Ed Cohen | Exploring the Path to Healing and Transformation | K&C 25

Are you looking for a fresh perspective on healthcare and healing? In this episode, we delve into the historical shift in medicine’s focus, from healing as the primary goal to the modern emphasis on diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and billing. Dr. Cohen argues that true healing is a biological phenomenon inherent in all living organisms, emphasizing the importance of supporting individuals in enhancing their overall well-being.

The distinction between healing and curing is a central theme, highlighting the transformative power of embracing life’s journey, scars, challenges, and all. Dr. Cohen challenges the traditional definition of healing and discusses the limitations of the current healthcare system, particularly regarding access to care and the financial burdens it imposes. Tune in and discover a new way of approaching your own well-being.

Meet Ed Cohen

At thirteen, Ed Cohen was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease—a chronic, incurable condition that nearly killed him in his early twenties. At his diagnosis, his doctors told him that the best he could hope for was periods of remission. Unfortunately, they did not mention healing as a possibility.

In his book, On Learning to Heal, Cohen draws on fifty years of living with Crohn’s to consider how Western medical practices turn from an “art of healing” toward a “science of medicine” deeply affects both medical practitioners and their patients. He demonstrates that although medical sciences provide many seemingly miraculous therapies, it is not solely the way to enhance healing. Exploring his own path to healing, he argues that learning to heal requires us to desire and value healing as a vital possibility.

As a therapeutic process, Ed’s practice, Healing Counsel, encourages us to embrace the potential for healing embedded in even our most traumatic experiences. From his sessions, people can expect to gain clearer insights about the intelligence that illnesses often reveal and to develop strategies for cultivating more healing relations to their “self” and to the world. Healing Counsel seeks to reframe illnesses and other challenges that are thrown our way as invitations for healing, thereby broadening our repertoire for living unconstrained and with greater grace.

His practice emerges from the skills and resources that he has developed while living and thriving with Crohn’s disease. Over the last 40 years or so, this experience has challenged him not just to desire to heal, but also to recognize that healing is a value.

Reclaiming Healing: Journey from Illness to Empowerment

Reclaiming healing as our birthright is a powerful concept that challenges the current approach to healthcare. Dr. Ed Cohen’s journey with Crohn’s disease serves as a poignant example of the limitations of modern medicine and the importance of embracing healing as an integral part of healthcare. Dr. Cohen describes living with a severe form of Crohn’s disease for 10 years, enduring numerous medical interventions and surgeries. However, it was a near-death experience followed by an unexpected healing event that led him to question the path he was on. Faced with the choice between continuing down a medicalized route or exploring a new way of living, Dr. Cohen chose the latter.

Healing Rediscovered: Restoring the Heart of Medicine

Dr. Cohen highlights the historical shift in medicine’s focus from healing to diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and billing. He explains that healing was once considered the primary goal of medicine, with doctors working to support and encourage the body’s natural power to heal. However, as medicine became more scientific and less artistic, healing was marginalized and eventually dropped from the framework of modern medicine. This shift has resulted in a healthcare system that prioritizes symptom management and the eradication of illness rather than supporting individuals in enhancing their overall well-being. Dr. Cohen argues that healing should be seen as a biological phenomenon inherent to all living organisms. It is not something that can be erased or reversed but rather a process of changing and growing in response to illness and life’s challenges.

Healing vs. Curing: Embracing Life’s Journey in Medicine

The distinction between healing and curing is an important one. While curing aims to eliminate illness and return individuals to their pre-illness state, healing recognizes that life is a continuous journey and that experiences of illness shape who we are. Healing focuses on enhancing the quality of life and creating conditions for growth, regardless of the presence of illness. Dr. Cohen acknowledges the vital role of medicine in acute care and life-saving interventions. However, he argues that medicine falls short when it comes to chronic conditions and the complex interplay between individuals and their environment. The individualistic and reductionistic framework of modern medicine fails to address the broader social, psychological, and environmental factors that contribute to illness and well-being.

Reimagining Health and Embracing Life’s Journey

Dr. Cohen discusses the limitations of the current healthcare system, particularly in relation to the lack of universal healthcare and the financial burdens placed on individuals seeking medical treatment. He emphasizes that true healing goes beyond simply treating physical ailments; it involves addressing the structural and administrative problems that impair people’s access to healthcare and leave them burdened with debt. Furthermore, Dr. Cohen challenges the traditional definition of healing as the absence of disease or ailment. Instead, he proposes that healing is a transformation that accepts the scars and challenges that come with it. He suggests that dying can also be a form of healing, as it is a natural part of life that everyone will eventually go through. He shares personal experiences of witnessing individuals find healing in the process of dying, highlighting the complexity and depth of the healing journey.

Resources Mentioned

Patreon
Kindness & Compassion on Instagram
Ed’s Website
Ed on Instagram
Ed on LinkedIn
Ed on Twitter

Transcript

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Gordon Brewer
Okay, if you want to do the little blurb Hello, I'm

Ed Cohen
Ed Cohen, founder of healing Council, the therapeutic practice that's designed for people interested in healing, often those with chronic and life threatening illnesses. And today we're going to talk about why healing dropped out of medical discourse and medical training, and trying to understand how we can reclaim this birthright which all of us have access to, and we can enhance if we desire and value. Awesome.

Gordon Brewer
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome again to the podcasts. And I'm so glad for you to get to know today. Dr. Ed Cohen. Hi, Ed, welcome. Hello.

Ed Cohen
Thank you. Yes, yeah. So

Gordon Brewer
as I start with most everyone, tell folks a little bit about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed?

Ed Cohen
Well, I, I'm a professor at Rutgers University, and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. But that's sort of beside the point of what I'm doing here today. My story here has to do with the fact that I've had Crohn's disease for over 50 years. And for the first 10 years of that experience, I was very acutely ill. And under high doses of immune suppressing drugs during adolescence, which I now refer to as my adolescence on steroids. And then when I was in my early 20s, I almost died. I had one of those out of body near death things. And, but I didn't, luckily, I was in Stanford University Hospital at the time. So fortunately, I had excellent medical care. But when I came back to myself in the ICU, something new started to happen, which was that I started spontaneously going into trances which nothing in my life had ever prepared before, as I like to tell people, you know, my mother was a communist, my father was a physical chemist, they were both Jewish atheists, and my family matter was all that mattered. And yet there I was, you know, obviously, on a lot of drugs, but going into these trances, and which I could somehow take this light and wrap it around the parts of my abdomen that had been or, you know, my various organs that have been taken out, and, and sort of pack them with light, just thought I was doing pain management, it seemed to kind of work that way. And then I was able to just drop into another kind of space, that was not the hospital, which, if you've ever spent a lot of time in hospitals, you know, you'd rather not be there. And, and, yeah, it seemed to do something. I mean, I didn't really think much about it. But you know, I had no intention. It wasn't, you know, something that I called upon, it just sort of happened. And then, a couple of months later, when I finally left the hospital, I had an exit interview with my surgeon. And he said, This thing to me that just sort of seared itself into my brain. He said, You were the sickest person who I've operated on in five years, who's still alive. And I have no idea how you got better so quickly. And that was shocking, both because it broke through my denial, I hadn't really been focusing on the fact that I almost died. And also, but it was really the first time a doctor said I don't know and what he said that he didn't know. It's like, how I had gotten better. And that made me wonder, why had I never heard any of my doctors ever mentioned the idea of healing before? Like, why was healing not something that, you know, was part of the way that they explained? Illness? I mean, when I am diagnosed at the age of 13, with Crohn's disease, in case people don't know, Crohn's is a an inflammatory bowel disease that can affect the entire digestive tract from the mouth to the anus, and I had huge inflammation in my small bowel. And when they finally you know, came in it with the team. I was in the teaching hospital. And so there's always a team of young doctors eager to tell you about, you know, what you've got. And I always think of it as like, it was the reveal, like on HGTV, you know, it's like, Oh, here you go. Here's your thing. They so they say, Well, we think you have Crohn's disease, and it's a autoimmune illness. And, you know, I was 13 I had pretty big vocabulary, but you know, autoimmunity was not one of my basic words. And so then they tried to explain it to me And they said, well, it's like you're allergic to yourself. Not so helpful. And then they said, it's like part of yourself as rejecting itself. Again, not really clear. And then finally they said, Oh, well, it's like you're eating yourself alive. Okay, now that I could understand. But that is not something anyone should ever tell anyone, especially known as your old who's really very ill. And then they went on to tell me that it was incurable. That Crohn's disease, like there are now 80 to 100 illnesses that are considered to have autoimmune etiology is for which not none, there are no cures for any of them. They are all treated pretty much in the same way, which are recent medical review article characterized as the sledgehammer of immunosuppression. So you know, basically, I started taking massive doses of prednisone, which again, if you've ever been on prednisone is a very powerful, very life saving drug, but has a lot of secondary side effects, some of which are psychological, anxiety, depression, mood swings, in addition to all of the physiological ones, weight gain, Kushite, face skin thinning, bone thinning, cataracts, all of it, and I had all of the above. But nobody seemed to think it was anything. Because I was an adolescent. And they just were like, Yeah, your mood swings. You're you're a teenager. Yeah. At one point, I actually asked my father, and, you know, could I go to therapy, I was like, send me to therapy sent me to therapy, because I knew something was wrong. And my father said, you've seen too many Woody Allen movies. And that was the end of therapy. So So basically, I lived with this illness, you know, a very acute form of it for 10 years, I had a near death experience, I had a radical, completely unexpected healing event. And then I had this realization, which was like, okay, I can either keep going through this process that I've been going through, which would likely, you know, require, you know, incredible medicalization, and, you know, perhaps more surgeries, because that is one of the things that happens, or I can try to learn some new way to live was like, very stark choice. And I was like, I think I'll try that. And, by just, I don't know, by virtue of making that decision, suddenly, all of these different teachers who I've never would have had any connection to or inclination towards, began to appear in my life, and they were amazing. I mean, just really amazing. So, you know, for the last 40 years, basically, I've been focused on on the first learning to heal so my book that is called on learning to heal, basically, it chronicles my learning curve. It explains the first 10 years of incredible medicalization, in which healing was not even offered. To me. Or to anyone. I mean, healing is not part of what modern medicine does it for more than 2000 years healing was medicines raison d'etre. It was referred to as the Viessmann, Atrix Natori, the natural power of healing and what doctors tried to do was to support it and encourage it. That's what Hippocratic medicine does. But beginning at the end of the 19th century, when medicine tried to become more like a science and less like an art, healing dropped out. And so now, medicine, as we understand it, basically is focused on while diagnosis, which has always been the trademark of medicine since 500, BCE. Treatment, prognosis and billing, those are the basic parameters for medical care, but not healing. Like, yeah, so yeah, so what I'm trying to do is to reclaim healing as our birthright, it's every living organism since the first cell that sprang into existence has had the capacity to heal. It's a biological phenomenon, without which none of us will be alive. And yet, we take it for granted.

Gordon Brewer
Right, right. Yeah. That's amazing, amazing story. I really appreciate you sharing that. That's yeah, so As we think about the difference between the approach medicine takes now. And the difference between that and healing, can you? Can you flesh that out for us a little more?

