84: You Are Not Too Sensitive, You Are Perfect- Maggie Gardner RN, BSN, HWNC-BC, CH-C

84: You Are Not Too Sensitive, You Are Perfect- Maggie Gardner RN, BSN, HWNC-BC, CH-C Transcript

Nicole Vienneau  00:00

Welcome, everyone, to the Integrative Nurse Coaches in ACTION! podcast. My name is Nicole Vienneau. I am your host, and I’m also a Board Certified Integrative Nurse Coach, and today we have another fabulous Nurse coach that we get to interview and hear her story. 

So I recall having a lovely conversation at the Integrative Nurse Coach Symposium in Florida this year with our next guest, and I couldn’t help but just feel how intuitive, how calm, how focused and authentic our next guest is. And so I knew we had to get her on the podcast. 

So we are to welcome Maggie Gardner. She is all the way from Seattle, Washington. She is a Health and Wellness Nurse Coach. So what that means for our listeners is she has a board certification as a holistic Nurse and a board certification as a Nurse coach. 

So those two combined equal the Health and Wellness Nurse Coach, so, highly trained. She is also a health advocate and a visionary for health and believes in human potential and knows that whatever we dream we can achieve. And so I just want to do this big hug and big welcome to Maggie.

Maggie Gardner  01:32

Thank you so much, Nicole, for having me on the podcast. 

Nicole Vienneau  01:35

Yes. Okay, so we, you know, we love to take a trip down history lane and learn a little bit about why you even decided to become a Nurse. ,

Maggie Gardner  01:45

Yeah, that’s pretty easy for me to kind of go into because my mom was a Nurse, and then my dad was a clinical psychologist. So I had this very married medical background, and I was privy to a lot of interesting healthcare discussions at the dinner table. I was also an only child, so I would go along with my mom to certain work events and meet, you know, people at her hospital. 

And I was also introduced to some of the darker, heavier sides of life at an early age, and at age 11, I had three deaths in the family that my mom was, you know, the go to person for all of those things. So I was her little Nurse’s aide, attending those family members with her. 

So I think that imprinted on me at a very early age, just how deep suffering goes, and how impactful you can be when you’re with somebody who is suffering. And it also imprinted a strong sense of maturity at a young age as well. I distinctly remember, you know, not wanting to necessarily be a Nurse because of how heavy it could be and how demanding her hours were, but I met a home birth midwife, and I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. 

I was super drawn to the holistic nature of that and how empowering it was for her clients. And so just in talking to her and learning the path of midwifery, I discovered that Nursing was also a path, so I set out to become a Nurse from then on. That was age 17, I decided, okay, I’m going to go to Nursing school.

Nicole Vienneau  03:25

So you had a mom who was a Nurse, your dad, psychologist and so I love those conversations at the dinner table where nothing’s off limits. You could talk about anything. 

Maggie Gardner  03:47

Absolutely. 

Nicole Vienneau  03:48

Yes, and then just, you know, finding your way through some of these tragic events you know of death in the family, and helping your mom through that, and then also seeing, you know that Nursing is a tough job, and still feeling like, you know what, I think I have a place here in Nursing. So finding home births, and, you know, finding a passion for that, or an interest for that, that then drew you towards Nursing, at a young age, too— 17.

Maggie Gardner  04:21

17, yeah. So, you know, I’d say, from the time of 11, when I was dealing with those hard things with my mom, to 17, I wasn’t really sure, but that, you know, that meeting of this midwife and just learning the ins and outs of midwifery through her, that just solidified it. I knew that I wanted to help people in the most direct way. I didn’t know, you know, what else I would possibly do with my life, other than to really help people, and so that really drew me in.

Nicole Vienneau  04:52

Yes, so fast forward a little bit, and you graduated from Nursing school, and then what was your first job?

Maggie Gardner  04:59

My first job, I decided that I was… I wanted an adventure, and I was applying for jobs, and was going to take my boards exam out in Washington State. So, from Virginia. So, that’s where I’m from, that’s where I went to college. So I flew out to Washington. Actually, scratch that. I drove all the way with my best friend to Washington State, and I had already secured a pediatric home health job. 

That was the only job that I could get accepted for from all the way across the coast. So I took that and I worked there for six months. I liked the work, but I was just on my own, and as a new Nurse, I felt like that maybe wasn’t the best idea for my growth, you know, to not be around other colleagues. 

