Your Favorite Self

S3 E9 - Emotional Mastery, Forgiveness & Living Your Vision with Imani Nic

Sophia Hyde Season 3 Episode 9

In this enlightening conversation, Sophia Hyde and Imani Nic explore the transformative journey of personal growth through mentorship and energetic work. They discuss the importance of forgiveness, self-leadership, and emotional mastery in achieving one's highest potential. Imani shares insights on how to navigate family dynamics, the shift from traditional therapy to energetic mentorship, and the significance of trusting one's inner guidance. The dialogue emphasizes the need for integration and the evolution of coaching practices, culminating in a celebration of progress and the divine connection in healing work.

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Have a topic you would love to hear Sophia address on the podcast? Send your ideas to hello@sophiahyde.com

Sophia Hyde (00:01.144)
Hello and welcome back everybody. I have such a treat for you guys today on our podcast today we have Miss Amani Nick and I cannot wait to introduce you guys to her and for you to meet her I'll give you a little bit of context first. I worked with Amani for two and a half years as my one-on-one coach and mentor and she has been alongside me on this journey

preparing for this move. If you didn't know I moved, check the last episode, all the details are there. But Imani was a really big piece in helping this dream. Like I already had the dream and the vision before we started working together, but all of the inside work that had to be done to become this version of myself, she had a front row seat too and a big part of. And so I'm excited for you guys to meet her. I'll tell you just a little bit about her.

I met her over 10 years ago and at that time she owned a yoga studio in the community where I lived. And then I watched her relocate her life to Key West and Bali and Bend, Oregon. And then around the time we started working was when she was moving from Bend to Mexico. And so the whole time we worked together, she's been there. and I have always admired her when you're ready to hire a coach, definitely make sure it's somebody that you admire.

because their life's gonna rub off on you. And the way Amani moves through the world, I've never met another person who moves through the world the way that she does. She embodies being a total free spirit, but embodies the feminine. I don't know if I've ever met a more feminine woman. We would do sessions sometimes with her in her bikini, and I was.

Imani Nic (01:49.511)
You

Sophia Hyde (01:49.995)
No, it was just, just, she just embraced everything about her femininity and I showed up to the world in a very masculine way. And so we'll talk, we can talk a little bit about that if it comes up in our conversation today. But, I just always admired her so much. And when I was going through some struggles in my DMS, was, or not, I'm sorry, my Instagram stories, I was just kind of talking about some things I was going through and she kept sliding into my DMS and being like, girl, I can help you with this girl. You should see the kind of work I'm doing now.

You should see what I'm up to these days because I can help you, can with that. I can help you with that. And then finally, one day I had a free open Friday and I said, you know what, let me just do a session with this woman. What is she doing? Let me see if she can help. And it was really powerful. And that was September of 2022. And I became a one-on-one mentee after that. And the rest is history. So I don't want to talk too much because I want Imani to be able to start talking to you guys too, but

She is, I think you call yourself an energetic mentor and you can share with people a little bit more about what you, the way you describe the work you do in the world, because I don't want to speak for you. So please share with them the work you do in the world and what you're up to now. And yeah, Amani, welcome.

Imani Nic (03:01.863)
Thank you so much. What a beautiful introduction. It's been such an honor just to watch you evolve and grow and just lead yourself so powerfully to the next level of your life, Sophia Hyde. yeah, you know, finding words to put to like what I do and who I am has been, I think, one of the most difficult parts of my journey because I evolve also so rapidly. And I would say that I

I think now I identify as a rapid subconscious reprogrammer and an energetic strategist actually. I think I'm more of an energetic strategist because we sort of feel into the energetic field and then work with the subconscious and then reprogram and then when it comes to strategy we look at the energetics around it and I think these are the words that I'm currently locking into but they evolve.

Sophia Hyde (03:36.876)
at tracks?

Imani Nic (04:00.018)
Quickly. And so, yeah, I feel like it's been just such a beautiful journey and to watch you and the way you've evolved through the mentorship was just incredible. And now you're at your mountain house and we were always saying like, Sophia on the mountain. This was our thing all the time. So how does Sophia on the mountain?

Sophia Hyde (04:00.984)
Yes.

Sophia Hyde (04:22.542)
I wrote that down on my notes. I was like, we have to talk about Sophia on the mountain because that was so central to everything that we did. So say a little bit more about what is Sophia on the mountain? Share with them what we're talking about.

Imani Nic (04:36.272)
Yeah, this is really about the future version of yourself and who you're leading yourself to become. And we do this work so often. like, okay, well, here we are. We're at this point, but we wanna be here. We feel our higher self or our higher self within the quantum field. If we can conceive something, even if we can imagine it, then it exists within the quantum realm. And so just as we can imagine negative things happening if we wanted to make those timelines real,

we can equally imagine powerful expansive timelines where we are living our highest version or our highest timeline in this existence. And so if we tap into the quantum, that's what the work you and I were doing was like, okay, the future version of you has this, you have this vision right now, not even the future version. You can feel into this vision. You're like, man, when I'm on this mountain and when I'm living here, but it's like, okay, you have this expansive vision, but.

who do you have to become to now collapse time and be in that timeline and be the woman on the mountain? And so for you and I, Sophia, it was like we were always tapping into, well, what does Sophia on the mountain do? That's one of the fastest ways to get what you want. You just start doing what that version of you has. And so we had some work to do along that way. And as I've evolved in my own work and even since we've stopped working together and what I've been leading lately is like,

The mastermind I just launched is really about, it's about resourcing yourself to become the one who can hold the magnitude of your vision. And so that's really what it's about. Everyone has a different vision. So you have to be resourced, energetically resourced to be the one who can hold the magnitude of your vision. So it's a lot of nervous system work and inner child resourcing and

reprogramming your subconscious to feel safe within your nervous system so that you can go and make the moves that it is that you want to make in this life and then being the one who can hold it and not sabotage it because you're afraid or your nervous system deems it unsafe. And so, you know, that work that we were doing was resourcing you to become the woman that you needed to be to now have the things that you have, which is.