Ed Cohen
Yes, absolutely. So I make a distinction between So firstly, I just want to emphasize, in no way do I am I trying to disrespect medicine, I would have died on a number of occasions, without mess, and I'm very happy to be here to be, you know, a success story, a poster child for you know, the things that medicine can do. Be that as it may be that there's also things that medicine could do that it doesn't do, that it's lost track of in a certain way. And so the difference between healing and curing, I like to say is healing doesn't imagine that we can erase our experiences of illness to go back to the way we were, before we got ill. I mean, in life, there is no going back. Healing represents our vital capacity as living organisms to enhance the quality of our lives, and the conditions in which we live them, whatever they may be. So it's about changing and growing. And medicine is about it. In western medicine in particular, I mean, that's what medicines is, there are other kinds of therapeutic practices, but it's really good if you're acutely ill, if you're acutely, Ill get yourself to a doctor. But especially for now, for the many, many chronic conditions that people experience, all of the autoimmune illnesses, cancers, lung COVID, you know, medicine is not equipped to do that, in part because of the frameworks that its knowledge practice is based on which are a highly individualistic, and have like this kind of assumption, that what we are as living organisms is sort of bounded by a skin envelope, and that we are these little, you know, bubbles of life that are separated from everything else. And, and that, you know, that the environment, our relationship to the environment, meaning not just the physical environment, but our social environment, our psychological environment, our spiritual environment, and literally our environment right now, like, the biosphere, like, let's face it, the planet needs healing right now. And, I mean, there's so much that needs healing, that our cultures need healing, our nations need healing, you know, our rivers need healing our oceans need healing, I mean, so, you know, what I like to suggest is that, you know, partly, you know, because of its desire to incorporate the knowledge that the new techniques of, of bioscience, in the course of the 20th century, have come up with, which are remarkable or are absolutely, you know, until the 21st century, and the things that can be done now are seemingly miraculous. And yet, the ethos is not one that is about supporting and encouraging the our capacity to live better, it's about keeping us alive. And you know, that's a good baseline. But, I mean, that seems like setting the bar kind of low. And we don't even do that super well, given that, you know, we don't have universal health care, you know, and so many people's, you know, health care is impaired by all different kinds of structural and administrative problems, you know, not to mention financial problems, not to mention, you know, the amounts of debt that people are in because they've received medical treatment, I would say, none of that is healing techniques might have saved your life. But if you end up with hundreds of $1,000 in debt, that is not a healing context

Gordon Brewer
is. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's, you know, I was just sitting here, thinking, as you were explaining that, you know, thinking about what is the definition of healing, in terms of, you know, what, what does that mean for somebody to be healed? You know, I guess initially, I think, you know, well, they're no longer they no longer have a disease or they no longer have an ailment or they no longer have those things. But what you're saying is, is really more about a transformation in a way that accepts the scars that come with it.

Ed Cohen
Yeah, no, absolutely. And Moreover, sometimes dying is healing. You know, I mean, the thing is that, you know, and again, you know, no disrespect to medicine, but you know, medicine, it's anti deaths, as if we all weren't going to die, you know. So when I tried to say that healing is about growing and changing, that includes dying, dying is a kind of changing that we will all go through. And, you know, I mean, I personally have, you know, in my, you know, like, with my father or with my friends, I mean, I've been with people for whom dying has been incredibly healing, you know, so, I mean, I'm not promoting dying as the best way of healing, but I'm just saying, yeah, it's

Gordon Brewer
perfect sense. Yeah.

Ed Cohen
I mean, you know, and you often hear, like, you know, you hear people say, getting cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me, or, you know, that, like, there are opportunities that get presented to us as obstacles, you know, and the question is, you know, and this would be a healing orientation, rather than approaching an obstacle as an affliction, or, you know, as an indication of some, you know, kind of deficiency or, you know, the question would be, well, how can I learn to grow? And to be more who I am through this process? Because it's all life? Yeah. It's all life. Yeah, the question is, in this life, how can we become more expansive, more graceful, you know, more loving, more compassionate, you know, you know, how you know, or whatever the qualities are, that are important to you in this life? I don't know what emotions choices are. But but, you know, these things that often seem to come at us, you know, like that my book is called on learning to heal or what medicine doesn't know. But it was, originally, I wanted to call it Shit happens. The publisher wouldn't let me. But that such shit happens all the time. Right? Yeah. And those are the moments at which we have to pause and become aware of like, well, what is going on? Right now, I can't take this for granted anymore. I mean, much of the time, you know, many people operate just on kind of autopilot, you know, I mean, and, you know, which is no disrespect to me, you know, just subsistence living for many people, you know, that just takes up all of your time and all of your energy and, you know, creating a life for yourself and your family and your community. I mean, that's a lot of work. So, you know, we get we have these habituated ways of being in the world. And weirdly, illness is one of the ways that we are offered the opportunity to stop and to think about, well, what are these values that we assume are self evident? Like if we can't do certain things anymore? Or who are we are? Have we lost ourselves? Or is this the possibility that we can become something more than we were before? And you know, that I'm in and I speak about that, from my experience. I mean, I mean, I'm not advocating people have Crohn's, I'm not advocating people beyond immunosuppressant drugs for 10 years, I'm not advocating people who have near death experiences, bleed out, and you know, horrible things happen to them, none of that I would have chosen let me tell you, however, retrospectively, I can tell you that that was the most amazing, you know, impetus to changing that could have happened. And, you know, and it really, as I was saying, given my background, it just like, there was nothing in my background that prepared me to move in the direction that I then have been moving in for the last 40 years. So, you know, so as I like to suggest, you know, holding the capacity of healing, which we all have, you know, allows us to kind of entertain the possibility to act as if these things that we see as afflictions might also be opportunities, which isn't to say they're not painful, or difficult, or we would rather not have them, but they're there.

Gordon Brewer
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, as you are, as you were talking yet I was. I was reminded of Victor Frankel's book, Man's Search for Meaning. And just Thinking about the the horrific things that he went through in the German concentration camps and how he came out of that, in many ways, and these aren't his words, but he came out of that more hole into some degree. And that he found, he found meaning and what happened to them. And so it was like he had a better the transformation was a new, it was a different understanding of him, self and others through that through that whole experience. And I think that's kind of what I hear you saying is is that, you know, is your right shit happens, life happens. And we're all going to be faced with adversity as we're, as we're recording this, we I've, and I've shared this with a little bit on the podcast, my wife is now in hospice care. And so seeing the all of that transformation, and all of that sort of thing, and like, like you've mentioned, you know, went through my father's death, and just all of those, all of those things that are not, are not fun things they suck. It's terrible stuff for anybody to go through. But you're right, I think there is so much healing that can come from that. And then it causes us to be transformed in a way that's, it's really hard to put words to.

Ed Cohen
Absolutely. Well, yes, absolutely. I definitely have had many of those experiences. Where and, and that's sort of, I mean, ironically, I mean, I guess maybe one of the joys of being alive, is surprising yourself at who you can become that until we have these opportunities, let's call them, you know, there are aspects of ourselves that remain unrealized. And they're huge resources. And, you know, for whatever reason, you know, crisis happens to be one of our preferred ways of, of addressing change. I mean, it's not the only way, it's certainly not the most graceful way, it's certainly not the most pleasant way. And nonetheless, it is a common way, you know, both at the level of for individuals and collectives, and right now, the whole world, you know, and to be able to be like, Oh, yes, I've been assuming I, I, or we are what you know, are like this. But turns out that there was something else there all the time, that I didn't have to pay attention to, because the circumstances that I was living in, didn't ask of me to question myself in such a way that I could find these aspects of who I am, that actually are quite wonderful, you know, that, you know, have great capacity capacities to help me and others learn to live otherwise, you know, and, you know, and if, you know, if we think that living otherwise might be something that we're interested in doing, because, you know, obviously, not everyone is, I mean, some people, I mean, there are a lot of people in our country who just want to go back to some thing. Before which, you know, as I like to say, there's, as I said before, there's no going back, going back, but if you're in that frame of mind, then this is not going to appeal to you. I mean, many people are, like, Doctor fix it, you know, like, like, as if it's like, you're taking your car to a mechanic, you know, like, do the, you know, it's like, if, if that's your orientation, you know, I'm, that's you, I can't do anything. And I'm here to say, that's not the only way to be.

Gordon Brewer
Yeah, well, and I've got to be respectful of your time. And this has been a wonderful conversation. tell folks how they can get in touch with you and find out more about your book and that's where

Ed Cohen
so if people are interested, my website is called Healing counsel.com and it has a lot of information about my practice and my life and where I come from, and you can get my books through my website. The most recent book is called on learning to heal or what medicine doesn't know it's available also on that Amazon are blindly at bookstores, near you, and I'm happy to be in touch on my website, healing council.com There's a contact page, if you want to be in touch, send me an email, and I'd be happy to talk to you.

Gordon Brewer
Awesome, awesome. And we'll have links here in the show notes and shares summary for people to get to that easily. Yeah, I'd love to spend more time talking with you just around this whole topic, because I think it's Yeah, I think it's, it's, yeah, I think, if when when someone can grasp this concept of healing, and and I've heard it put, usually, I think of this whole concept in terms of kind of a spiritual realm to some degree. And, you know, I think people follow that path in their own way in their own, you know, in their own meaning. But I think you've really hit on something that I think the more ways we can communicate this, which you've done through your book, I think the easier it is for people to grasp it.

Ed Cohen
Well, I hope so that's certainly a would be a really, that would be a really great thing. You know, that I feel like I could have contributed if, right,

Gordon Brewer
well, thanks. Well, thanks, Anna. Hopefully, we'll have another conversation here saying,

Ed Cohen
Oh, that'd be lovely. And good luck to you. And you know, I hope that your wife's transformation is as graceful and loving as possible.

Gordon Brewer
Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that.

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About

L. Gordon Brewer Jr., LMFT |Podcast Host – Gordon has spent his career in helping professions as a licensed therapist, counselor, trainer, and clergy person. He has worked with 100’s of people in teaching them the how to better manage their emotions through self-care and the practices of kindness and compassion. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook . And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.

June 25, 2023June 25, 2023

Blake Roberts | Curiosity Over Criticism In Our Lives | K&C 24

Get to know fellow therapist Blake Roberts as he shares his insights on mental health, overcoming fear, and cultivating curiosity and compassion. Blake shares his vision of building a community for men struggling with internal issues. He emphasizes the importance of creating a safe space where men can share their experiences and support each other. Plus, we chat about discovering the power of compassion and curiosity in healing past wounds. This episode reminds us that we all need a community to lean on during difficult times.

Meet Blake Roberts, LMFT

Blake is a therapist in private practice in Nashville, TN where he lives with his wife. Blake is also a writer, photographer, drummer, former college football player, the Enneagram says he’s a 9, and most importantly he’s a girl Dad – expecting their first baby in July.

He works mostly with men in his practice guiding them through trauma, unwanted behaviors, relational issues, spiritual abuse, and more. He helps engage the nuances and complexities of their stories to find beauty, meaning, and growth.

Cultivating Curiosity and Compassion: A Path to Well-Being

One of the main themes in this podcast is the importance of approaching oneself and others with curiosity and compassion. He emphasizes that to be kind and compassionate towards others, one must first learn to be kind and compassionate to oneself. This means being aware of one’s own inner dialogue and being able to extend kindness and compassion towards the parts of oneself that are despised or ashamed of.

Breaking the Silence: Men and Trauma

Blake also notes that trauma can impact individuals in various ways and that creating a safe and non-judgmental space for men to explore their feelings and experiences is essential. He encourages men to get curious about their emotions and to be with them in a kind and compassionate way. This approach allows men to gain new narratives and not just continue to push through and try to change their behaviors.

Furthermore, Blake’s approach to helping men heal from trauma is systemic, as he views individuals as impacted by their family system, directly and indirectly. He allows men to connect the dots between what is going wrong in their lives and their narratives around why these things are happening. By exploring these stories with curiosity and compassion, men can gain new insights and perspectives on their experiences.

Taming Your Emotions: A Guide to Using Language to Your Advantage

Blake emphasizes the importance of having language around our emotions and experiences to understand better and communicate them. He notes that if we don’t have language around what we’re feeling, it’s hard to communicate it, and we may only be able to express a sliver of what we’re experiencing; this can lead to anger, resentment, or frustration, which may not accurately reflect what’s happening inside us.

