A Fine Time for Healing

The topic of today's show is: How to Take Your Power Back

As a narcissistic abuse survivor and expert I know how frustrating, helpless, and confusing this disorder can be to deal with. As an experienced counselor I know that issues dealing with this problem are always arising. The second Friday of every month my internet radio show, A Fine Time for Healing, will be entirely devoted to taking to your calls and answering your questions about NPD. The advice is FREE! The show airs at 11 a.m. EST and runs for 45 minutes. The number you will call to connect with the show and speak to me is 424-220-1801. This time will not be a convenient one for everyone so there is another way for you to get your questions answered. Just email me ahead of time and I will read your questions on air and answer them. I assure you that your identity will be kept anonymous. All shows will be recorded and archived after broadcasting. They can be listened to at your convenience by clicking on the link I will provide you when you email me. Please send your emails to [email protected] with “Radio Show Question” in the subject heading

Dementia can be prevented, stopped and in many cases reversed, says today's special guest, Coach/Consultant/Plant Based Food Cheft Alexi Bracey, who offers us beneficial suggestions/guidance/inspiration to help us "live long, die young" and leave behind our legacy while thriving as we age.

There is a tsunami of dementia on this planet today with some statistics citing that up to fifty percent of the world will die of neurological disorders. Women are three times more at risk.Why is this happening? Alexi says,"You can blame it on the planet, modern technology, the toxins, the water, the air, the poor diet. But it comes down to being educated and making healthy lifestyle choices".

People in the Blue Zones (5 pockets of the longest living communities worldwide) thrive well into their 90's and 100's with a sharp mind and agile body. We can learn from these lifestyle habits and other significant factors and adapt them to our society.

Alexi, President of Whole Health Academy, lives in Toronto Canada. She offers coaching and resources to individuals who wish to thrive as they age and ward off dis-ease. She offers a natural, non-invasive 30 Day Detox online program, complete with group and individual coaching, ongoing education through teleclasses and guest interviews, many other resources and continuous new lifestyle support.

Cancer saved her life 20 years ago. She applied  the knowledge acquired through the experience and put into a life-long practice, shifting her career as a chef to a plant-based one and delving into health. Lexi was cancer-free without drugs, surgery or any medical intervention.

In 2004, today's special guest Mindy Tsai began hearing a voice in her head, someone she called "Joe." She found signs everywhere that seemed to hold mysterious clues meant only for her. What she didn't know at the time was that she was experiencing her first schizophrenic episode. For the next decade, she oscillated between two worlds - a normal life and a secret voice-filled one -- until she began the journey of merging her two worlds back into one.

In her memoir, Becoming Whole, Mindy documents her onset of schizophrenia and the subsequent years spent learning about it and how to live with it. It is her journey to finding solace.

Although 75 million worldwide and 3.2 million in the United States suffer from schizophrenia, Mindy's story uniquely shows how, contrary to popular opinion, not everyone with schizophrenia stops living independently. This book speaks to those suffering from the illness, those who are isolated by any mental illness, or anyone who has felt caught between two worlds.

Mindy Tsai was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to New York City at age fourteen. She holds a master's degree from Cornell and has worked in software technology.

“When we think about relationships, we tend to focus on our romantic partnerships,” says today's special gues, licensed counselor Jessica Baum, “but our friendships are just as important, and the quality of those relationships is worthy of our attention.”

A healthy friendship is built on trust, and you should feel safe. If your friend is the gossip queen or king, be careful. You might enjoy their company, but having a good friend means being able to safely talk to them without the entire town finding out your business.

No relationship is 100% equal or balanced at every moment. We all go through hard times and lean on each other when we need to. Friendships are intended to support you, not to be a battle field of competition. We should be happy about each other’s accomplishments, but what often happens in unhealthy friendships is a battle of “one-upping” each other. This is not the nature of a healthy friendship, and jealousy towards someone is not ever supportive.

We all occasionally speak negatively about someone or something that bothers us. When this becomes the norm and your way of connecting with your friend, though, it’s a problem. Not only is it very unhealthy, it also keeps you stuck in a negative cycle of toxic bonding.

