B.R.A.V.E.

This week musicians Brandon and Jackie Gibbons of the Gibbonses join me to talk about improving your mindset. Brandon and Jackie coach people on mindset and finances in addition to their work as music artists. Below are three major tools and questions we discussed.  Find book and journal from Brendon Burchard here.  Two powerful questions to ask yourself:  When was the last time you tested that opinion?  What would it look like if I was a person who...?  Find music by The Gibbonses on their website, https://www.thegibbonses.com and be sure to follow them on facebook and instagram to catch their next live donation based concert Friday at 7pmCST!  Schedule a FREE 20 minute discovery call with me here.  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

A gift for you - a meditation! This is a bonus episode that I hope you come back to many times. Enjoy!  I'm taking one-on-one coaching clients currently. I work with clients in packages of 3 or 6 sessions and we dive into self-love, self-compassion, self-acceptance, and self-care. Even with your busy spring, this is a great time to do some inner work before summer. Schedule a FREE 20 minute discovery call with me here.  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave!

What's up Brave Ones! This episode is simply here to guide your heart and you as person during a world crisis. If you need support in what to say as a camp pro to your camp families, and directions to go in for you camp business - please head on over to GoCampPro and the slack https://join.slack.com/t/covid-19camp/shared_invite/zt-cm5kxfe9-6VroJz4zozCarC5cWh_org to join the conversation.  Listen in for reminders to the fact that we are all having our own human reactions and allowing for all of it is needed right now. And reminders that we are all building new skills, flexing new muscles or muscles we have in new ways and so we are uncomfortable, which also means we are growing! Finally, I'm taking one-on-one coaching clients currently. I work with clients in packages of 3 or 6 sessions and we dive into self-love, self-compassion, self-acceptance, and self-care. Even with your busy spring, this is a great time to do some inner work before summer. Schedule a FREE 20 minute discovery call with me here.  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Join us this week as I speak with Jill Heiman for round two of deep heartfelt wisdom. Jill was on the show in Season 1, it's a great listen on visioning and defining your values, you can go back and listen here. In this episode we dive into showing up fully as yourself, and bonus - Jill gave me some coaching, which means there is a double layer of learning. You can ask yourself the same questions and you can take the way she honed the questions to what I was needing into your work with coaching staff. Plus in listening back, I hope everyone takes away the importance of sisterhood and connection as our friendship is very apparent throughout this episode.  To learn more about Jill's work, visit her website Awake Journey and follow Jill on Instagram @awakejourney and email her at yourawakejourney@gmail.com to start you Awake Journey with her!  Get ready for BOSS - The Brave Outdoor Self Series with Ruby Compton from Ruby Outdoors (@rubyoutdoors) and myself as we guide new camp directors (first 4 years in camping) through deep inner leadership skills through experiential learning in the Blue Ridge Mountains in April. Registration open soon! And we will have a second BOSS experience for Camp Directors and Owners coming at ya Fall 2020.  Finally, I'm taking one-on-one coaching clients currently. I work with clients in packages of 3 or 6 sessions and we dive into self-love, self-compassion, self-acceptance, and self-care. Even with your busy spring, this is a great time to do some inner work before summer. Schedule a FREE 20 minute discovery call with me here.  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Join me on this episode for a brief convo on meditation, what it is and is not and a shirt breath meditation at the end. Some great articles if you want to dive in deeper:  https://www.mindful.org/how-to-meditate/ https://www.gaiam.com/blogs/discover/meditation-101-techniques-benefits-and-a-beginner-s-how-to  https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/how-to-meditate https://www.scienceofpeople.com/meditation-benefits/  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

This episode is all about People Pleasing - what it is, where it comes from, how to recognize it, and how to start healing the beliefs and parts of yourself that are operating in people pleasing. I interview Julianne Schroeder, a Licensed Professional Counselor, National Certified Counselor, and Certified Yoga Teacher on this topic. Julianne shares her wisdom in such a kind and compassionate manner, exhibiting one of the ways I’ve healed my own people pleasing patterns, through gentle compassion. You can find more of Julianne’s work by listening to archived episodes of The Everyday Therapy Podcast:  https://www.everydaytherapypodcast.com, on her website:  https://www.julianneschroeder.com, and on instagram @julianne.schroeder.  Get ready for BOSS - The Brave Outdoor Self Series with Ruby Compton from Ruby Outdoors (@rubyoutdoors) and myself as we guide new-ish female identifying camp pros through deep inner leadership skills through experiential learning in the Blue Ridge Mountains April 6th-10th. Registration is now open at womenincamping.com and dive in now for the early bird discount! Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

This week Emma Garrison, a powerful self-worth, body image, and mindset coach, joins us to discuss limiting beliefs. Listen in to learn what limiting beliefs are, where they come from, how to bust them, and most importantly how to set new empowering beliefs for yourself. This personal development tool is one of the most powerful I've learned to date and Emma provides a step by step process you follow.  Follow Emma on instagram @emmamgarrison and check out her podcast and one-on-one coaching opportunities with her on her website www.livingintheyum.com  Get ready for BOSS - The Brave Outdoor Self Series with Ruby Compton from Ruby Outdoors (@rubyoutdoors) and myself as we guide new-ish female identifying camp pros through deep inner leadership skills through experiential learning in the Blue Ridge Mountains April 6th-10th. Registration is now open at womenincamping.com and dive in now for the early bird discount! Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