Imani Nic (06:57.734)
how you're leading it so beautifully and powerfully and the decisions that you even had to make to stop mentorship. There was a moment where you were like, I have this vision and I know in order to make it happen at this time, this is what I have to close out so that I can move towards that vision. And so that was another step that you took. So the whole time you were continuing to take those steps and you were continuing to show up in this way and you did it. And now you're in like, it's been better than ever and it's just so beautiful to see you.

how you led yourself with your family, because family dynamics have been so huge for you. A woman so resourced with her family and so connected to family. That's not easy to leave your entire family, you know, and move to a whole place where you don't know anyone. That's, mean, that's the kind of stuff I do in this life. I know for a fact it's not easy.

Sophia Hyde (07:44.908)
Right, you've done that many times, but you would see into my world and understand how I know that so many people have moved to new cities. That is so normal. mean, most of America was built by people who decided to move to a brand new country. This is not, what I did was not, it's not a new story. It's been done millions of times, but every thing that any of us do in this life,

it has its own unique challenges and we all have our own struggles. And I think what was unique that if you haven't seen into my inner world to the depths that you have is that it wasn't just, my family's here, but people who have met our family know it's a very close family. It's a very tight family. These are really strong bonds. And so to be like the one that left was, I'm not saying mine was harder than other people's.

But it was the hardest part. And that was a lot of the work was to be able to feel safe in my body being autonomous and apart from these really strong bonds. Yeah, that was big.

Imani Nic (08:46.738)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (08:52.924)
But also to leave in the healthy way that you did. Yes, lots of people have moved and lots of people, especially if we talk about, know, forefathers or ancestors who have left certain lands and gone to start new lives, they haven't always done it from a calm, regulated nervous system. They haven't done it from a, I'm already in a secure place and I'm going to create even more safety, security and stability, but within my vision. And that's what you did. And that's a different level of moving. It's a different, it was a different.

Sophia Hyde (09:15.726)
Thank

Imani Nic (09:20.636)
kind of move than most people actually ever make in this lifetime. It was like we're leaving a perfectly wonderful situation and we're moving on to what is gonna be even better because I declare it so.

Sophia Hyde (09:24.354)
Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. And that's one of the things I've said with this journey has been if I would have left any earlier, because I tried to leave at 18 and then I tried to leave after college and then I tried to leave when we were pregnant with Eleanora. We kept trying to leave for different reasons. And all of those times we were running from something like in a negative way, like I'm so done with this. This isn't working. I'm over this. Like this is very like negative and

Imani Nic (09:49.636)
Yes.

Sophia Hyde (09:56.95)
When we left, it was actually like, this is a beautiful life. Things are very good here. We're very grateful. We're very blessed. Everything is wonderful and beautiful. It's just, there's more. I'm running towards something. I have a vision of something else that I'm called towards. And so it was, the energy was very much running towards something and not running away from something. And I do think that's different. One thing I wrote down, and it makes sense here.

Imani Nic (10:08.56)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (10:17.253)
Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (10:23.202)
to bring this one up because I think this is very different than a lot of other work in the world. One of the reasons I've shared with many people before and a lot of times you'll even post this testimonial from me on your promotional materials where I've said many times that I highly recommend, I still do, I still do recommend therapy for certain people and specifically EMDR therapy for people to rewire trauma. think that is great work in the world that people do. I did 10 sessions.

Imani Nic (10:34.385)
Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (10:50.592)
of EMDR therapy, but then I did one session with you and had more results in one session with you than those 10 sessions combined. It was very, very potent. And that was when I switched. And I'm not saying, I only went, I never went back to the therapist except one time when I needed to pick her brain about something. But I stopped doing therapy. Not that it's bad, I was good. People out there listening, therapy might be the right thing for you. But that was when I made the switch and the.

One of the biggest things was yes, potent results was great. But the biggest thing that I felt was different in your work was your work was leading me towards forgiveness. And I think for a lot of people, that's not always on the table or a goal. And that's okay. I'm not saying that everybody has to forgive everyone for everything. That's your own journey. But I knew for me, my greatest health involved

getting to a place of forgiveness and I desired to get there, but nobody was showing me a path of how to get there. And our work pointed that direction and I could see hope that maybe if I keep doing this work, one day I can get to forgiveness in lots of different things. And it's not even just one person. There was a lot of different things in my life that I had issues with. And...

Ultimately, what's the most interesting, even though there were relationships, and I'll happily say on here that a lot of it was, there was a lot of church stuff that came up from things that happened inside of religion that were affecting me. But then ultimately, fast forward all the time we worked together, the forgiveness at the end of the day, when I feel like I finally arrived at the forgiveness.

The forgiveness wasn't those things I thought I was looking to forgive. I thought I had people I needed to forgive. I thought I had something inside of religion I needed to forgive. And at the end of the day, it was myself. It was myself. And it was the, I had to forgive myself for things I had done, for ways I had showed up, and for the way I embodied the things I didn't like that I learned from those other people. It wasn't those other people I was mad at. It was that I actually did some of the stuff that they did.

Imani Nic (12:49.734)
Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (13:06.486)
I was like keeping parts of them and I was like mad at the parts of myself that I was carrying. And at the end of the day, was the forgiveness was actually all inside of me. And I didn't see that coming when we first started working. But at the end of the day, that was when I finally felt free, was when I forgave myself. And so can you speak a little bit about that? Because your work does involve, I think more of that type of energy than you might see in other places.

Imani Nic (13:07.077)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (13:11.923)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (13:16.709)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (13:32.174)
Yeah, well first of all, that testimonial is my favorite testimonial of all time. mean, the impact of that one, I just wish everyone could articulate the way that you did that. And I think because you had just come on the back of those 10 sessions, it was very visceral for you. You could really feel that in your body. So you could write that. I think a lot of people, I mean, I've had clients, I've had a client particularly who's been working with me for over three years and still has not written me a testimonial.

She just cannot even like, I don't even think she knows how to like write or where to where to begin, you know, so I think writing testimonials has been really challenging for people. So I love the way you've done that. And that's why I always share yours because they're so you're very well, you're a great writer as well. We all know that. But yeah, so when it comes to forgiveness, it's you know, this is I really believe in rapid forgiveness, instant forgiveness does not need to take a long time.