Jessica Baum, LMHC is the founder of the Relationship Institute of Palm Beach and creator of the Self-Full™ method — a therapeutic path to personal wellness and freedom from codependence. Jessica holds an undergraduate degree from Fordham University and a master’s degree in mental health counseling from South University. As a certified addiction specialist, her focuses are chemical abuse, codependency,  and anxiety. She is also a certified Imago Therapist.

Are you ready for a profound shift in your perceptions of love, life, and death? Are you open to the idea that you can communicate or connect with loved ones who have died? Do you wonder if there is an afterlife?

In Beyond Ever After, today's special guests, authors Catherine A. Weissenberg and Jocelyn Montanaro, offer an all-encompassing message of hope, connection and love. Catherine shares her psychic gift, allowing Jocelyn to communicate with her husband Kevin, who is dying of brain cancer, both while he is in a coma and after his death. Jocelyn, previously a skeptic, chronicles the struggle of losing Kevin, while Catherine provides her spiritual perspective and insight from 30 years of facilitating conversations with comatose patients and the deceased.

Through this powerful story about love, spiritual beliefs, and human attachments, this book shines a light on unseen realms of mystery, spirit, and our connection to an infinite Source. The book takes us on a journey that transforms how we perceive life and death, and we discover that even our wildest imaginations barely begin to penetrate the infinite possibilities of consciousness and the afterlife.

For several decades, Catherinie Weissenberg has been sharing her unique ability to communicate and dialogue with comatose patients and spirit. She chronicles these conversations as they occur in a record she calls "Writings." She is the concept creator of Loveality®, a love-based approach to living and experiencing reality. She offers Loveality workshops, books and cards.

Jocelyn Montanaro  has a bachelor's degree in International Studies and a law degree. For many years prior to writing Beyond Ever After, Jocelyn was a lawyer, working with divorcing couples, criminal defendants, and in general litigation.

In December of 1988, today's special guest Susie Levan and her seven-year-old daughter, Lauren, were forced into the trunk of a car for hours in the searing Florida heat. Susie’s new husband, Alan, was taken in another caron an hour-long drive to the bank, of which he was Chairman and CEO, to withdraw ransom money from a safe. Three perpetrators had forced their way into their home the previous afternoon, holding Lauren and housekeeper Petrona captive,under the guise of delivering a Christmas poinsettia. They later ambushed Susie and Alan at the door as they returned late at night from a meeting.

As time in the trunk passed, struggling to live, Susie experienced a Near Death Experience (NDE), visiting heaven and coming back, from which she’d emerged a radically changed human being. Because Susie came back, she understood this to be a powerful tool to conduct herself differently in the world—a message she continues to strive to communicate to others

Susie tells the story in her book Getting to Forgiveness — What a Near-Death Experience Can Teach Us About Loss, Resilience and Love. She shares how she emerged as a stronger soul after her unique life events blending spiritual thought-provoking lessons, meaningful insights and life lessons of gratitude, forgiveness and acceptance.

In addition to being an author, Levan is a community leader, philanthropist and founder of the Work-Life Balance Institute for Women (a 501c3 nonprofit). Susie and her husband Alan are co-founders of the Susie & Alan B. Levan NSU Ambassadors Board.

Proceeds from the book will be donated to the United Way of Broward County, Hispanic Unity of Florida, Nova Southeastern University, Junior Achievement of South Florida, March of Dimes, Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida, Habitat for Humanity Broward, and Women of Color Network, Inc.

Dr. Mark McLaughlin is no stranger to fear. A practicing board-certified neurosurgeon, he has helmed countless high-stakes surgeries in which any miscalculation could mean life or death. But decades performing under immense pressure in the operating room led Dr. McLaughlin to a surprising discovery: the secret to success isn’t just conquering fear – it’s engaging with it more productively.

In his new book, Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeons Quest to Out-Think Fear, Dr. McLaughlin shares a new framework for dealing with fear to think and perform at the top of your game during stressful situations. He combines philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and his own experiences to provide unique insight on how the brain processes fear and how we can change our mindset about this universal condition.

“Cognitive Dominance is a way of thinking, a methodology, to get better and better at quickly performing at the limits of your mental and physical capacity under maximum pressure with the highest probability of success,” says Dr. McLaughlin, who first discovered the concept while teaching in military circles. 