2019 is coming to a close bringing with it a close to 2010 decade. No matter where you are at, what you are feeling, you are EXACTLY where you need to be. If you are stoked for wrapping the year and setting new intentions, go for it! If you have been feeling emotional and struggling through the last few months, particularly the last few weeks, you may simply be an empath feeling some of the collective shifts and letting go. I for one have been feeling it and have not been up to my usual end of the year reflection and intention setting for the new year, and I had to remind myself that where I am is ok! And I can do my reflection on 2019 and the decade even after we ring in the new year. I can set intentions for 2020 anytime! And the same goes for you! You can totally go for the ringing in the new year if that's your jam, and you can hang back, rest, and check in when you are ready.  This episode brings you a brief reflection activity that can be adapted for any staff reflection needs throughout the year and summer. I wrap with a grounding meditation that will help you root into your body and the earth during this transition from 2019 to 2020.  Get ready for BOSS - The Brave Outdoor Self Series with Ruby Compton from Ruby Outdoors (@rubyoutdoors) and myself as we guide new-ish female identifying camp pros through deep inner leadership skills through experiential learning in the Blue Ridge Mountains April 6th-10th. Registration is now open at womenincamping.com and dive in now for the early bird discount! Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Meditation Music: Meditation background music: Skyward by Scott Buckley http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/ Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/0VL_aMEfHic  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Some quick nuggets on why this time of year rest is important, and how to drop into rest if it feels elusive to you. Plus I talk about staying inspired during this time of year.  I quote Brene Brown from Braving the Wilderness: “Tonight we will exhale and teach. Now it's time to inhale. There is the in-breath and there is the out-breath, and it's easy to believe that we must exhale all the time, without ever inhaling. But the inhale is absolutely essential if you want to continue to exhale.” Get ready for BOSS - The Brave Outdoor Self Series with Ruby Compton from Ruby Outdoors (@rubyoutdoors) and myself as we guide new-ish female identifying camp pros through deep inner leadership skills through experiential learning in the Blue Ridge Mountains April 6th-10th. Registration is now open at womenincamping.com and dive in now for the early bird discount! Be sure to check-in on my insta story this month as I’m bringing you a self-care tip of the day to navigate your path more authentically as we wrap up 2019 AND be sure to register for my Radical Self-Care Masterclass with GoCampPro at https://gocamp.pro/masterclasses/radical-self-care-with-ange-atkinson Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Sean Graves is a transformational coach and intuitive guide here to help others follow their own authentic path. In this episode we jam on how to move through times on your journey when you feel mentally blocked in, working with your ego, dark nights of the soul, emotional release, and embodiment. This episode is full of deep wisdom! Check out more of Sean’s work on his podcast Follow Your Path which you can find here on his website: https://www.innerworlddesign.com/podcast, his new project the Teen Transformation Project (info coming soon) and follow him on instagram @sean.graves_ Get ready for BOSS - The Brave Outdoor Self Series with Ruby Compton from Ruby Outdoors (@rubyoutdoors) and myself as we guide new-ish female identifying camp pros through deep inner leadership skills through experiential learning in the Blue Ridge Mountains April 6th-10th. Registration is now open at womenincamping.com and dive in now for the early bird discount! Be sure to check-in on my insta story this month as I’m bringing you a self-care tip of the day to navigate your path more authentically as we wrap up 2019 AND be sure to register for my Radical Self-Care Masterclass with GoCampPro at https://gocamp.pro/masterclasses/radical-self-care-with-ange-atkinson  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Andrea Briceno, Joy Coach and Holistic Health Coach join us this week to jam on all things creativity! Listen in to learn about easy ways to access your creativity which will guide you into deeper authenticity in life!  Connect with Andrea on instagram @andreacbriceno and on her website https://www.andreabriceno.com for more info on coaching with her and her awesome coaching programs and the Blissful and Bold IG Series.  Get ready for BOSS - The Brave Outdoor Self Series with Ruby Compton from Ruby Outdoors (@rubyoutdoors) and myself as we guide new camp directors (first 4 years in camping) through deep inner leadership skills through experiential learning in the Blue Ridge Mountains in April. Registration open soon! And we will have a second BOSS experience for Camp Directors and Owners coming at ya Fall 2020.  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Hop over to my website, angeatkinson.com for more info on working with me. Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Register for Summer Camp Con!https://summercampcon.com There's still time to join my Radical Self-Care Masterclass with Go Camp Pro! https://gocamp.pro/masterclasses/radical-self-care-with-ange-atkinson For female identifying camp pros looking to deepen their leadership!  Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Cathy Fisher is a life coach, healer, and tarot card reader, you can follow Cathy @theconnectionjunkie on Insta!Listen in as we dig into developing one of the most important relationships you will have in your life - your relationship with yourself. Cathy references Alison Armstrong's work, and I can't recommend her enough, check her work out here: https://www.understandmen.com Subscribe, rate, and review The BRAVE Director on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow me on instagram @ange.atkinson  Until next time, Hearts Forward, Be Brave! Credits:  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Welcome back BRAVE ONES! Season 2 is here with a new title and honed focus of bringing personal development to camp leaders and directors.  Are you a female identifying camp professional, come to the Women and Camp Summit!! This is a space where brave conversations are had, experiential learning from other badass lady camp pros is priority, and where you can find support and healing. There is still time to register! http://www.acail.org/women-in-camp-summit.html  Want to attend a rad camp conference from your office? Summer Camp Con is a truly wonderful online camp conference with excellent content! Register here! https://summercampcon.com/scampcon-2-reg/  Please check out my new website www.angeatkinson.com for coaching, speaking, workshops, and training inquiries, and follow me and the show on instagram @ange.atkinson Until next time, hearts forward, be brave. 