So I kind of worked my way up after doing pediatric home health, I worked in some OB GYN clinics, and after that, I worked in postpartum and labor and delivery units, which I definitely enjoyed more autonomy as a Nurse and growing my skills as a Nurse. But it was stressful on me, those jobs, the postpartum, and not so much the postpartum, but more the labor and delivery, just because I was so drawn to natural childbirth. 

I so enjoyed working with the patients who were going for that, the midwifery patients who were, they were doing hypno birthing, and that was one of my exposures to hypnosis. It was really beautiful, super empowering. I loved watching that unfold and really helping be that calm presence to help them have the birth of their dreams. That was so awesome. 

But we also had some really challenging times. You know, some things I wasn’t sure necessarily needed to happen. Sometimes, you know, events would escalate, and I questioned, you know, did that really need to happen? So that did wear on me after some time, actually, one incident in particular, and you know, I was really also tired of the night shifts, and my body was tired, and I was ready for something different. 

So I found another job for research Nurse and pregnancy related pharmacy research at the University of Washington. So I was excited it was still in the women’s health pregnancy realm, and that I was going to be in a university hospital setting again, you know, advancing research and academia. 

So I took that and I stepped into a role of managing other research assistants, and under the guidance of a principal investigator helping advance pregnancy pharmacy research, which was really awesome. I was there for three years and just I loved being behind the scenes like and having the impact that I did. 

It wasn’t the same hands on that I had in labor and delivery, but I knew, you know, this was better for my work life balance as well. So then 2020 struck, and then recruitment for our research studies became much more challenging, because obviously, you know, we’re trying to minimize exposure to our pregnant research subjects, and then I had to make a really difficult decision to prioritize my intuition and my health over compliance at that time. 

So it was a time that bodily autonomy was called into question, and without going a whole lot more into that, I decided to finally quit my job in January 2021, with the support of my now husband. And I jumped, you know, two feet full in to the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy for their Nurse coaching program. 

And I was, you know, lucky that I got to have a bit of a break and be focusing on something that I felt really passionate towards. I had been… it had been in my mind, Nurse coaching, before. I’d seen ads before, but it had just never quite been the right time. So, this was the break that I needed, and I got to feel like I was still learning new skills and advancing my Nursing career without necessarily working a Nursing job. 

Nicole Vienneau  05:17

So you discovered Nurse coaching after having to make a very difficult decision, and you could then just step into this new way of practicing as a Nurse. Yeah, yeah. So tell us, like, maybe one or two things that you gleaned from the Nurse coaching certificate program with the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy.

Maggie Gardner  09:52

I just I loved that it broke down the science of healing. And it’s just it was such a novel thing, you know, that there was just the science between art and caring that I felt that was so lacking in the hospital and clinic settings that I had already worked in, and it was what I was searching for all along. 

And also, I think throughout my career, I did feel like such a black sheep, like, gosh, I’m just maybe too sensitive for this, you know, like, I can’t quite figure out how to balance out my work and life, and also not feel stressed all the time. 

Because, you know, patients are crashing and you know, it was hard on my heart, and I was searching for something that would that I could have that impact, that direct impact, and that I wanted to have, but not feel that deep stress, but also not have to harden myself to the, you know, the nature of the job. So what a gift it was to find Nurse coaching and to feel like I was finally home amongst other peers who were feeling very similarly after long careers in Nursing. 

Nicole Vienneau  11:12

Yeah, the more Nurses I get to talk to throughout the days and weeks, and you know, they definitely share a similar sentiment, like it’s difficult to practice in healthcare space right now, it’s always been difficult. It’s not like that’s something new. 

And we’re faced with sometimes numbing ourselves so that we can get through those difficult scenarios, those difficult experiences, the suffering, the sorrow, the pain, the aggression, all of the difficult things I can’t even express at the moment, right? 

Because I probably have compartmentalized some of that, you know, and kind of push it down, because we have to continue on and do our jobs and care for people at very vulnerable periods of their lives, and then that extends to us in our own sensitivities, in our own… we’re humans. We’re humans caring for other humans at the most difficult times of their lives. 

So I completely understand, and I know our listeners, I know you understand this too. I mean this way of wanting to be able to be authentic and show up as we are, as the complete human beings we are, and yet sometimes having to sacrifice that in order to actually survive the workplace that we’re living in. 

So you know here is Nurse coaching showing up and showing us that we can still function in these difficult, sometimes difficult, that we still can function in these difficult scenarios, given some extra tools that we can actually try to implement and try to shield and preserve ourselves. 

