The Champion Within: Danielle Kettlewell’s Transformation from the “Unlikely Olympian” to Empowerment and Manifestation Coach

Danielle Kettlewell

53:09

SPEAKERS

Marlena, Danielle, Christy

Christy  

Welcome to this episode, this very special episode of a witch, a mystic and a feminist. Today we have a very special guest, Danielle Kettlewell, who happens to be an Olympian who competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. With the Australian synchronized swimming team. Danielle is a life coach who helps women reclaim their self worth confidence, change their mindset, as well as assisting women in finding their souls mission. Kind of sounds like, you know, it aligns with us ultimately,

Marlena  

Definitely aligns.

Christy  

Yeah, she is also the author of a book if she already didn't do enough. The book is entitled, The unlikely Olympian step into your fears to achieve your dream. And she also is the host and creator of the podcast, the beautiful souls podcast, which I have absolutely devoured. Let me tell you, Oh, my gosh. I have and you are so like, you're just full of light. And like, you're just like, I don't want to say infectious, but it is it's like, and I started and then I kind of jumped around. Yeah. And I was jumping around all day. And I was just like, she's just so easy to listen to just all the things you're talking about. And like stream of consciousness, like it just really resonated with me. So it's really fun.

Danielle  

Oh, good. That makes me happy. I love podcasting. I feel like it's my favorite form of communicating, because it's just the most natural, you know? Yeah. So I'm so grateful to be here with you, ladies.

Christy  

Yes, we're so excited

Marlena  

We're grateful to have you. So some of the things that and we've discussed a few things prior to recording, but one of the things that I wanted our listeners to find out, you mentioned that you're an average woman who quantum leaps into becoming an Olympian in synchronized swimming. Could you explain to our listeners how that transpires? 

