Embrace self-leadership and become unstoppable: insights from coach Ishani Tewari
Heyyy new to my newsletter? I’m your host, Shayna Grajo, a licensed massage therapist, yoga instructor and former journalist, turned marketer and copywriter. To support this work, consider subscribing to have new episodes and love letters (achem, newsletters) dropped right to your inbox, every new and full moon.
Become unstoppable in this episode of the Equitable Wellness podcast with guest Ishani Tewari, a coach dedicated to helping individuals overcome people-pleasing tendencies. Ishani shares her own journey of healing from chronic health issues and the turning points that led her to embrace self-leadership, authenticity, and ultimately coaching others. Our conversation touches on the mind-body-spirit connection, diverse healing modalities from EFT to breathwork to Ho'oponopono, and cultural context in understanding people-pleasing. Ishani also shares about emotional wound healing, what it feels like to become ‘unstoppable,’ and on the significance of joy. Finally, Ishani reads us a poignant poem of her own, in the spirit of encouraging healing.
A full transcript of the podcast can be found on my blog.
Stick around on Substack, or…
Keywords
equitable wellness, people pleasing, self leadership, healing journey, mind body spirit, cultural context, unstoppable self, emotional wounds, holistic health, coaching
Chapters
00:00 Greetings and Ishani's bio
11:39 Turning Points: Ishani's Health Journey
18:02 Recognizing People-Pleasing Patterns
26:48 Self-Leadership: The Foundation of Authenticity
35:42 Diverse Modalities for Healing
45:07 Defining Unstoppable: Owning Your Power
51:03 Identity Shifts for Empowerment
53:01 Experiential Practice: That Which Brings Joy
01:04:27 Sharing Poetry: A Personal Touch
01:10:02 Future Aspirations and Community Healing
The Unstoppable self…
It’s been a blessing to host today’s podcast guest, the unstoppable Ishani Tewari—a coach who helps others overcome people pleasing and themselves become unstoppable.
I vibed a lot with the “unstoppable self” and embraced a 5-day group challenge this past week to become better acquainted with Ishani’s work…
But even leading to this, we have connected deeply on many levels.
Ishani, for one, has an artist’s soul. She embraces her creative power.
And you shall see that she shares within this article and episode a poem of her own… In time for one of the world’s largest literary festivals—National Poetry Month, as celebrated within the United States—for this new moon of April.
I am grateful to introduce a world-class healing artist.
Meet Ishani
Ishani describes herself as a global citizen, though physically rooted in India. Her worldview has been shaped by the books, movies, art, and diverse people who have touched her life.
She is a determined coach on a mission to help people quit people-pleasing and take charge of their lives. Her coaching journey began as a personal reflection to understand and heal her own people-pleasing tendencies—that led to serious health challenges including asthma, cervical spondylitis, debilitating migraines, and severe anxiety.
At the heart of Ishani's approach is a simple truth: love comes first. She firmly believes in everyone's capacity to create an unstoppable life on their own terms. Through her coaching and content, she works daily toward her vision of a world led by empathetic, authentic leaders who value genuine human connection above all. Not just dreaming of this future—she's actively building it, one transformed client at a time.
Highlights from the Episode
Owning Your Power and Becoming Unstoppable
Wow, okay. Just saying this word unstoppable raises my vibration. So this is my frequency raises my energy. Yeah, so like being unstoppable means to me very simply that I am going to own my power. So owning your power is, being unstoppable… now again with definitions, labels, identities, it is going to be very personalized to you. Being unstoppable could mean that you don't want to live in a city. You are like, I don't care about this I am going to go live in a countryside in my hut and have my cat that is being unstoppable. Like I don't care what others think, how I live, so this is me being unstoppable. For somebody it can be, “All my life I have seen my mother scrubbing floors and I don't want to do. That my being unstoppable is having a corporate job, right, so that I can really help her retire and I help her live the life that she's been desiring for so so long.” For somebody like me, my definition of being unstoppable is helping others be unstoppable.
Mind-Body-Spirit Connection and Breathwork
It's very grounding and beautiful, embodied, and wonderful. We'll move on. You work a lot with the mind-body-spirit connection, which includes physical practice. For instance, you start your sessions with centering, paying attention to the breath, maybe taking a few deep breaths, and setting an intention. I almost thought before starting the podcast that you should lead us being present in physical space. But then, whatever, I just continued as the podcast host mode. But you help clients become present in your sessions, like you did in this five-day challenge of becoming unstoppable. You use various forms of breathwork as well, even in your introductory work, including breathwork to release negative beliefs and pain held in the body.