I’m not going to say protect, we don’t need to protect ourselves. We just need to preserve ourselves in some way, some days. So what’s one skill that you’ve really tapped into to help with that and maybe share your thoughts on that.

Maggie Gardner  13:25

Yeah, I mean, in the Nurse coaching certificate course, we definitely learned about mindfulness. And you know, that sounds maybe trivial to somebody who’s not familiar with Nurse coaching. Sure, we know mindfulness is research fact and very effective, but it just goes so much deeper than that. 

You know, we don’t often as Nurses, allow ourselves enough time, time with our patients, time with ourselves, time to breathe, time to drink water, to take a rest, so allowing time and space to transpire, to let our bodies catch up with ourselves, to really hear what our patients are saying, you know, or what they’re not saying. 

Time is… I really think mindfulness and time are so connected that we can be mindful, intentionally mindful, if we allow ourselves more time. So that is a big one. You know, I think that’s a big one in this busy healthcare space, allowing more time or creating a way to allow for more of that.

Nicole Vienneau  14:30

I gotta show you this. This is one of my mantras. You probably can’t read it, but…

Maggie Gardner  14:34

I can! If you move it closer I could, let’s see. There is enough time and space for everything I want to do. Yes, yeah.

Nicole Vienneau  14:42

I have this beside me at my desk. I often read that, and then I often say that. And then the other thing I’ve been doing with time, because it’s true, it feels like time is scarcity, right? I don’t have enough time. It’s true. We can feel that way, for sure. But I would just say there is time. Yeah, like there is time. Like, time is there. I have enough time.

Maggie Gardner  15:06

Yes, yeah. And I think, you know, in Nursing school, I don’t think we’re prepared for the there’s not enough time. It’s like, there’s never enough time when you’re working in the hospital. And I really craved that, that was tough for me, that was really tough for me. Yeah, time is a beautiful thing, and I think Nurse coaching, it created space for that, and it created the knowing that we need to allow more space for that, so. 

Nicole Vienneau  15:36

And I think the mindfulness piece also like it gives you a place to remember that you want to make time. You become aware of the things that you really need. And if time is one of those things, well then that’s the piece of your mindfulness that comes right in there. Yeah, yeah. So okay, so let’s continue on with this time. Mindfulness and time are connected. So tell us a little bit more about what you mean by that.

Maggie Gardner  16:09

It doesn’t have to be such a formal practice. And I think when you just go out in the world and you’re talking about mindfulness and meditation, from about half the population, you get a big eye roll, you know, because you’re like, stating the obvious and you know, it’s like, they know it already, but they don’t actually practice it because there’s no time. 

So I think in creating more time in your day, mindfulness is a natural symptom that occurs. It just, there’s a way for it to inject into that time, you know. So I think time is step number one, and mindfulness is just naturally occurring from there. So, yeah.

Nicole Vienneau  17:01

Yeah, yeah. And mindfulness is something that is hard to do. Being mindful.

Maggie Gardner  17:08

It is. It’s a muscle.

Nicole Vienneau  17:11

It’s a muscle, right, yeah, you have to work it. I remember when I first even discovered this, when I started the Nurse coaching program, and I didn’t know that I wasn’t being mindful. I didn’t know. I mean, nobody was talking about mindfulness in my Intensive Care Unit, you’re just getting everything done, you know? 

And I started to— when I first started to really see what mindfulness was— I started to notice little things, like a little sticker on a door, like a smiley face or something that just I didn’t ever see little things around me that could make my mind just stop for a millisecond and acknowledge that little thing that made the, you know, the curve of my lips go up, or just made me giggle inside, or just made me feel like, oh, that’s so beautiful, or whatever that was. Just a brief like millisecond. 

And I didn’t know that that existed. So I really distinctly remember certain things at that point in time when we started talking about mindfulness and what that could even mean for us, right? And there was, there’s no real space, like you said, in Nursing school to talk about any of this. 

We have certain didactic we must cover, and the hours are allotted for certain things that we have to make sure we’re proficient efficient at, so we don’t talk about this. There are a few courses out there that are starting to which is really exciting. So I love that you brought up mindfulness.

Maggie Gardner  18:52

I hope to see the day that it’s talked about in every Nursing school, because I think you know burnout is really high amongst new Nurses, even, so this is a way for Nurses to sort of have both and to go in with these tools for self management and self care that hopefully will extend their careers as Nurses and make them happier at the same time. 