Blake notes that emotions and trauma are stored in our bodies, and our brains try to make sense of them with the knowledge that we have. We can better understand and process our emotions by learning to name and identify them. However, if we have the language to understand and communicate these experiences, we may be able to make sense of them and may even lock them away. This is especially true for men, who may have grown up in environments where emotions were not discussed or were seen as weak.

Don’t React, Respond: Stay Calm and In Control When Threatened

Men need to respond rather than react to threats. Our brains are wired to respond to perceived threats in a fight, flight, or freeze response, but this response is often inappropriate for the situation at hand. Our brains can’t distinguish between a bear and a deadline, meaning that we may react to non-life-threatening situations as if they are life-threatening.

Learning to respond rather than react requires mindfulness and self-awareness. We must learn to identify when we are reacting out of fear or anger and take a step back to evaluate the situation and our options. One helpful tool is to ask ourselves if the situation threatens our life or our lifestyle. We can approach it with a more measured response if it is merely a threat to our lifestyle.

Find out more about Blake’s work:

Website: https://www.blakerobertscounseling.com

Newsletter: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/61bfc41a14ec6db2d2b5341b

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blake.the.counselor/

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April 24, 2023April 25, 2023

Pavel Ythjall | The Power of Kindness Through Being Present | K&C 22

In this episode, host Gordon has a conversation with Pavel Ythjall as he tells his story about the miraculous survival of a tragic car accident with his wife. Pavel shares the challenges he and his wife have faced in the seven years since the accident, including his recovery from a broken neck and his wife’s paralysis from the neck down. Pavel’s story is both inspiring and heartbreaking as he discusses the trials and tribulations of their life after the accident. Gordon and Pavel talk about the healing and power that comes from simply being present with people through their pain.

Meet Pavel Ythjall

Pavel Ythjall is one of the top contemporary fitness photographers in America. He came to the United States from Sweden to pursue the American dream. He was well on his way when tragedy struck. Kat was a major in the US Air Force. An American born and raised in Belize, she was an avid fitness enthusiast, marathoner, and triathlete, earning pro status with the International Federation of Bodybuilding. Today, Kat runs a family home command station for Pavel and their four Yorkies, managing her caregivers while taking online classes for a second master’s degree in psychology.

Miracles Come From Unexpected Sources

We often think of miracles as a divine intervention, something that is beyond our understanding and control. But sometimes, miracles come from the most unlikely sources. Take the story of Pavel Ythjall, for example.

Seven years ago, Pavel and his wife were in a tragic car accident. Just one year after they got married, both of them broke their necks. Pavel was lucky enough to be able to get back to life, but his wife remains paralyzed neck down. It was an incredibly difficult time for the couple, filled with trials and tribulations.

However, what was miraculous was who showed up for them. Their families didn’t want to be a part of it, but doctors, friends, and even strangers who heard about their accident on Facebook, came to their aid. This created a whole new family of people who wanted to help them, and it was truly a miracle.

This story is a powerful reminder that miracles can come from unexpected sources. We often think that we have to rely on divine intervention to get us out of difficult situations, but sometimes, the people around us can be the ones to provide us with the help and support we need. It’s important to remember that no matter how difficult life can be, there are always people willing to help us, and that is a true miracle.

Support Each Other in Tough Times

It is not always easy to accept help from strangers, especially when we are struggling with difficult situations. We may feel embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help, or we may not even know who to turn to. But it is important to remember that there are people out there who are willing to offer us their support, and that we should not be afraid to reach out and ask for it.

Pavel emphasizes the importance of being a good caregiver. It is not always easy to take on the role of a caregiver, especially when we are dealing with our own struggles. But it is important to remember that being there for someone in need is one of the most powerful forms of love and support. It takes courage and mental fortitude to be a caregiver, and we should be grateful for those who are willing to do it.

In times of difficulty, it is important to remember that we are never alone. There are always people around us willing to offer their support and help us through. It is important to be open to receiving help and support, and to remember that even strangers can be the source of a miracle. Together, we can help each other through tough times, and that is something to be thankful for.

Finding Meaning In The Midst of Tragedy

Gordon and Pavel also mention Victor Frankl’s book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, which is a powerful reminder that even in the worst of times, we can still find meaning and purpose. Frankl’s story of surviving in a German concentration camp is a testament to the human spirit and its ability to endure.

Pavel’s story is also a reminder that good people still exist, and that even in the midst of tragedy, we can still find meaning and purpose. We can still choose to take our tragedy and use it as a way to help others, and in doing so, we can make a difference in the world.

When tragedy strikes, it can be hard to see the silver lining. But if we look close enough, we can often find the opportunity to make something out of our tragedy.

Pavel’s story is a reminder that even in the midst of tragedy, there are still good people in the world. The people who helped Pavel and Kat through their ordeal are a testament to this. From the therapists who worked with Kat to the people who supported Pavel and Kat emotionally, they all helped to make their journey a little easier. They are a reminder that there are still people in the world who are willing to help others in need, and that is something that we should all be grateful for.

Conclusion

Pavel’s wife, Kat, remains paralyzed from the neck down. Despite this, she was able to use her strength and determination to become a licensed family therapist and work full time for Space Force. Her story is an inspiration to all of us, and it is a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is still hope.

Pavel is still a caregiver to his wife. Pavel realized that his wife had always been an adventurer, and that taking care of her was like a crusade of doing good. He was able to find a way to make his tragedy into an adventure, and it gave him a sense of purpose.

Pavel has worked hard to document their lives together, creating a short, fast-paced, and very emotional documentary. This documentary is now available on Netflix for everyone to watch and gain inspiration from.

In addition to his documentary, Paul has also created TrueLoveTheBook.com, where people can connect with him and learn more about his story. Through his website, Paul offers support and advice to those who are also in the role of caregiver. He is available to connect via email, text, and messaging, and he is always open to talking to other caregivers.

He was able to talk to others about his experience and the book he wrote, True Love and Suffering; A Caretaker’s Memoir of Trauma, Despair, and Other Blessings and also make a documentary, Moment of Impact

Taking care of his wife gave him an opportunity to do something meaningful and help others. Pavel and Kat’s story is an example of how we can make something out of tragedy. It is important to remember that tragedy can bring us closer to others, and that it can even give us an opportunity to do something meaningful. We can choose to take our tragedy and use it as a way to help others, and in doing so, we can find meaning and purpose in our lives.

Transcript

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Well, hello everyone and welcome to the podcast and I'm really excited for you all to get to hear from somebody I've recently become acquainted with. And that's Paval y'all. Paval welcome. Thank you, Gordon. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Happy to share. Yes. Yes. And I, I, I learned about Paval from some fellow podcasters and got to listen to his interview and you've got an amazing story.

Thank you. Yeah, it's an amazing in the sense that well in many different ways, I guess, but both me and my wife are unlucky to, to both, both break our necks. But we were lucky in the sense that we got an enormous amount of, of help and love and the trials and tribulations after these seven years.

I've become sort of my, my passion and purpose now to share with other people and see if we can't get more people help, so to speak. Yes. Yes. And I think This is just a relevant topic for, for any of us going through what we go through in life. And I think you know, I dare, dare I say on the tail end of Covid and, and really people being aware of when life gets hard, you know, how do we help people and how do we, how do we live into the really the power of being present with people?

Yeah, that's a good, it's a good question, Gordon. I don't wanna put, take your podcast down too much. But after our accident what was miraculous in a way was to see who shut up for us. Like we were two strong athletic people in the, in the, in the prime of our lives. But with broken necks, you, you're very vulner liberal both mentally and physically, and both of our families did not show up for us.

So yeah, our blood families that. They just didn't want any part of it for different reasons. Right. But who did show up was doctors friends that heard, heard about our accident on Facebook that had gone through similar things. So it became, we became a whole new family of people that wanted to help.

Just by, by word of mouth. And that was miraculous. Yes. Yes. So maybe a good place for us to start is as I start with most everybody on this podcast is tell us a little more about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed. Wow. Okay. I'm from Sweden and immigrated to America 14 years ago.

Hollywood, you know, America, Hollywood. Mm-hmm. I was a photographer and always dreamt about Comedy America. And I did, and I, I found success pretty fast here in America. America loves hardworking people and I'm certainly that. So I was in, I was in an, on an upward tra trajectory in the fitness business, shooting for all the big magazines, and that's also how I met my wife Kat.

She was an, a major in the air force. Just a, a force of nature. Also a triad leaf, a marathon runner, and a, a bikini fitness pro. So we met on a rooftop in Hollywood at a, at a fitness party. So that, that was the, the love, the love, the, the true love and, and just the dreams, right? And then we just, one year after we got married on an island in Belize.

So that's the happy background. And then the tragedy. Yes. And so for folks that might not be aware, I know that you and your wife were in a terrible car accident, and it's a miracle that you're both alive. It is. It truly is. We were both in a, in a big S u v a Range Rover which are a big, heavy cars.

We we were going down to a couple of friends in Laguna Beach over the Christmas holiday, so it was a happy time for us. We were very ha newly in love and we were happy. Going down in the car, cat leaned over to put on some Christmas music. And, and we just heard a, a crack, like a big, big sound underneath the car.

And the hu course shook and the car started sliding and it started sliding towards the, the side of the road. And it cut up gravel. So there was gravel and dust and, and just a cloud everywhere. And then we hit one of those street signs that says Laguna Beach, 45 miles or whatnot. And the car started rolling.

And I remember I remember vividly how. Bounced my head in the windshield and I, I thought this is gonna hurt. And after that it's, I just blacked out and I woke up upside down with blood just pouring down my face. And I, I looked over at a cat and like, how are you babe? How are you? And she's like, go get help.

I've broken my arms. But she hadn't broken her arms. She had decapitated herself instantly on impact. She just couldn't move. And so her military training, Believed her to think that she had broken her arms, which is logical, but mm-hmm. Yeah. Instantly paralyzed. Yeah. And from there on yeah, the story continues.

Right, right. So it's been quite a recovery part, process for you guys. Yeah. So one of the, one of the things I know about your story is, is that when, when it came down to it, the people that you thought you could count on really weren't the people. That ended up being there for you in the long run.

Yeah. One big part of our story is the, the caregiving part of the story, so, mm-hmm. This didn't, it didn't become, become like a it didn't show itself until after we got home. So cuz when you're in the hospital, you're taking care of 24 7. Like my dad said, the hospital is the easy part. You got doctors and nurses.

Trauma people. You got everything you need 24 7. You just ring a little bell or blowing a little pipe and someone will be there for you. So it was, even though that was really hard, obviously the, our worlds fell apart. It was when we got home that, when, that's when the real struggle started. Mm-hmm. Because all of a sudden you're, you're alone.

It's me with a broken neck, my wife with a broken neck, she can't move and we need 24 7 care. And you just stand there to drop the ambulance drops you off and you're like, what? What do I do now? And that's when really when my world fell apart and her world fell apart and suicidal thoughts came up and all that.

Oh, sure. So we just went down to really deep, deep rabbit hole of blackness in the beginning. Right. So Right. So there, but that's, and I, that's when I discovered that none of our families had the opportunity or. To come and help, but then in some way I understand it. There's, there's so much sorrow and I mean, people have so much trouble just dealing with their every everyday problems.

So coming to help us and seeing the sadness every day just, just takes an enormous amount of courage and, and mental fortitude. Something we've built up both of us now. But in the beginning it was, it was, it was hard, right? So, yeah. So that was the start of it. What did happen was that while our families were not there for us, strangers started appearing.

So I've just, just premiered a documentary about the heroes in, in a, in a book I wrote. And I screamed out on Facebook. I was just really screaming out for help and, and in my blog post and people that have gone through similar stuff contacted me and asked how they could help and, and one after the other.

So, and after. Not too long. I had a whole bunch of people around me, loving, caring people that went grocery shopping, that came to dishes that came and helped take care of Kat and people that were just there in the morning to listen when I was angry or disappointed or just needed to talk to someone, so.

