When we think of decolonizing our lives, that is not a solo mission. It is an endeavor, a journey that we take in community.

In this week’s interview, what really stood out to me was the importance of and the power of community as Marla Teyolia so vulnerably shared her story of decolonizing her life. I can’t wait for you to get to know her better.

A little about Marla Teyolia

Marla Teyolia, M.S., is a mother, partner, executive coach, advisor, and modern day Medicine Woman who has been holding sacred space for individuals and groups to access their healing and liberation for 25+ years.

She is the Founder and CEO of Culture Shift Agency, a consulting and coaching firm whose mission is to advance the holistic leadership development of Women of Color and their allies. As the coach of choice for high-achieving BIPOC leaders, clients typically come to Marla for support with leadership challenges or when they find themselves at a crossroads. However, she is often called the CEO Healer because they emerge with more than just clarity and strategy... but rather with the ability to heal the internal barriers that keep them from thriving.

Marla is deeply influenced by her 25+ year journey as a student of yoga, meditation, somatic practices, and curanderismo. She had the privilege and honor to study with Elena Avila, Master Curandera and author of Women Who Glows in the Dark, as her apprentice for four years in the early 2000’s. This Mesoamerican, holistic healing system has deeply informed how she approaches transformational leadership development... one that is connected to body, nature, community, lineage, and personal agency. In addition, she utilizes a systems-frame approach in her coaching practice, supporting leaders to disrupt bias and activate their personal agency to create inclusive systems and elevate the leadership of individuals from under-represented groups.

Marla’s background includes a Masters of Science in Social Work from Columbia University with a focus on the intersection of organizational development and individual clinical practice. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley graduating magna cum laude, is a Certified Empowerment Coach and Facilitator, a Conversational Intelligence® (C-IQ) Enhanced Skill Practitioner, and Certified Breathwork Practitioner.

Over the years, Marla has led trainings, retreats, and coaching programs with thousands of individuals. Organizational clients include Meta, Google, Pfizer, Toast, Newsela, Lionsgate Entertainment, Hearst Communications, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, McDermott Will & Emory, Bard College, and Mount Holyoke College, among many others.

Let’s get into today’s interview.

I would love to hear how you define decolonization and what decolonizing your life means to you.

I think decolonization is the most revolutionary act of being free spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, economically, culturally.

It touches every single aspect of our lives: manifesting, the spiritual practices we take on, the foods we eat, the clothes we wear, what we see is possible in our own lives.

When I started this journey of decolonizing for myself, it was really a look at when the colonizers came to the Americas and engaged a psychic war on us. The war tore down our temples to build their own, our rituals, our customs, our food, our language, our way of dress. We had to keep what was ours in silent, private places and over time, we took on the colonizers’ rules and ways of beings.

So, decolonization is the process of waking up and bringing a critical lens and eye to the question: Where does that come from? My behaviors, my beliefs, the way I operate in this world, my relationship to the land, to people. How can I bring a critical eye to that with gentleness and compassion? Then, move forward in a way that is more conscious and awake and ultimately liberatory.

This process requires so much releasing, healing, and reclaiming to support re-indigenizing ourselves.

I want to talk about this idea of reclamation. How you live your life is very reclamatory from the food you eat to your multi-generational household. Tell us more about your journey of reclaiming.

I can say it officially started in 1996 and I was in grad school at the time. I'm from the border and I was raised in a very traditional Mexican family. If you've been here in California, Mexican indigenous culture, it’s a thread in the culture. You still can have access to all of your foods and people. So when I went to grad school at Columbia, that was a really big shock to my system on so many levels.

I got into this predominantly white institution in a social work program that was predominantly white women and was othered deeply and it had nothing to do with my intelligence or schoolwork. I was a straight A student. There was a lot of not being seen as equal playing field. I noticed really early on that my mental health and emotional help were really taking a toll, like some anxiety and depression creeping in.

At the time my then boyfriend - now husband - was like, I really feel like you should connect with this woman and she was an elder in his community. The first time I met her, she was a seer and she asked me to say my name three times. As soon as I talked, she says to me, “Oh, your ancestors have been calling you.” And I just started sobbing. It was such a steep awareness of like what I was experiencing.

There was something that I needed to go to. Through my work with her that lasted for decades, she supported me in reclaiming myself and really connecting to my power. She told me to set up an ancestor altar and meditate in front of it every day.

She gave me really specific rituals and practices and that was my spiritual armor. I would not leave to go to the corner store bodega if I had not meditated. I ended up committing to that practice.

Once you start taking a step towards a certain path, you start seeing it as you're walking around the world.

I started seeing meditation classes, yoga classes. I had taken yoga in college, but it hadn’t stuck. Just like vegetarianism. I had tried to be vegetarian in college and it hadn’t really worked. But one day at an Indian restaurant with my friends, I took a bite of chicken and got really disgusted and declared, “I’m vegan!”

Your work really centers around working with women of color, supporting them on their healing journey. You brought up how healing and empowerment spaces have changed since ‘96. How did you navigate those really white spaces in yoga practice and mindfulness?

One thing about me is I am always going to find my people. That is my superpower. I am going to find my people and I fully believe every space is mine to be in. I am from this earth and from this land. You don't define this space. I define my space.

When I would be in those yoga classes, if there was one person of color, I would go be right next to them and connect with them. If there wasn't, I still had my people. I roll deep with a group of women of color. That is my deepest love and source of power and support.

Dr. Kimberly Richards is the executive director of the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. I had taken an Undoing Racism workshop with her 8 or 10 years ago. In the workshop, she talked about when people of color ascend the corporate ladder, it is critical that we are deeply connected to our culture, who we are, and where we come from. Because if not, that culture tries to overtake us and wants us to be like them.

That always stuck with me because that's the work. When people come to me, it's because they've had to put on these masks and have tried to be different people. And they're reckoning with the fact that “I am not who I am in these spaces anymore and I can no longer tolerate that.”

Tune into episode 158 of Wholehearted Coaching: The Podcast to hear the rest of Marla Teyolia’s interview.

If you enjoyed this, you’ll love the rest of our Decolonizing Your Life series!

156 | Reclaiming your Roots with Emily Anne Brant

In this series, we are going to look at how we can decolonize our professional lives, our dreams, our spirits, our wellbeing and we are starting off with a wonderful guest, Emily Anne Brant – an Indigenous author, speaker, & mentor on a mission to decolonize the personal development industry. No matter what, I know you’ll get something out of these episodes, love.

157 | Reclaiming your Dreams with SharRon Jamison

SharRon Jamison joins us to talk about how we can decolonize our imaginations and our dreams, and if you're part of the Wholehearted Community, you know that this is something I talk about often: how our dreams can be limited within this box of what people tell us is possible for us, and today, SharRon Jamison is telling us to break out of that box.

159 | Reclaiming your Self with Asha Frost

Our final interview in the Decolonizing your Life series is with someone so incredibly special to me: Asha Frost. I truly see Asha as a changemaker. Asha shares openly about how difficult it was for her to use her voice and how she listened to her body and spirit in order to reclaim her self and her courage.

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About your host, Shirin Eskandani