Nicole Vienneau  19:23

Right, right. Okay, so now I’m going to fast forward again, because we did… so you took the Nurse coaching program, and then you completed it. And then what? What else? What else?

Maggie Gardner  19:36

We completed it in August 2021, and the very next month, September, I started my business Body Mind Align, and with the goal that I was going to keep refining my practice. So I was in cohort number one of the functional medicine for Nurses course. And then that summer, after that wrapped up, I started my clinical hypnotherapy course. 

And with the idea that I was going to blend all of us together. And you know, I had the inspiration too, of my parents that I mentioned in the beginning, my mom, a Nurse, my dad a clinical psychologist, and somehow, without even my realizing, I was able to sort of marry their professional backgrounds into my own professional development. So that’s where I am, is just having blended it all together. 

Nicole Vienneau  20:23

Wow. So the name of your business is Body Mind Align. You took the functional medicine course with the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy, and then you also got your Hypnotherapist. So tell us first, the functional medicine, maybe one key point or one key tidbit that you just really latched on to from that course.

Maggie Gardner  20:46

Just that the intake is so important, which is just a long series of asking questions and paying attention to the answers. And it’s not just in written form. It’s nice to hear the story. It’s nice to hear your client’s story play out. 

When did they last feel better, you know, and piecing these stories together, is there underlying trauma? Like, you know, there are all these different things that make up a person. Yeah. So investigating for the root cause, and by looking into the story of the client, that was the number one thing.

Nicole Vienneau  21:26

Oh yeah. And not just the surface story, right? Just the one thing that they think that you want to hear, but you’re going deeper, deeper, deeper into the story. That aligns beautifully with Nurse coaching, it does, yeah, because we’re all about stories, they’re very complimentary. Yeah, yeah. And so looking for the root cause, so functional medicine and so the and then you also took your hypnotherapy so, so tell us about that.

Maggie Gardner  21:55

Yeah. So I was, actually, it’s worth noting also that I was getting sick, you know, at the same time, I was starting to feel more tired, and I wasn’t sure if this was just like, you know, my night shift leftover stuff, or what was really going on, but it didn’t seem to be getting better. 

So, you know, throughout the Functional Medicine for Nurses™ course, I was actually working on myself, like, what is going on with me, you know, I had my checkups. You know, there wasn’t a whole lot offered in that avenue, and I decided, you know, I was going to start taking responsibility for how I was feeling. 

And that meant changing my mindset and really going after some of these maybe subconscious things that could be going on that could be making me feel not so great. So I was doing self directed neuroplasticity on myself, and going through the clinical hypnotherapy course, practicing self hypnosis, and also yoga nidra, which is an ancient yoga practice, essentially, it means yogic sleep. 

They’re very similar, actually, yoga nidra and hypnosis. So I was working on myself and doing the didactic work and hypnosis. And I took the full amount of time to do the course. I don’t remember what the minimum amount of time was for the hypnosis course, but I took the full two years. 

So I wasn’t planning on talking about how I was getting sick, but I guess that’s part of my story too, is that I essentially had to heal myself because I wasn’t finding answers through my doctors, you know. So they diagnosed me with chronic fatigue syndrome, and what I realized is that they’re just calling a collection of symptoms a diagnosis, so that you know, the solutions that I was offered were sleep medications and which I wasn’t really having trouble doing. 

I wasn’t… sleeping wasn’t a problem. Just feeling better in the day was. And antidepressants, and those weren’t adequate solutions for me. I wanted to figure out what was underneath all of this. So yeah, yoga nidra and hypnosis really helped me feel quite a bit better until I did figure out eventually what was actually going on, which was mold illness due to a leak in our roof. 

So, yeah, so that was… those were, you know, as I’m starting my business, I’m going through all of this, and it was an awakening on multiple levels, you know, to figure out what was actually going on. And, while I’m trying to help other clients too and building my business.

Nicole Vienneau  24:50

Yeah, what I heard you say was like, no, I need to take ownership. I have to look at myself, like, what… I need to, like, really look at myself and see how I can help myself. You weren’t getting the answers that you… that the traditional medicine was giving, they weren’t really helping you as well as you could help yourself, right? Yeah, and really looking at what you could do, and, boy, what a shock to realize, oh my gosh, it’s mold.

