Have you felt like you are living a double life when you engage in habits secretly, thinking that only you do them to cope? Do you force yourself to constantly push through? Do you associate being successful and winning with self-neglect and struggling?

In this podcast episode, Lydia Knight, founder of The She Center, shares her journey from self-sabotage to self-fulfillment and empowerment. She discusses the importance of authenticity and vulnerability in overcoming challenges and breaking free from destructive patterns. Lydia emphasizes the need to address the root causes of self-sabotage and offers practical strategies for creating lasting transformation. She highlights the power of habits and thought patterns in shaping our behaviors and shares a success story of a client who achieved freedom from self-sabotage. Lydia encourages listeners to prioritize self-care and offers resources for further support.

Meet Lydia Knight

Lydia Knight, the visionary founder of The She Center, is revolutionizing our culture by empowering individuals to move from self-sabotage to self-fulfillment and contribute their highest gifts to humanity. Creator of the Empower, Prosper, and Rise programs, Lydia embodies effective altruism with initiatives that uplift women and children globally. A certified health coach, eating disorder expert, and recipient of the “Sacred Service Award”, Lydia’s ground-breaking approach has earned recognition from major outlets like CBS, NBC, Fox News, Yahoo!, and beyond.

Connect with Lydia on Facebook. Follow her on YouTube and LinkedIn.

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Summary

• Uncovering the eating disorder
• Be wary of your capacity to push through
• Lydia’s first step toward change

Uncovering the eating disorder

75% of women struggle with disordered eating, and that stat is only known because they asked the women what their experience with eating is like, and not whether they think they had an eating disorder.

If you asked these women again if they had eating disorders, almost all of them would say “no”, since so many women don’t realize that disordered eating is an ED and that it can lead to so much more damage down the line.

I had no idea for years. I didn’t think anyone else was doing this, I thought it was my own personal kind of crazy. I’d thought that for some reason I just wasn’t as good with dieting anymore I had no idea because for so many of us, it’s normalized. (Lydia Knight)

Because Lydia was working as a health coach, she felt ashamed for working with clients while quietly living a second life and suffering in it through what she now knows was an eating disorder.

At first she thought it would be career-suicide to share this with her following, but it had the opposite affect; her speaking openly about her experience and what she thought she was enduring alone was shared by so many other women.

When we share our stories it’s this opportunity where we stop normalizing it because we stop being alone in it, right? This is not something I need to hide because there are other people struggling this way too. (Lydia Knight)

Be wary of your capacity to push through

So many women are incredible multitaskers, organizers, doers, and action-takers. They handle everything! And this ability to “push through” the deadlines, family responsibilities, and other things is a good thing but it can end up pushing you over the edge as well.

You need to learn when to stop and you need to learn when and how to let yourself rest.

The concerning thing is that oftentimes it becomes this badge of honor, of how little we can give ourselves and how much we can deliver in the world and that can become connected where we start associating success and drive with withholding care from ourselves it becomes like this weird addictive cycle where when we’re achieving a lot, we’re suffering a lot, and that is such an important connection to break. (Lydia Knight)

Constantly pushing through things is going to get you sick, injured, burned out, or isolated. Use it sparingly and wisely, because if you had a good team and partner, you wouldn’t need to have to struggle so much, so continuously.

Lydia’s first step toward change

Many high-achieving women will take on loads of new things to try to make positive changes in their lives, but that can simply add more stress and things to your to-do list.

Pick one thing and work on incorporating that into your lifestyle first.

Being honest with myself. There were some lies that I was telling myself I had to look myself in the eye and admit to myself that I was lying to myself. I had to fundamentally do things differently, and when I was really honest with myself, I was able to look in places that I hadn’t considered before for new answers. (Lydia Knight)

For Lydia, the first step to genuinely changing her life was practicing being completely honest with herself.

That awareness, connection and commitment helped her to keep going even on tough days, and to value her own honesty more than she valued being perceived as a “winner”.

Books mentioned:

Brené Brown – The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Useful Links:

• Join our FaceBook Page – Empowered and Unapologetic
• Take the Marriage Predictor quiz!
• Follow me on Instagram
• Check out the new website! https://veronicacisneros.org/
• Outside The Norm Counseling – 951 395 3288 Call to schedule an appointment today!
• Lydia’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxnTaOjFwBjlF6QxcwsD2_g
• Lydia’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lydia.wente/
• Lydia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-knight-tsc/

Meet Veronica Cisneros

Hello, my name is Veronica Cisneros, I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Marriage Coach, Course Creator, Retreat Host, Mother of 3, married for 23 years, host of the Empowered and Unapologetic podcast, and owner of a group private practice called Outside The Norm Counseling.

A lot of couples struggle with setting aside intentional time to connect and communicate. They yearn for meaningful conversations that don’t lead to arguments.

1 month away from divorce, I realized I had to do something different. For years I had compromised myself to meet the needs of my husband and my child, I lost myself and was about to lose my marriage. After years of personal growth and self-reflection, I not only reclaimed my identity, and celebrated 23 years of marriage but also helped hundreds of couples transform their marriage from feeling like roommates to experiencing a deeper love.

I am on a mission to help couples reignite the fire by providing them with the skills to have the relationship they deserve.

Whether you listen to the podcast, join the free Facebook community, or do the Workshop,  you’re in the right place. Let’s do this together!

Thanks for listening!

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