I've become that that review that you wrote me was like Years ago, right that that ten that was like in the very beginning of really when when I started doing this work and bringing this To life you were one of my first Yeah, and so since then I mean I have gotten I'm like a ninja at the subconscious work and so the forgiveness is a lot of people think that it's a mental thing but it's its forgiveness is a somatic experience. It's a full body

Sophia Hyde (14:39.106)
Yeah, September, 2022.

Imani Nic (14:57.445)
forgiveness. So a lot of people try to intellectualize forgiveness, like, could I forgive this person? Or could I forgive myself? Or could I forgive this event that happened? Or can I find peace? Because what is forgiveness? It's like the state of peace around what occurred, really. And so if we don't have peace, well, then we have a sense of dis-ease in the body. And so not forgiving people actually has an energetic consequence, can be long term as well not

forgiving not just somebody else, but yourself and all of this, just the emotions and the biochemistry of the emotion specifically. So if we're talking about shame or guilt or grief or something that's really deep stored in the cells, there's a reason that one struggles with this sense of dis-ease or lack of peace in the body. And so we're looking, when I'm working with someone, I'm going straight for the root of that. I'm not, whereby a lot of...

therapy is gonna kind of have you talk about it. And actually I just had a session with a client today who was dealing with huge major like intense family stuff that I could just tell right away she's like, you know, she's a 10 out of 10, a level 10 out of 10, not barely even able to feel this stuff in her body. She's like the idea of closing her eyes and going inward.

was terrifying her and I'm like, oh no, no, we got this. Like it's gonna be so much easier than you even think and we're gonna clear all of it out and you're gonna feel a sense of peace within 45 minutes, so let's go. And she didn't even need to, she didn't need to have this deep, dark experience that she could have had if she was in the hands of someone who didn't really know what they were doing quite so well. So like who you work with and who your practitioner is really, really matters because, and the way, the approach when you go into these.

Imani Nic (17:14.798)
It's like we can take your deepest childhood stuff and clear it and make it easy within 20 minutes sometimes now with my work. It's really speeding up and going quickly. yeah, I mean, we have to reach this level of forgiveness because even though intellectually, I think there's no way, but it's part of my work to help you access that part of you that can forgive, because that's inside of you. So everything is inside of you.

the ability and your body wants to feel peace and surrender and release. It wants that. It wants that for you. And so that it can come back to blueprint because your blueprint is ease and love and and unity. And so separateness is an illusion. And so we bring you just back to that blueprint point. And when you're in that blueprint point, now you can like experience your life, the joy of your life, which

Sophia Hyde (18:13.144)
Yes.

Imani Nic (18:14.381)
you do so beautifully.

Sophia Hyde (18:16.407)
Thank you. Thank you. I want to circle back to the Sophia on the mountain concept because it's not really about me. It's not really about Sophia, what it is. And I think this is important for people to understand when you're working with a coach or a mentor or a practitioner, whoever it is you're working with. I think it's really important that we surround ourselves or find somebody in our life who can see

the version of us that we are not yet, that can see the highest version of ourselves, that can call us to our best self, or I might, you my language, your favorite self, because I think so much of the power was in that you always spoke to and saw me at where I was going. And so no matter what we were working through, you saw however I was showing up that day as the...

you were always looking at where I was going and bringing me there. So like, I will often say that I look at people and I see the pearl inside and I speak to the pearl, right? Because that's what I'm gonna call out. And oftentimes with my clients, and this is what you did for me, was often as with my clients, I can see the vision of where they're going before they can. I can see something greater for them before they can even see it, because they can't see it's possible yet.

Imani Nic (19:37.485)
Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (19:44.303)
but I can see past the mud that's in front of them or the weeds or whatever it is, I can see clearly through that and I understand what they're capable of. And so I'm always calling them there and then I'm just figuring out what's in our way, what's in this gap to get us between there. And I feel like that was, that space I hold for other people is the space you held for me and helped me bridge that gap. So when we said Sophia on the mountain, it became the phrase for me at my highest self.

Imani Nic (20:11.662)
Yeah, yeah. And this is one of the things that I notice, especially as I expand my work and make it more, I start working with more people in like group containers that I run more and so that more people can now come in as opposed to just one-to-one mentorship. I found that that's when people will drop off is because I do hold them to such a high vision that I have for them. And either they're gonna meet me there or we just, they're not ready. They might need more time so that their nervous system can start calibrate. But the ones who are like, I want it.

I'm afraid, I'm terrified. I can feel it, I can sense it. Those are the ones who are really ready and those are the ones that just skyrocket. I have a client right now building a $300 million company and it's the version that she has to be. And we're always like, the $300 million Nicole. We just talked just the same way that we spoke about Sophia on the mountain. It's like.

What is 300, Nicole, how does she handle this? What does she do next? What's her next move? How does she handle this conversation? How does she handle this? And then we're just calibrating and we're just tweaking and fine tuning and then starting to really notice the vibrational differences in the energetics and then doing the subconscious work. like, it's just really fine tuned strategic energetics, you know? And it's so fun. it's like, if it's not for the faint of heart.

You know, like the way that you continued to show up, the way you continued to like be called forward. And, you know, especially cause you're a coach, you know, you're a coach and for a coach to be coachable and for a coach to be like continue to show up in mentorship in a highway and continue week after week, you know, like just open heart, show me my, show me where I'm, show me what's going on. And you just, for the humility that that takes too, and just like.

Sophia Hyde (22:00.578)
Yeah.

Imani Nic (22:05.347)
the embodiment of that that you did, like you led yourself, you know? it's so much about, especially as I continue in this work, it's like, it's not about, because so much of my work has started to become about self leadership, you know? Even as I went into divorce work and I started to realize like, what am I really helping women do? It's like, I'm helping you lead yourself powerfully through this life. Every issue in this world is a leadership issue.