Danielle  

Yeah, it's a bit mind boggling when you think about it, like what does that mean? Like, how are you average and you became an Olympian? And the reason that I say that I'm really emphasize that is because I think the dialogue that we have around the Olympians, you know, we see like the Michael Phelps, and the Usain Bolt's and they were talented, and they swam out of the womb, and they like, literally, anointed by God with this, like, incredible talent. And that's amazing. And like, honestly, like credit to them. But that's not the all of us, right? Like, that is a small percentage of people. And it is incredible. But I think a lot of us, you know, we feel pretty, like average, you know, and we all have a special spark inside of us. And so the reason that I, you know, call myself the unlikely Olympian, and that's the title of my book is really because the power of my story, and so I started synchronized swimming in Vancouver, Canada, when I was little girl, about eight years old. My parents are actually originally from Australia. So they grew up on the beaches of Bondi surfing and swimming, so we're kind of like Water Babies in our family. And I'm the youngest of five children, and my siblings are quite a lot older than me. So my mom didn't want me to get bored or lonely. So she just checked me and all these activities. And one day, the school floating around with these other little girls doing these crazy things and dancing in the water, and after a few years, I just fell in love with this sport. You know, being a little girl, I got to wear makeup, I got to wear sparkly swimsuits. I got to work with a team of women like a girls like it was just awesome. The only problem was, I wasn't very good at it. But I was always the girl that had a great attitude, right? Like, if you're gonna give me feedback, it was like you are great attitude. Great team player, you're a hard worker. And so I held on to that. And I continued to compete throughout my high school years, because I just loved it. And it just gave me an outlet for creativity and for friendship and for teamwork. And I really had this knowing that I was just never gonna go anywhere with it. Like, I just never expected myself to do anything great. And that was it was realistic. Like, I wasn't necessarily being hard on myself. Like I saw the rankings. I was nowhere near anywhere near the top of the team. I was basically the equivalent of being benched. Right. We have a reserve in synchronized swimming, and so I was the reserve, but I loved it. So I participated in I did it. And I think that this is just such an important point as well. You know, we're not always going to be the best with everything that we do, but do the things that light you up, because that's going to give you lifeforce and that's gonna give you energy. And so when I was in grade 12, there was no kind of pathway for me to go there was nowhere else for me to go at that level. So I decided to quote unquote, retire. But little did I know the universe had something else in store for me. And I kept participating in the sport because it it lit me up. So I coached I was teaching little girls how to do Synchro and I was doing record like it recreationally. At a master's level, so just a few hours a week with teammates. And it's funny because in 2012, I was actually sitting on my couch in Vancouver, Canada watching the London Olympic Games as I think anyone who is Olympic fanatic or enjoys the Olympics, even if you don't, right, you know, when the Olympics are on, I was watching the game. So I was watching the synchronized swimming. And again, just in awe of how amazing this sport is. Little did I know, right? Little did I know that four years later, I'd be at the Games myself. Like that is mind boggling. And then of itself, you know, is a quantum leap. I feel like because like, how did you know I must say this, because it's like, if people had told me do 1012 That I'd be competing at the next Olympic Games, I would have like, laughed at them, I would have bet against myself. What are you smoking? That's like, not possible, right. And I think that this is just such an important reminder as like Little do we know what's gonna be coming in our life. But we this is the power of being open minded, and being willing to lean into the uncomfortable things and to see where life is going to take us. And so, in 2013, I was training one day. And this is an important piece of my story, as well as training, I was going to university and had like a training at the end of the evening with a couple of my teammates, and we are doing something called highlights and highlights and synchronized swimming is when we build human pyramids underwater, we all eggbeater up to the surface and create a spring. And then someone jumps off the top, and then does a flip that lands. It's phenomenal like synchronized swimming is the coolest sport in the world heads down. That's also part of my like agenda. Whenever I do podcasts, I want everyone to be synchronized. So my TV went up, and she came straight down on my head. And this isn't like football in America, like we have no protection. I have a cat and a swimsuit. And so she came down on my head and I kind of came back up to the surface. I felt okay, at the time. But driving home that night, I had a really bad headache behind that I was feeling really nauseous. And I just knew something was wrong. Kind of mid turn the next day and I was trying to study for my midterm and I literally couldn't read the words on the paper like it like I knew it was English, but I had no idea I had no capacity to concentrate or understand. And I was diagnosed with a concussion. And I think in these days, we really kind of blow off a concussion, we're like, oh, that's fine. They just have a concussion, right? But I really liken it to you know, struggling with your mental health because you look fine. Like I didn't have any cuts or bruises or blood or scars. But there was something that was not right in my brain. And I needed to literally like the universe like laid me down. And I had to lie in a dark room basically for a month to recover. And in the moment, I was basically like, What the actual fuck, sorry? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I was like, why like, we all have these moments where we kind of shake our fists at this guy. And we're like, why is this happening to me? Like, what did I do? What karma? Did I like put out there to have this kind of happen? And little did I know it was like a intense realignment of my life. I didn't I was following the normal path. Like I went to university because I thought that I had to that was what people did. I didn't like what I was studying. I didn't feel passionate, I thought that there was more for me, but I I felt afraid to kind of go against the grain. And life made me Little did I know, there was so much more in store. And so the day after my 21st birthday while I was concussed. A friend of mine gave me a call. She was a past teammate of mine as well. And you know, we're talking on the phone, she's wishing me happy birthday. And at the time, when we're on the phone, she literally gets a message on Facebook from the Australian national team coach of the synchronized swimming team there. And it's quite a small sport. And this coach used to live in Vancouver, so she knew of my friends. And she had Australian citizenship. And she was a synchronized swimmer as well. She said, Is there any chance you'd want to come to Australia? Try it for the team. Because all after the London Olympics, everyone retired, and we're looking to create, you know, a team to go to Rio in 2016. And as I think we do with all of our friends, right, we're gonna cheer them on for the opportunities in their life, right? We're gonna like you go for it. And I was so excited for her. And about 15 minutes later, she turns out, she looks at me, she's like, Danielle, you could do this too. And I was like, Are you kidding me? Like what? Like, she was always better than me. When we were training. I was concussed like I was like, like, basically the laundry list of things that were stacked against me were as high as it could be. And I've had this moment where I was contemplating this, right, and I and the reason that I say this, as well as like this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. And not everyone is going to have an opportunity like that. But we all have opportunities in our life to level up or to back down. And sometimes we don't see them because we don't even feel worthy of them. And so I allowed myself to really contemplate you know, if I'm lying on my deathbed someday, and I'm looking back at my life, how would I have wanted to live? How would I have wanted to level up what I want to say that I never went after this thing and always wondered who I could have been If I was brave enough, or would I rather just go for it and give it my all and probably fail? Little did I actually didn't think that there was a third option that I'd make the Olympics. And in that moment, I was like, You know what, this is literally as delusional as it can be. But I'm just gonna go for it. And I'm just gonna see because I think that there was something deeply inside of me that crave something greater at life. And this kind of felt like my opportunity to just go for it. And I knew everyone was going to judge me, I knew everyone was going to think that I'm crazy. I knew everyone was going to be like, What the actual fuck are you doing? Like, like, Who do you think that you are? And I went into, to my parents room. And because I was living with them at the time, you can imagine, right? Like, my parents are beautiful. But like, even if I was in their position, they have their cup daughter comes in. She's like, the Olympics are like, how is your head recovering? Like, are you it's so impossible. It's so crazy. But I decided to run with it and just go all in and do everything that I possibly could. And that really gave me the drive to actually recover from my concussion as well and kind of kick that into high gear. Within six months, I took out a student line of credit, I got on a plane and I moved to Perth, Australia, I've never been there before. I made it on the the team. And within few years I and this is giving you the Coles Notes version, right? There's a lot of ups and downs of that. And within a few years i i made on the Olympic team, I went to the Rio Olympics, I went to three World Championships, and I got the opportunity to compete for Australia for five years.

Marlena  

That is so amazing. 

Danielle  

Talk about quantum leap, right?

Marlena  

I love that you were just talking about the give up or level up, you have this video on your Instagram, where you were talking about that split second decision that you have to make and do you move forward? Or do you quit? And I've worked with I mean, not Olympians, but I've worked with some elite athletes. And I see them suffering from self doubt on a regular basis and wanting to quit, because it's just too hard. So how did you change your mindset to eliminate that self doubt?