Maggie Gardner  25:31

And so validating too. A shock, but so validating that, I mean, even it was a time that even my husband was like, hold on, like, I think everything’s okay. Maybe this is just getting older. Or, you know, I was like, I just can’t accept that, this does not feel good, you know. So, you know, I’d be waking up after nine hours, still so tired. 

And I was like, I mean, I was working night shifts like four years ago. I don’t think that’s it. So, yeah, it was very validating to finally find what was going on. And my DIY, handy husband couldn’t even find it. We actually had to pay an expensive mold inspector to find it in the depths of our attic.

Nicole Vienneau  26:19

There it was, though.

Maggie Gardner  26:20

There it was, yeah, and, you know, the getting better part took about a year, and I still maintain my practice of my brain retraining and staying positive and hopeful. And you know, I saw it through and did eventually heal from that.

Nicole Vienneau  26:39

I know that many of our listeners are also facing something, some kind of knowing, that inner knowing that something is not quite right, and feeling that and not wanting to give up on that, because you know that something is not right. And so what do you think it was that kept you really focusing on yourself and really pursuing?

Maggie Gardner  27:08

Yeah, that’s a great question, because there are many times that I did question myself, you know. I definitely had a little crazy making phase. Like, is this just me creating this? But I really do think I credit the deep listening to that hypnosis and the yoga nidra that I was doing. 

I think it was sharpening my intuition all the while, because I was giving myself about 45 minutes to an hour a day of time to just lay down and rest and listen to the recording. And I think I was being guided. You know, my intuition was sharpening, and I just couldn’t accept that this was life from here on out. So I just persisted. 

Nicole Vienneau  28:02

So thankful you did.

Maggie Gardner  28:04

Me too, me too. Yeah, we would have had a much bigger house problem if I hadn’t found it then, honestly, my husband was very grateful.

Nicole Vienneau  28:13

True, the practicalities of all too, right?

Maggie Gardner  28:16

Yes, and I, actually, I have one more story that kind of ties back to this. My husband and I did have trouble getting pregnant, as many women and men do, and this is another situation in which we were given the diagnosis of unexplained infertility, which I would say is more just a collection of symptoms rather than a true diagnosis. 

And we were told, you know, artificial reproductive technology is the next best step. You know, we cannot figure out what could be going on. The blood test didn’t really show anything notable there. And this is another situation in which I was like, I am not ready to go there yet. You know, I don’t feel like we fully explored everything that there is to look for. 

And by this time, I’d already gone through my hypnosis training, and I’d already gone through my functional medicine training, and so I’m pretty committed to finding a root cause at this stage. So I, you know, did lots of research, and I found that there was a clinic in Indiana that would investigate for endometriosis, even though there were no symptoms to suggest that that was going on. 

So in their research, I think it’s more than 90% of women who have not gotten pregnant within one year, they’re able to find endometriosis, which is really significant. And that statistic was compelling enough for me to go forward with the surgery. 

And so in February of this past year, I did my initial surgery with them, and they found stage four endometriosis, which was absolutely shocking for me, because I didn’t know. So, you know, I had no pain or other symptoms that would suggest something so severe. 

And then in April, I had it all removed and here we are. Now we’re going to have a baby in April. So super exciting, and yet again, very validating for just looking for the root cause and persisting, not obsessing, because that is a very fine line, but persisting in your pursuit for answers.

Nicole Vienneau  30:28

Well, congratulations! First off, wow, amazing, yay! And this persistence, not obsession, right? But this persistence of knowing, again, this is the intuition and listening to ourselves and listening to what’s going on for us. And we’re the ones who know. We know. I know myself. There’s no one who knows myself like me, and it sounds like this is similar for you.

Maggie Gardner  31:05

Yes, very much so. I think we need to give our patients more credit for their knowing, and I hope to see the day in healthcare that we can blend all these different modalities that patients find most helpful, because there’s absolutely a need for emergency care and acute care and ICU and all the things you know that we do. 

But there’s also a need for spending time with our patients, listening to their stories and listening to their pings of intuition, which might be leading, which is likely leading them to the answers that they need to heal. 

Nicole Vienneau  31:43

Usually it is. But in present time, in present practice, in healthcare, there isn’t time. Here comes the time again. Here comes that time. We don’t have time to listen to the full story. And also, I think patients are really conditioned to tell us what they think we want to hear, and they know that they only have a certain amount of limited time to share their story, so they’re going to try to give the highlights. 