Right, right. Yeah, it's a, it's as I've shared on the podcast before and we chatted just briefly about, and just my own journey of being a care. For my wife who has had a brain tumor and is, you know, in a wheelchair and, you know, dealing with dementia and that sort of thing it really takes a toll on people in, in just the, the caregiving mode and just thinking about what it means to have support and so, I think you're exactly right in that I think maybe people hold back on providing support because they don't know what to do necessarily.

And it's not that you need 'em to necessarily do anything, but just be right. Present, right. That is so right. Gordon, I remember one time in a hospital, one of my big, big body building friends cuz I was shooting fitness and his, his name is Matus and he's from former Jigo. He doesn't necessarily have all the words, but he came by my bedside and he just sat there and I asked him to put his hand up on the railing and I, I put my hand on on his, and that's what I needed.

I just needed someone there like mm-hmm. And, and he's a big guy and he just, his size felt comforting, to be honest. Mm-hmm. So I just held his hand and then he just sat there and that's all I needed to, to get me through that hour or that day. And So, yeah, I try to be cognizant of that. Now the night when I help other people.

I also want to add that you being a caregiver might relate that it took me quite a while to be a good caregiver myself. I, I readily refused in the beginning cuz being a caregiver would, it would mean that I would've to give up all my dreams. And, and I was lucky in the sense. I had my mobility, so in a way I could just leave Cat and continue my journey.

Innately something inside me, it's told me not to do that, but, but I still, I still held on to the, to the dreams I had, like I wanted my previous life. I didn't wanna change it, so it took me a long time to, it actually took me until Kat said, she looked me straight and eyes and said, what if it was you?

What if this happened to. And then, then empathy came in and I'm like, yeah, what if this was me? Mm-hmm. What would I want my wife to do for me? And that it switched me. It really switched me. And from that point on, I pride myself to pride myself of being, I mean, a, a good, as a good of a caregiver as I can be.

But I'm, I'm present. I'm there for her and I'll fight for her, you know, every second of. Right. Right. Yeah. That, that, that resonates and I think something that you kind of allude to there is moving, moving from the resentment of it all. Yeah. To more acceptance. Yeah. And so, yeah. So what was that process like for you of just kind of moving from that, those two places?

I think one thing. Saved me in the sense is that the way I looked at things. So my wife has always been a, an adventurer and she made me adventurous. So we, before me we met, I was from Sweden. So I'm very organized and structured and I get things done, but I'm may not be the most happening person in the world, may not.

And she made me adventurous. We got married in Belize and we did all these trips. So in a. In a way, me being a caregiver be, be, became like a, a crusade of good or a crusade of doing good, a crusade of helping others. And that in itself became adventurous. Mm-hmm. Now I'm talking to you, Gordon. I've written a book, I've done a documentary, I'm gonna do a feature film.

So there was a way to swivel it for my mind to cope with it, I guess. Mm-hmm. This took a while. It took 3, 4, 5 years to really swivel it, but now I'm. I I usually tell people this, if I had the choice of the accident happen or not happen, I would want it to happen if it was only happening to me. And God knows I've gone through some bad times.

I mean, I had a halo mountain on my face. My, I broke my neck, I stroked out. Both my shoulders are dislocated, so I've, I've been bad, but it made me a better person and being empathetic and being able to, to help another person and see the gratitude and. It's just there's no other feeling. There's no nothing that makes you feel better than helping other people.

It just, mm-hmm. The stepping stone to get to that point is really high. And that's people, that's why it's so hard. But once you get there and I think you're there yourself, Gordon, it's just, it's beautiful. There's nothing better, even though you're tired you know, wept out and maybe whatever you are, it's just, it's just this beautiful feeling of being able to help.

And it's cuz they're meaningful. It gives you purpose. And that, and that's what drives me now. So, yeah. Sorry, I forgot what you asked Gordon. Oh, well, it's just that, yeah, just thinking about moving from resentment about things to, to acceptance of things you know, but what, as you were saying saying all that one of the things that I'm reminded of is, is that, you know, when.

When there's a tragedy of some sort or there's some sort of catastrophe. You know, the thing that seems to be the redemptive part of it is when you see all the people that show up. Yeah. To help. I mean, I'm thinking like, you know, In recent years, you know, hurricanes and natural disasters and that kind of thing, people showing up for that has a way of grabbing at us or, or touching us in a way.

Yeah. That, that just kind of puts all the other nonsense of life to the side. Yeah, it does. And it's, I I, I do call it like a, a calling to adventure because it is, it is an adventure. It gives you a sense of purpose and a, and you're doing something and it's, it's. Above and blind and is going outside your little box.

So yes, so caregiving can be an adventure, and I agree. We, it was, we just saw that little girl in Turkey, right, rescued from the ruins and it engaged the whole Turkey and it against the whole world. I think we couldn't grasp 40,000 being dead. It's just like the number's too big, but that little girl, it just mm-hmm.

Everyone wanted to help, so, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, and I have the best, I mean, I have the. Most intimate relationships with other caregivers. Now, other people that helped Johnny Courier, a local person here in Los Angeles, he started Next Step, which is an organization for people with paralysis. He started that organization after being paralyzed himself.

Mm-hmm. So it's like a self-fulfilling thing and he now helps, I mean, thousands of people and, and it's, I it's miraculously to see what we can. We can do it so much. Good. You know, if we want to, so, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the one thing that occurs to me in just thinking about, just kind of putting on my clinical hat here for a little bit, you know, when in, in my work with people that maybe, maybe struggling with depression or any sort of thing like that, There's this inward focus that comes with that.

I mean, you're really consumed with your own stuff, but when you can start turning that outward and really focusing on others, that tends to go away, tends to. The other thing that comes to mind is, is just how much meaning that brings for people. Yeah. And I think that's what you're, you're hitting on there.

Pav is The tragedy that you've, that you've had and you and your wife have had, there has been some meaning that has come out of that for the two, the two of you. I make an assumption for your wife as well, but yeah, no, for sure. I mean, we. I mean, you have a choice. I think you have a choice, Gordon.

When thumb something happens to you, you can either go down the, the abyss and maybe never get out. Right? Or you can try to make something out of it. And we, we were strong enough to try to, to make something out of it, so to speak. And I think, I think therapists have a huge role in tr trying to help people bridge that little bridge, that bridge because it's not easy at all, so to speak.

When it comes to my wife, She's just a force of nature in that after the accident, all she can do is move her, her, her neck and her shoulders. But she works with a stick in her mouth called a stylist, and she's now almost a licensed family therapist. Mm-hmm. So she's doing a practicums. She also works full-time for space force.

So, so there is no, it's interesting to see like we're living. Day and age where we complain about everything, or many people complain about everything, and as you said, live in words. Mm-hmm. And I have wants, but when you look at Kat, my wife, and you can see what she does with her one finger, her stylist and voice control.

She works full-time for space force and you know, national defenses. And then she said almost a family therapist. Then it makes me look at myself and say like, excuse me for swearing, but stop being a little bitch Pavel. Just, just get to it. You know? Right. Just, just get to it, you know? Yeah. So, And that has her accident, has empowered so many other people, it makes them be better.

So yes, that there has been something positive, even though Kat might not agree, she has brought out the best of us. And I think that's what caregiving does too, Gordon. It brings out, it brings out the best of us. Yeah. You know? Yeah, I love that. I love that. So, yeah, another another thought that comes to me is just thinking about when people.

Go through a tragedy and their, and they find meaning with it. I, I was reminded of Victor Frankl's book, the Man Search For Meaning. Yeah. Yeah. And just what he went through and being a part of the German concentration camps and Yeah. As a, a Jewish person and how he came out that in, in many senses, more whole than he was when he went.

Right. And that's, irony is probably the wrong word, word here. Mm-hmm. But yes, I've, I've read that book several times and in a way it saved me just, just a, just a purpose part that as long as you have something to or hope, actually in his part, I think he was hoping to, to come back and meet his family, if I remember it correctly.

And so, as long as you have hope or dreams, dreams is the same sentiment, I guess. Jeromes, they're so important to have something. To look forward though, to look forward to plus living in the moment, obviously, so yeah. But yeah. Right. For sure. This is great. So Pavo, what, what advice would you have for people that are maybe going through hardships and going through just kind of as we like to refer to the trials of life?

How do they, how do they make their way through that? Yeah, good question Gordon. I wish I had an easy answer. I mean, I really do. It's. There is a lot of trials on the way. I think you have to what? So what? I can only say what I did. So what I did, I quickly realized I didn't have the, the mental capacity to deal with this.

I, I needed something. So I I, while I had this metal thing on my head, which was a halo, which fixated in my head to my body, I put on my headphones and I walked the beach and I listened to podcasts and I listened to everything. I mean, I listened. Rich role. Joe Rogan. Jordan Peterson, the the Earlie stuff, the, the stuff when he's professor and he talks to his students.

I listened to, to athletes, I listened to, to just about anything I could find to, to gain knowledge. And I did find knowledge. I found bits and pieces from here and there. I found some wise words from Jordan that I could implement. I found some wise words from from therapists that I could implement.

That all combined helped me to, to get outta my shell, so to speak, and, and move forward. I think, I don't want to be self-promoting, but I did write a book about my journey and I think that could help. It's called True Love and Suffering, mm-hmm. And that I know that has helped other people. I'm, I'm brutally honest and frank in it, and I think my honesty helps people cuz I, I do tell them that I failed, like I failed my wife.

I told her in front of, Military people. I don't, I don't want to be a caregiver. I don't want to help her. But I, I needed to say that in order to then be able to help her. So my honesty, I think helps people. It helps people to, I give like, it's, I guess I give it legitimacy to being honest, to being able to say that I don't want to help her.

Cuz you have to say it first and then you can like start overcoming it and want to help her, right? So I think. Yeah. In, in, yeah. My book is, is one way to start at least. Yeah. It helped me to write it and I know people have gotten help from it. Yes. Yes. So tell us about the documentary that's coming out on Netflix.

I had so yeah, so all these people helped me for seven years and I w I was so self-absorbed in the way that I needed to, I needed to be strong physically and mentally to be able to help. I realized that early, so I had all these people helping me and they didn't want anything back and that's fine.

But I realized that I needed to pay them back. Somehow. I needed to give back. So this is my love letter to some of the people that helped us. So the 10 closest people that helped us, I needed to, to show them something to I needed is a world to see them. I needed the world to see why they helped us and to needed to show the world that there are good people out.

And I forget who said it, it was an Indian doctor. I said, who said something like, when, when something good happens, it needs to be documented because there's just too few examples of it. So that's why I did it. So I worked pretty hard a, a year. Documenting their lives, edit, editing together a pretty short 40 minute documentary.

Fast paced, but very emotional and I think it makes people better watching it. They'll get inspiration from it. Right, right. And it's on Netflix, is that correct? It, it will be. Not yet, but yeah, it'll be, yeah. Okay. That's awesome. That's awesome. So, well Pavlo, I wanna be respectful of your time and I'm hoping that we can have more conversations here in the future, but tell folks how they can get in touch with you and connect if they would like to.

Thank you, Gordon. Yeah. I've really en enjoyed this and I hope to talk to you again. True love the book.com, that's where most things origin from. So true love the book.com, and then you can sort of find and connect with me there. And I'm, I'm happy to connect. I, I message and text and email people all the time and, and yeah, I'm happy to talk to other caregivers.

Awesome, awesome. That's, and we'll have the, the. The links and the show notes and the show summary for people to get to it easily. And, and I know I'm ready to connect with you just around caregiving, cuz I know that's a, an area of support that for those of us in this role of being a caregiver for a spouse is definitely needs the support.

Yeah. Yeah. Caregiving is, yeah. Yes, Gordon. Yes. Yes. Well, thanks again. Thank you.