Danielle  

You know, that's a definitely a loaded question. Because there's so many aspects of that. And it's not just like one magic pill thing, I think it's a real combination of a lot of things. And you know, one of the things that I always say that was I think my key to really improving. Because you know, what I didn't share is when I when I first went to Australia, and I tried off with team, I was the bottom rank, so 16 out of 16, like I was not good. But then also I had a 116 chance, right. And so I moved to Australia, and I put myself in that environment with people that became my teammates and some of my greatest friends. But I put myself in a space that made me really uncomfortable. And I feel like that environment any we know the power environment, like surrounding yourself with people that are powerful, and that are going after things like you calibrate to that frequency, right? You calibrate to that energy. And that is truly what I believe was one of the biggest keys it put me in that mindset. And even though there was this, the the self doubt, I don't think ever goes away, we just get better at not listening to it. And you know, I'm so grateful because when I started moved to Australia, I started to work with a sports psychologist. And so I had the opportunity to talk through all of this stuff, and have conversations about you know, my fears, my doubts, my insecurities, and all that stuff. And that really helped me start to process and build the muscle of self awareness. And at the time, too, you know, I'm still very young, but I was 21. And most of my teammates were 1718. And so I had a little bit more life experience. That gives gave me this muscle of being self aware. And I believe that that self awareness is such a key which led me to my long term success and gave me the capacity to understand, you know, those voices that I'm hearing, they're going to be there, but I'm just gonna keep not listening to them. Because my goal matters more to me than my self doubt. And that was huge.

Marlena  

I love that. Did you ever feel burnout? When you were when you were training? 

Danielle  

Yeah, that's a really big and you know, I think about like, if I was to do it, again, I don't want to put limits on myself that I if I was to do the same thing now 10 years later, I probably wouldn't have as much energy for it. But you know, synchronized swimming is. And this is why I think it's such an incredible sport like synchronized swimmers train at least six hours a day in the water, two, three, sometimes four hours on land, like we are hard freaking workers. And sometimes you do that six days a week. If you're on a training camp, there was times I was doing that six and a half days a week. And there was absolutely like that burnout within me. And I think what was my issue as well as I didn't have the capacity to slow down. And this is where it kind of goes into the personal, emotional spiritual development stuff because I was afraid of myself in many ways. I was good when I was focused on the goal. But if you took me out of that, there was a lot of voices that would come up, right and so I didn't have the capacity to slow down. And so when I was in my Olympic journey, we did a lot of stuff for recovery, right and rest is all incredibly important whether you're an athlete or not, because that's our body rejuvenating ourselves. So we did things like ice baths and compression, and, you know, just literally resting, watching lots of Netflix in the time. So we didn't have training. But when I actually transitioned out of sport in 2019, I was really on the edge of having like, chronic fatigue, I was really exhausted. And that was an again, another beautiful universal law lineman that kind of like made me sit down and say, okay, cool, you need to rest. And the one of the things I'd have to unwire, outside of sport is like, I am worthy. Even if I'm not productive, really big thing, I think, for women and for athletes, because we think that our worth is an equal representation of our work ethic, or how hard we work, right? But what if we don't work hard, and we rest and take care of ourselves, and I'm still worthy. And so that was kind of the evolution until you know what I do now with women. Because there's so many women out there, you know, athletes and beyond that are just exhausted from the expectations of life, and we really need to take care of ourselves better.

Marlena  

No, I agree. Because you know, as both Christy and I are mothers, we work full time, and we have spouses, and we have all of our responsibilities. And so, you know, there are times where I'm like, I'm not doing anything today, I'm just like, going to lay on the couch and not do damn thing, watch TV, not cleaning the house not doing anything. But then I start to feel guilty about, you know, why am I not productive?

Christy  

Yeah, it's taken me years to be able to sit and watch a TV show without doing something like at the same time. So I was like, I can't just sit here, I could be folding laundry, I could be answering emails, I could be doing something else. But you know, just probably this last year is when I finally was like, Nope, nothing else. Like no phone, no anything, just sit, you're with your husband, you're watching TV, you're with your kid, you're watching TV, fine, just relax. But it is hard. And it is something that I have to constantly think about. Just so that I can rest. But yeah, so many women, so many women in my life are the exact same way. And just don't even think that they deserve the time to recuperate from just being a woman. Being a human.

Danielle  

Yeah, and life and emotion responsibility. Like one of the things I say to my clients all the time is like I give you permission to rest. And something about that when people hear that they like, it's like, We need someone to say to us right? Now we can, but I think it's layered on so many levels, I see it I saw it within myself and I see in some of my clients were part of it is, you know, we feel like we're not being productive. And a lot of times people are busy because they're running from themselves. Because when they sit down, all of their shit comes up, and they got to actually face themselves. And so we stay busy to never face ourselves and run from our internal problems. And so that's why I believe doing that in our work. And actually looking at the darker parts of ourselves that scare us is such a key because when we do that you could actually rest and have peace. And that's what true rest is.

Christy  

Yeah. So you said that in 2019, you had basic chronic fatigue, what was your recovery methods? 

Danielle  

Yeah, so it wasn't actually like, it wasn't professionally diagnosed, I kind of diagnose myself, but I had felt more exhausted than I ever had in my life. And it made sense. Because that 2019 The first half of the year, I was working three days a week, like eight hours a day, but I was also training for World Championships. So I would get maybe five, six hours of sleep, I'd wake up at four in the morning, don't train for two hours, and I got to work all day. And then the days when I wasn't working, I would train for five or six hours a day. And then on top of that I was writing my book. And on top of that, that's when I started to read women's events. And, and so and that's also when I met my partner and that I'm with now and so I had so much going on. And so I literally was starting to feel intuitively in my training that I was like, I don't have as much to give as I used to. And so when I retired, me and my fiance, so we lived in Perth at the time. And Perth is actually only three hour flight from Bali. And so we decided to move to Bali. And because that was kind of the start of our entrepreneurial journey of you know, doing this work that we're doing now. And so that was really healing for me in many ways because I think that culture as you kind of get anywhere when you're in the equator, like they just have a slower pace of life, right like, Island time, like it's very real. That was really healing for me and then that was also an initiation of my own unraveling of going deeper into my own self love and like why do I believe that I have to be doing something like all at the time to be to be worthy and to be active and so I would say it took me about with it my whole house probably about a year and a half to recover fully from that and and to get to the point because then that was leading to like I was having some health problems like my hair was starting to fall out like my skin It wasn't good. And I was just exhausted. And so kind of a year and a half of just really taking it a bit slower. And then again, conveniently COVID kind of happened as well. Right? So that made us all slow down. And so it just took time and it took patience, and it took a lot of compassion.

