Transcript

Gissele: Martin Luther King write, does love have the power to turn an enemy into a friend? Does it have the power to heal? This year, we are creating an inspiring documentary, courage to Love the Power of Compassion, which explores the extraordinary stories of those who have chosen to do the unthinkable love and forgive those who are most hurtful Through their journeys, we will uncover the profound impact of forgiveness love, not only on those offering it, but also those receiving it.

In addition, we’ll hear from experts who will explore whether love and compassion are part of our human nature, and how we can bridge divides with those we disagree with. If you’d like to support our film, please donate at [00:01:00] http://www.maitricentre.com/documentary

 . Hello and welcome to The Love and Compassion Podcast with Gissele

We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. Today we’re gonna be talking about compassion and love in the foster care system. Our guest today is Peter Mutabazi entrepreneur international advocate for children and founder of Now I am known a corporation that supplies resources to encourage and affirm children.

Peter is a single dad, foster parent, who was a former street kid in Uganda. He has worked for Compassion International and the Red Cross. He has appeared on BBC in the Today Show and is author of the book now I am known. Please join me in welcoming Peter. Hi Peter.

Peter: Hey, how are you?

Gissele: I’m good. [00:02:00] How are you?

Peter: I’m good. What a joy to be with you today.

Gissele: Yes. I’ve been, I’ve been following your story for such a long time. I’m such a huge admirer of the work that you do. I followed your story with Anthony and also I used to work in the child protection system and so lots of issues with children that didn’t feel loved and accepted and with sometimes struggling with foster parents who didn’t understand the behavior problems.

And so that’s why your journey is such powerful, powerful reminder of how important it’s to have presence, to have compassion, including for yourself. So I’d like to begin by asking you how you got to this place. Like what was your journey like in terms of going from the streets of Uganda to now having this incredible social media presence and really kind of carving a new way for foster care?

Peter: Well, you know, I was, you know, I was born in Uganda among the poor of the poorest you could imagine. You know I [00:03:00] never had one meal a day. I had one meal every other day. We could not afford beans and potatoes, you know, grew up in a place where I had to go fetch water three to four miles away one way twice a day, like there was no time to be a child.

And two, you know, at age of four, I began to realize that not only are we poor, but my dad was abusive as well. So grew up in a place where, you know, the only words I heard for my dad was, you’ll never amount to anything. You’re nobody. I wish you never born. So I did not have to feed you. And those are the things I heard for my dad.

So for me, internally, life was miserable outside. It was miserable. at the age of, you know, 10, I, I, I knew my father would kill me, so I thought, wait a minute, you know, I would rather die in the hands of a stranger.

So I ran away, and that’s how I became a street kid. And from the age 10 to almost 16. As street kids, we are treated more like stray animals. Like really, people viewed us as we are, we are nobody. We are scum of the earth in some way. Mm-hmm. And somehow we believed it because that’s what we looked like. I mean, I lived in a

Ep.67- Building a Compassionate Child Welfare System with Peter Mutabazi

TRANSCRIPT

Gissele: Hello and welcome to the Love and Compassion Podcast with Gissele. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. Today we’re gonna be talking about rethinking how we do business in a time of great upheaval. my guest today is Jeff Ma, who is a director of product development at Culture Plus host of the Love as a business strategy podcast and bestselling author of love as a Business Strategy coming up through a decade in the gaming industry. Jeff eventually found his niche in project management and agile coaching at Soft Way.

As he continued working with teams and clients in Scrum and agile environments, however, he started seeing the stronger underlying importance of culture in truly high functioning performing teams. Pushed by a combination of his own introspection, feedback from [00:01:00] his colleagues, and a whole lot of uncomfortable practice, Jeff shifted head first into a new mission that he shares with his team.

To bring humanity back to the workplace. Nowadays, he’s hyper-focused on helping people find a workplace culture that allows them to be their whole selves, their best selves. Jeff is leading the development of various products and tools that are crafted with the culture of love at its center. As a facilitator of Culture Rise and other experiences in the Culture Plus Suite, he’s also connecting and transforming leaders around the world directly helping them to improve their mindsets, behaviors, and leadership capabilities.

Please join me in welcoming Jeff. Hi Jeff.

Jeff: Hello, how are you, Gissele?