Dr. McLaughlin credits Cognitive Dominance with helping himself move past the common “Fear Freak Out” problem – that “deer-in-the-headlights” feeling under pressure – that holds us all back from high performance.

Dr. Mark McLaughlin is a neurosurgeon, author, acclaimed keynote speaker and founder of Princeton Brain and Spine Care. His expert commentary regularly appears in national media outlets such as Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Reader’s Digest, MSN, Costco, Thrive Global,  KevinMD, Becker’s Spine Review and the NCAA. A member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, he was named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for the last 10 years and an NJ Monthly Top Doc.

A revolutionary process based on the four chambers of the heart and rooted in Toltec wisdom that brings emotional clarity, healing, and freedom, The Warrior Heart Practiceis a powerful new method to reconnect with our sense of authenticity and inner-knowing and realign with our true nature. Today's special guest HeatherAsh Amara has trained extensively in the Toltec tradition under the tutelage of Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements.

HeatherAsh was inspired to write after experiencing her own struggle with self-worth, fear of rejection, shame and blame. Her goal is to help others achieve freedom from the inside out, genuinely believing that we are all fascinating, imaginative, capable beings. Using her invaluable wisdom of the Toltec teachings, The Warrior Heart Practice guides readers through the process of enthusiastically working through life’s inevitable obstacles and themselves mentally, emotionally and physically. It walks readers through each of the four chambers—Feeling, Story, Truth, and Intent— where they will learn to take stock of their current emotional and mental state and reframe their situation in a new healing light.

In the final chamber, they learn to define and focus their Intent. The last phase of the practice is the most profound—taking the knowledge they have gathered from the four chambers, readers are then guided backwards through each of the four chambers, refocusing their Intent, Truth, Story, and Feelings based on what they’ve learned during the process.

HeatherAsh Amara is the author of a number of books including the Warrior Goddess Training series. She brings an openhearted, inclusive worldview to her writings and teachings, which are a rich blend of Toltec wisdom, European shamanism, Buddhism, and Native American ceremony. Visit her website to learn more: www.heatherashamara.com

Think about all the ways you love and receive love in your life. Do you love yourself and others in ways that lift you and them up, empower you, empower them? Is your love unconditional and kind? Is the love you're receiving unconditional and kind? Do you allow others to love you?

So, what is love? Is it made up of cards, chocolates, roses, and expensive gifts? Is it the whirlwind of romance, the delirium of lust, the passion that blinds us, the obsession of having found the perfect love? Is it the overwhelming natural high that feels amazing?

Today, Randi Fine, host of A Fine Time for Healing, author, and narcissistic abuse expert, will be talking about love; what it is, what it isn't, how to give it, and how to receive it.

From the age of two-and-a-half, Jacob, born “Em,” adamantly told his family he was a boy. While his mother Mimi Lemay, today's special guest, struggled to understand and come to terms with the fact that her child may be transgender, she experienced a sense of déjà vu—the journey to uncover the source of her child’s inner turmoil unearthed ghosts from Mimi’s past and her own struggle to live an authentic life.    

Mimi was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, every aspect of her life dictated by ancient rules and her role as a woman largely preordained from cradle to grave. As a young woman, Mimi wrestled with the demands of her faith and eventually made the painful decision to leave her religious community and the strict gender roles it upheld.

Having risen from the ashes of her former life, Mimi was prepared to help her son forge a new one — at a time when there was little consensus on how best to help young transgender children. Dual narratives of faith and motherhood weave together to form a heartfelt portrait of an unforgettable family. Brimming with love and courage, her book What We Will Become: A Mother, A Son, and a Journey of Transformation is a powerful testament to how painful events from the past can be redeemed to give us hope for the future.

Mimi Lemay is an international advocate for transgender youth and the author of the viral essay “A Letter to My Son Jacob on His 5th Birthday.” Lemay and her family meet regularly with legislators, business leaders, educators, and clergy to share their vision of a more equitable world. She is a member of the Parents for Transgender Equality National Council at Human Rights Campaign and holds a master’s in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.