Marlena  

I just love your story. And I'm like, Hey, so I'm exhausted. I need to move to Bali. Got it? That's my takeaway. Yeah. So after synchronized swimming, your life pivoted into more of life coaching and spiritual advising or coaching. Yeah, um, so why did you decide to make that turn versus becoming an athletic coach?

Danielle  

Yeah, great question. You know, I, my story is very layered. It's like, there's like the athlete side of it, but then also come my personal growth side of it. And so what happened is, you know, I never expected to go to one Olympics, much less like three World Championships. And we don't really have the same notoriety for World Championships, but it's very big to the World Championships in your sport. And so I got to go to three of those, which was an absolute honor. And I got to this point in 2018 2019, where I was thinking about trialing for the Tokyo Olympics, for the for the team to get to the Tokyo Olympics. And I was really grappling with this for a couple years of like, is this something that I want to do, and to for full transparency in Australia, we were not paid to be national team athletes, we actually had to pay to participate. So I had had some help from my family to pay for that. But I also was working like I was a, I was a waitress, I was the receptionist, I worked with a bookstore, like a nanny, they did all the things. And so for me to think I was going to go do another kind of Olympic cycle, and get to the point where I would have been 28 at the time and still broke. And, and yeah, we have to Olympics, which is amazing. But I kind of got to this point where it didn't seem as fulfilling for me anymore. And as well, being an athlete is a very selfish pursuit. And you have to focus completely on yourself, which is what you need to do. But I just got to a point where I didn't want it to be all about me anymore. And I made this vow with the universe. When I went took my leap to Australia, I said, if we pull this off, I'm going to share my story because it feels bigger than me, it's not mine to carry, I feel like I'm kind of like the, the Messenger of it, you know, it feels like something I have to share. And so this burning desire inside of me to do something greater was was really bubbling up in me. And I didn't have the time to do that when I was training. And so I desired and decided that I was going to make a change, and I was going to retire. And this took about two years and you know, asking for signs like being like, what does my soul want, what versus what does my ego want. And I decided that I wanted to retire, I wanted to write my book. And I wanted to become a speaker and to help women around the world. And I will decide I want to move to Bali as well, which again, it's only a three hour flight from where I was living at the time. And that's also kind of a mecca of entrepreneurs and people that work online, then salts of Bali is an incredible energy like energetically and spiritually as well. And so I wanted to put again, I'm not averse to like taking risks, I wanted to put myself in the environment with people that were doing things that I want to do. And so that desire to have a greater sense of service, and, you know, really kind of build my own career, you know, because there is a life beyond sport. And that is a hard transition for a lot of athletes. That led me into the work that I'm doing now.

Marlena  

That's absolutely amazing. And you know, we've discussed a little bit about your spirituality, during the time that you quantum leaped into becoming an Olympian. Was that something that you were focused on as well, your spirituality then? Or did you have some breakthrough following the Olympics and kind of situation where, you know, I know, for me, my spiritual awakening happened during COVID. You know, and so just kind of curious when you add a little more woo to your life.

Danielle  

Oh, totally. Right. And so I think that that was I grew up Catholic. So I went to Catholic school for 12 years. My family's very Catholic, I never really resonated with it. I had the core values of kindness and love and believing in something greater was always there for that. But that kind of like the rules and restrictions of it I didn't really resonate with and so I from a young age has come started to feel into personal development that really lit me up. You know, I was listening to motivational speakers and all of that. And funny enough when I got concussed, that's when I first got into meditation because like, what else could I do? And so that was kind of like the first little piece and now that I look back there was kind of like breadcrumbs throughout all those years. And so and then when I was doing Synchro, we were doing visualization at the time, right? For sport. And so again, a little breadcrumb was laid, and then that was we put into like, I started to do journaling for me. Being an athlete. And then that was kind of another little breakdown that was late. And it really started developed when I was actually with a partner and my ex at the time who he went to the Olympic games with me, and not as an athlete, but as a supporter. And it was, he's a beautiful band, but we were not meant to be together. And I finally had the courage to leave him. And I actually didn't leave him for many years. Because financially, I actually cut it, like I didn't have a car I didn't, I didn't have anywhere to go, I didn't have family. And so I saved that relationship. And I finally got the courage to leave. And that led me to this journey of self love. Okay, I realized I also stayed with him for the finances, but I also stayed with him because he loved me. And I thought he could love me for me. And I realized that I needed to love me for me. And that led me into the self love journey. And then I met my fiancee, Luca, who I'm now with, and that was the I've had this as friends in my life. But it was this visceral feeling when we met and we spent the whole day together all it was like, I've known you before, like it does nothing makes sense other than the fact that you're You are a stranger. And now I feel like I've reconnected with somebody that I've been craving for my whole life that I never knew that I needed. And so we really kind of activated each other into that. And he was already he had done like meditation retreats, his mom was a psychic, you know, like, he had done kind of that stuff before. And we really dove into it together. And we dove into the work together. And so I really believe that like the peak of that, like he was kind of the peak of my own spiritual awakening and just kind of seeing the world and the entire different reality. And then, you know, being at Bali, right, this that is the all of the conversation that has had there, you know, it's so many parts in urban. And then when I moved back to Canada after Bali, I met my spiritual mentor who I've been working with for a few years now. And so she's helped me dive even deeper into that. And so it kind of just became a natural extension of what I do. You know, some people that resonate with like the New Age spirituality, some people resonate with, like the religion part of it, you know, whatever that may be, but it's really just kind of in the work that I do. It's, I don't see the point of living this life unless we know that there's something greater, right, there's something bigger than us. And it even you know, it's scientifically like proven like how dare we think that we're the only people in this universe like,