Or at least sometimes that’s even what I still do, because I know that I’m only going to have this, so better be concise and I write things down and make sure that I got it, you know, because that’s the way that we’ve been conditioned. 

So when I work with my clients and I’m like, oh no, like, no, we’re going to kick back and we’re going to hear some tea and let’s have a real conversation and go back and we want to, I want to hear all of your story. Because that is the way that we can then really connect the dots, because we’re listening with such intention and listening with such focus. 

For the patient who may have told the same story 50 times, but we’re hearing things that they’ve never connected the dots to, and we can help them thread and weave their story so that it becomes something that they’re like, oh, wow, with reflective listening and with appreciative inquiry and motivational interviewing and the skills that we know as coaches and we use innately now, having had such experience with it.

Maggie Gardner  33:21

Yeah, I think this is a time I think we’re going to be seeing more patient autonomy. You know, patients are already spending, I think it’s like, over $30 billion a year on complementary medicine or alternative medicine. So I would love to see the day that that is, you know, included in their healthcare insurance benefits so that they are being offered more time to really figure out and really help resolve some of their symptoms that are otherwise not really getting resolved with medication or surgical intervention.

Nicole Vienneau  33:59

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yes. So then this leads me into your business of Body Mind Align, and your connection of your experiences being a Nurse. Then you did the Nurse coaching, integrative Nurse coach certificate program. Then you took the functional medicine program, and then you did your clinical hypnotherapy. So tell us how this all works in Body Mind Align.

Maggie Gardner  34:29

Yeah. So when I first meet with somebody, I get, like, their full intake, and we sit down and we talk about that for about an hour and a half to two hours and figure out a plan. What are they… what have they already looked for? What you know… what is yet to be investigated? 

And I put them on a yoga nidra program, essentially, so they should be listening to yoga nidra about 20 minutes a day or so, at least. And every time we meet, we do basically like a recap of what’s going on with their health, if we’ve made any adjustments, you know, if we’re working with their health care provider, you know what their plans have… what plans have taken shape with them, and we’re working with them, and we’re also doing a one on one hypnosis session in that time. 

So half hypnosis, half functional health, essentially, and coaching. So that’s… and we’re moving the needle. You know? We’re doing some brain retraining. We’re getting some of those symptoms better managed, hopefully, depending on what exactly is going on. 

And we’re all the while looking for what’s underneath all of that. Is it, you know, burnout playing out? You know, are there lifestyle factors that are… they’re not really fully addressing, such as sleep or nutrition, things like that, those are more the obvious ones, but sometimes we can also do testing. 

So Bridget Sager teaches in her course how to look for some of these, you know, underlying causes through testing that we can run. So yeah, we have lots of different… a myriad of different ways to find an underlying root cause and to help people better manage suffering, and kind of step beyond suffering.

Nicole Vienneau  36:29

And I think of having heard your story of that persistence and that validation… 

Maggie Gardner  36:39

That’s a big word. 

Nicole Vienneau  36:40

When someone is listening to you and hears you and is willing to help in the ways in which that you’re doing through these different ways of practicing Nursing, different ways of combining all of the things. I didn’t hear you once say medicine or anything like that, we’re talking like things we can really do in our daily life, you know, thinking of our people as whole people, we’re whole beings.

Maggie Gardner  37:11

Yeah, restoring balance and finding those ways that are imbalanced, so that we can bring that back and that it’s sustainable. You know, my ideal goal is that people go forward with these tools, that they don’t need to be reliant on me or any other entity to be fully balanced and in a good state of health. That is my goal. I love to send people free out into the world so that they can take care of themselves for the rest of their lives. That’s the best. 

Nicole Vienneau  37:42

Yes, that’s totally the best. I’m giggling because that’s my opinion too. It’s like, yes, we’ll help you, you know, get things going and then, yeah, go explore and see how you can really support yourself and love yourself and care for yourself the way that you really want to. Yeah, I love that so much. 

It was funny, I was talking to someone, another Nurse coach, yesterday, and we were talking about mindfulness. So that came… that topic came up, and that’s her passion, is mindfulness. And she’s like, I don’t want to do like, practice in a way that’s like, I’m doing stuff to people, like I have… they’re relying on me to do the thing to them. 

She said, what I want is just people to be able to do it for themselves and their autonomy, their decisions for themselves. I was like, yes, yes. That’s where we’re… that’s what I know all us, as Nurse coaches really hope for, for our clients, our patients, our communities. 