It's like all problems between people are self leadership issues. Whether you get where you want to go in your life or not is a leadership issue. And so if you start looking at everybody and everything through that lens of leadership, it changes the way that you see things and see people. And you can call it out like that was poor leadership. You you go to the bank and then a manager can't make a decision or somebody can't do something. You're like, the leadership is lacking here and that's usually what creates an issue. Right. And so.

This is exactly what it is in our personal lives. And we start to ask ourselves, like, well, how am I leading myself to this next level of my life? If I have this vision and I'm on this mountain or I'm going to this mountain, like, the way I lead myself through the family dynamics, the way I lead myself through selling the house, the way I lead myself through, you know, how you do it. And, you know, that's one of the things, Sophia, too, about your journey is like, it wasn't just that you did it.

It wasn't just that you did it and made it happen. It was how you led yourself, how you showed up, how you departed with your mother, how you showed your family, you you giving hugs to people and like just being so authentic and real on that journey as you led yourself to the next place, as you were sharing the story of like, you know, I wanted my son to just be able to have a

another friend to play with and I had these conversations in the back end with my husband about how important it was. We just got to give him a chance to have a friend. You know, like this is all the behind the scenes self leadership that like people don't really know about. They don't really, they don't really see that each of these small tiny little conversations and decisions that you're making is leading you to the life that that you either declare that you decide for yourself, you know. And there was there was actually

Imani Nic (24:27.395)
the more we're tuned in and tapped into our power of command also, which is like divine co-creation, if you will, we know that of course he's gonna have a friend and it's gonna be incredible. And then of course, like he's at the water hole. Of course they have met, like of course, of course it worked out like this because you held an energetic vibrational standard and that's really what is also going on. Like you became...

you just started resonating so high at love because you did all that work and cleaned out all that gunk because conditioning and childhood and society and all these dense emotions of guilt and shame and fear and lack and limitation and scarcity is huge. The illusion of scarcity is just so big, it stops so many people from leading themselves powerfully to the next level. But as we peel back more and more of the illusion,

we start to tap into more of who we are and the truth of who we are and we realize like, wow, okay, wait a minute. Like I can play within this realm. I can reprogram myself really, really quickly. And that's what my work has really evolved into since even you and I were working together is where I've started even more resourcing my clients to lead themselves now. So they're less, even less and less dependent on mentorship and more and more.

internally resource, which is why the work I'm doing now is called Richly Resource, because the idea is not for you to have to come back and you need your sessions with Imani because now my one-to-one time is like soap, right? So now it's like, I want to resource everyone who comes in to do this work with all the tools they need to lead themselves powerfully. Like that's where we're going. We need a bunch of this future version of light. Like the new paradigm that I see for humanity requires

specifically women and yes, men too. I do feel myself starting to work with some men coming soon is to be richly resourced so that you can go about and bring your light into this world. And that's where we do our light work. So I've definitely tuned into the.

Imani Nic (26:41.583)
to the divinity of the work that I do now and like very grounded in it. I'm just so excited for more and more people to have their mountain, you know.

Sophia Hyde (26:54.897)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your work is very divine. This wasn't in my notes. It's a little bit of a rabbit shell, but I think it's worth saying, which is that I was actually surprised how I had had plenty. And I've shared a little bit on the podcast if people have listened to previous episodes, but I had had my own religious and spiritual experiences in the past.

Sophia Hyde (27:24.234)
some of them great and beautiful and good and some that were harmful and I had to it left me I guess like maybe some cracked and broken pieces in retrospect like I thought I was good but in retrospect I think that there was some cracks in my spirit or my soul that had not actually healed and when we started working together I don't

I definitely did not at any way, or form think I was signing up for a spiritual experience and I 100 % did. And our work together ended up healing so many parts that I didn't even realize were broken and brought me, I already feel like I had a great relationship with my higher power, but it really made it way more intimate.

Imani Nic (27:56.899)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (28:16.558)
and healed a lot of pieces. And it's probably one of the only reasons I'm able to go back into some church spaces now is because I'm not bringing the baggage and the scars and the pain and the bitterness and the anger. None of that's there. It's all healed. And maybe there's some scars from where you see something that's healed in the past, but it's good. I'm healthy and strong and well and mended.

Imani Nic (28:30.776)
Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (28:41.336)
I didn't realize that that was gonna happen through this work, I do fit to your point, I say that because I do think the work you're doing does have a, it is divine work. And I do think that it is beautiful.

Imani Nic (28:49.622)
Yeah, connects you with the God and your divine connection so you're not threatened by anything outside of you and that you actually enjoy your triggers. You let your triggers be indication. You let your emotions become these wise mentors that are just showing you so when you have a trigger and your triggers are gonna bring you closer to your internal light if you allow it to. And it's like just let yourself be triggered. that triggered me. Okay, great, now you see where your work is.

Sophia Hyde (28:59.694)
Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (29:03.278)
.

Sophia Hyde (29:12.258)
Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (29:19.658)
Yeah, you know, let's chat about that because you worked with me on so many triggers over the years. And I'm trying to think in my memory the last time I was triggered.

I know, seriously, I'm going back months. It's so hard to trigger me now. I'm just trying to think. I know I was still working with you in November when something triggered me and I had a session with you, like think same day or within 24 hours. And you were like, wow, what is this you're showing? I was like annoyed. And I was like, Jordan, no, it's really hard to trigger me now, like really, really, really hard.

Imani Nic (29:47.79)
Yeah.

Sophia Hyde (30:05.826)
But even when I do, I think now they're just shorter, like maybe they're like 10 or 15 minutes, right? It's like if something comes up, I'm like, that was a weird emotional response, what was that? And like you quickly, I can look at it, I can learn something, and I'm like, okay, I'm gaining this valuable information, moving on. Versus when I showed up, when I work with you, something could trigger me, and I might spiral for three days. I might be, you know, short and saucy and dysregulated and.

I'm not in a good mental health space or can't concentrate or like what would happen when I would spiral a lot was I couldn't even like get into a creative head space. I could like turn on and maybe show up for a coaching session, but then I get off and I'm like, I can't focus. I can't think clearly. And that will go on for days before I could get back to feeling grounded. And the last time that I was triggered for more than five to minutes, I don't even, can't, I was working with you, honestly.