Turning Points and Seeking Healing
And I don't know. I mean, I've not spoken about this and I don't know if, I mean, a lot of people in my life know about this. But this was the awakening moment for me. This was the spiritual turning point where this noise came like, you should live, like you don't deserve to die. And then I started reading about all these books and self-development, spirituality, all of that. And in January 2021, I wrote a letter to the universe not knowing how and what will happen. To just move away from this house because I knew that something needs to change and I can only change myself when I take this whole step. So that was the first turning point. The second turning point came when I was in Bangalore, which is where I moved to, not knowing anybody. I didn't know the culture. I went to this breathwork workshop. And I'd done everything, a lot of things. I was into doing yoga every single day, yogic breathing, asanas, pranayama, everything. But then when I went to this breathwork session, it is called the holotropic breathwork. It's basically you taking inhales and exhales in a continuous manner. And we did that for like two, three hours. It was facilitated. And I think that was also my first... interaction with somebody holding a safe space for me to go deeper into my emotional journey.
If you have some sort of chronic health issues, I'm not saying it's coming from people pleasing. But it is all definitely coming from an emotional wound. So I invite you to actually look at it and try to understand what is underneath that is going on. It is going to help you so so much.
—Ishani Tewari
Keep in touch with Ishani
Now that you’re ready to become your own unstoppable self—I highly recommend connecting with Ishani Tewari!
You can:
Join her Self-Leadership School on Facebook, where she hosts free weekly trainings on how to be the leader of your life, as well as challenges
Download two of her amazing free resources:
The ‘Say No’ Playbook: How to set boundaries without feeling like a monster
Ishani’s Poetry
Healing
by Ishani Tewari
In the bold summer night As I look at the moon one last time Before I move to my bed To lie awake throughout the night Once again You come and whisper Hello, old friend Cautious I’ve been To keep you a secret From everyone From myself I guess I thought I let you go But now facing me Once again You stand and shout Die, you bitch To think I let you go To only find you Grasping me tighter Choking me till I Die? Scratch that Breathe again One deep breath I take Inhale for 1,2,3,4 Exhale for 6,5,4,3,2,1 I see you fade away Once again You can’t kill someone who is already dead I am a new me You might come back But I am ready To send you away Quicker and easier Next time This to me is Healing
Collaboration Corner
Earlier in April, I was featured in the email newsletter of two wonderful business owners, based in Canada with clients worldwide. In the spirit of reciprocity, I want to feature them!
Cherie Deacon and Christine Ferguson are the co-founders of VA Growth Hub, and if you’ve ever wished your business could feel a little less overwhelming and a lot more supported, you’re in the right place.
At VA Growth Hub, they’re committed to helping business owners streamline their back-end systems and scale without the chaos. Whether it’s simplifying workflows, automating processes, or providing expert tech support, Cherie and Christine help business owners grow strategically and work smarter, not harder.
They also provide valuable guidance to Virtual Assistants in building their careers.
Whether you’re a business owner or a virtual assistant, VA Growth Hub is here to offer personalized support, ensuring you have the systems and confidence you need for long-term success.
Ready to scale your business with ease? Reach out for a free, no-pressure chat with Cherie and Christine to learn how they can help you streamline your systems and grow confidently.
Shay’s updates
I’ve done it! I’ve committed, and I’ve shown up! Two podcasts a month, new and full moon, since launching the Substack last month (March and April).
It feels like another world ago, and yet an interesting new rhythm. Going forward, I imagine just one podcast guest per month, but we’ll see how it goes.
I will be taking May off from guest podcast invites. My mom and brother will be visiting me from the United States, for their first trip ever to Spain.
We’ll be back fresh in June for the podcast. I’ll send you a love letter (achem, newsletter) on the full moon and new moon in May.
For the podcast video recording platform, I currently choose Riverside.fm (affiliate link)
I recommend it for simplifying podcast video recording, post-production, and handy AI features. In addition, it is helpful for audio podcast editing, because it allows you to download the speaker voices separately if need be.
As always, thank you for your readership and another engaging conversation! I appreciate y’all joining me in this newsletter of love.
p.s. Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts, well wishes and prayers in light of yesterday’s power outage, which affected Spain, Portugal, and parts of France and Italy. Even a taste of a power outage of that magnitude puts things into perspective. How delicate is this status quo, and how quickly it can evaporate from one moment to the next. Let’s use our power for the unstoppable good, as we together contemplate privilege and power… Literally.
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