Gissele: I’m doing great. I think this is a perfect conversation to have nowadays because I feel like the world is in a little bit of an upheaval when it comes to the economics, I [00:02:00] think,

Jeff: In terms of a lot of things. Yeah.

Gissele: Yeah, for sure.

So to get started I wanted you to tell the audience a little bit about how you got started in this work.

Jeff: Wow. So it’s, it’s actually a lot of the book that we wrote, love is a business strategy centers around this change. But, you know, I was just like anybody else working a, you know, a, a kind of a job in a nine to five kind of technology company called Soft Way, which I still do today, but software was very different back then.

But basically software went through an interesting change. Around 2016, it almost went outta business. And the story centers around our CEO Mohammed, who’s a co-author of the book as well. But it starts with Mohammed and kind of grows into others. But the gist of it is, mm-hmm. That when we’re kind of in our worst moment where we had done mass layoffs, morals, and all time low

Gissele: Yeah.

Jeff: Things are not looking good. Mohammed kind of had a moment of, of. [00:03:00] Self-realization in which he went to actually a football game, a University of Houston football game, which he’s a huge fan of. Mm-hmm. But they played a game that was really important. It was like their 10th, 10th straight victory with no losses that season, if they could pull it off.

But they were down by by insurmountable amount in the fourth quarter, and all the statistics showed that it was over. They had a 0.1% chance of winning, and basically people were already leaving that game, leaving that stadium turning off their TVs, and Mohamed decided to stay in that game. He witnessed one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the program.

And they came back and won. And that really invigorated him to try to figure out what it is that makes a great team resilient like that. And that coach in particular, that, that was a rookie coach his

Ep.66- Love and Leadership: Jeff Ma on Building a Compassion-Driven Workplace

Gissele: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Love and Compassion Podcast with Gissele.

We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. Sean Hemeon is an award-winning actor, writer, an abstract, expressionist painter. He has appeared in 9 1 1 Criminal Minds, true blood, which I loved in cws husbands.

Sean began his career as an art gallery director in Santa Monica before transitioning to a full-time artist. His work has been exhibited in galleries across Los Angeles as a writer. Sean’s forthcoming book, the Good Little Drug, Lord, is an Ode to Redemption Recovery and the Mother Son Bond. Ultimately uplifting memoir about a gay Mormon drug dealing informant for the federal government.

That [00:01:00] sounds really interesting. Originally from Northern Virginia, Sean now resides in Los Angeles with his husband and their two Boston Terriers, Ludo and Gusgus. He’s the recipient of WBCs Lgbtqiaa Plus Writers Fellowship and has published works in Beyond Queer Words after a decades long absence.

He recently completed his BA in Creative Writing at the University of Virginia, and this year marks 20 years of Sean’s sobriety. Please join me in welcoming Sean. Hi, Sean. Yay. Yay. So excited to chat with you, by the way. I love True Bloods. Such a good show. Let’s do It was fun to work on was such. Yes, it’s It’s awesome.

Awesome show. I was wondering if you could just tell the audience a little bit about how you got to writing the good Little Drug, Lord.

Sean: How did I get to writing it? Well, you know, well, okay. [00:02:00] There is a very clear response to that. Okay. For me that I will share.

But I got there creatively. Just, you know, by the last 20 years, just continuing to write. I’ve always been a person who’s journaled. I’ve journaled since my teen years, so journaling and writing has always been a part of my life. And I’ve been writing all kinds of different things. One man shows screenplays, other writing things.

So I’ve always been writing. And then it was, it was the push at UVA working with my professors who are all published authors that sort of just kind of ushered me into this next phase. But, but why now and why, you know, 20 years later the story is so, I mean, gay Mormon drug dealing narc for the federal government.

I mean, so I, it seems like,

Gissele: where do you start? Why don’t we start with the Mormonism? So you were raised Mormon.

Sean: I was raised Mormon. Not in Utah though. I am from Northern [00:03:00] Virginia. There are big Mormon wards lots of, you know wonderful Mormons.

And that’s where I was raised. And with, I have six other siblings. I’m the middle child of seven. Wow. The thing that’s slightly different about my family is my father never was, nor never will be. Well, he’s passed on, but it was never Mormon. we were raised by him, but also by the other fathers of the church wards

Doing like the Boy Scouts, all that kind of stuff. Still, I’m sure it’s more acceptable now, but like having a non-Mormon father was low key, like shameful, like ugh, that that poor Hemeon family, how, you know? So we felt that, but it didn’t matter. I was devoted to my mother.