Marlena  

Exactly, I have this conversation with my husband all the time, that we are so arrogant as humans to think that we are the only beings only life in this vast universe? Yeah. So yes.

Danielle  

 I think we're on a floating rock. And the universities don't know the end of like, of course, we're not the only ones. 

Marlena  

Exactly. Yeah. So crazy. But as a life coach, you work with your clients on manifestation and quantum mindset. So what are some of the techniques that you use with your clients?

Danielle  

Yeah, so a big thing is kind of this the peace around self worth. And so one of the keys that I have a lot of women that come to me is we struggle with our self worth. And that's where we really got to start the healing. Right. And, and so, I have a beautiful program called reclamation, where we where we go through that, but it's really just kind of looking at our life, and realizing that even though I think almost every woman, if you've never done the work before, you some of us think that we're unworthy, right? Realizing that that's not true, there's, we don't come down here and you know, God, universe Source Creator, it's like, you're worthy, and you're not and you're worthy. And you're not like we are all inherently worthy. And so it's, I find, I say that's refining that, because we were never not worthy. It's just refining that inside of us. And so, a lot of the things that I do is, you know, just starting with meditation, doing like subconscious rewiring, whether that be you know, tapping EFT is really powerful. We use Montra in some of my programs, as well, which is super powerful. We use visualization meditations to do some inner child healing, ancestral healing, you know, some connecting with past lives. And I've the kind of the method that I've taken women through has just been so beautiful, and also tying in the, this just belief of there is some greater reason, right? Whether you believe, you know, and most of us like and this work is we believe in that we've had past lives or multiple lives, right? And so what is the karma that we're walking into this life with? And so kind of understanding it from the spiritual perspective, but also understanding from the subconscious perspective, like we have to rewire our subconscious mind to align our beliefs with the reality that we're wanting to create, and when we believe subconsciously because our subconscious makes up 95% of our mind, if not more than we actually are a vibrational frequency to be able to attract that into our life. And then additionally, we you know, we are here to live a journey and to experience it. So who do we need to become to attract The things that we actually desire, right? And so my journey to the Olympics, it was, you know, looking back it was who I have to become to feel worthy of being Olympian, my journey and what I do now and, and in business and working with women who do I need to become to feel worthy, as you know, my desire to speak to millions of women someday? And so, like, there's so many aspects of that. But hope that answers your question.

Marlena  

It absolutely does. You know, you start talking about like, the vibrations and then law of attraction. And that just kind of brings me to the other laws of the universe. And so is that something that you teach as well, a lot of people that teach law of attraction teach manifestation? There's, there's other aspects to it. And so you watch tic tock, or Instagram reels or whatever it is, all you hear is law of attraction equals manifestation. When there's, I think so much more to that.

Danielle  

Yeah, there, you know, there's a lot of action. I think people forget that, like you actually, it's not just about meditating on a cushion and visualizing a million dollars, like you actually have to do something in this life, you know, right. And then you know, the law of gender, right? Like, how can we balance the masculine and the feminine energy to actually create what we want? Because if we're just in the masculine, like so many women experience, we get burned out, or we get exhausted. So how can we balance the doing with the receiving and the like, action with the rest? And so yeah, there's so many aspects to that. And I think that's a misconception around law of attraction that it's just, I just need to, like, fake it a manifestation really is I just, I figure out what I want, right? And then I have to work through all the shit that blocked me from that, and rewire all the beliefs that make me feel like I'm unworthy. And to actually take the action to then be able to attract it. It's not, you know, sometimes, yeah, we can match. Like, I get the best parking spots all the time. Right? That's, but that's my, that's how I believe I manifest that shit. But like, the bigger things in my life is going to take work. And it's going to take patience. And I think that's a misconception. And what we see online now people think, Oh, I'm just gonna visualize, and it's gonna show up, no, you're going to visualize it, then you're going to work. And you also got to look at your shadows, you also got to look at your demons, right? Like, it's not just the light we have to focus on, it's the darkness, like the little demons in the closet, they are going to hold you back until you understand how you can break through those limits actually get what you want. Because if you do not look at the darkness, you cannot be in the light.

Marlena  

I love that. Oh, well, you know, and I'm actually really glad that we stepped into that a little bit. Because there is that misconception. And so I, again, see these reels and you know everything out there and see all these sponsored ads or whatever. And it's just like law of attraction to be able to manifest and but there's, there's so much more than what she goes that goes into it. And so yeah, maybe we should have a podcast about that.