Imani Nic (30:44.491)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (30:52.738)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (30:59.52)
Yeah, you know what? This is one of the biggest things and this is this is what happens when people are deeply feeling right? Like this is why emotional mastery this is what we did. We worked on emotional mastery essentially with you so that you know when you're a deeply feeling person your emotions can overwhelm you.

really, really quickly. And especially if you don't have reference for like, my gosh, what am I feeling? And then you have all these triggers and trauma responses and your subconscious is just firing and your conscious mind is like, cannot, and it zaps out and you're like, I need to take a bath and I need to take a nap and I need to go to bed. And so that's, that's capacity. That's like, I'm at capacity, right? And so that's why so much of this work is about, is about regulating so that you can expand your capacity to be the woman that can hold. Cause the woman who can hold the mountain,

She couldn't, she can't, she cannot afford to be spiraled out by something somebody said or did, or some, you know, some kind of emotional overwhelm. She, that just, wasn't gonna work. You wouldn't have had the house on the mountain if you couldn't have been the one who could hold it. So you have to be able to hold the magnitude of your vision. And so that's what I'm, was always understanding that the work that we were doing is like, your number one thing that you needed to have was this emotional,

Sophia Hyde (32:06.402)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (32:19.028)
mastery so that you could be like, okay, when this know how to communicate with your emotions and listen for the wisdom that they're bringing you because emotions are like master mentors. They are million dollar mentors. just like this one. Okay. I feel you. Okay. Where do I feel you? okay. What do you say? Aha. Okay. I understand exactly what it is. You're trying to tell me now. Perfect. Thank you. It's like here to help you to the next level of your life. It's here to take you to your highest timeline.

And so all of the little parts and all of the little bits, they were all coming up so that you could expand, but it's a painful process. This is not always, especially with your journey. Like that's why people can come in, it's like, you know, if you've got a big vision, it may take you a bit to calibrate to that vision, right? Like, and this is why it's become really hard for me.

Sophia Hyde (33:11.724)
Not everybody's gonna work with you for two and a half years, right? Like that's not everybody's experience.

Imani Nic (33:18.01)
Yes, but however that said, well that's why the work has evolved where I'm equipping them differently because my work has also evolved. I've gotten so much better at what I do. Time is speeding up. Consciousness of humanity is speeding up. You know, and this is another thing to go back to what you were saying about therapy and you know EMDR and all these different therapies. The thing is is that

Therapies reflect the consciousness of the times they need to be built for the consciousness of the times of humanity And so there was a time where sitting on a couch for an hour was leading humanity forward It was it was breaking the silence It was it was disruptive for its time and then you had hypnotherapy also very disruptive for its time, right? Putting you into a state of trance, you know into a theta state and then you don't know

A lot of people couldn't remember what they experienced during hypnosis, right? There was a time where consciousness, you would have to like completely go out in order to have it, you know, transformational experience. And then now it's like, you can just, I mean, you could close your eyes, I could process you. I don't even need to take you into a state of trance or any kind of depth anymore because the truth is, is that your consciousness and the consciousness of humanity has gotten to a point now.

that you don't need to but close your eyes and you can reprogram yourself for lasting change and permanent lasting change. And that's because the modalities of the time need to reflect consciousness of humanity. And so I am one who says, think talk therapy pretty much is a waste of time. There are way better modalities. Anyone who's in talk therapy, I definitely recommend looking into other things. I mean, I do stand firmly by that.

I think that there yes, there's a time at all forms of healing have their place but like some of those things can keep people spinning it's actually worse it's it's it's not actually helpful because The conscious mind is not going to solve the problem. That's not what it's here to do so subconscious work is what you want to be leaning into at this point because It's going to help you repattern disrupt Repattern but you you do want to have a vision for where it is. You want to go in your life like that's what's really important is like

Imani Nic (35:31.884)
You can reprogram yourself, but what are you reprogramming yourself to? Like, and that's why it's easy to work with powerful women and women with big visions, because it's like, you have a big vision, great, now we know where we're taking you. We just calibrate you to that vision. And then, you know, some people just really do are aware that they need deeper healing work. And I don't wanna, I don't want to discredit that because there is a time, you know, I've kind of.

in some ways turned away from the idea that we should always be on this healing journey, right? Like that can be a perpetual kind of journey. So I don't take the lens of like, market myself as like a healer, right? I've never really done that. Yes, the healing is profound. Yes, the healing will happen. It is inevitable. But the goal is that you really become resourced so that you...

are able to move yourself from a trigger to a calm nervous system, get the information that you need and integrate it as quickly as possible so that you can expand your capacity to hold even more. Because I know that the version of Sophia actually on the mountain, we saw quite a range of that version of you. So you're in the very beginning of that version, but we were very tapped in, tuned in and turned on to even the version of Sophia on the mountain when her kids are kind of.

graduated and gone off. we were, this wasn't just like getting you there. We were seeing.

Sophia Hyde (36:57.504)
When we do, yeah, when we do, we did some meditations to like, when I visually see Sophia on the mountain, I do happen to live on a mountain now. But when I think of Sophia on the mountain and I visualize her, she has great long gray hair. And so in my mind, the woman I'm really becoming, I think she's in her sixties. And so I'm 38 years old.

Imani Nic (37:24.492)
Yeah.

Sophia Hyde (37:26.912)
So I do know that there's still a lot more work to be done. And I am not, my work is nowhere near complete in this lifetime. There is still more growth and beauty and things to, just accomplish, but like embody. Yeah, but this was, but now I do believe that I am in the home that Sophia on the mountain lives in. This is.

Imani Nic (37:27.297)
Yeah.

Imani Nic (37:43.614)
yeah, this is just the beginning. It's like the beginning. It's like, yeah.

Sophia Hyde (37:54.37)
This is, am at the place, I am in the environment. What I saw in those meditations multiple years ago is now what I see every, I mean, literally, I am literally looking at three windows.

Imani Nic (38:04.353)
There's another house. I'll just tell you this later. It'll be some time, but there's another house in the second half of this story.