Listen in as two of the brilliant minds and hearts behind the Women in Camp Summit, beth Allison and Gabrielle Raill, share their internal experiences of moving through fear and perfectionism as they helped create the first ever Women in Camp Summit (WIC). There are lessons and wisdom nuggets in here for all of as leaders. Bold leadership is about being vulnerable WITH boundaries, being connected to your WHY, having a strong network of support, and more!  Be sure to register for the Women in Camp Summit here: http://www.acail.org/women-in-camp-summit.html and follow WIC on instagram @womenincamping to meet so many badass ladycamppros with ladycamppro insta take over project!  Other awesome Camp Pros mentioned in the podcast include:  Ruby Compton, fellow Camp Code Podcast host and creator of WIC who you can check out at https://rubyoutdoors.com and follow on social media @rubyoutdoors.  Colette Marquardt Executive Director of ACA Illinois, you can get in contact with her via email, colette@acail.org Dr. G, parenting and youth development expert you can find at https://askdoctorg.com  Peg Smith, former CEO of the American Camp Association, you can find many fantastic articles from her on the ACA website including this one: https://www.acacamps.org/news-publications/blogs/camp-connection/peg-smith-why-i-love-camp  And finally, you can get in contact with our two guests Beth Allison via https://gocamp.pro at beth@gocamp.pro and Gabrielle Raill via http://en.ouareau.com at gabrielle@ouareau.com.  Subscribe, rate, and review B.R.A.V.E. on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love   Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.  Credits:  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

This week on the show Patti Sampson and I discuss resiliency, upper limits, and tools that will help you be a fully embodied educator and awesome Camp Pro! Patti is the owner of Coastal Roots Camp as well as the co-host of the Rec Heads and Camp Nerd Podcast, co-founder of Summer Camp Con and Patchwork Marketplace. Patti shares some wonderful stories about resiliency and leads us to a beautiful discussion about upper limits. Check out The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks for more juicy information on this topic. We talk about how resiliency comes into play through both failure and success. From here Patti and I get into a discussion about showing up vulnerably with staff in order to role model resiliency through admitting failure, and knowing your limits and boundaries while doing this is vital. This moves us into a conversation around our self-care needs in order to be resilient including deep and Divine connection. Patti describes an awesome tool of ‘evidence building’ to help remind you what’s going well and what your wins are and I share how this is wonderful for our ego minds. To wrap up, Patti shares that she hopes for all kids to learn to be gritty and refers to Angela Duckworth’s book GRIT. Check out the resources below for more information!  Resources The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks - http://bigleapexperience.com  Marianne Williamson quote - https://marianne.com  For more about defining your values, I recommend listening to Episode 14 of BRAVE  Michael Brandwein - http://www.michaelbrandwein.com  Book - GRIT - https://angeladuckworth.com   Guest Contact Info You can find Patti at a number of places including thecampnerd.com, social media @thecampnerd, as well as pattisampson.weebly.com for epic writing content, and patchworkmarketplace.com for badass affordable camp resources.    Subscribe, rate, and review B.R.A.V.E. on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love   Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.  Credits:  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Join in for a guided meditation to expand your energy before jumping into your week!!  Subscribe, rate, and review B.R.A.V.E. on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love  Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.  Credits:  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Listen in for my big life update and a lesson on regeneration that I've been learning.    Subscribe, rate, and review B.R.A.V.E. on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love   Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.  Credits:  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Vince Gowmon joins us this week to discuss healing with somatic therapy and play. Vince shares a bit about his story and how he arrived in the healing field and working with educators. We start off with Vince discussing that somatic therapy is an approach to releasing trauma out of the body in ways that are not necessarily verbal. This is vital to healing because there are things that occur and get stuck in our nervous systems at pre-verbal stages, so using sensory-motor processing can access a deeper level of healing. This leads us into a discussion about why educators need to do their own healing work - Vince shares that their wellbeing is vital to create a learning environment that feels safe, and children are more able to receive information and learn if they feel more safe in their body. The energy of a family AND a classroom will reflect the trauma that is present in the room. He points out that self-care is important, and that is about managing the nervous system, but not a full healing process. Vince shares that if you are ready to begin your healing journey to first begin with listening and noticing things about yourself, which will allow you to become aware of pains, hurtful relationships and heavy emotions they you may have normalized.  Next Vince discusses the role fear has in our healing journey. He points out that our Euro-western cultural dialogue around fear is to become fearless, which does not work. Fear is necessary, the problem is when we have suppressed fear in our system. He shares how this occurs in our childhood and how we can go about healing and releasing fear in our systems, as well as how trauma shows up in our nervous systems. Vince discuses the difference between trauma and burnout and how both can show up in our nervous system health. Vince also brings in a discussion of what true empathy is and that it is lacking in our society.   The last third of the episode Vince shares about play and how it can heal and is related to trauma. He shares that play is a fluid state and is spontaneous, which is related to an inner trust - we see this is children. Play is challenging for adults because we are taught on many ways not to be playful because planning is safer. This arises as we get older because we have learned to be judged and ranked, so we are taught to be more left brain oriented, so we loose trust in ourselves, our imagination, and our creativity. Planning allows us reduce the risk of being judged, it’s safer. The work he does in his Remembering to Play workshops is tot slowly re-introduce teachers to their creative inner-child. Play is about being free to be who you are and when we loose it, it’s painful, so moving slowly back in allows for healing and for people to come back into their bodies.  To wrap up, Vince shares his ideas for the future of eduction - he references the etymology of education, which is educare, meaning to draw out. This leads us to ask how to we view a child - do we see a child as an empty vessel waiting to be filled, or is a child an infinite vessel of love, light, and joy longing to be expressed? Education can shift to draw out the gifts and talents of children, trusting them to express because people get fulfillment from shining their own light into the world.  Weekly Questions Just one this week to focus on the power of this episode:  Where can you shift to allowing your gifts to shine out and drawing out the light and gifts of your students?  Resources Peter Levine - trauma and somatic therapy specialist, list of renowned books  Somatic Experiencing Institute  Dr. Gabor Matte - expert on addiction, stress, and childhood development  Vince’s Come Out and Play Video   Guest Contact Info Vince Gowmon, RTC, CPCC, BBA, Registered Therapeutic Counsellor, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach - offers somatic counseling, breath-work, distant healing and ceremony work. Check out more about him and I highly recommend looking into healing work with Vince.  Visit Vince’s website: https://www.vincegowmon.com and follow him on social media - facebook @vincegowmon and instagram @healing_for_a_new_world.  Subscribe, rate, and review B.R.A.V.E. on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love  Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.  Credits:  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