Danielle  

So the steps that I say to manifestation is decided declare it that's that's a I know, it seems simple, but a lot of people actually don't decide what they want. And then you have to do the reveal, and heal. And so like, what are all the beliefs that are going to stop you from saying that you want to create a podcast or you want to have a million dollars, or you want to create a business or you want to have a family because you got to save some of that and you got to heal, and look at all of that. And then taking action number three, like actually taking action and repetitively doing the thing that's going to put you in the state to be able to attract what you want, right? Because we also rewire our subconscious mind through repetition. And you know, just like when you were 16, and we don't know how to drive car and then you get to a point where you like, you know, you're 10 years later, you're driving a car, you've gone down the street, you've turned the corner, you've gone around roundabout, you haven't even been thinking because it's in your subconscious, right. So we have to take those actions repetitively to feel like we're that person. And then we need to feel gratitude. Number four, we need to feel gratitude for the life that we already have. Because why are you going to get more if you don't appreciate what you already have. And then five, and this is the hardest one, we have to release expectation. Because if we are holding on with expectation of when it's going to come and I see this a lot with people, you know, if they're wanting to attract a partner, or a baby or something like that we can have to be so like white knuckled to it, but the like the key is okay, I'm gonna do all this work. And I'm gonna surrender to this experience and then see how life is going to show me because when we surrender to life, there is this divine tapestry to how our life is that it's so much greater than that we could orchestrate and so we have to trust that and surrender to that.

Marlena  

 You're so positive all the time, like or at least Okay, let me let me rephrase that because I don't personally know you. So as a coach, you know, you're very positive. You're very outgoing, a lot of light, as Christy had said, on your videos on Instagram, very positive. Do you ever feel stuck as a coach?

Danielle  

Yeah, and I think like I I've always inherently been quite a, I don't know if the word is positive, but like bright person, like, even my teammates that when I was training, I come to the pool, I'd be so excited. They're like, why are you smiling so much like that. And so a big thing in my work is like holding that light, because I know that my light intimidates people. And so that's been a lot of work that I've had to do. Because, you know, as a kind, loving, empathic person, we don't want to make people feel bad. But I know sometimes that can be really bright, and that can intimidate people. But absolutely, I have my hard days. And I think it's just in my work, you know, I put myself in a position of being a leader and a leader, you know, I absolutely share the things that I've gone through, but I don't share it from my gaping wounds I share from my scars, and I have hard days, I have bad days, I have days where it feels like it's not gonna happen. But genuinely, I am so lit up by my work. So when I show up on podcasts, or when I show up on calls, like, I love this, like, this gives me life, right, this brings me joy. And so what you see and how I present myself, like online or my podcasts like that, it's genuine. But don't think that I don't have my days, I have had many moments and many of days of facing my own darkness. But also like, in those moments, right? Like, my first thought is, and I'm not going to bring up my phone or my podcast and just talk about it, like I need my space to be able to process that, like I and I have my support systems, and I have my ways to do that. And I speak about that really authentically with my clients. But I also know as a leader, like you want to have a leader that you know, it's gonna hold themselves, right. Like, you don't want to have a leader that's messy and like moving through all the things doesn't mean that they don't, but they just need to be able to hold themselves through that. Yeah.

Marlena  

So when you're not feeling aligned, and you're you're feeling stuck, how do you get back to where you need to be? Yeah, basically.

Danielle  

And this has been like, a practice, but one of the things is, I just feel it. And this is like the most important, you just have to sit with that emotion. This is something I couldn't have done, you know, seven years ago, but I've sit with it. And so sometimes that just might be a funky day, right? And that or a weekend, but I really allow myself to feel it. And so whether I journal, whether I cry whether I dance it out, whether I meditate on it, like I just really allow myself to feel it. And then you know, I talked about like the the ways to move through adversity, it's like number one we need to feel to heal. And then we need to form the belief of like, what does this mean? Because again, 10 years ago, I would have been like, this means that my life is like screwing up and my everything is blowing up. It's like no, like, usually those moments, those dips, mean that there's something great coming, because there's either a realignment that needed to happen, or there's a moment of clarity, or there's a breakdown that leads to a breakthrough. Because once you start to get hindsight in your life, and you realize that all the hard times that you've actually survived, survived 100% of your hard days, and through that it's actually made your life better, right. Usually, when we're having the hard moments, those are actually the best things to happen for us to live a more Bountiful, prosperous, beautiful, joyous, wholesome life, because there's a level of realignment. And then I just allow myself to process that emotion. And then I move forward. And I found, you know, it's 10 years ago, this would have taken me months to move through these feelings. But when you authentically feel what you need to feel and move it through your body, you know, whether that, again, that be through crime, or a dance or meditation, some type of practice, you can actually authentically move through things so much faster. You know, that thing, and my clients start to realize this as well, the things that would have taken them a month, they can move through it in one or two days, because you deeply go through that process. But you have to give yourself space and grace for that. Yeah,

Marlena  

I'm like, I think I need to just join your

Christy  

but you have like, you have some awesome meditations on your podcast, like, Yeah, I mean, and like, you know, I sometimes I have trouble with meditation when they're too long, because I get, I don't know, sometimes I can get really deep into it. And sometimes it's just a challenge, which I know, every day is different. But I love like, the differences in your meditations that you have out there. And even like, the different times, right, like they're not all like 20 minutes or like, Yeah, minutes, you know. So I just wanted to tell you that they were very, very helpful. And I, I love them, but

Danielle  

in my programs, I have like meditation libraries and stuff where we have like, let's be honest, like most of us, yeah, there's gonna be a date Sunday. So I want to do a 30 minute meditation, but like, yeah, I want to do less than 10 minute meditation to feel better. So like, let's do that. And, yeah, I've had like, some of my clients like a cult love of my meditations. Because I feel like I'm such a channel and my meditations. It just like comes through me what I need to say. And so yeah, I'm so glad that you enjoyed them. I listen to my own. I did my own meditation. 

