Meet Kristi

Hi! I’m Kristi. I was 32 when I decided, after seven years as a lawyer, to leave my career and build a completely different type of life. After years of focusing on a stressful, all-encompassing career, I needed to mentally decompress and so I went to work as a waitress. For once, I was not thinking of what my next step would mean for my career, or what people would think of me, only of what would allow me to figure out how to actually enjoy my day to day life.

How I WAS:

– My job/career equaled my worth

– It mattered how people responded when I told them  I was a lawyer

– What supervisors/bosses thought of me mattered more than what I thought

– I thought I was supposed to suffer through my career

– I thought this was what being an adult was supposed to be like

– My stress, busyness and overwhelm was a badge of honor

– I was completely oblivious to my increasingly frazzled nature, emotional fragility and exhaustion

– I was thinking only of getting to the next place, with no consideration or even fleeting thought about enjoying the journey along the way.

What I did NEXT:

 – Hired a coach

– Intentionally started to create a new identity where I cared about the health of my emotions and internal world

– Cultivated self understanding and true self compassion

– Extricated my worth from my job title and linked it instead to what kind of person I am in the world

– Leaned into the idea of ease and effortless wellbeing

– Redefined my values and worked to untangle whether I was living by them

– Left my job as a lawyer to wait tables

– Created a whole new kind of day to day life – one that I actually LIKED!

My life used to be ALL about the grind. The early mornings, the late nights, wishing I was more productive with both, hoping tomorrow that I will finally get through my to-do list, all the while beating myself up for not being better at ‘life’ than I was. I thought that was just what it meant to be a lawyer and put my career first.

I understand how people feel after they have gone to school for years, spent time, money and energy building a career. At that point, it feels impossible to leave. For years, I also thought that it was! But I was no longer fine with feeling burned out and frustrated in my everyday life. I wanted to feel more present, more connected and like I was creating my OWN path, not living someone else’s. I realized that my day to day happiness was more important than living for my career. That feeling present, connected and authentic in my day to day life was more important than the prestige of a career, or what anyone thought about my career at all. Once I decided that was how I wanted to live, what I thought I couldn’t do in a million years (just up and leave), I just…did.

At A Settled Mind, I want to help people who feel like I used to. I understand the complexities involved in making a big life change and I won’t minimize the work that it will take. I want to normalize the pursuit of balance, wellness and fulfillment in day to day life – including in your job! I will use my experience, my training and my ability to connect to help YOU create the job, day to day experience and LIFE that you truly want.

Professional background:

– Certified as a Deep Transformational Coach through the Center for Transformational Coaching.

– Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and Criminal Justice from Long Island University, CW Post in Greenvale, New York

– Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Other facts:

– I love meditation, mindfulness and all kinds of personal development and I am always finding new ways to connect with the experience of my day to day life.
– I love being near and relaxing next to any body of water, cuddling with my two cats and spending almost every free moment with my husband and the love of my life.
– Although born and raised on the East Coast, I now live in the Pacific Northwest. I love seeing beautiful mountains and sunsets on my drive to the grocery store and I am gradually getting used to the rain.
– I love supporting other female entrepreneurs and work mostly with female-owned small businesses for both my personal growth and in building my business. (See Fresh Lines Creative, Sasha Reiko Photography, Sam Vanderwielen LLC, Paperbell, Live Thrive Love)

Thank you for being here at A Settled Mind, I hope to meet you soon!

Certification

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives”

–Annie Dillard