What's up BRAVE Ones? This week I bring you an episode about learning from an education system other than our own! This is a quick summary on some major differences between The Finnish Education System and The U.S. Education System.  Listen in to learn about some differences and looking at a deeper level a difference in values and culture. From these points we can understand that our thinking within the education system here in the U.S. is based in competition, scarcity, and fear. We can check out how this impacts us individually and then take in some lessons to create change in our own lives and in our classrooms.  This takes us into our Weekly Questions:  What are your values?  What are the values of your classroom?  Where can you take radical responsibility within your life?  What is your relationship to time within your classroom? Can you relax with it by doing something like relaxing on homework assignments?  What fears come up (if any) when you think about decreasing homework or relaxing on time within your classroom space?  What do these fears show you about yourself and your values?  Are you teaching from a place of fear or bravery?    Subscribe, rate, and review B.R.A.V.E. on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love  Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.   Credits:  Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson Resources Ten Reasons Why Finland's Education System is The Best? Why are Finland's Schools So Successful?  6 Key Principals That Make Finnish Education a Success 

This week on B.R.A.V.E. Visionary Coach and Dream-Builder Teacher, Jill Heiman, joins us to drop some wisdom nuggets on visioning. Jill shares her journey and we discuss what visioning is and how to incorporate this valuable tool into your life. We discuss how visioning can be used for creating big shifts as well as creating your life on a daily basis. This begins with tapping into our own inner child because this is the pathway to our intuition and passion, it’s important to connect and nourish our inner child. Jill drops some major wisdom on consistently coming from a place of compassion, how to re-frame triggers, how to be in engaged disengagement when necessary, and incorporating a daily gratitude practice. From here Jill goes into trusting Divine guidance, trusting that you have been called as an educator and stay connected to that calling by creating your own personal mission. To do this you will need to define your values and how this is the foundation for creating embodied change in your daily life and build towards holistic big life changes. We wrap up by sharing how to call in aligned friendships - aka soul tribe. There is an element of letting people go that do not light your fire. We share a bit of our friendship story as an example of how soul friendships will bring up our ‘dark stuff’, ask us to confront ourselves, be gritty, and help you connect to yourself and be the best version of yourself. Finally Jill shares her vision for the future of education which involves a new level of enlightenment within education to allow the power of our youth to shine.  Weekly Questions What is a shift you want to create in your life? In what area of your life is this?  What is something or someone that triggers you? Sit with it - what comes up that you would like to heal? How can you be grateful?  What is your personal mission statement?  What are your values? Define them.  Who is someone in your life that lifts you up? Are there people you need to let go?    Check out Awake Journey at https://www.awakejourney.com and follow Jill on Instagram @awakejourney and email her at yourawakejourney@gmail.com to start you Awake Journey with her!    Subscribe, rate, and review B.R.A.V.E. on the Stitcher App, Podbean, and ITunes! Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love   Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. 