Maggie Gardner  37:52

Yeah, absolutely, I love the idea of helping patients or our clients become their own best healers. Not outsource that to anybody else but themselves.

Nicole Vienneau  38:57

No outsourcing. I love that so much. Yes, why outsource? We could do it ourselves. And sometimes we need some help, some guidance, some guidance and we then can step up for ourselves and ask for that help too. Yeah, yes. Oh, wow, Maggie, we’ve talked about a lot of fun stuff. I know that I did want to ask you something, because you had an exciting accomplishment recently, because I think you wrote a chapter in a book, didn’t you? 

Maggie Gardner  39:29

Yes, I did. I co-wrote a book with, I think it was 102 other authors, so I have my own chapter in that book, and I talk about my, you know, journey to healing. And you know how I thought that, you know, what I needed was just to leave Nursing, and you know, in doing so I got sick and finding my way out of that, and really stepping beyond suffering and healing myself and all of what it took to do that. 

So I, yes, I do have that book that came out this summer. I think we were international bestseller in four different countries. So that was pretty awesome. And for all our listeners, I do have a free PDF ebook for you guys.

Nicole Vienneau  40:15

Tell us the name of the book, show it!

Maggie Gardner  40:16

Yeah, it is Radical Freedom: Let Go Of Who You Were and Set Your Creative Soul Free. So lots of inspiring stories about all different kinds of themes within that.

Nicole Vienneau  40:32

Who knew you were going to be an author?

Maggie Gardner  40:34

I don’t know. I always… that was a bucket list item for me. Check that off.

Nicole Vienneau  40:39

Check! So great. So, you’re going to share a PDF with our listeners. So we’re going to be able to put that in the show notes for people, right? Yeah, and how they can get that PDF from you for your chapter. That’s amazing. Thanks for giving us that. Yes. And so we have a few moments left. And so one question I do love to ask, my favorite time is, what is on your heart that you would like to share with our listeners?

Maggie Gardner  41:13

I would love to share with other Nurses listening to this that there were so many times through my career and even earlier in Nursing school, that I felt too sensitive for Nursing, even though my heart was in the right place, that there was no room for my holistic philosophy or my healing heart. 

But to any Nurse who may be feeling this way, you are not alone, and we need your sensitive heart. That is the true spirit of Nursing, and that is the vision that Florence Nightingale had for Nursing. And I do think that we’re coming back to that, and you will see how that is your biggest superpower, that that sensitivity and desire to help others heal is just at the core of Nursing. 

And I think this program, that integrative Nurse coach certificate program, really helps bring that full circle. So if you were on the fence about it, oh man, I would just tell you to jump. I wish I did earlier.

Nicole Vienneau  42:15

Yeah, just jump over the fence and get to the other side.

Maggie Gardner  42:19

Yes, this is where your people are. 

Nicole Vienneau  42:21

Yes, I appreciate that sentiment too about a sensitive heart, and so many of us as Nurses, as humans, we got into this because we do have a sensitive heart. We see that. We feel that. We feel other people, and we truly see them for who they are, and we don’t want to lose that.

Maggie Gardner  42:46

No, we do not need to harden. 

Nicole Vienneau  42:48

Yeah, yes. So Maggie, how can we find you? Our listeners are looking for you. How are they going to find you?

Maggie Gardner  42:59

You can find me on my website: bodymindalign.co. I’m on Facebook, Instagram, and I have a little project in the works that if you get my book, you’ll get on my email list and get all the updates for that. But I’m gonna be supporting people still throughout my early motherhood career. So I just love this work, and this is part of me. So yeah, I want to keep supporting people, even though the one on one coaching may not have so much time towards that, but yeah.

Nicole Vienneau  43:36

Yes, you have a new job coming up here, being a mom.

Maggie Gardner  43:41

Big new job coming up, and I’m excited to have a young family. So, pivoting my priorities at the moment, but also planning to keep my role as Nurse and, you know, uplifter and healer. So I want to continue that work.

Nicole Vienneau  44:02

Yes, and once a Nurse, always a Nurse. There’s so many ways for us to use our amazing abilities and skills and intuition and healing heart, right? Our healers heart. Yeah, so I look forward to learning about what that is. And listeners, please, please grab Maggie’s PDF so you get on her email list too and read her chapter in her book and feel inspired by her story. And Maggie, thank you so much for spending some time with us here.

Maggie Gardner  44:36

Thank you so much, Nicole, it was a pleasure.