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March 30, 2023March 30, 2023

Ann Purcell | The Power of Vulnerability and Kindness | K&C 23

Author and songwriter Ann Purcell joins Gordon in this episode to discuss how vulnerability and kindness can give us strength. Ann shares her experience of being alone as an 18-year-old in a new environment and her song “Be Kind” that it inspired. Gordon and Ann explore how the power of kindness and strength can be a powerful combination, and this is something Ann has experienced firsthand.

Ann believes that true vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. We don’t normally share what’s going on in our internal world with people, but it’s through vulnerability that we are able to truly connect with other people.

Meet Ann Purcell

Ann Purcell

Ann Purcell is a philanthropist, award-winning author, and songwriter. Her latest publication is Tender Flower of Heaven, which is a collection of 130 poems. Ann has been a full-time teacher of Transcendental Meditation since 1973, teaching Transcendental Meditation and advanced courses in many countries around the world. In addition, she has worked on curricula and course development for universities and continuing education programs.

Ann is also an international leader of the TM-Women Organization and oversees the teaching of Transcendental Meditation in girls’ schools and communities in several countries in Africa. She donates all proceeds from her photography, books, and music to its educational programs. Ann founded Enlightenment For Everyone in 2012

Ann also wrote the song “Be Kind” which was based on her own experiences at a young age.

Be Kind written by Ann Purcell and performed by Olivia Seibel

Stay present and connected

Anne learned that by being connected to herself, she could be happy in any situation. She found that the more connected she was to her inner self, the less she was tossed about by the stormy seas of life. Being connected to ourselves is not an intellectual connection, but an experiential one. It is a state of pure silence and stillness, where we are awake to our own silence instead of being focused on the outside world.

As we become more connected to ourselves, we become more relaxed and kind. We are also better able to access our intuition and intellect, allowing us to make better decisions.

Mindfulness is another way to stay present and connected. It is the practice of being aware of our thoughts and our surroundings. Being mindful helps us to stay grounded and in the present moment, instead of worrying about the past or future. It also helps us to reduce stress and become more connected to our inner selves.

By staying present and connected, we can create meaningful connections with others and make positive changes in our lives. We can become more relaxed and kind, and access our intuition and intellect to make better decisions. Through mindfulness, we can stay grounded and in the present moment, allowing us to be more connected to ourselves and others. Being present and connected is an essential part of living a healthy and fulfilling life.

Let go naturally with TM

Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a technique that allows us to let go naturally and access a deep state of relaxation. TM is a form of meditation that uses a mantra to help the mind settle down and reach a state of stillness. By focusing on the mantra, we can become more aware of our thoughts and feelings, and eventually reach a state of pure transcendence.

When we practice TM, we go to the bottom of the ocean where there is no thought or movement. This is a state of pure stillness and quietness. It can be difficult to reach this level of stillness, but with TM, it happens naturally. We don’t have to try to slow down our minds or get rid of our thoughts; the mind will naturally go to that which is more pleasing.

When we come out of meditation, we are naturally more refreshed and the mind is more clear. We are more present and can focus on whatever task is at hand. We can use more of our minds in this capacity, and be more mindful and focused on our work.

We can also slow things down, allowing our body to follow, rather than keeping energy up. If someone is interested in getting started with TM, there are several steps they can take. They can find a certified teacher of TM, attend an introductory lecture, and take the four-day course. During the first day, they will learn the technique from the teacher, and the following three days will be spent answering practical questions and going deeper into the mechanics of the practice.

TM is a great way to let go naturally and access a deep state of relaxation. It can help us become more mindful and focused, allowing us to make better decisions and create meaningful connections with others. By learning TM, we can access a deeper level of stillness and quietness, and experience a more peaceful and present state of mind.

Being kind to others

One of the most important things we can do to create meaningful connections with others is to be kind. Kindness is a powerful force that can bring people together and create positive change.

Unfortunately, it is often overlooked or taken for granted. We can all benefit from taking the time to be kind to others, regardless of their background or beliefs. Being kind to others can also help to create a more peaceful environment.

Recently, Gordon heard a song called “Crack the Case” by Dawes. In the lyrics of this song, there is a line that says, “It’s really hard to hate anyone when you know what they have lived through…” The song encourages us to be kind, even in the smallest of ways, as it can help someone to rise and stand tall. The song reminds us that we don’t know what someone else is going through, so it is important to be kind and understanding.

Conclusion

Being kind to others is an important part of creating meaningful connections and a more peaceful environment. We can all benefit from taking the time to be kind to ourselves and others, regardless of their background or beliefs. By practicing TM, we can access a deeper level of stillness and quietness, and experience a more peaceful and present state of mind. Kindness is a powerful force that can bring people together and create positive change, so let’s take the time to be kind.

We can all benefit from taking the time to be kind to ourselves and others, regardless of their background or beliefs. Practicing mindfulness and meditation can help us access a deeper level of stillness and quietness, and experience a more peaceful and present state of mind. Taking the time to be kind to ourselves can help us be kinder to others.

Transcript

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00:03 Okay.

00:05 Hi, I'm Anne Purcell, and I'm really happy to be on the kindness and compassion podcast. And to meet you, Gordon, I think it's a wonderful

00:16 message or conversation you're trying to project out in the world. And I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

00:24 Well, hello, everyone, and welcome again to the podcast. And I'm so happy for you to get to know Anne Purcell. Welcome, Anne.

00:36 Thank you.

00:37 So glad. Yes. And so, Anne had reached out to me and her team and just Anne's got some really interesting things that she's done in particular.

00:50 She's a songwriter and has created a song around kindness and compassion. But Anne, as I start with everyone, why don't you tell folks a little bit more about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed?

01:04 Oh, thank you. Well, I've got my profession is actually I'm a teacher of transcendental meditation. I don't know if you've heard of that. I've been a teacher of that since

01:15 49 years, meditating 50 years. And so I've always been interested in in reducing stress in people's lives.

01:28 In the topic of how we can evolve as people and spirituality. And of course kindness is a big part of that. And I've written many songs more in my experiences in meditation, or experiences of just the joy of life or nature out in nature.

01:51 I love writing about experiences nature.

01:54 But I had this one experience, it was actually the day after my mother passed away a couple years ago.

02:02 And I would I go I love to go for morning walks on the beach so I went for my usual morning walk and I noticed, there's some people walking over the beach and I, I said hi to them.

02:14 And usually I'm feeling very open and happy. And I think they thought that's probably I was feeling happy but inside I was feeling very tender, very emotional it just struck me that you don't know what people are feeling inside you really don't even

02:32 know what people that you look at them they seem happy, but you don't know what they're going through. And so, it just was a reminder of the importance to be kind to be respectful, and really for three or four days I felt kind of a disconnect with my environment.

02:50 And before I went like to the grocery store I just felt gosh they don't know what I'm experiencing in my life. What are they experiencing in their life. And that inspired the song be be kind.

03:04 Yes, yes. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more and I think that's one of the things that I've learned.

03:12 Over the years, is just, particularly in my work as a therapist you know just working with people, you know, we don't, we don't normally share what's going on in our internal world with people which, you know, quite frankly, it's not real smart to just

03:29 start with anyone, because that you know that's, but that it, I've also learned that it's through vulnerability that we are able to really truly connect with other people and then with vulnerability.

03:45 And when you're met with kindness and compassion that's when things really change for people. Yes, I agree that I've been hearing that word a lot in the past few years vulnerability that we have to not be afraid to be vulnerable.

04:02 I agree to be able to open up and, but I think vulnerability true vulnerability is also a strength. I think a lot of people look at vulnerability as a weakness, or you're vulnerable and you're going to get hurt and so we have to protect you.

04:19 I think, ultimately, or true vulnerabilities when we're actually very, we're so strong inside that we're not afraid to be open. Right, that we can be open. And so the question is then how to develop that strength.

04:36 How can we can be vulnerable so if some little storm comes it's not going to blow us over, we can we can meet the storm head on the open to it and uplift the situation or solve the problem situation or someone's attacking you in that storm, being able

04:57 to snap back and become defend become the defenses, but to be able to still be open and to engage in a conversation in a way that diffuses that situation.

05:13 Right, right.

05:15 Yeah. So, I don't know if you, I don't know if you agree with that from a clinical psychologist. Yeah, well no absolutely because as you were saying that what I was reminded of is.

05:26 There's a, there's a talk that I often refer my clients to my as a thought as a therapist and it was done by Brene Brown, who's pretty well known. And it's all it the title of the presentation is called the call to courage.

05:46 And essentially what she is. She says and there's exactly what you said and is that we cannot have courage without vulnerability, and in that one does not occur without the other.

06:01 And so, and she, you know, really put that together and just talking with like military veterans that had been through some horrific things and just being able to recognize that when, when you're vulnerable.

06:16 That's where courage comes from but also strength. Yes, yes, yes.

06:22 Yes. Yes. So, so, how to develop the strength is the question then, right, you can be vulnerable. Right.

06:32 And then when you have that strength. That's the basis for being kind to.

06:38 Because if you're have all these walls inside.

06:56 You know, unexpectedly, you know, it's like a, you're holding things inside and at some point that's going to have to release come out. Sure. So to be kind.

07:08 You really have to be full and happy inside and and strong. And then that allows for greater kindness and greater compassion what you're talking about so much right, right.

07:22 So, in your journey and with your practices of transcendental meditation what have you. What have you learned so far.

07:32 That's a big question.

07:34 That's a really big question.

07:37 Well, in the beginning, maybe we can start from the beginning. I think I learned to be by myself, that would be the first thing I learned.

07:48 When I was in school in England, I didn't know I didn't really feel I knew the people or felt I had much in common with the people.

07:57 I was around, I was a completely new situation I was 18 years old and when I learned TM transcendental meditation.

08:06 That was the first time I could sit by myself and actually enjoy being by myself. And I remember thinking to myself, if I can learn to be happy by myself.

08:20 I can learn to be happy in any situation.

08:24 So that was the first, I think big learning awakening, I had.

08:31 And then as just time grew and over the years and with transcendental meditation the changes are very subtle, subtle they just grow quietly and it's so natural that you almost sometimes don't even notice the growth until some situation happens and you think,

08:48 Oh, didn't react the way I used to react in that situation or I held my cool where normally that would have pushed my button and so little things like that start to happen more and more.

09:01 So, I learned that the more you're connected to yourself, it's like an anchor in your life. The more you're not tossed about by the stormy seas and so the importance of being connected to yourself and when I say being connected to yourself it's not an intellectual

09:22 connection. It's an experiential connection of just experience silence that silent state that's within everyone. We all have a very active mind.

09:34 And we also can be very worried and very have a very active mind and that's that more anxious stress state. And I think we've all experienced when we're in that very anxious stress state.

09:45 Nothing goes as well we we react to people in ways we wish we hadn't. We snap at people. We're not as efficient in our work.

09:55 But likewise if we've had a really good night's sleep and we wake up feeling really good that day, the whole day seems to go well and and and people smile on you it's like the world is smiling on you.

10:08 So, as you get rid of stress because when you transcend in TM the mind and body are intimately connected I'm sure you're really well aware of this.

10:21 So as the mind settles down the body settles down and gets a very deep state of rest, and that allows stress to be released.

10:29 And as the stress goes, you just feel more clear in your mind you feel more happier, but you have less of that, that's those thoughts on the surface level that way down, and you're more connected to those deeper thoughts, your intuition your, your intellect

10:47 becomes more clear those are deeper levels of the thinking process, but it's all based on the, your being level which is a state of pure silence pure stillness, where you're awake to your silence, instead of being awake to everything on the outside, you

11:04 become awake to that stillness, so that when I'm talking about that connected to connectedness to the to yourself. It's really an experience of that silence it's not an intellectual thing.

11:18 And then just very naturally very spontaneously you're just more relaxed you're more easy. And that allows you to be more kind and respectful I, I really feel respect belongs to the word kindness as well.