My mother was my person and she very much made me her person. You know, little, little gay boys we’re emotional. and my father wasn’t giving my mom much. Poor guy was exhausted trying to, raise a family of seven. So you could imagine how that’s a big family.

Gissele: Yeah.

Sean: I

Gissele: mean mm-hmm.

Sean: I have two kids

Gissele: and

Ep.65-Dealer to Healer: Choosing Love over Shame with Sean Hemeon

Gissele: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Love and Compassion podcast with Gissele. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you an exciting project that I’m working on with a team of researchers and worldwide guests.

I’m directing a documentary called Courage to Love the Power of Compassion, and we’ll be sharing stories of individuals who are doing the unthinkable, loving those who are most hurtful. Through this documentary, we’ll be answering the question, whether love does have the power to transform enemies into friends and challenges into opportunities to support our documentary.

Please look for us in the fundraiser at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/courage-to-love-the-power-of-compassion We’ll be offering lots of perks for your contribution, including associate director credit for our film. So look, look out for that. On today’s podcast, we’ll be talking [00:01:00] about the relationship between Love and Money, and we have a special guest today.

It’s my friend Ghary. Gh ary. David Wong is a spiritual explorer who sheds lights on life’s steps through hospice care, mortality insights, and a bout of homelessness. Departing from a corporate career, he offers a unique perspective on purpose and abundance. In his latest book, abundance Soul, abundant Life, he shares love’s transformative power for a purposeful existence based on personal discoveries.

Please join me in welcoming my friend Ghary. Hi Ghary.

Ghary: Hi, Gissele. I’m so glad to be here.

Gissele: Yes, thank you for being here with us. We’re gonna talk about love and money, and often those two aren’t associated, actually very seldom. And so I’m super excited to talk to you and talk about your [00:02:00] book. But to begin with, can you tell our listeners what got you started on this journey?

Ghary: Boy, you know, interestingly, I thought I was gonna write a book about, strictly about Money, but you actually read the book. It ends up it, you know, it’s a book about love. Mm-hmm. And you know, this, this has been a long time journey for me. I mean, I’ve studied with a lot of different people like Wayne Dyer and Neil Donald Walsh, those kind of people.

 You know, I, I started journaling from 1991. Wow. And I’ve been, I’ve been keeping a daily journal and after a certain point in time I had a section in there which I call reflections. And what happened was that these are sort of insights that I’ve had, and over the years I’ve realized that [00:03:00] those, those reflections actually come from my guides.

Gissele: Mm-hmm. Love that.

 And so unexpected, right? Like, one of the things I lot I love about this journey that we are on, sort of like with this humanity is that often the most surprising and most beautiful things are unexpected, right?

You went in thinking you are gonna write this book on money, and you came out writing this book on love and the relationship with money, right? And so it’s, it’s been an amazing journey just to watch as a friend. For those of the listeners who haven’t yet gotten your book, tell us a little bit about kind of how is money even related to love?

Ghary: You know, I, I look at money as part, part and parcel to everything that we, we wish for or that we work to achieve in this lifetime.

Gissele: Hmm.

Ghary: And so it is part of what I call abundance. [00:04:00] It is everything. So you know, it’s, it’s to me the most important thing in life is to experience love in all of its various

Ep.64- Love, Abundance and Living an Authentic Life with Ghary Won

Conversation with Scott

[00:00:00]

Scott: Hello and welcome to the Love and Compassion podcast with Gissele. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world.

Gissele: Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. This year we’re creating an inspiring documentary called Courage to Love, the Power of Compassion, which explores the extraordinary stories of those who have chosen to do the unthinkable. Love and forgive those who have caused them deep harm.

Through their journeys, we will uncover the profound impact of forgiveness, not only to those offering it, but also those receiving it. we’ll hear from experts who will explore whether love and reconciliation are part of our human nature and how we can bridge divides with those we disagree with.

We are launching a fundraising campaign in March, offering incredible perks to our supporters. If you’re interested in our documentary, know somebody whose story should be featured, or would like to contribute financially, stay tuned. Speaking of divided, [00:01:00] today’s topic is about how to love others during divided times. Our guest today is Scott Stabile. He is a Breathwork Facilitator.

 and author of the acclaimed motivational memoir, Big Love, The Undeniable Joy of Following Your Heart, the short prose collection, Enough As You Are, and the inspirational art book, Just Love.