Marlena  

So I have a few other questions. So, we discussed this a little offline, I spoke with one of the coaches from the kickboxing team that we, that we worked with. And I asked him, I said, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm interviewing an Olympian, as a coach, what are some of the questions that you would have? So I'm gonna throw those out there? Because? Because I told him I would. So what advice would you give to young athletes? And I know we discussed this a little bit earlier. But what advice would you give to young athletes who are amateurs, when they're feeling burnout and want to quit? 

Danielle  

Number one rest, and it's safe to rest and rest is actually going to be the best thing for your recovery and your performance. And I know that it might not feel it in that moment. But it absolutely is going to be the best thing that your body needs. But also in that rest, you can visualize what you're doing, our mind doesn't actually know the difference between us visualizing something and doing something. And not even in a spiritual sense by sports psychologists was teaching me this. He's like when you know, if you're injured, or if you're tired, and you can't say, I'm going to say, you know, should do javelin or shotput, right, you can visualize that motion, you can visualize that action. And that is the body actually thinking that they're doing it. And so we can make actual physical rest for our party also really, really powerful. Because I think that we are in this societal belief that only doing is allowing us to step into our dreams, our goals, but again, law of gender masculine, feminine, also, the slowing down, and the receiving, that is also a really powerful way for athletes to be able to take care of their body and get to their next level. Because if you do not take care of your body, and if you do not love on your body, like it can do its best, but sometimes it gives up on you. And so you need to have ultimate kindness and compassion. And that's something that I really learn being an athlete, like, even speaking to my body kindly, and, and even outside of sport like this is important, right? So it's like, I remember when I was at the Olympics, I also had such level of self love, because I remember saying to my body that I was like, Thank you body, like, thank you so much for what we're doing. Like, we got this, right. And I know that might seem like for some people, you might like roll your eyes at me. And that might seem like silly, but it's actually so powerful, because our body listens. And so doing stuff like that, even when you're resting, it's like, this is what we need, like we I believe in you. Whereas I think so often, and the theme is changing in sport. But you know, years ago, and back in the 80s, used to beat your body's daddy, like, why are you doing this to me, you sock all this? But now it's like, how can we speak to our body empowerment? So it actually shows up? And does the work that we want it to do? We work in tandem with it.

Marlena  

I love that we were just talking about meditation, was that one of the things that you did during your training as well to basically help you rest a little bit?

Danielle  

Yeah, that was something that I got into around 2015. And literally, guys, when I started I was doing looking at like, one minute meditations, like my mind is so squirrel brains, and I was like, I can't, like I couldn't even sit still for a minute. And I think the misconception is that meditation is thinking of nothing. And that's just not true. It's just slowing yourself down. And so I think that that's such a powerful key for athletes. And so sometimes visualization is a meditation. And so you know, if you're visualizing and just breathing of what you are going to do, and I used to do this, when I was coaching my athletes as well, is like I would get them to visualize their competition day, it's like I would get from the moment they woke up to, you know, we obviously did our work in the pool. So like to walking into the pool, to walking into the stadium, to getting ready to warming up on land, to what it feels like when you dive in the water for the first time and the water hits your body. And what it feels like to be in your warm up laps. Like all of that is meditation, but that's also really productive for you being an athlete and enhancing your performance as well. And so the thing that was really cool about that, too, is like by the time because you know, and I think that this is going to be a conversation that's had like in the future of sport, but psychologically, like the thing that changes like the good from the great is the mind, right? Because our bodies do have a capacity, like I mean, I don't know if we can run a mile and in one second, right, like there's going to be a limit that our body has. But our mind is incredibly powerful. And so competition or tournament preparation is so powerful. And so key to actually having better games, better tournaments that are competitions that are matches, whatever it is a sport that you play, because if you can get yourself into the state and we did this so much as athletes leading up to the Olympics, get yourself into the state where when you perform it's ease, but if you are freaking out for the two hours before you actually go and perform or played or whatever, that is going to have an effect on your performance. So like the pre prep is super, super important.

Marlena  

People would laugh at my husband or my or my kid because they would actually take a nap before they would fight and like just over to corner and that was their preparation. And I know for me like I embarrassing, but I'm like that Uber competitive mom like, you know, you need to be focused and I am taking a nap, like, I need you to, to chill out mom. So

Danielle  

I've seen some athletes. So the Mexican synchronized swimming team is actually really good. And one of the girls before every time she could beat I'd see him sleeping. I'm like, I can't do that, personally. It was so relaxed, and they always were great at performing. So it works for some people.

Marlena  

And then, I love this question, what is one lesson competing in the Olympics taught you that you think everyone should learn at some point in their life.