11:35 It means being respectful towards other people's right, right, you know, as you were saying all of that and one of the things that I was just thinking about in the context of doing doing therapy with people and working with people in that capacity.

11:52 One of the things that that happens is that our thoughts, we do have a very hard time turning our heads off and turning our thoughts off. Yes. And I think the more that we can practice another term for it is mindfulness of being just aware of what we're thinking

12:11 and being aware of where we are in our body and in our space and where we are in general. That is where we can really begin to, like you said, find that joy find that groundedness all of that kind of thing and so I think of, you know, transcendental meditation

12:30 and the, and what little bit I am familiar with it it's a way it's a process of grounding yourself and getting into getting into the present moment because there are two states that we can find ourselves in is one, we get.

12:48 Well, actually there's three states we can find ourselves in but we can two of them can keep us off track and one is a preoccupation or thinking about the future too much.

13:02 And that puts us in a state of anxiety of worry. Yes, you know what if this happens what if that happens that kind of thing.

13:09 And the opposite of that being being preoccupied with the past of thinking about well I wish I would have I wish I could have, you know, being in that space which is really kind of a space of guilt and maybe even depression to some degree.

13:25 But if we can teach ourselves. Yeah, regret. Yes, absolutely.

13:30 But I think if we can teach ourselves to be in the present moment, which is really the only thing we have control over anyway, is that's where we can begin to do like you said to calm the mind to become more mindful, more grounded and more in a place

13:49 of being able to find more joy and peace, that sort of thing.

13:53 That's really I really loved what you say and I think that's so completely true.

14:00 I guess, and obviously I'm a little biased because I am a teacher of transcendental meditation, and I'm not really biased because I think every technique of meditation has some value, some use.

14:11 But the only, the only thing I would say is that being mindful.

14:28 Mind just keeps going off. And so, I so stress anxiety can is what keeps a person from being mindful. So, and there are many many techniques of mindfulness so I'm never quite sure what when someone talks about mindfulness what they're actually talking about

14:50 is mindfulness of the breath is that mindfulness of just bringing your awareness back to the moment is mindfulness of just observing your thoughts there's there are many different techniques of mindfulness.

15:02 But the only thing I would say is that in transcendental. Let's say that you're practicing the mindfulness of just coming back to the present and being aware of your thoughts.

15:16 So let's take an example of the ocean. So you're, you're feeling stressed you're sitting on the beach so you think, okay, just look at the waves on the ocean just be aware of the waves.

15:28 You're still looking outside you're still being aware of the waves with TM. You actually go to the bottom of the ocean where it's that state of pure transcendence where there's no thought.

15:43 It's just stillness it's just quietness and there's even degrees of that quietness sometimes we can have that quietness but there's still some thoughts going around but you're more settled you're more still.

15:54 And you're not trying to bring your awareness, even to that stillness it just happens automatically.

16:02 And when you, and I can explain why that happens automatically but the point I'm trying to make here is, then when you come out of meditation, you're just naturally more refreshed the mind is more clear.

16:14 So whatever you're doing, you're putting more. You're just naturally automatically more present, you're using more of your mind in that capacity.

16:24 So if you're working in your office and you're working on writing something on your computer, instead of feeling stressed in your mind wandering all the time.

16:33 You're just feeling clear and relaxed so you're just very focused on your work, and that is a very pure state of mindfulness, when you're naturally focused.

16:44 Yeah, yeah, it does absolutely and that, you know, I think it's, as you describe it is really kind of learning to quiet the mind of really just kind of being focused on.

17:03 You know it's interesting I like the way you, you kind of clarified because there is, there are just several different ways we can be mindful and mindful of different things, and sometimes we can get that.

17:15 That can be overwhelming as well but I think being able to just being centered being able to slow things down enough to where we can, and our body will follow if we allow it, rather than just keeping, keeping energy up.

17:35 And the reason why in TM, you can slow the mind down in a natural way and that's very important there's no trying to slow the mind down there's no trying to get rid of our thoughts, is it goes by the principle, principle that the mind will always go to that which is more pleasing.

17:56 If we're talking now and your favorite music comes on your mind will go there. If you're reading a really good book, your mind will stay focused, if you're reading a boring book, the mind will wander.

18:08 I think every student knows if they have a good teacher. They love the class they're engaged but if it's not a good teacher. They're counting the seconds till the class is over.

18:19 So with TM, all we do is take that natural tendency of the mind to go to that which is more pleasing, but just turn it inward.

18:30 And it so happens those quieter levels of the mind are more charming and people have experienced that if you're reading a good book you're settled.

18:39 And you're just charmed by that experience. And, and those quieter levels of the mind the more they're more peaceful, and the mind will automatically go there it will automatically settle down all we do with TM is set up for the dive, but the dive happens

18:57 automatically. So that's a very important point. Yeah, that's great. That naturalness that it happens naturally. Right. Yeah.

19:06 So, if a person were interested in getting started with doing some transcendental meditation.

19:14 What's usually the.

19:16 What are usually the first steps in order to help them kind of go deeper.

19:21 Well, you do have to learn by a certified teacher of transcendental meditation we have teachers all over the world, all over the US and you can go, we have two websites, the main website TM.org and we have a woman's website TM dash woman.org.

19:41 And you. You can hear an introductory lecture on the website, you can find a teacher in your area.

19:49 You can decide to take the course it's a four day course there is a fee that helps support the centers and the teachers and also some of the money goes to support those who can't afford to learn.

20:03 And that it's an hour, hour and a half for four days straight you have to make a four day commitment. The first day you do need to learn by a teacher.

20:14 But now we have an app where you can do the three follow up days via an app, or many teachers, many people also will. There will be a course in the TM Center and you can go to the course in the center.

20:28 But then you have it for life.

20:31 And it's so easy learn the first day but the three follow up days that there are just practical questions on the first follow up days, what do you do if the phone rings, what are the best time to the second day, you go into the mechanics of the practice

20:47 why it's natural, what are the roles of thoughts and meditation, why we don't try to get rid of thoughts and meditation. And the third day gives more of a vision of the possibility so it's a three day.

21:01 There's three follow up days after learning the first day and also during those three days, they have what's called the checking process, because it's a very subtle technique.

21:12 We're so used to trying in our lives and feeling we have to try and the harder we try or we may have done some technique of concentration in the past.

21:23 And so the three checking is just to verify the effortlessness of the technique just to make sure that it is effortlessness and you're not inserting anything yourself that you may have learned in the past.

21:38 Yeah, yeah, it's as you describe it it's kind of the visual the metaphor that came to mind for me was just thinking about floating in the water you have to learn to if someone floats in the water.

21:53 They have to learn how to just kind of let go of a lot of stuff. Yeah, letting go.

21:59 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But again, if we try to let go.

22:04 That's why it has to happen naturally. And that's, it's a very pleasant experience to I mean, different people, everyone has different physiologies. So everyone experiences different we teach in prisons we teach you we're talking about veterans or

22:22 Renee Brown was talking about veterans.

22:25 Sorry, Renee Brown.

22:28 We teach veterans who have post traumatic stress disorder, we've received a couple million dollar grant from the Veterans Administration or the Department of Defense to teach to do a study we have many phase one studies but now they're doing phase two

22:46 for veterans with post traumatic stress. And also we're teaching a lot in with doctors and nurses when the pandemic started. We launched a program called heal the healers, because the nurses were getting so burnt out and the doctors in the hospitals.

23:04 We're teaching in about 60 hospitals, and there's ongoing research in several hospitals like at Duke University and several hospitals in New York and think it's Brigham's hospital in Boston on the impact of TM with nurses and doctors and how to stress.

23:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah, that, that's going to be interesting to see and I think we can can almost predict how that's going to go.

23:33 Yeah, the preliminary results are very promising. That's good, but, but

23:40 doctors like to see research to do it with doctors and if they see the research but they're we're getting, there's a growing mainstream support for this practice, and because of the scientific research.

23:55 Yeah. Well, that's great. That's great. So, and to switch gears a little bit here. Tell folks a little bit about your song and what it's about and how they can find it.

24:07 Thank you for asking that. Well the songs called be kind.

24:11 It's the first line goes, you don't know if one is hurting, you don't know if one is in pain. What if his insides are churning with sadness of the pouring rain.

24:25 Maybe he's struggling with lack of money or has problems with his family maybe he's, oh gosh now I'm forgetting the words maybe he's.

24:36 Then the verse goes be kind be kind.

24:41 It's not that hard to be nice you may just save a life. Be kind, be kind, a warm hand a warm heart, a warm touch can help someone so much.

24:53 Any act of kindness no matter how small will help one to rise and stand tall. So those are some of the words that you can just do a YouTube search it's on YouTube.

25:05 Be kind you have to say the name and per cell because if you do a recent YouTube search. There's a song. Be kind by Halsey the singer, which is very different. Okay, doesn't have the same message.

25:19 Okay. Yeah. And so we'll have. Yeah, we'll be sure to have links in the show notes and show summary on the podcast for that. Yeah, so I bet yeah I'm reminded of.

25:31 Yeah, so speaking of songs and being kind.

25:35 There's a song that I've discovered here recently in the last year or two. And it's by doll, a group called dolls and I probably, I'll try to slip the, the title of the song because I'm drawing a blank on it here.

25:50 Right now as I think about it but there's a line in that song that essentially says, you can't hate anyone if you know what they've been through.

26:00 And so that's a yeah, yeah, and so that that whenever I hear that song it just always touches me just thinking about that, that, that, that whole practice, because I as folks have maybe heard me speak to before on this podcast.

26:19 You know, I think when we, when we take the time to learn somebody's backstory, or find out what is underneath. Yes, it really does create the space for being kind and compassionate with people and that's so important.

26:37 It's interesting and I can't remember her name I might as well. She's a comedian and she went around talking to, I think Republicans I think she was a Democrat.

26:51 And she discovered that if you could just actually get in the car into a conversation with them and talk about their life and everything then you could discuss the issues, and you could maybe come to some agreements and discovered that there are actually

27:08 many things they even agreed upon. And so, again, it goes to what you're saying when you really can have conversation and get to know someone and you know something comes up from their past or maybe you, you've prejudged this person, but then you hear

27:29 maybe what they went through when they were young, then it totally changes your image of that person and then you just have this incredible appreciation for that people.

27:41 And so it really is important to not judge and to really be open to people and respectful and kind it's so it's so important and it's such a simple concept really.

27:56 And, you know, I'm always reminded of the Bible do unto others as you would have do unto you, you know, because we all want to be treated with respect and kindness, and so it's, it's hard sometimes it's just a habit of being catty we, we can gossip

28:15 about people and we're just Oh, that person's looks like that today. I remember I was very lucky not that I always went by my father's advice but I remember growing up, if I was complaining about my teacher at school he'd always say, Well, you don't know what's going on in

28:31 their family you don't know what's going on, how he might have wrote woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Right. And so my father would never let me complain about people, because he'd always say that to me and so not that I could always follow that advice

28:50 you know and and again I think it's structured in our own physiology, being able to be kind and respectful to other people for not feeling good ourselves, then it's hard to be.

29:04 Yeah. Good to other people right right. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's a it's an interesting phenomenon and that when, and again I've experienced this in my work with people and therapy and that sort of thing.

29:19 When somebody can put hand with somebody hands you something that's particularly hard, or something that brings them shame, or, you know, any sort of kind of the negative emotions.

29:33 Yeah, if they if they hand that to you and you treat that with kindness.

29:38 It creates change for them and for yourself.

29:42 It allows them to open up and it creates trust, a bond of trust and without that, you're going to just put up those walls inside right and not be open.

29:56 Yes. So how can we do this on a bigger scale you obviously understand this. Yeah, it's.