Sophia Hyde (38:12.0)
I, maybe I believed that I did believe that in the beginning. but yeah, but that's really what I believed. I did believe that. But then this one that fell into our lap, I just, I can't even explain how calm and at peace my nervous system feels. And I just say to my husband on a regular basis, like, I can't see us ever.

Imani Nic (38:18.379)
I could be wrong, but that's my prediction. I'm just gonna put it there.

Sophia Hyde (38:38.798)
moving, it could happen. Like we don't know what's coming for us, but I say that all the time. I'm like, I genuinely believe that we were buying the house to raise our kids in and then the like forever home. That was what I believed until we moved into this house. And now I'm like, I, if, if I ever move again, I don't, I don't know where it would be. Maybe it's the second home in a different country. It's not that that could happen. I could have a second home on in the Pacific Northwest or a second home in another country. Totally possible.

Imani Nic (39:02.199)
Hello.

Okay.

Sophia Hyde (39:08.462)
But anyways, all that to say this feels feels really freaking good and even this office I'm sitting in right now like I have three windows and outside of all of them is the dream view that I've wanted for like years. It's insane. It's just insane. But anyways, okay one of the notes I wrote down

Imani Nic (39:24.011)
No, you have done it. Like you've really done it, yeah.

Sophia Hyde (39:57.908)
it looks like when I am on the other end of the call. Right? And so what does, I am curious, and I think some of my students might be curious, what does Sophia look like when the tables are turned?

Imani Nic (40:02.615)
Hmm.

Imani Nic (40:17.207)
Well, let me let me go back.

Imani Nic (40:23.105)
I mean, like I had touched on earlier, you're very willing, know, willing, very, very like, but still very sovereign and very much in your in your own power. Like you're not, you never outsourced power, you know, it was never like, you were never dependent or too lean, you were never heavy to carry at any time.

You know, there was never a sense of heaviness, if you will, or like a load. And this is, know, in order to even choose a client or be with a client, this is like a non-negotiable for me. If a client feels like a load, like I'm somehow carrying this person, it's we're not doing work together. And so it's like sovereign woman to sovereign woman, we're doing this work and like the showing up, the being on time, the like always being in a quiet space uninterrupted, like.

you took all of that very seriously. don't even know if we ever missed, I mean, I don't think we ever missed a session really, and do I have to go back? Like even me going through the depths of you were working with me through some of the depths of my own challenge, right? Where I was going through my divorce and like moving and relocating and we still, it was like every week we were on the call, we were doing the work. And so I feel that that journey, it was just one of full commitment.

of like all in, we're doing this thing, we know where we're going, we know what we're working on. And so I feel like you were, know, if a client, one of your clients was ever wondering what you were working, what you were like, I would say you're very much similar probably as you were in your coaching role, but you were, you just flipped in the sense of like, okay, now you're allowing yourself to be coached. So you're just like a coach in her power, but then flipping it and being like, okay, now.

You know, and so it was never, it was never like you were looking to me to ask me like, what should I do? Or this isn't working. You know, I have these things that I will not tolerate from clients very much, very, very, very strong firm boundaries with clients where if they ever try to tell me like, this isn't working or I'm not making, you know, the money isn't or this or not, this isn't working. Not like the work that we're doing, but like them making money, say they want it. Cause finances were one of the things that brought you in, in the very beginning. That was the first.

Imani Nic (42:47.584)
post you saw on Instagram and you were like, okay, I'm booking this because we talked about financial upper limiting, right? Around not making more money than your family. And you were like, I'm ready to break the ceiling. I'm ready to make more money. And so when you come in for money, know, financial reasons, and you're like, all right, especially as investments get bigger and bigger, and then, you know, there's a financial...

consideration to the investment, right? Where you're just like, okay, this work that we're doing must make me money. It's a business investment, right? I'm essentially a business mentor, right? So I'm not just like a healer. So I feel like it was business working with you. felt like business. It felt like we're on a business journey. So there was a professionalism that was there. And you never ever came and never said like, this isn't working or...

Sophia Hyde (43:17.71)
Yeah.

Imani Nic (43:37.857)
I'm not making more money or this and this. There were times where I wanted some things for you that you didn't want for yourself. There were some times where I was like, really wanted you to raise your prices. I really wanted you to like, I wanted you to choose maybe a different timeline or make some different decisions. But you were like, no, this is a decision I'm making. This is who I am. This is who I'm choosing to be. And so I think that that's also

a know, a humility that you taught me kind of early on too, that is probably one of my biggest lessons because I do see the greatest version for someone. do see like the biggest, highest, probably wealthiest timeline for everybody. And it's also a conscious decision whether they want that as well, right? And so there's strategic business decisions that are made when you decide, you know, and it does mean some people don't get access or access changes in some type of way.

And so I feel like that was probably one of the points where our mentorship started to shift, because I was going into a different energetic direction and you had made a choice. so that's something I think that we, I'm sure you also experienced with your clients as well, where it's just like, okay, I may have wanted this for someone.

That's my five line in human design too. Like I'm that savior. I have that savior and like that leadership savior complex thing going. And so I always wanted like, come on Sophia, what I just like, but it was just an honor to work with you. I mean, honestly, you are just a dream. You were a dream to work with. And the way that you integrated, because this is one of the things is like,

A lot of people can do the work. always say people can pay. Anyone can pay. Anyone can find money and pay. This is something I believe. Anyone can pay. Anyone can kind of show up to a call. Anyone can put it on their to-do list and show up for a call. Anyone can even do the work if they decide to do it and start really doing it. But not everyone integrates. And integration is really where all of that pays off.

Imani Nic (46:00.193)
So there's the financial investment, there's the energetic investment, and then there's the like follow-up integration investment. And some people drop that. Some people aren't able to like, so they'll find themselves kind of dealing with the same thing but in a different way over and over because the integration isn't, they're not allowing that integration within their nervous system to really expand their capacity to the extent that they

And so I noticed that some clients integrate very well and you were just one who integrated, who took integration seriously. When you needed more rest, you made more rest. And integration can look like that. It can look like doing less more. And that's so much of what we worked on too during our time together. was like anywhere where you think you have to do more to have more. That was a big thing for you to kind of break. Yeah.

