I wake up every day and do yoga. What most people don’t know is that yoga is an entire philosophy, a way of life. It is not just the physical practice you see at the studios and gyms. The yoga lifestyle includes breathing practices, physical postures, meditations, detoxification practices, codes for living your best life, and spiritual practices.

I am devoted to the Ashtanga yoga tradition and when doing physical postures, this is the series that I follow (you can learn more about the Ashtanga tradition HERE and HERE). However, this is quite a powerful practice, and since my body is still not fully recovered from the cancer treatment, some mornings I just don’t have it in me. So instead I just meditate, stretch, or breathe.

After that I drink warm water with lemon and look at my daily planner and get my mind set for the day. I don’t need too much structure; I find that actually frustrates me more than helps me. I just need a basic plan of attack for the day.

If I just jump out of bed and GO (which I used to do), I find that it ruins my day. I get cranky, agitated, and don’t handle stress well at all. I need that time in the morning to get my head straight.

2. I don’t overbook!

One thing I have had to overcome is overbooking my schedule. I have a tendency to take on way too much. I want to do too many things and commit to too many events. It is a long-standing habit that I have had to work on reversing for several years.

But once I figured out what was motivating this behavior and was able to finally let go of this bad habit, I became much more balanced. And now I am the opposite: I am super protective of my time and very careful about how I plan my schedule. If I don’t get enough down time, I begin to get chaotic and cranky.

3. I am kind and loving towards myself and others.

For many years, I was overcritical of everything that I did without even realizing it. It was so deeply engrained in my way of being that I had no idea the effects it was having on my physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Nothing was ever good enough, I was never proud of my achievements, and I had a very negative body image.

Once I recognized that I was doing this, I began working towards actively reversing this behavior. This is something that I have to practice every single day–old habits die hard. But what I have realized is this: if I took all the energy I put into hating everything I did and turned it into love and kindness, how much more powerful could I be?

And this positive energy is then felt by everyone around me. Life is much better now that I am actually nice to myself!

Do you have anything to share with my readers?

Yes! I have lots to share!

Crush Your Goals Mini Challenge

As a special thank you for having me on your Edited Life series, I am offering your readers FREE entry to my Crush Your Goals mini challenge that begins Thursday, January 15th.

You get 14 days of daily tips and tools on how to set and achieve your goals, lifetime access to a private Facebook group for support and community, and 1 coaching call with me to identify and crush 3 obstacles that are getting in the way of where you want to be.

This course runs for $49 normally, so this is a pretty sweet deal! If you have some health/wellness/career/life goals that you want to crush, this is the program for you.

Click here to sign up for free!

Jamie’s Favorite Blogs and Resources

If you are looking for some general tips on how to manage stress and overwhelm, go HERE for my favorite blog posts and resources!

Where can we find you?

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Thank you for sharing your edited life, Jamie!