30:04 Yeah, I think it's it's through just this type of thing as far as you do you know, I don't know if you're familiar there was a story and I can't remember who it's attributed to but it's a just a story about this man walking along the beach.

30:20 And he's seeing all these starfish that are washing up on the beach. And so he's very carefully taking each starfish and putting it back into the ocean.

30:29 And this other person walks by and says, you know, I don't know why you're wasting your time doing this because you'll never get all these back into the ocean.

30:40 And he said, you're not going to make a difference here and so the man just very quietly picks up another one and takes it and puts it back in the ocean and says, I made a difference for that one.

30:52 And so that's a great story. Yes. And so I think that's kind of getting to your thought there. How do we make a difference? And I think it's just one, one person at a time and one starfish at a time.

31:05 And then that has a way of just kind of spreading.

31:09 And so that's, that's kind of my goal. My mission with this podcast is for us to make differences whoever might be listening to this, maybe make a difference in their life.

31:20 You bring up an interesting point because when I wrote the song Be Kind I started going online and looking for articles about being kind I came across Steve Hartman his kindness 101 and, and he had that beautiful show I don't know if you saw it on TV

31:36 but it was all these acts of kindness of just people doing a little bit out of the ordinary acts of kindness and, and I think I believe that what you put your attention on grows in life so if you put your attention on all the negativity that's happening

31:53 in your life but if you put your attention on the positive thing then you start seeing it all around you, and everybody wants this it's just we don't see it in the news and we don't see it in, I was so glad to see Steve Hartman show, I think.

32:10 And it is actually out there and I think the more people like you and your podcasts who are putting I mean I have no illusions my songs going to change the world that I keep thinking well, if a few people sing it and it's sort of like a mantra Be Kind

32:26 because songs get stuck in here, your head, you know, maybe it will remind someone and like you said well if it helps one person to be kinder, and, and, and I really believe that sometimes it can save a life literally save life just that moment of

32:44 kindness to someone who might just at that moment be in despair, really despair. Yeah, yeah, I think it's a is, is a, I like to think of it as our job is just to plant the seeds.

32:57 Yes, yes and then the whole force will grow green. Yeah, and to have a green forest. They all have to grow green. Yeah, right. Yeah.

33:06 Well, and I want to be respectful of your time and I'm so glad we have this conversation. Tell folks how they can get in touch with you and connect with you if they'd like to.

33:18 Oh, thank you. Well, they can go to my website, enlightenment for everyone.com.

33:25 And they can connect to me there. And that links to my songs and to my books. And that would be wonderful. Thank you. Can I make one last little point when you're talking about kindness spreading.

33:40 I think the last time I heard someone say that stress. It's much thicker, and it, it actually is spreads less were kindness and good thoughts and all goodness, it's much thinner it's not as heavy as stress, and therefore it spreads farther and faster.

34:02 Yeah, so and I think kindness does is, if everyone puts their attention on it. It does spread more so that was just yeah. Yes, that's great. That's great. So, yeah, well, and I'm so glad we got connected and will have and information here in the show notes.

34:20 And if you want to connect with the end and learn more about her work and what she's doing in the world. You can do it there so thanks again and Gordon Thank you so much and thank you for what you're doing and generating this important conversation.

34:35 Thanks.

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February 24, 2023February 24, 2023

Teresa Williams | Finding Kindness and Compassion In The Midst Of Broken Relationships | K&C 22

Love and compassion in divorce is an often misunderstood concept. Divorce is often seen as a negative thing, and there is a stigma attached to it that can be hard to overcome. In this episode, Gordon has a conversation with Teresa Williams, MA, MS, LPC about how love and compassion can be found even in the midst of a divorce.

When Teresa Williams, a licensed professional counselor in Huntsville, Alabama, went through her own divorce, she experienced the pain and loneliness that comes with it. She felt abandoned by family, friends, and even her church. This experience led her to start the Confident and Courageous Woman website, a coaching program designed to help women going through divorce.

Meet Teresa Williams

“With compassion and understanding, I serve individuals, families, and groups. Through offering practical help, I’ve watched them become hopeful as they maneuvered life in new circumstances. I am honored to sit with people in a variety of crises, life stages, relationship struggles, and painful situations. I am thankful to be a practical and hopeful voice.

My background includes a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management, a Master of Arts Degree in Human Services Counseling from Liberty University, and a Master of Science in Counseling from Faulkner University. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Alabama. My counseling experience includes psychological assessments, working with adults, divorce recovery, women’s issues, and marital difficulties. I am a Prepare/Enrich pre-marital and marriage facilitator and a Board-Certified Life Coach. I am trained in Levels 1, 2 & 3 of Gottman Method Couples Therapy and lead seminars as a Gottman Leader of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work couples program. I am a speaker for business and women’s conferences/events

I love traveling with my husband, spending time reading, listening to music, and playing with our dog, Ollie.”

Help Going Through a Process

As a therapist, Teresa understands the stages of the grief process. She said expressed you think you know what to expect “until you actually walk that path, and you start experiencing the grief on multiple levels. And a lot of times people don’t know what to do.” People don’t know what to say. They take sides or they don’t take sides and they just disappear. And it’s a very chaotic time, especially in the beginning. So being able to find the support and the kindness and compassion and what that looks like can help a lot of people. People don’t know how to do that because they haven’t walked through it. Or there is judgment. There’s so much stigma. You put the word divorce between, in front of, or behind any other word, and it’s always negative. And it shouldn’t be that way. “What I have found also is being able to help others understand how to walk alongside someone who is experiencing this devastating life change.”

Loves and Acceptance Through Spiritual Beliefs

Teresa Williams wants people to know “If we look at scripture, the only people that Jesus really condemned were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And everyone else, He had compassion for. And not that he overlooks sin, but he didn’t condemn them. He did criticize, he showed love and support. People might think “Am I committing a sin? Is God ever going to forgive me? Can I ever remarry?” Teresa continues, “I’m not a theologian, but I do know what scripture says about Jesus and how he interacted with people, and he loved them, and he accepted them where they were. And regardless of whether you view it as a sin or a survival, God still loves you, and God still accepts you. And you can move on.” Sometimes we forget that Jesus extends grace and mercy to everyone. We want that same grace and mercy from Jesus, and we need to extend that to others around us, regardless of what they’re walking through.

Grace and Self-Care Navigating through Divorce

For a lot of people, the hardest person to give grace to is herself. Especially at the beginning. There’s so much chaos. Their world has just fallen apart, and they don’t know what to do. They don’t know where to turn to. Everything around them just got shattered. There’s a lot of fear. It’s hard to not feel overwhelmed. So, taking one step at a time and self-care can be forgotten. One of the hardest things for women, just in general is asking for help. It’s hard to say, “I need help with (fill in the blank).” There’s so much judgment and criticism around divorce, especially in the church. And so, a woman is fearful to even reach out even to friends and family.

Advice for helping Someone Going Through Divorce

Loneliness is a big issue. People do not know how to come alongside. They don’t know what to say or how to help this person. That’s hard for a lot of individuals. How other people can come alongside these individuals? Spiritually, pray for them. And maybe get them involved, such as going with them to a Bible study or to a weekly meeting that the churches have. If they’ve been ostracized by their church and they feel and they don’t feel comfortable anymore going to the church, how about saying, “Hey, how about coming with me on Sunday morning?” This time is hard because this person is grieving. There are a lot of tears. Teresa remembers thinking “The tears are never going to end, and the pain is never going to stop.” A big support would be if a person can just come alongside and let that person talk without offering advice. Let them cry without judgment. Don’t take sides, just be there for that person. Just being there, just being present.

Other things that we can do alongside is for the physical side. Do something to relieve the stress on that person. Offer to take them to dinner or lunch. Come over and cook dinner for them. Take them to a concert. Go on an activity. Teresa remembers “When I went through it my house was a disaster because I was working all kinds of crazy hours at the time. And, having a house that’s messy just adds one more burden to you. And I had a good friend who just came over and allowed me to cry. And she vacuumed my floor. She washed my dishes. It was such a comfort to me. It meant so much to me.” Do something for her so she can take care of herself. Let that woman take a hot bubble bath or just sit down and catch up on laundry. Do the things that show compassion and kindness to her in her time of need.

Advice on Healing

First, take your time and take your time and allow yourself to agree with all the emotions associated with the shock of it, the anger, and the disbelief. There will be times of bargaining and all the stages of grief. Allow yourself those emotions, don’t stuff them. Get a good friend that’s going to come alongside you and be there and encourage you. This friend is one that doesn’t offer advice but just radiates encouragement and love. And then go find a therapist. Go do your own work. Find the things that you need to take care of yourself. It’s a process. It’s not a one-and-done thing. It doesn’t mean that when the ink is dry on the divorce decree that all of a sudden life’s going to go back to some type of normal and you’re going to be okay. It doesn’t work like that. Remember, it’s a process.

There will be new stages and relearning. It is learning how to deal with the triggers. The sight smells, the taste that triggers you to your past, and learning how to cope with them and not allow them to take you down and derail you. Also understanding what the new norm is. Because there is a lot of adjustments. Maybe you didn’t get the house in the divorce, or maybe you have to move. And then the custody situation if there’s kids involved. Now you’re used to having your kids all the time around you. Suddenly they have to go over to dad’s house, for the weekend or every other week. That’s a major adjustment. During this time it is so vital not to isolate yourself. It would be natural, depending on the circumstances, that you don’t want to talk to people. You don’t want to put yourself out there. You don’t want to have to explain what happened for the hundredth time. Stay active and being a part of the community and having that support is really vital to your emotional health.

Final Message from Teresa

“For the person that is walking through [divorce] I just want to encourage them. If you’re willing to do the work, if you’re willing to keep moving forward, you will be okay. I can promise you that. “…What’s really important, is to know that there’s hope in healing beyond divorce, regardless of your circumstances.”

Teresa has free resources on her web page. Go to Confident and Courageous Woman for five tips for dealing with the Stress of Divorce. They can reach out Teresa through that website. She has coaching programs and she is getting ready to launch (soon) a membership program. in membership.