A love note to YOU!  You are loved. There is nothing you have to do, say, or be to receive love in this moment. You are already receiving love. Open to it. And drop in for this Divine Love meditation for YOU!  Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

This week's episode is so much fun! Kipa Cetán, a healer, medicine woman, spiritual guide and consultant, and educator joins me to talk about energy and opening up to messages from your spirit guides. Our conversation meanders quite a bit, and is all connected. Listen in as we discuss living in a vibrational world, and as we both provide insights into ego, the illusion of separateness and as Kipa shares some historical background on educational and spiritual teachings. Kipa is a major powerhouse when it comes to channeling and healing and she drops some serious wisdom on contacting your spirit guides, and wraps up with sharing her vision for the future of education. If you are into energy and all things woo-woo this episode is for you. If you aren't sure if you are into energy and all things woo-woo this episode is also for you! And if you don't go to the woo-woo then I invite you to give it a listen anyway and step out of your comfort zone!  Get in touch with Kipa Cetán via email at kipacetan111@gmail.com, visit her website https://www.kipacetan.com/, and follow her on instagram @kipacetan.  Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions, interested in one-on-one coaching, energy healing, or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson    

This week’s episode I teach on how to cultivate your super powers as a Highly Sensitive Person or Empath. Listen in to the beginning for frameworks of what it means to be a Highly Sensitive Person and an Empath. Steps to harnessing your super powers as an HSP/Empath involve healing your past, cultivating your intuition, engaging in a spiritual practice, practice energetic or spiritual hygiene, and celebrating who you are! Listen in for more details on how to do each of these. Check out the resources below for all kinds of tools and programs I mention in this episode! Resources The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr. Elaine Aron: https://hsperson.com/   Empowerment Partnership - NLP training: http://www.empowermentpartnership.com/   Self-Compassion from Dr. Kristen Neff: https://self-compassion.org/   Ho’oponopono Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qoq75-DQm4 Ho’oponopono Book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9GUqytopQ0   Christine Hassler’s Work Expectation Hangover for adult temper tantrum technique: https://christinehassler.com/books-and-courses/ Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

This week on the show we have Salandra Grice, the founder of Conscious Education Consulting. She is a wife, mother, and former Kindergarten teacher turned Equity Consultant. It was during her nine-year teaching career that she discovered a need to help teachers and schools integrate culturally responsive teaching practices to help create more positive and equitable learning experiences for all students. This desire to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to increase their effectiveness with diverse learners sparked the founding of her company, Conscious Education Consulting. With a focus on engaging teachers and schools in reflective and engaging professional development around culturally responsive practices, she hopes to help transform teachers' mindsets about what it takes to educate our diverse students and to create more positive, relevant and meaningful learning experiences for every student. As we begin the episode, Salandra shares more on her personal journey into being a education consultant and doing culturally responsive professional development. The we dive right in, I ask her why it’s vital that all educators need culturally responsive teaching and what to do if you are an educator that is interested in the work, but are dealing with fear around doing culturally responsive training. Salandra discusses if fear comes up, it’s imperative that you recognize it, move through it, and do a training because our students need us to. Culturally responsive training is not here to point out that you are racist or that you did specific things wrong or right, but rather to provide a safe and brave environment for educators to examine their own personal bias and how this can show up when we teach our students. Then we jump into understanding intersectionality, what happens when we don’t examine our biases as educators, how capacity for racism exists within me, how racism and prejudice play out in our classrooms, and intent versus impact. There is so much insight here, be sure to listen in! I ask Salandra what an educator’s steps would be when they make a mistake - saying or doing something that causes harm to a person outside of your own culture group. She responds with practical tool of stepping into being honest and humble, remembering this would be a time to listen. Next we dive into understanding microagressions, historical trauma that people of color face in the United States, and power dynamics in schools. Again this part of the show is FULL of vital information and we are just scratching the surface! We wrap up the show with Salandra sharing her vision of education in the future. Weekly Questions This week the question is simple, have you participated in a culturally responsive teaching workshop or an anti-racist workshop? If the answer is no, then reach out to Salandra. This is important work that we all need to step into together to heal as a collective. If your answer is yes, have you shared what you learned at your school or organization? Encouraged colleagues? Implemented best practices? If not, step in - Be BRAVE.  Resources Lisa Delpit’s books can be found at: https://www.amazon.com/Lisa-D-Delpit/e/B001JP0VH2 I also HIGHLY recommend the work of Layla F. Saad (http://laylafsaad.com/) and her free workbook White Supremacy and Me for educators out there with white privilege. This will guide you in examining your bias and complicity with white supremacy. Get it here: https://www.meandwhitesupremacybook.com/ Contact Information You can find Salandra’s website at http://consciousednow.com/, contact her via email at conscioused18@gmail.com to book a consulting phone call now, and follow her on social media at (Facebook) @ConsciousEd. Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions, want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E., or interested in one-on-one coaching with me? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love. Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Tune in for a meditation to tap into your intuition, listening to yourself on a deep level will help you nourish yourself from the inside out!  I invite you to engage in a 21, 30, or 40 day challenge of pausing each day for at least 5 minutes to get quiet - getting quiet strengthens our ability to listen to ourselves at a deep level aka our intuition.  Ready to uplevel yourself personally and professionally? Email me if you are interested in one-on-one coaching.  Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Alex Gandy is a teacher at Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas. She teaches leadership program she created called Starting Off Strong, works with Avid college prep students, student council, and is a yoga teacher at the Mat Studio and an Embody Love Movement Facilitator. We start off with Alex sharing her story of finding her passion for teaching, the bumps of failing at self-care, moving through complete burnout, and her own healing journey. As Alex talks her fiery passion, critical thinking, and heart based leadership is extremely present. Alex speaks to the pain and challenges and push back with creating new programs in a very structured system. As Alex shares her story she reflects on specific moments that led to her realize she was burnout leading her to the yoga studio for self-introspection and healing. In her healing journey she has been able to cultivate more self-compassion as well as empathy for other teachers leading her to deeper connection to everyone and a more whole way of teaching. She emphasizes that connecting to the people around her in her school guides her to be a more wholehearted educator with the courage to face the brokenness of the system. Alex also shares how she has learned to care for herself including establishing non-negotiables and community outside of her work as an educator. This led us to a discussion of mutuality and how in service industry, those of us that serve need to cultivate things that fills up, things that give back to us - that are mutual. We discuss how in public school and in summer camp industry that there is a need for finding ways to teach both young people and educators how to connect and fill up from the inside out, as opposed to offering more time off or more physical things as a way to provide support. Alex makes a point that there needs to be more self-introspection and heart work for educators to connect to themselves and share their purpose with each other, and that one of the blocks to this work and self-care is a false belief that taking time for yourself means you are taking away time from a student. She moves into connecting how this belief and other things can lead to educators being pit against each other, which serves the system so that change does not occur. Through metaphor Alex teaches us how and why change is so difficult in the education system. Our discussion of mutuality and change moved us into a discussion of learning how and when to disrupt the system can be a form of self-care. Alex shares that creating disruptions in the education system - aka pushing back to create change - can be fun. Doing this you will need a team to support you - that you are pushing back together. On this team she discusses how it’s important to know your strength and have people that will call you on your stuff. Alex tells a moving from her semester abroad in Poland, particularly her visit to Auschwitz - she connects this to the need to practice disrupting the system with things that are not that scary because there are times when it is scary. Practice using your courage to stand up for things you believe in your heart and for things that give kids space to explore and grow, so that when you come up to racism and other topics that can invoke fear and discomfort. She concludes this part of the discussion by reminding us that we have to be discerning about when to disrupt, picking moments that will be a catalyst for the most change, and know that we may be painted as a villain by some people. Alex wraps up by sharing that her vision for a transformation in education is to let more of the world and current happenings in life through the doors of school, to allow students to experience real time discussion of current events and the discomfort, failure, and non-conclusion that occurs with dialogue on difficult topics. Two of my favorite quotes from this episode: “How we care for our kids is how we care for each other.” - Alex Gandy “The now doesn’t come into play enough in education.” - Alex Gandy Questions to Ask Yourself How are you caring for yourself as you start your spring semester? What are your non-negotiables? What is something you need to fill you up? Where do you go for mutual care? How do you go about self-introspection? Resources CTZN Well - http://www.ctznwell.org/  is a great resource for more information on disrupting the system Braving The Wilderness by Brene Brown Want to reach out to Alex, you can email her at alex.h.gandy@gmail.com. Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

