My Story

It’s February 2007, and I've just arrived home from a leadership conference. I was thinking on the plane, “Finally, I can create the life of my dreams.” I’m feeling alive with excitement, expansion, and possibility. Beautiful, capable, and inspired. 

As soon as I pass through the security doors and see my family, my heart sinks. Not because I’m not happy to see them, but because I come face to face with the life of compromises and people-pleasing I’ve created for myself. I already feel smaller than I felt on the plane. 

The joy I’d felt mere hours before morphed into tears of despair that night as I lay curled up on the floor of my closet, sobbing into a pillow. Again.

I don't know what I like, what I want, what I need, or who I am. I just know something has to change. Not today though.

Today, all I can do is curl up in the closet and sob.

I grew up in a tiny town called Chadron, Nebraska. My dad was the college band director. My mom, also a professional music educator, taught private lessons.  

My parents were hard-working midwesterners and they often traveled for professional musical events.

When I was a little girl, I could feel others around me and sense what they needed. I was told not to be so sensitive, and when I began to show intuitive abilities people said that it was all in my imagination. I knew it wasn't.

I started people pleasing because I couldn't stand to feel their discomfort or disappointment. I felt everything: their pain, their needs, and their desires. Part of me resented all the people pleasing while another part of me took pride in my ability to read what people needed.

Being the daughter of musicians, it was easy to become a music educator myself. I wanted to be the best, just like my parents. I honed my skills, built my resume and became a well-recognized and highly respected music educator. 

While I loved the work, I hustled for my worth. I chased opportunities, awards, and recognition like they were oxygen. It was never enough.  

Somewhere along the way, I stopped listening to my body and my inner knowing. I kept working but my body talked. I talked back with antacids, ibuprofen, and caffeine. 

With Mary Kay, I found myself in a community of women who believed in me far more than I ever believed in myself. Their belief in me buoyed me until I could learn to truly believe I was worthy of happiness, love, and fulfillment.

This all shifted when I found myself on the closet floor in 2007. In that final time of sobbing on the floor, I had had enough. 

I asked for help. My Mary Kay sisterhood rallied with the support I could never have dreamed of providing resources and help, furnishing our home, loving me while I healed from the divorce, and offering friendship and community. Their belief in me saved me and taught me to believe in myself.

I rebuilt my life.  

I recognized that I needed to shift so that I could call in healthier relationships, friendships, and connections.

I decided to reclaim my empathic and intuitive gifts and then discovered they were much more developed than I'd originally thought. That led me to learn energy healing, and went on my own healing journey. 

I studied energy healing and became certified in several modalities, learned to read oracle cards, and am an advanced trauma-informed breathwork facilitator and somatic coach. 

Now, I am surrounded by people who respect and love me for who I am.  I love to give and nurture others in a way that is fueling to me. 

Now I give from a place of overflow and genuine desire to serve.  I no longer people-please. I live from a full body YES and teach other empathic entrepreneurs to find their own full body YES. 

So today, I’m an energy healer and work with the most beautiful, empathic entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners who were probably told “Don’t be so sensitive” or “You’re too much”.

These days, when I’m in my closet, it’s to put on the clothes that make me feel beautiful.

Bio

Brenda Winkle guides sensitive and successful women towards self-actualization and empowerment through breathwork, somatic coaching, and energy healing for aligned leadership. She is one of very few healers and coaches with the knowledge, training, and skill set to successfully blend the science of breathwork and somatic healing with of energy healing and spirituality. The result is a life-changing combination of intuitive access, increased nervous system capacity to stop people-pleasing, and a feeling of fulfillment. Try breathwork free: brendawinkle.com/breathe

Brenda is the host and creator of the Yes Filled Life Podcast, a podcast globally rated in the top 5% of all podcasts.  Her mission is simple; to help people feel better and has been doing so for the past 9 years.

Brenda’s mission is to guide you to your empowerment and self-actualization. 

Brenda is a certified advanced trauma-informed breathwork facilitator, somatic coach, and trauma-informed Reiki Master, and is certified and highly trained in multiple energy healing modalities that she offers in her "Heal to the Yes" method.  Brenda is an empath, a highly sensitive person, and an intuitive. She was a music educator for 26 years and has a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership.  

Brenda has been featured in Brand You Magazine, Top Sante' Magazine, Platinum Magazine, Telegraph, Metro, and Authority Magazine/Medium.com multiple times. She has guested on KCAA Radio, been a podcast guest on upwards of 50 podcasts, and has spoken on stages in California, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. 

Brenda served on the board of the Northwestern Region of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) for 2 years as the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Chair, and as the Children's Choir Resource and Repertoire Chair for 5 years and remains committed to social justice and antiracist work. Brenda also has served on ACDA boards in Idaho and South Dakota.