Sophia Hyde (46:54.048)
you did a lot. Yeah, you did a lot to help me with that. would even even well into the work, I would still say that I would have some goal and then I would tell you my strategy to hit the goal. And you'd be like, that involves you working so much harder and more like why you realize it doesn't have to be that complicated, right? Like what is it? And then you would help me make it.

easier and cut out. even wrote down one of the sentences I wrote down was the elephant stomping. So I don't know if you remember this, but very early, one of our very first sessions, you were just like, gosh, Sophia, you're like, the way you move through the world, it's just so like hard and like heavy. Like you're just, it's like you stomp. And I said, no, I literally stomp. So like I grew up in a 1926 bungalow and my family would always say that they always knew when Sophia was coming because you'd hear these footsteps that were like stomp, stomp.

Imani Nic (47:23.872)
Yes.

Sophia Hyde (47:44.534)
It was like this hard walk through the house. And very early on, you were like, no more, no more stomping through the world. You are going to move through the world like a ballerina. You are going to move through the world gracefully. We don't need to stomp into rooms. We don't need to be a bull in a china shop. We don't have to make a scene. It doesn't have to all be so, like, it can actually just be graceful. And so for like two years, the screensaver on my phone,

Imani Nic (47:52.971)
Yeah.

Imani Nic (48:07.87)
Yeah.

Sophia Hyde (48:13.57)
said move gracefully because there was some part of me who knows how or when it got wired in there but at some point I wanted to it's like I don't know if it was a rebellious streak but there was something about the way I moved through the world I just wanted to make it hard like I just wanted to complicate it or over complicate it I just wanted to say the thing or whatever I don't know what it was a harshness undertone of some kind

Imani Nic (48:15.605)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (48:31.349)
Hmm.

Imani Nic (48:41.766)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sophia Hyde (48:43.53)
And I wrote down, it was like the elephant stomping. But one of the things you taught me was to move through the world gracefully and to let things be easy and to not white-knuckle grip everything. I think that's probably one of the biggest things that you helped me with was that new way to move through the world.

Imani Nic (48:57.459)
Mm-hmm.

Imani Nic (49:01.291)
Mmm... Yeah.

Yeah, truly. And you know, when you were speaking and sharing this, did help. It made me think of this other review that I just got somebody sent to me. And they're like, working with Imani is not for the faint of heart or not for the one who wants to tread lightly. That's what it was. It said it's not for the one who wants to tread lightly. and because I am so direct. And this goes into also

what it was like to mentor you and like you on the receiving end, is you're really able to take direct, like direct energetics, not tiptoeing around anything. So I loved that, what's that?

Sophia Hyde (49:45.398)
I love direct communication. I love direct communication. Anything that's not direct communication is very hard for me.

Imani Nic (49:51.844)
Yes, yes. So I think that's one of the really harmonious things that we had in our relationship is you could handle my power, you know, and the way that I deliver. And so when I say that somebody may not be able to handle that when I'm like, because I get these images, I see these images and I'm like, this is what I see for you. This is the energetics we're working with, And I'm like, it's like you're an elephant stomping through the room. Like, why are you doing this? Why are you making it hard, right?

And so some people would be like, my, you know, they might not be able to take that, you know, but you were like, it was a perfect visual for you to feel like how it is that you were asserting yourself and what you felt you needed to be, to do in order to be seen or be heard or feel safe or feel like get attention, right? Depending on things. So there's all kinds of inner child reasons that one is gonna start to stomp through the world, right? And we got to address all those, meet all your inner child needs.

Resource your inner child and then you don't need to do any of that anymore as we were doing that mean, that's the kind of science behind it if you will and then you got to the point where you're like, okay And you know you were saying earlier that you were attracted to my feminine Energetics and that and that's part of that where you're just like, okay I get to be kind of more graceful move through the world graceful and then mix it also with power with potency with with precision with accuracy

So it's like, can be this graceful one, but then I can also have the penetrating frequency of the masculine energy, which is gonna be direct and it's gonna tell you how it is and it's gonna, and that's gonna move your world faster than tiptoeing around anything, right? And so you were able to handle that. That's what I mean, two years of being with me and that, I mean, I just hats off like truly, I mean, I celebrate my clients because you're some of the most powerful women. You really are, you're able to like continue to show up and rise to that.

Yeah, I mean, it gets to be so much easier than we were ever taught. And even I think I'm even discovering how it gets to be easier and easier and easier and easier. And the more we refine our emotions, the more we work with our inner world, the more we co-create with the divine within, the more that we are very in our integrity, know, the more integrists we are and the more

Imani Nic (52:10.453)
Gosh, just the more we love ourselves and forgive ourselves and just be loving to one another, it's just, it gets better and better and better. And the more we say no, and the more boundary, I don't even like the word boundary so much, but the ability truly to say no to things that are just not in alignment with the version of ourselves that we are becoming and what we.

what is best and our highest and making these decisions and leading ourselves powerfully. I just am starting to, I feel a whole new world is opening up and also when we're not outsourcing our nervous system and we're not outsourcing our safety to anyone outside of ourselves. And that's been so much of my journey of sovereignty, which is like, my safety is not on my clients. My safety is not on any other person. My safety, it's just like,

my path over the past three years, especially since leaving my marriage, has really been about the internal safety, like me and, it's me and God. You're straight up, you know? And like, being that dialed in, I feel like I'm at the beginning of a whole new level of growth, you know? So I feel like it's interesting. I feel like both of us are...

And maybe it always feels like this. Maybe it always feels like the beginning of something great. I feel like that's part of it. It's like the end of something, but then the beginning of something greater. So I love that our frequencies have aligned in this way to even have a conversation again, because we're in a similar place in that we're just at peace where the work pays off. It pays off. gives dividends. Yeah, and that's the other thing too. You invest it, and you invest it, and you invest it, and you invest it. And that's the thing too. just like.