Transcript

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Gordon Brewer: Record. Okay, Go ahead. Hello
Teresa Williams: everyone. Welcome to this episode of Kindness and Compassion Podcast. I am so excited to be here with my friend Gordon. I'm Therea Williams, licensed professional counselor in Huntsville,
Gordon Brewer: Alabama. Perfect.
Hello everyone and welcome again to the Kindness and Compassion Podcast and I'm really looking forward to you to getting getting to hear from my guest today there, Williams. Welcome there. Thank you, Gordon. Glad to be here. Yes. And there I met and I actually met through my other podcast, the Practice of Therapy podcast, and I knew from our conversation that we really wanted to I wanted to get her on this podcast because I think she is Doing some work just with this whole intersection between spirituality and what it's like for people that are going through divorce, particularly women and that sort of thing.
So therea be tell folks about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed.
Teresa Williams: Okay like I said before, I'm a licensed professional counselor and in my practice I see individual, I do married to family and I saw a need to be able to help women who, one, either walking through divorce or been divorced and maybe don't know what to do and stuck.
And I know those feelings personally because I have walked that journey. I was married for a hundred years. Not really, but it felt like it uhhuh and had children and had a spouse who committed adultery and it was a very public and nasty divorce. And I felt alone and abandoned, not by only family and friends, but also my church.
And so my hardest desire, Is to be able to help other women that, again, who are either currently walking through a divorce or been divorced for a while and don't have the support and the encouragement they need. . So I felt like the Lord was calling me. So I started a website separate from my.
Therapy practice called the competent and courageous woman. . And it is a coaching program just for that to be able to come along and work alongside other women experiencing divorce.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. And I think it's a struggle. I know both of us are from the south, We talked about that before and I think just culturally, there's I think some misplaced stigmas around divorce and around people that are going through kind, the end of a marriage and there's a whole grieving process that occurs with that.
I know we talked about that previously, but I. In your work? What, I guess what I'm interested in, or I think maybe folks would be interested in, is it sounds like you went through a process of changing your mind about some things, just not only on the spiritual side of things, but just for you personally, and of course being a therapist to, you've got all the information, but when you experience it personally, it's a different thing.
So you wanna say something about all those things? Yeah,
Teresa Williams: it is. And like you say, being a therapist, I know all the grief stages and I know where you think you know what to expect until you actually walk that path and you start experience the grief on multiple levels. And a lot of times people don't know what to do.
They don't know what to say and they take. Or they don't take sides and they just disappear. And it's a very chaotic time, especially in the beginning. So being able to find the support and the kindness and compassion and what that looks like, a lot of people. Don't know how to do that because a either one, they haven't walked through it.
Or two from a judgmental sign like we talked about. There's so much stigma. You put the word divorce between, in front of or behind any other word, and it's always negative. And it shouldn't be that way. , what I have found also is being able to help others understand how to walk alongside someone who is experiencing this devastating life change.
.
Gordon Brewer: . Yes. Yeah. And I know one of the things I know just in my own work I'm also a marriage family therapist, and I think one of the struggles that people have as well is. Is just feeling like they are, for lack of a better term committing a sin by going through with a divorce and that sort of thing.
And so in your work with people around that, how do you help them navigate that and just really because that gets into our values and our beliefs and our faith and all of that sort of thing. How do you help people kinda walk through. Dilemma, so to speak.
Teresa Williams: If we look at scripture, the only people that Jesus really condemned were the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
And everyone else. He had compassion for right. And not that he overlooks sin. , but he didn't condemn them. , he did criticize, he showed love and support. And, they're so mis what I wanna say, interpretations of scripture. And regardless of what side of the fence you're on, whether you are the one that's wanting the divorce and.
the marriage is no longer working for whatever reason. Abuse. , whatever. And you feel like that you need to get out or your spouse is divorcing you and you're looking, you're going. Wait a minute. Am I committing a sin? Is God ever gonna forgive me? Can I ever remarried? And depending upon what orientation spiritually you stand on, one of the things that I don't try to get into mud.
I'm not a colo, but I do know what scripture says about Jesus and how he interacted with people and he loved them, and he accepted them where they were. . And regardless whether you view it as a sin or a survival, God still loves you, God still accepts you. And you can move on.
Gordon Brewer: And I think the other thing that's helpful to maybe understand is that the when the scriptures were written, and again, I'm not. I don't want to, I don't want to force my views on anyone else, but one of the things that I think is important to remember is that when the scriptures were written, it was in a totally different culture in totally different time.
Absolutely. And that and that you have to take that into context. Back in, back during those times, 2000 years ago, Women were just basically seen as property and not to be treated as any different than, , your animals or anything else. And I think one of the things again that Jesus that came through with that, with Jesus is that he did treat it with compassion.
And I think a lot of what was said in the New Testament about divorce, if you look at it through the lens of compassion, of really check making sure. That people are taken care of, that somebody's not left destitute, somebody's not left on the street to fend for themselves. That's a different way of looking at it because I think it's a, yeah, totally different culture and time.
Teresa Williams: Absolutely. And sometimes we forget that Jesus extends grace and mercy to everyone. Yes. And that we want that same grace and mercy from Jesus, and we need to extend that to others around us, regardless of what they're walking through.
Gordon Brewer: And I think it, I think the other thing too Is that's where self care comes into play.
And I think one of the, I think for a lot of people, the hardest person to give grace to is herself. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Theresa, with your work with folks that are of women in particular that are going through a this thing of divorce, what. What sort of themes do you see that you would, that you tend to try to help them navigate through?
Teresa Williams: I think there's, especially at the beginning, there's so much chaos. Their world has just fallen apart and they don't know what to do. They don't know where to turn to. Everything around them just got chattered. . And there's a lot of fear and, being able, just like you talk about, to say, Okay, don't get overwhelmed.
Let's take one step at a time. , let's do this self care. And I think one of the hardest things for women, just in general is asking for help is being able to reach out and say, I need, and fill in that blank. . A lot of times, like we talked about, there's so much judgment and criticism around divorce, especially in the church.
And so a woman is fearful to even reach out. And sometimes, like I said before, that even includes friends and family.
Gordon Brewer: . Yeah. And one of the, one of the things just in mental health, I think one of the things that just is Really at the root of a lot of mental health issues is this sense of being lonely or being alone.
And I think that when we can help people get connected and really kinda reassure them that there are other people out there that are being, that are willing to be with them on the journey, that's where a lot of healing can.
Teresa Williams: Absolutely. And you know when a lot of people don't know how to come alongside, they don't.
Because of before one, they have maybe never walked through it themselves or even had a friend or family member walk through it and they don't know what to do. They don't know what to say or how to help this person because if you look at them, they're a mess. . , and so that's part of the problem as.
Right,
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. And I think that, if anybody is going through a divorce or going through a situation where they are, yeah, you. Maybe not feeling good about themselves or feeling kinda hopeless about their situation. That you, just to echo what you said is being able to reach out to the right people around that and being able to get that support.
I think the other thing too, that we kinda hinted at is that, There's a lot of grief involved in this and being able to allow someone to go through the grieving process and mourn, mourn what is happening.
Teresa Williams: Yeah. And that's hard for a lot of individuals. . And so if I could just speak for a second or two of how other people can come alongside these individuals.
Spiritually, if you know the. Pray for them, obviously. , and maybe get them involved offer for, to a Bible study or to a weekly meeting that the churches having. Or if they've been ostracized by their church and they feel, they don't feel comfortable anymore going to the church.
How about offering to say, Hey, how about coming with me on Sunday morning? And just come and worship with. and emotionally, it's really hard because this person is grieving. There's a lot of tears. In fact, I remember myself thinking the tears are never going to end.
, the pain is never gonna stop and. If a person can just come alongside and let that person talk without offering advice, and let them cry and no judgment. And the other side is don't take sides, just be there for that person.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. And I think it's a our tendency as human beings is when we see someone else in pain is that we want to fix it for them and somehow or another take the pain.
But the truth of the matter is that the pain is there. And I think you're exactly right. It's just that journey alongside and being with there's a, I think there's a lot to be said for. What I like to refer to as the ministry of presence, of being just present with people and being able to just let them know that they're not alone in this.
That doesn't necessarily take the pain away, but it does provide a sense of comfort to some degree. And yeah. Yeah.
Teresa Williams: I really like that. Just being there, just being present. Other things that we can do alongside is for the physical side. , is maybe doing something to relieve stress on that person, like just being a friend, offering to take them to dinner or lunch and or coming over and cooking dinner for them.
, how about, taking 'em to a concert, offering them to go on activities or, I remember. When I went through it my house was a disaster because I was working all kinds of crazy hours at the time. And, having a house that's messy just adds one more burden to you. And I had a good friend who just came over and allowed me to cry.
And she vacuumed my floor. , she washed my dishes and it was such a comfort to me. , it meant so much to me. Whatever that is, that if someone is going through divorce and has small kids, they don't get a break most of the time. Yeah. Let the kids out for ice cream. Yeah. Let that woman take a hot bubble bath or just sit down and catch up on laundry.
. So those are things that we can show compassion and kind. To others.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah, I love that. So is in your work as a therapist and just working with people that are going through these kinds of struggles with the, with a divorce or ending of a relationship and that sort of thing. What do you see as the tasks maybe that's not a great word, but what do you see as, what is the work of recovering from situations like this?
Teresa Williams: First of all is take your time and take your time and allow yourself to agree all the emotions associated with, the shock of it and the anger, the, the disbel belief. The bargaining, all the stages of grief. And allow yourself those emotions, don't stuff them. , get you a good friend that's going to come alongside you and be there and encourage you.
That doesn't offer advice, but just encouragement and love. And then go find a therapist. Go do your own work. I did that myself and. Find the things that you need to take care of you. , because it's a process. It's not a one and done thing. It doesn't mean that when the ink is dry on the divorce decree that all of a sudden life's gonna go back to some type of normal and you're gonna be okay.
, it doesn't work like that. I have a, it's a process.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of layers to it, and everybody's situation is a little different, but I think one of the things is, you're right, is finding a professional to talk to about it. Because as I think about it, there's not only.
The grief of it, but there might be some trauma associated with it, and a person being able to find, finding out about secrets that have been kept and all of that sort of thing. Dealing with that. The redefining of self, particularly for people that have been married for a while.
They define themselves in the context of a relationship. And so in, in many ways, you're having to redefine who you are as a person and all of that sort of thing. And so that, like you said, that's a process. And I think I remember a friend of mine who's also a therapist was talking about grief in terms of it's not something you get.
But it's something you get through and I think a lot of times to be able to just recognize that it's not necessarily something you're gonna get over and it's just gonna be done. But you're getting through it and it will crop up again. That's the nature of grief.
Teresa Williams: It is and learning how to deal with the triggers.
The sight smells, the taste that trigger you to your past and learning how to cope with them and not allowing them to take you down and derail you. And right. Also understanding what the new norm is. Because there is a lot of adjustments. Maybe you didn't get the house in the divorce, Maybe you have to move.
And then the custody situation with, if there's kids involved, now you're used to having your kids all the time around you, and now they have to go over to dad's house, for the weekend or every other week. That's a major adjustment. Yeah.
Gordon Brewer: And I think that's yeah. And so I think, again, going full circle back to finding someone that can walk alongside you in that journey is gonna be one of the most helpful things that you, that anyone can do with that.
Absolutely. Yeah. And then finding a safe community to be in with all of that. And we're talking about church, but there are other different communities that people can be involved in to where they can get that support. And so really getting community and support.
Teresa Williams: Yeah, absolutely. That is so vital and not to isolate yourself, because a lot of times, depending on the circumstances, you don't wanna talk to people, you don't wanna put yourself out there, You don't wanna have to explain what happened for the Hunt or Tom and have somebody either a, not know what to say, or when they do say something, it's not helpful.
. And Active and staying, aware of being involved in the community and having that support is really vital to your emotional
Gordon Brewer: health. Yes. Therea I, I wanna be respectful of your time, but what are some other parting thoughts that maybe you have just around this topic and just thinking about how people can live into kindness and compassion around divorce, particularly if for folks that maybe find it a little bit.
Teresa Williams: Is, first of all, I would say to those who find it troubling, we don't live with that couple, We don't know what has gone on in that marriage. , we weren't there, so we don't really have a right to judge. , we don't have a right to criticize because we don't know, we didn't live with them and vice versa.
If we're married, people don't live with us, hopefully. And so they don't know what goes on behind closed doors. . And having that compassion and kindness around it for that person who's walking that path is so vital. . And for the person that is walking through it I just wanna encourage them.
You will get. , if you're willing to do the work, if you're willing to keep moving forward, you will be okay. , I can promise you that. , and that's what's really important, is to know that there's hope in healing beyond divorce, regardless of your circumstances.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. That's great.
That's great. Theresa, tell folks how they can get in touch with you if they have questions or want to connect with.
Teresa Williams: I have a free handout. If they wanna go to Confident and courageous woman.com. , there is a free handout, It's five tips for dealing with the Stress of Divorce.
They can reach out to me through that website at Teresa at Confident and Courageous Woman and I have coaching programs and we're getting ready to launch hopefully soon in membership. So they can reach out and I would be glad to talk with
Gordon Brewer: them. Awesome. And we'll have links here in the show notes and the show summary for all of this.
Teresa, it's good to reconnect again and hope you as we're recording this, we're moving full force into the holiday season. So I hope you have a great holidays and Thank you. You too. And all of that kinda fun stuff. Alrighty.
Teresa Williams: Thank
Gordon Brewer: you. It's been a pleasure. Yes, mine too.

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Enjoy this podcast? Please spread the word :)

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