I share 4 things to help you move through the holidays with intention, presence, and gratitude. 1. Embrace the chaos! 2. Slow Down! 3. Reflect on 2018! Get cozy - engage your senses helps your mind slow down Choose a way to express yourself, I do this with journaling, feel free to use another method if it speaks to you. If you are journaling, use a free write method, nothing has to be logical or full sentences, you are engaging your right brain here, enjoy the creativity! Go throw each month and write (or express) what comes up, asking yourself what did I learn from _____________? Circle themes as you re-read your notes, then do some more free writing around these themes. What did you learn? Is there anything left that needs addressed this year? Engage in a gratitude meditation Take your gratitude a step further and express your gratitude for those in your life that brought you lessons. This will help you deepen your connections with people. 4. Intentional Self-Care Planning List 2-3 of your top core values and define them Brainstorm 2-3 actions that will allow you to live into these values Set intention for big events that are guided by your values. This will help you be present at the event and engage in ways that will grow your being. Write down when you will pause each day to do NOTHING Find an accountability buddy! Share your self-care intention setting, especially when you intend to pause - this will help you stay committed, will guide you to connect with others, and you may inspire your buddy too! You will have plenty of time to set intentions, goals, and manifest for 2019, for now - spend time reflecting, nourishing, and going inward to close out 2018. Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions, want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E., or interested in one-on-one coaching with me? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Take five minutes today and each day this week (I challenge you!) to meditate - just sitting and breathing. You need this and so do your students. All of us have five minutes. We spend more time on our phones and worrying in our heads each day, so take some of those minutes and give yourself this gift.  Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.   Credits: Meditation background music: Skyward by Scott Buckley http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/ Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/0VL_aMEfHic  Outro music credits: www.soundcloud.com/ikson  

Here I go baring my heart and introducing the soul of B.R.A.V.E. B.R.A.V.E. raises the consciousness of education through facilitating heart and soul transformation with educators - encouraging embodiment of bold, resilient, authentic, and vulnerable leadership. This is a call for the conscious revolution of education and a call to all of us educators to level up. Listen to my heart on this short episode!  Weekly Questions What is transforming in you? What in your life needs to die off so the most of you can emerge? What are you becoming? Take a look at who you spend time with, what words you speak and with what energy, and how do you speak to yourself. Resources Marianne Williamson quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” https://marianne.com/ Seane Corn quote: “Change the people, Change the System” from CTZNWell Podcast EP 3: http://www.ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast/003-seane-corn Find more info on Seane at https://www.seanecorn.com/ and http://www.offthematintotheworld.org/seane-corn/    Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