A passionate love advocate, Scott is a compassionate and soulful storyteller, unafraid to dive deep into the human experience. Through his books, talks, personal empowerment workshops, and sub stack newsletter, Scott invites us to choose love even in the darkest times. to fully embrace our messy, beautiful selves.

He’s not just a teacher. He’s a fellow traveler navigating the hard, sacred work of being human. Please join me in welcoming Scott. Hi, Scott.

Scott: Hi [00:02:00] Gissele.

Gissele: I’m so

excited to have this chat, it feels like if we’re just living in such a divided world, it feels like we’re almost living in two separate worlds of people that are wanting to love and have compassion.

And then this other group that is maybe struggling with that. And it feels like we’re more divided than ever. I was wondering if you could start by telling the audience how you got into the work of love.

Scott: How did

I get into the work of love? I mean, I would say the most Honest answer is I was in a cult in the in the Bay Area in the 90s.

In my early 20s, I got involved with a spiritual teacher and a spiritual community. And the, you know, the teachings from my former guru were, you know, love, unconditional love, unconditional friendship. It didn’t end up turning out that [00:03:00] way when, I mean, it ended in a very dark way, which I won’t go into right now.

But when I reflect back on those times, I was really consumed with enlightenment in the possibility of becoming enlightened. That’s what I cared about the most. And what I saw as the path to enlightenment was love. and compassion and forgiveness and all of these beautiful energies that we know when we’re engaging with those energies we feel so much better.

And what I came to discover when I decided that I didn’t want to be a part of this community anymore and that when I was going to let go of chasing enlightenment, when I realized it’s not something that I could achieve, that’s not how enlightenment works. That I still felt called to be as loving as possible and as compassionate as possible.

Nothing, nothing changed about me other than my drive to become enlightened, which only created for me a lot of suffering and misery, [00:04:00] honestly. And when I could let go of that, I was abl

Ep.63- Choosing Love in a Time of Great Division with Scott Stabile

Transcript

[00:00:00]

Gissele: Hello and welcome to the love and compassion podcast with Gissele.

We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our worlds. Don’t forget to like, and subscribe for more amazing content. we’re doing an amazing documentary called the courage to love. Focusing on sharing stories of those who have chosen to do the unthinkable, loving and forgiving those who are the most hurtful through their stories, we will find out what the impact of forgiving and caring for our opponents is for those doing the forgiving.

And for those who were forgiven, we’ll also hear from experts about whether it is in our nature to love and to come together with those with whom we disagree. We’ll be doing fundraising in March with lots of amazing perks. If you’re interested in the documentary, you want to nominate someone or support us financially,

Please look out for the information coming out in March. On today’s podcast, we’ll be talking about [00:01:00] punishment free parenting. Our guest today is Rebecca Wolf. She is author of the book, The Gift of a Punishment Free Childhood. She is a parenting mentor, educator, and mother. She supports parents through mentoring and workshops and navigating their parenting journeys.

Using punishment free practices, however, her most important work was raising her own children without punishment. Her extensive personal experiences, contribute to her ability to guide others on their parenting journeys. Rebecca is a certified parenting educator for the redirecting children’s behavior program.

and has conducted extensive research on how punishment impacts children’s behavior. Rebecca has a Ph. D. from the University of Northern Colorado in education and has been a lifelong teacher and learner. Please join me in welcoming Rebecca. Hi, Rebecca. [00:02:00] Hello.

Rebecca: Thank you,

Gissele: Giselle. As I was saying to you before, I love your book.

Absolutely love it. I wish I had found this book earlier in my parenting experience. Because I feel like my husband and I really had to struggle to learn by making lots of mistakes with our kids.

So I wish we had found your book. And so I was strongly encouraging my listeners, especially who are starting out in the parenting journey, or even if they have kids today, because you talk about teens to get it. Can you tell the audience a little bit about how you decided to go punishment free?

Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely. So, as you shared in my biography, I was trained to work for the Redirecting Children’s Behavior Parenting Workshops. And in that work, it, it, There still was punishment included, but it really started to emphasize the idea of redirecting right rather than punishing. Let’s [00:03:00] redirect.