Danielle  

It's never about the goal. It's never about the goal. And this is a cliche statement. But it's incredibly important. I competed at the Olympic Games for seven minutes. In total, it was a four minute and a three minute routine, Usain Bolt runs for 10 seconds, right? Maybe a couple times, but he runs for about 10 seconds. And we think that that thing is gonna make us feel different. We have this thing in our minds we did. As humans, it's like, when I hit my goal, I'm gonna like be a metamorphosis into a butterfly, and then I'm gonna be a new human, and then I'm not gonna recognize myself, and everything's gonna be better. Like, I thought after I'd become Olympian, I walk around every day, like, I've LMP. I know, it's like, I'm still a normal person, right? Like, we all felt, like, it's really important to remember that when we're setting or our desires, our manifestations, our goals, is like, yes, you get to have that thing. But I want you to remember, it's not actually about that thing. It's not about the house, it's not about the amount of money, it's not about the promotion, it's not about the job. It's not about the business, it's actually about who you become in that process. Because if you took away only those seven minutes of me swimming in the pool, if you took that away, and you gave me everything else, I would still be the woman that I am today. But if you only gave me those seven minutes, and you didn't give me the people, the experiences that I had the hardships that I went through the days that I felt like I was gonna give up if you didn't, if you didn't give me all of that I wouldn't be the woman that I am today. But technically, I would, you know, NPN. And so I think that we have to really rewire our minds in the society around what it means to go after your goal. So yes, you get to achieve the goal. But what does it mean to become the person, that woman, the man that you actually want to be? Because when you become that person, you will attract that thing? And also, that thing isn't going to bring you happiness? I stood up on stage at the Olympic Games, and I thought, Hmm, well, that was fast. I want to do that again, right. But my journey was magical, because of my teammates, like the experiences that I had with them, the friendships that I made the ups and the downs, looking back, I can say I had this reservoir of magic to look back on. But the actual experience, it was great, it was a sweat, but didn't make me who I am. And it did not give me happiness, or happiness is not at our goal or happiness is within. And I think that we need to remember that as a society, like our happiness is in the small moments when you wake up in the morning, and you look up to God Creator Source universe, and you say what you're grateful for happiness is in the tiny little miniscule moments of life, and then moments, especially when we had the days when we want to give up. Like I look back at those Dell days in my journey, and like, I'm so proud of who I am. But it's because of those all those little micro moments. And not just because I stood on stage at the Olympics.

Marlena  

That was beautiful. Beautifully said, Yes. And then the last question that I have for you, is, what do you hope to see the world like in 10 years?

Danielle  

Oh, my gosh, that's such a big question. Um, you know, I have faith in the world. And I think it's because there's no other way for me to live. And, you know, I think a lot of us, we see the hard things that happen, like, we see the natural disasters, and we see the shootings, and we see the mental health, and we just look at, like what has happened to us. But I also believe so deeply in human spirit, and I still deeply believe in the world. And I see all of the good people like yourselves, like that are doing the work that are showing up for themselves that are you being kind that are doing acts of service, that are doing something that lights them up, that are helping others, like I see all of those people in this world, and I believe that this world is gonna get better. And I believe that we're actually awakening to more self awareness and more fulfillment. And I know that there's going to be people that disagree with me, but I I truly choose that that's the reality that I want to live in. And I want to create. So I see the world that 10 years is a space where Neil deGrasse Tyson actually said this by 2050 We're not even going to have conversations about mental health because all mental health will have been solved. And I think that that's a beautiful way to look at it, right? Like, what if we choose to have hope in our future and hope in our reality, and choose to see all of the people that are doing incredible things? You know, I ended up getting by after eight years getting my degree in internet communications. And one of the things that we were learning about As AI and technological advancement, it is advancing very quickly at the moment. But I also believe that that gives us space for more human connection that gives us space for more people going after their passions, that gives us space for more personal growth because the tasks that were monotonous to us as humans are going to be replaced. But you know, your I believe you're never going to have a coach, a psychologist, a friend, that's AI, like you're going to have a human being that you're wanting to connect with. It gives us more space for creativity, it gives us more space for positivity. And that's a world that I choose to believe in, and I hope is being traded at this time.

Christy  

Danielle, you are just like, you're just a light. You're like everything I want to be when I grow up. So

Danielle  

that means the world to me.

Christy  

Thank you. You are just such a, I don't know.

Marlena 

You're inspirational

Danielle  

But remember, I'm a normal person to know. I still poop

Christy  

Yes, you poop. We all poop. It's what I teach my kids. Yeah. But still, I mean, just your your outlook on everything and your outlook on the world. Just I mean, your last answer to that question, because I think, and Marlena can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's the world that we want to choose to live in. Right. And that's the reality that we want to see. And so that's part of this podcast, and that's part of us coming together and really embracing our fears and putting this out there. And we hope that we can help you and we can all collaborate and make that worlds a reality. 

Danielle  

So it's just from every single one of us just choosing to do something better every single day, right. And I believe that, you know, doing the work on ourselves is such a key to that. Right? And, and just, you know, we have this natural tendency as humans to do better than what was for us, right? Like, we want to create better for our kids and what was and like, I think that in and of itself gives us hope in the world. And I appreciate what you ladies do. Like I love meeting people on podcasts, because there's so many good people out there in the world. And there are so many magical humans having beautiful conversations. And that's like the ripple that we are creating. So thank you guys for what you do.

Marlena  

Well, thank you for joining us. You know, go check out Danielle, Her website is danielle kettlewell.com. We'll put all of that in the show notes. Check out her book, check out her podcast, all the beautiful soul go get some coaching from her. Do do all the things. Yeah, please. Yes. I love your story. Like I said, You're truly an inspiration. So thank you for the work that you're doing.

Danielle  

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It's been such a pleasure.

Christy  

Thank you Danielle. And thank you for listening to another episode of a witch a mystic, and a feminist. We'll be back next week.