This week Ruby Compton joins me for a discussion on burnout in the education industry. Ruby runs her own company, Ruby Outdoors, which works to help busy professionals be more present and confident outdoors through trainings and vacation concierge services.  Ruby and I have known each other for a few years through the summer camp industry and recently caught up at the first ever Women in Camp Summit (follow on Instagram @womenincamping) outside of Chicago at the beginning of November. In the episode, Ruby shares her journey of becoming a summer camp professional, growing into a year-round role,  the different ways she made changes during her career, and what led to her own personal burnout. We discuss the sacrifices that come with the lifestyle of a program or camp director, and the shame that can come up around stating you need more self-care as an educator. The messaging in the education industry is we must always put campers/students first, which easily leads educators to struggle to say they need self-care time. Ruby shared the way the stress showed up in her body as illness, and the way her health dramatically improved when she made choices more in alignment with her desires and needs. We discuss the missing link of taking care of middle management in the summer camp industry. From the evolution of summer camp, to the growing demands of educators, and higher stakes all educators feel the stress. Systematic issues in camping industry and public school system lead to a robotic treatment of the humans doing very difficult jobs. We discuss the hypocrisy that this creates - summer camp is an industry that values and promotes human connection and relationship, but we are missing this as a whole when it comes to the treatment of our people in camp administrative roles. In our discussion around the sacrifice of summer camp/educator lifestyle, I asked when do you make the choice? Ruby brings up self-reflection is key to understanding your sacrifices and needs. She shares two tools: Mind Maps - she explains the way she mind maps how she spends her time Re-interview yourself for your job This moved us into a discussion of ‘sacred no’ and intentional language around how you spend your time and the choices you make. Then we dive into up leveling the conversations on both sides of management - this is vital to creating shift in the industry around taking better care of camp directors. One of my favorite points of the episode is ‘how you finish your job shows more about you than how you start your job’. It is difficult when someone wants to leave a heart-based job for the employer to not take it personally. Courageous and vulnerable leadership is needed from everyone when camp administration want to transition to a new position or leave for a new organization. We rap on some creative ideas for creating more sustainable practices for summer camp pros and teachers. It is vital that we work as an industry as a whole and within our individual organizations to find creative ways to retain our year round staff. This includes changing the way we think about time off, pay, benefits, the amount of time we work, as well as saying no to industry norms such as being in a frenzy every May going into your summer. Additionally we discussed camp pros affinity for entrepreneurship. We dig into the epidemic happening in the summer camp industry of strong camp directors leaving the industry because they are saying no to the sacrifice that is asked of each of us as summer camp professionals, and that self-care is knowing what your needs are. Ruby shares what she loves about the outdoors because getting into nature is a wonderful way to self-care. I asked her  to share ideal vision for the education system as we wrap up. You can visit Ruby’s website, https://rubyoutdoors.com/ and get in touch with Ruby via email ruby@rubyoutdoors.com or follow her on Instagram @rubyoutdoors - I highly recommend her for camp and staff training consulting, trainings, speaking, and booking a vacation with her in the mountains of western North Carolina. You can also catch her sharing her staff training expertise as a co-host of the podcast of Camp Code, http://camphacker.tv/camp-code/.   Questions to ask yourself this week:   What reality are you creating with your mindset and your energy? What are your needs? How are you meeting them? Where have you abandoned yourself? What needs will you take to your supervisor this week to have a creative discussion about making some changes?   Resources Mind Mapping - https://www.mindmapping.com/ Creative problem solving - http://www.creativeeducationfoundation.org/creative-problem-solving/ Growth Mindset - https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means   Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.   Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

In this episode I share my story of discovering my path as an educator, break down, breakthrough and healing and how BRAVE came into being. I start off with an ‘I Come From’ poem which is a fun icebreaker to use with students, I modified this version: https://freeology.com/worksheet-creator/poetry/i-am-from-poem/ - you can easily do this as a verbal or written exercise. As part of my story I discuss and define intrusive thoughts. For more information on Intrusive thoughts visit www.intrusivethoughts.org. I also discuss my experience with anxiety. If you or someone you know struggles with anxiety, depression, addiction, or any other mental illness please reach out for support. You are not alone, and you deserve help through your journey in healing. It may feel impossible now, and it may be very challenging, and I encourage you from the bottom of my heart to check out these resources now. Transference and counter-transference: https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/what-is-transference-and-counter-transference/ https://www.rivendell.nsw.edu.au/resources/for-teachers/tool-kit/transference-and-countertransference/   Resources for anxiety and depression Anxiety and Depression Association of America adaa.org Use Psychology Today to find a therapist near you. Look for a therapist that specializes in something you may need such as anxiety, anxiety disorders, childhood trauma, family dynamics, bi-polar disorder, depression, sexual trauma, etc. And ask questions and do you research - make sure they feel good for you, have similar values to you, this is your healing journey. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freudian-sip/201102/how-find-the-best-therapist-you Online Counseling: www.betterhelp.com/ Mental Health Online forum: https://themighty.com/topic/mental-health/ Crisis Hotlines: https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/depression-hotline/ Find more on the book I refer to “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior”: http://www.peacefulwarrior.com/ One of my favorite tools for working with the anxiety I experience is to consume media that lights me up. My favorite blog is elephantjournal.com and one of my all time favorite coach and author is Christine Hassler who hosts a podcast called Over it And On With It where she coaches people live on air through an issue they are struggling with. This is a great place to connect into other people doing inner work and learn valuable tools to apply to your own life. https://christinehassler.com/podcast/ Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com. You can follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward. Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Jill Murawski joins me for episode three of B.R.A.V.E. to share her passion for finding stillness, setting children up for learning success and brain health. Jill owns Fit Yoga in Richardson, Texas and is a trained educator with STRIPES. In this episode, she shares her values and how she lives into her values through her life, including how she finds stillness each morning. Jill discusses the difference of holding ourselves to what we ‘should’ be doing versus bringing ‘allowing’ into our lives. Allowing leads to grace in our lives. STRIPES is Systematic Training in Relaxation for Inner Peace for Every Student, a wonderful program that involves learning to be still, to move, and breath to help set students up for learning success. Teaching these skills guides youth to learn that they have all the tools within them already to be able to move through life. This leads us to the discussion around children feeding off adults’ nervous systems. Breathing is a vital tool for helping educators and students self-regulate, bring a sense of calm, and move into their parasympathetic nervous system. Jill advocates that educators need to practice pausing, breathing, and being still as a part of self-care. This leads us back to giving ourselves grace as we are in our practice of self-care. Jill is also an Embody Love Movement Facilitator, which we will share more about in a future episode. The ELM facilitator training mentioned in this episode is past, but if you are interested in learning more, please email me - see below.   Self-Care Ideas Take time each morning to pause and find stillness through meditation, quiet time, or getting into nature Learn breathing techniques Bring movement into your morning Give yourself grace - allow self-care to come into your life Schedule time for yourself to take a break   Questions to Ask Yourself How do you begin each morning? How does this routine affect you as you move into your day? Are there adjustments you would like to make? What are you in the practice of each day? What is your technology use like and how is it affecting you? What is one thing you can schedule for yourself this week to take a break?   Resources STRIPES Embody Love Movement Self-Compassion Steps Co-Regulation You can follow Jill and learn more about STRIPES at https://fityogajill.com/   Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com Want support in developing authentic self-care? Work with me one-on-one for 3 months and we will create a self-care system that works for you! Or join BRAVE self-care mastermind, enrolling now and beginning December 1st. Email brave.educators@gmail.com for more info, and follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Until next week, go out Be BRAVE, Hearts Forward.   Credits: Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson

Samantha Brusnighan joins us for the very first episode of B.R.A.V.E. to discuss her journey in self-care and how it has shaped the way she works with her students. Sam is a Houston ISD based college and career readiness educator with a Master’s degree in Higher Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Like many educators her job varies from day-to-day and time of year. Listen in as she discusses her own passion for personal-development and leadership that led her to discover that she is energized by building relationships, and discovering how use tools such as Strength’s Finder, a leadership assessment tool, for herself and in her college readiness program. As our discussion deepens, you can follow how Samantha’s own quest for bettering herself creates meaningful impact for her students because she teaches from experience. Sam brings up the idea that you can’t pour into someone else’s cup what you do not have in your own cup. She goes into her story of burning out during her first few years as an educator, which led to health issues, eventually leading her to more intentional self-care. She shares how her self-care journey has evolved from just movement and exercise to other significant self-care practices, and we jive on creating a self-care system of your own that works for you and how this is a discovery process. We discuss how self-care is cyclical holistic, when you just focus on one area of self-care the other parts tend to fall into place, and how we cannot strive for perfection in self-care, but rather just starting somewhere. She further shares how she has taken her self-development journey into her teaching, putting practices such as mindfulness into lingo that her students can relate to. This led us to a discussion of failure and how to process failure as an educator. I loved that Sam vulnerably shares that letting go of failure continues to be a growth area for her, and she is learning the valuable tool of reframing situations and defining success for herself -- all incredibly crucial aspects of self-care that we may not normally define as self-care. As we wrap up our conversation, Samantha mentions that she has PCOS and ties learning health practices specifically for her that do not necessarily follow specific rules helps her create understanding and intention behind her actions, which helps her self-care be more consistent. She discusses how being vulnerable with her PCOS journey taught her to bring vulnerability into her teaching. We discuss how being vulnerable with our students is an act of self-care and a positive and impactful teaching tool because our students know when we are living in our truth.       Listen in at the end as Sam shares her vision for the future of education. Self-Care Ideas Start your day off with positivity by consuming content you enjoy! Surround yourself with people that inspire you and fan your fire. Focus on one area of self-care to start instead of trying to get every area ‘right’ or going at the same time. It’s ok to start slow. Recognize how you process failure and define success for yourself. Practicing being vulnerable with boundaries to deepen relationships. Questions to Ask Yourself What beliefs do you have around ‘self-care’? How do you start your day? What content do you enjoy consuming that you could bring into your life with intention? Who do you surround yourself with? Who are the people in your life that inspire you and how much time do you spend with them? How do you process failure? How comfortable are you with vulnerability? Resources Strengths Finder It Starts with Food PCOS resources: PCOSAA, PCOS Diva, Online Support Network You can follow Samantha, her self-care journey, and awesome cat Tater on Instagram @samanthabee785 or contact her via email, sbrusnig@gmail.com   Follow B.R.A.V.E. on Instagram and Twitter @brave_educators and on Facebook @brave.educators Have questions or want to share your story on B.R.A.V.E.? Email me brave.educators@gmail.com Want support in developing authentic self-care? Work with me one-on-one for 3 months and we will create a self-care system that works for you! Email brave.educators@gmail.com and follow me personally on Instagram @embodied.soul.love Music by https://www.soundcloud.com/ikson Until next week, go out and Be BRAVE.