And so I had kind of this solid foundation. And but what I’ll share is that it was really when I started thinking about some of the crises that we’re seeing. In the world now. I live in Colorado. And so the Columbine high school shooting that happened back in 1999 was pretty impactful for me. I spent a lot of time thinking about that, thinking about that family, those parents you know, the parents on both sides, the parents of the shooters, the parents of those who lost their lives that day.

And there are many, many factors that go into a situation like that.

But

Rebecca: it was clear that the reason those two boys walked into that high school was to punish their classmates. And so I’m like, why do we think that that is the solution? And if you think about it, it’s because that’s what most, most children, it’s how they are.

It’s the relationship

Ep.62- The Gift of a Punishment-Free Childhood with Dr. Rebecca Woulfe

Transcript

Gissele: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Love and Compassion podcast with Giselle. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world.

Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. Today we’re going to be talking about the power of intimacy and connection. And our guest today is Lyuba Benablo. And she’s a highly trained sex and relationship coach, passionate about helping men discover what women truly crave for within intimate connections.

Having led countless women only pleasure retreats, Luba has gained a vast understanding of women’s needs to feel deeply fulfilled. And with this, she identified a calling that speaks to her, guiding men towards becoming the most impactful and authentic lovers. They can be Lyuba’s authentic lovers for men program empowers men to explore the depths of intimacy, the specific needs that women struggle [00:01:00] to openly express known for her approachable style and real world insights.

Lyuba practices, everything she teaches.

Embodying the lessons she shares with her clients. Please join me in welcoming Lyuba.

Lyuba: Hi Giselle. How are you? I am, I’m so good. I just, I just had a session with a young couple. Like in their 20s and I, I just turned 41 and you know, I feel like I’m this like an older, wiser woman who is just like teaching them about how to be closer, how to have fun in their relationship.

So my heart is full. I, I love doing what I do.

Gissele: Oh, that is so amazing. And you know, like kudos to them for actually looking to explore that so that they can get that greater intimacy. So that’s amazing.

Where did you get started in

this work? Can you [00:02:00] share?

Lyuba: Yeah, so I, I started, I started when COVID started, so that’s, that’s my starting point.

Okay, okay, nice. And, and, and that was the time when I used to work in software industry. When I moved to United States, my first company was Google. So, I was like out there. Wow. Go on. Yeah. And then I was taking these like a weekend training where we were like really feeling inside looking inside. And there was this like, like a calling that I want to work with people like on intimacy, sexuality.

I want to help people to connect. And that was just like, okay, I have to do it. And I started as COVID started, you know, couldn’t wait longer.

Gissele: Oh, that’s so funny. That’s incredible. Having been a coach for a little while, what do you, what do you think the biggest mistake is that women and men make around intimacy?

Lyuba: [00:03:00] Oh, yeah. The biggest, you know, it’s like no one teaches us. That’s, that’s the first thing to start that in our families, for most of us, it’s not modeled. The intimacy is not modeled. Right. And then schools don’t teach us. And so how are we supposed to know? So we enter relationships that we don’t know how to create intimacy.

I feel like I experienced my first intimacy, like being close with another person when I was 30. So it’s just like, I didn’t have it as a little kid, you know? And I just, I remember I, I cried the whole weekend because it felt so good. And I was so sad that. I haven’t had it in my life, right, that so that I haven’t experienced it earlier in my life that I was missing it and craving it.

Gissele: Yeah, it’s so funny. Absolutely. I mean, I was thinking about my own family in my own family. Like, sex was a no talk. Like, it was [00:04:00] like, you don’t mention that you don’t talk about pleasure. You certainly don’t talk about intimacy. And I would say tha

Ep.61- Creating True Intimacy with Lyuba Venable

Gissele:

Hello, and welcome to the Love and Compassion podcast with Gissele. . We believe that loving compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Today, we’ll be talking about dealing with grief. With compassion.

Today’s guest is Dr. Jan Schwartz. Who is the president of forensic fraud research Inc. She is a fellow of the American psychological association. Fellow of the American academy of forensic sciences. And this is a certified Homeland protection professional. With the national Sheriff’s association. Her book last summer with Oscar. He came an international bestseller on amazon.com. Her new book. Authentic intelligence. How do you use your emotional, mental, and spiritual gifts to create the life and world you want is bound to gain the same recognition and accolades. Please join me in welcoming Jan. Hi, Jan.