Right before I got on this call, I invested in a three day mastermind in Puerto Rico with one of my mentors. I'm like, I'm going to Puerto Rico for three days, then I'm going to Florida and I'm doing this. And it's like, I'm embodying that version of myself, that high level leader that I would have been growing into. And it's just like, it's amazing. It's amazing. It's a fun journey.

Sophia Hyde (54:18.99)
Yeah, yeah. Before we close, is there anything that you haven't been able to share yet that's on your heart for just something you would want the listeners to know or?

Imani Nic (54:35.038)
Yes, and I feel like I said it earlier, but it's like there are easier and better ways to do things and just think about Ask this the question on your heart like what could be the easiest way and even just that subtle like what could bring me the most ease and where have I felt like I need to grip or white knuckle or force What it is that and who it is that I desire to become

and where you can just like resist, where you can loosen resistance and loosen the grip and allow the answer to drop in. That right there and then trust that. Can you trust that? Can you listen to that? Can you lean more into that over and over and then look for that evidence? Even if it takes some time to find that evidence of like when I'm yielding a bit more, what opens?

that feels relevant in this moment. It's not like my message to the world, but it feels relevant to this call.

Sophia Hyde (55:41.752)
Yeah, beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And I think that for those who've been listening to this podcast since the beginning, think they may even realize hearing you say that they may even realize connecting some dots of how your work was showing through in the things I might've been talking about or teaching about or whatever, because I think probably a year or two ago, I think there was a string.

of episodes on letting it be easier, how to make it easier, can it be easier, like all these things of like, and I think you can see that in my work where I was letting go of that white-neckle and letting go of that gripping. Yeah.

Imani Nic (56:16.948)
where you were integrating, but you, is why you integrated. You integrated and then you, and then you implemented. That's what you did. That's, and so if you're a client of Sophia's, like pay extra attention to implementation and integration, cause getting off the calls is one thing, but asking how one can implement better and integrate better post call, that's really what is going to move your needle.

Sophia Hyde (56:47.694)
trying to send these to the catalog right now of everybody I work with currently.

And I'm just gonna give a shout out to them because they're beautiful, amazing humans, but they're doing the fricking work. They're doing it because when they show up, it's stories of what they've, yeah, they set out to do and then they did it and either it worked or it didn't work and then we're trying again and we're going back out and they're doing it again and we're digging deeper and we're finding more layers. And yeah, I don't know. I think I'm too action-oriented and results-oriented.

Imani Nic (57:02.324)
They're doing it. We celebrate it.

Imani Nic (57:19.23)
Mm, so good.

Sophia Hyde (57:24.238)
that, yeah, I don't know that you could stick around with me for very long and not integrate. think I don't know that I have the patience. I'm just thinking out loud. wasn't on my mind before. I don't know what I would do if I felt like, I've had a couple clients in the past in the beginning of my practice. And ultimately, I think it comes down to alignment with the client. Yeah, I think that's a lot of it, too.

Imani Nic (57:38.194)
Yeah, of course.

Imani Nic (57:49.833)
Yeah, and people can align for some time. I'm also just learning like our work can go to a certain point and then it's complete and it's like, then letting it have its own life force, know, people can get what they need.

Sophia Hyde (57:56.782)
Sophia Hyde (58:00.642)
Yeah, I call it graduating. Like, they come to me for different periods of time and then they're graduated. They came here for something and accomplished it and then they're graduated and off into the world.

Imani Nic (58:07.038)
Yes.

Yes. I actually just had a client that I worked with for over a year and she's like, Imani, I need to go lay on a field and integrate for one year. Like she, this is what her nervous system needs because of everything that we just worked through. I mean, it's so big, so huge, so much childhood stuff and deep, deep, deep stuff in her career. And this is a, you know, a high achieving woman. And she's like, I need to do this.

And then meanwhile, the other woman who's off to her 300 million, like we are going, you know? So it's honoring where everyone is with their different goals and visions and honoring the work and where we get in the work. It's honor to be able to do the work that we do and in the way that we do it. I feel like I'm just grateful this work found me. I feel...

Sophia Hyde (59:05.174)
Yeah, I'm grateful it found you too. I'm grateful about you too. And then that you found me and you slid into my DMs and was like, let's chat, Sophia. think I can help you. I know.

Imani Nic (59:13.694)
Well, you were at my yoga studio. remember, you know, I had a yoga studio and I was like, I remember even hiring you to teach a meditation one day. So you came in for a meditation before we even did any of this work.

Sophia Hyde (59:22.414)
Yes, I was teaching meditation in your studio in 2016-2017.

Imani Nic (59:28.35)
Yeah.

And I remember it was in that meditation, you're like, take all your worries and put them in this little basket and let them float down the river. And I was just like, okay. And I just, remember it. You know, we had a really nice time. That was like beautiful. What a beautiful like memories and stuff that we've had. And then your book cover, you know, there's like certain just moments that really.

Sophia Hyde (59:51.118)
Oh, we did not go into that today. But yeah, Amani's work is, it also shows up in my book. yeah. There was a lot. Talk about the sovereignty though, working to become an independent woman. You helped me work through standing up for myself and advocating for myself to get what I deserved versus settling for how people wanted to treat me through that process. Yeah, that was a lot. Thank you.

Imani Nic (59:55.966)
We're not going into that today.

Imani Nic (01:00:00.881)
so fun.

Imani Nic (01:00:14.986)
Yes, zero people pleasing, always saying what going forward with what you want. 100%. Yeah, it's been so fun.

Sophia Hyde (01:00:21.176)
Yeah, so thank you for coming today. And also just thank you for all of the work that we did together for all of that time. It was beautiful and I'm so grateful for the role you had in my journey to get me to this point I'm at today.

Imani Nic (01:00:38.122)
I am so grateful. Thank you to Sophia and I can't wait to see all the stuff that you do over the next 30 years.

Sophia Hyde (01:00:45.656)
Thank you. All right, love you, girl.

Imani Nic (01:00:48.444)
All right, beauty, love you too. Ciao ciao, bye.

Sophia Hyde (01:00:51.16)
Bye.


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