Jan: Good morning, Gissele. A warm hello to you and to all of your listeners.

Gissele: Thank you. Thank you so much. I just want to start by sharing a little bit about how I sort of ended up finding your story. In particular, I was going through my own journey of my own dog having seizures. And there was a couple of times where my dog, we thought we’re going to lose him. Just because the seizures were really, really bad. And I kind of resigned myself to his, you know, eventual passing. Just because of how bad the seizures had gotten. But then I set the intention for something that would help me not only ease his passing, but actually restore him to the level of wellness that I knew he could get to. But I didn’t know how. And so very interestingly, I didn’t even know how you and I kind of connected, but we started chatting about your book, authentic intelligence. Um, and through conversation, it came out that you had written this other book called last summer with Oscar. And when you look at your credentials, it’s amazing that somebody who is so involved in fraud would end up sort of in this kind of journey that is more spiritual. So wanted to start the podcast by letting the audience know. A little bit about, um, what actually led you to write last summer with Oscar and how did perhaps your perspective shift from focusing on forensic fraud to maybe opening up to there being something else?

Jan: My husband and I returned home from a vacation a holiday. And when we went to pick up the dogs from this wonderful kennel, they said to me, Jan, we’re so sorry, but Oscar didn’t eat. And I was very concerned, wondering why they hadn’t contacted us and these kinds of things.

But rather than focusing on that, I immediately drew my attention to Oscar and his eyes flashed at me with fear when he leaped out [00:03:00] of the kennel and I put them into the car. Needless to say, the next day my husband and I were at the vet and the vet was disturbed by the dramatic weight loss because Oscar was not able to eat.

And my husband is a retired surgeon so he was there examining the x rays and saw that cancer was, had taken over Oscar’s body and came out to tell me with the vet that things Didn’t look good. Well, this was I was devastated. I was just overwhelmed with sorrow and grief. And the immediate thought is.

What can we do to help him? And the vet said, well, he will die because he won’t be able to eat the kind of cancer he has. This is the challenge. They don’t feel like eating and there is great depression with it. So he said there’s chemotherapy, but we [00:04:00] had heard many times from others that had faced a similar diagnosis.

And in this case, it, it the likelihood of it being hemangiosarcoma, which is the worst kind of cancer. One that. A dog can be perfectly healthy one minute and then it just, it’s such a fast spreading cancer, it just becomes a pervasive

Ep.60- Dealing with grief with compassion.  A journey of loss and miracles

Transcript

[00:00:00]

Jessica Campbell: Hello and welcome to the love and compassion with Gissele. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Don’t forget to like, and subscribe for more amazing content today. I have my most beloved sister, Jessica Campbell, talking about weight loss and compassion.

Gissele Taraba: Jessica Campbell started her journey when she was 45 weighing 270 pounds. She’s lost over a hundred pounds and decided to create a YouTube channel, where she could engage in dialogue about weight loss. Weight related disease education and how to achieve weight loss in an affordable way that honors a person’s way of living.

And I would also say compassionately too. And this was really about her journey and figuring out how to live a balanced life. So today we’re going to be talking about weight loss, compassion, maybe Bridgerton and relationships. Please join me in welcoming Jessica Campbell. Hi [00:01:00] Jessica.

Jessica Campbell: Hello Giselle. Thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate this.

Gissele Taraba: Oh, no worries. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I mean, we’ve been talking a little bit about working together. And I knew that you were the person that I wanted to have a conversation, especially about weight loss and compassion, having gone through your own weight loss journey.

And also, you know, some of my listeners might not know. That you are one of the first people that really taught me about compassion. We were both very young and you would talk to me about how to look at people beyond the good or bad. And how to look at my relationships with, you know, our parents and other people in a very, very kind way.

And so I am forever grateful and thought you would be the perfect. Person for this conversation. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about how your weight loss journey kind of began? You know, like the path to get there? And then maybe some of the most important things you’ve learned from that journey.

Jessica Campbell: Absolutely. So the first thing [00:02:00] was that I was going through a lot of existential maybe questions at the time where I had already had the kids. I was trying to find a place in terms of What, what I could do after because my whole world where my kids my husband at the time but I didn’t feel that I had purpose, but there was an addendum to that.

The addendum was that every day I would get up. I would feel weighted back. In weighted by the weight, weighted by the fact that I couldn’t breathe. And the fact that the, the weight was weighing so heavily upon me that I couldn’t even I couldn’t work. I became, less and less active and engaged in my life.

Now, the precipice to that is the fact that you go into your doctor’s appointment and your doctor says, well, you’re [00:03:00] pre-diabetic, you also have high blood pressure. Mm-Hmm, . And and they weigh you obviously. And that’s, you know that the observable weight was 270 pounds. Now that I did not act.

Right away, so I think I was actually a little bit heavier, but I mean, it’s neither here nor there the weight is wasn’t what was the issue was the fact that all my,health was going. Going on a downhill spiral, so I decided to take care of my health and this is actually pre. My separation, my divorce, It was, I think that the, the problem with any journey is that, you know, everyone has to, there’s the old you, or there’s the you that’s existing at that time and the, and the vision you [00:04:00] are not necessarily aligned at that time. They’re just 2 different ideas. And because there are two different ideas that you have to buy into it

Ep.59- Transforming our bodies with compassion, a weight loss journey with Jessica Campbell

Transcript

Gissele: [00:00:00]

 Hello and welcome to the love and compassion podcast with Giselle. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives in our world. Don’t forget to like subscribe for more amazing content today. We’ll be talking about how mindfulness can actually positively impact a culture.

I’ll be speaking to Ashley Williams voted top 40 under 40 by styled weekly enrichments, magazines, daring women of 2018. Ashley is a certified yoga specialist. A creator of mindfulness plus movement, RVA implementing therapeutic interventions, programs and professional development training that combines social emotional learning, mindfulness and movement.

She’s also founder of bare soul yoga and wellness in Richmond, Virginia, intentionally created to make yoga and wellness accessible to the black community, but welcomes all communities. Please join me in welcoming [00:01:00] Ashley. Hi, Ashley. Hi

Ashley: Giselle. How are you? I am well. it’s, it’s, So beautiful outside.

I’ve been like bird watching as I like move from one place to the next and like all the different environments So I’m excited to like sit down in this moment and just take in taking this conversation and the house that I’m sitting in.

Gissele: Beautiful, beautiful.

And I think that goes to show like about the embodiment. So you not only teach the stuff you live it, right? Can you tell the audience a little bit about how it is that you got started in this work?

Ashley: Yeah. So my mindfulness journey, or I would dare to say, my, my love for being present in the moment and all the ways that one may maybe lead to it started for me in 2000 and 12, when I.

Really just kind of within a big transition of my life from, you know, collegiate life [00:02:00] to work, professional work life to moving new locations and really experiencing a lot of the transitions and the feelings and the sensations that came with transition. So moving in the ebbs and flows of daily life, moving in and out of feelings of like anxiousness, but then also moving in and out of feelings of connection and disconnection.

And I ended up having. A loss that of one of my aunts that was really dear to me. And on top of all of the sensations that were coming from the transitions that was another transition that really that created a lot of disconnection and a lot of heavy emotion. And so I found myself first at a yoga studio and in a class and moving my body.

And I just remember feeling that. Moment of connection with all of the sensations that I was experiencing. So all of the. The, the pain that I was experiencing, the sorrow, [00:03:00] a lot of the loss and the grief that I was experiencing I had a moment to actually feel it because for a moment I had withdrawn from it.

And that was also not a good feeling. And there was something about being present in the moment with my body. With my mind with the emotions of my heart that kept me coming back and from then it went from, you know, that, that yoga asana, that movement based practice to really diving deep into the study and the science of mindfulness.

And understanding, you know, MBSR, so Mindful Based Stress Reduction, and literally practicing it every day in my world. From the brushing of my teeth to the sipping of my coffee to mindful communication when I was around others. And then from there, honestly, it’s just really snowballed into.

Wanting to know more and getting curious about myself through the practices, wanting to dive deep and study the practices, wanting to then [00:04:00] share the practices and also not just, you know, the formal practices, but then also the benefits of, of being in relationship with these, like w

Ep. 58- Returning to Ourselves through Mindfulness with Ashley Williams

Love and Compassion Podcast-Where Gissele talks with everyday exceptional people
who have overcome adversities and have wisdom to share.

Gissele Taraba

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