In this episode of Beyond the Mind, I’m joined by Elisabeth Villiger Toufexis, a Swiss-born author, international speaker, life coach, hypnotherapist, podcast host, and world traveller who has visited more than 100 countries and speaks six languages.

After decades of travelling the world as a tour guide and conference interpreter, Elisabeth has collected far more than stamps in a passport. She has gathered stories, cultural lessons, unexpected adventures, and powerful insights about what it means to truly live.

We talk about how travel can change the way we see ourselves and other people, why stepping outside our comfort zones can lead to personal growth, and how learning to worry less can create more space for joy and possibility.

Elisabeth also shares her perspective on stress, staying active and engaged as we age, saying “yes” to life, and her belief that when you love life, life loves you back.

This is a warm, inspiring conversation about curiosity, resilience, mindset, purpose, and choosing to live fully—one journey and one story at a time.

This is a warm, inspiring conversation about curiosity, resilience, mindset, purpose, and choosing to live fully—one journey and one story at a time.

Chapters

00:00 — Introduction

01:30 — Elisabeth’s Journey Around the World

05:20 — What Traveling the World Teaches You About People

09:15 — Life Before Smartphones: Being a Tour Guide in the 1980s

13:40 — The Power of Saying “Yes” to Life

18:10 — When You Love Life, Life Loves You Back

22:00 — Why We Worry and How to Stop Wasting Energy

26:15 — Is Stress an Emotion?

30:10 — Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

34:00 — Staying Fit, Curious, and Engaged After 60

38:00 — The Stories We Collect Along the Way

41:30 — Elisabeth’s Biggest Life Lesson

44:00 — Final Thoughts: Make Your Life an Adventure

Learn more about Elisabeth and The Soul Kit: https://thesoulkit.com

In this episode of Beyond the Mind, I’m joined by Stephanie McAlister, a counsellor, researcher, and female entrepreneur who is passionate about making mental health support more accessible.

Stephanie is the founder of Virtual Connect Counselling Clinic, a Canada-wide virtual counselling practice created to make it easier for people to find the right professional support from the comfort of home.

We talk about the realities of accessing mental health care, trauma, anxiety, addiction recovery, relationships, and how therapies such as EMDR, CBT, DBT, and couples counselling can support people through different challenges.

Stephanie also shares the story behind building her virtual counselling practice during COVID-19, what she has learned as both a clinician and entrepreneur, and the importance of creating a healthier relationship between mental health, work, and everyday life.

This is a conversation about healing, accessibility, entrepreneurship, and making it easier for people to ask for the support they need.

Learn more about Stephanie and Virtual Connect Counselling Clinic: https://virtualconnect.ca/

In this episode of Beyond the Mind, I’m joined by Teri M. Brown, an award-winning author, mother, grandmother, entrepreneur, podcaster, and storyteller whose life is a powerful example of resilience, reinvention, and finding the courage to pursue yourself again.

After leaving a 14-year emotionally abusive marriage, Teri embarked on an extraordinary 3,102-mile tandem bicycle journey across the United States with her husband, an experience that helped her rediscover her strength and gave her the courage to finally pursue a lifelong dream of fiction writing.

We talk about healing after difficult seasons, rebuilding your confidence, overcoming imposter syndrome, discovering your worth, aging, women’s experiences, and what happens when you finally give yourself permission to pursue the dreams you’ve carried for years.

Teri also shares lessons from her incredible cycling adventure, her journey as an author, and why it’s never too late to begin a new chapter.

This is a conversation about courage, healing, self-worth, purpose, and choosing to believe that there is still more life waiting for you.

Learn more about Teri and her books: http://www.terimbrown.com

What if some of the things we believe about the Bible are not what the original texts intended to say?

In this thought-provoking episode of Beyond the Mind, I’m joined by Dror Ben Ami, author of The Vineyard and The Final Jubilee, whose work challenges long-held interpretations of biblical stories, language, and metaphors.

Dror studied Comparative Literature in both the United States and Israel and was deeply influenced by the work of scholar and mystic Maurice Nicoll. His approach invites us to look beyond familiar interpretations and ask deeper questions about what biblical words and stories may have meant in their original context.

We explore his intriguing interpretation of Jesus as a plowman and sower rather than simply a carpenter, the deeper meaning of the “Tree of Life,” the role of metaphor in understanding Scripture, the Samaritans, Paul of Tarsus, and the fascinating question of language and biblical meaning.

But beyond the religious and historical questions, this conversation is also about something deeply human: What happens when we begin questioning beliefs we have inherited?

How do we remain open-minded when a belief is connected to our identity, culture, or faith? And can questioning what we have always been taught actually lead us toward a deeper understanding?

Join us for a fascinating conversation about faith, interpretation, curiosity, and the courage to look at familiar stories through a different lens.

Connect with Dror: https://www.facebook.com/share/1HA3f56zqb/

What if the thing keeping you stuck isn’t your circumstances, but the identity you’ve built around your past?

In this episode of Beyond the Mind, I’m joined by Leo Dulay — transformational coach, hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner, and author of You Are Not Your Past.

Leo spent 22 years at AT&T before being laid off in 2019. Losing a career that had shaped so much of his identity forced him to confront questions he had never really asked: Who am I without this job? Who am I without the identity I’ve inherited? And what happens when the person you’ve been is no longer the person you want to become?

We talk about the emotional patterns that keep people stuck, why knowing you need to change isn't always enough, the role of the subconscious mind, and what it really means to release an old version of yourself.

Leo also shares the powerful moment when his wife told him, “Maybe it’s a you problem,” and how those words became a turning point rather than a criticism.

Together, we explore identity, reinvention, emotional patterns, the power of our internal stories, and his approach to helping people rewrite the narratives they have carried for years.

Because sometimes the next chapter of your life doesn't require you to become someone completely new. It requires you to let go of the version of yourself that no longer fits.

Listen in for an honest conversation about letting go, starting again, and discovering who you are beyond your past.

Connect with Leo: https://leodulay.com/

What happens when rock bottom isn’t the end—but the beginning of a completely different life?

In this powerful episode of Beyond the Mind, Gina sits down with Gerald Lott, Executive Director of Sauk Valley Voices of Recovery and someone who has been in long-term recovery since April 2008.

Gerald brings an honest, firsthand perspective on addiction, recovery, stigma, second chances, and the realities of rebuilding a life after substance use. A convicted felon who has walked through addiction himself, Gerald understands the barriers that can keep people from finding help—and he knows what it means to keep going when it feels like there is nowhere else to turn.

His own daughter’s struggle with accessing substance-use support became a turning point. Unable to find the resources his family needed, Gerald took a leap of faith in 2018 and committed himself fully to building pathways to recovery for others.

Today, his organization provides sober housing, free peer recovery coaching, Narcan training, recovery placement services, and sober social events across four rural Illinois counties. His work also brings hospitals, law enforcement, and community organizations together to create stronger recovery systems.

In this conversation, we explore:

• What “rock bottom has a basement” really means

• Gerald’s journey through addiction and long-term recovery

• The barriers that prevent people from getting help

• Why stigma can keep people suffering in silence

• The power of peer recovery and lived experience

• Why connection and belonging can be critical to recovery

• The importance of creating multiple pathways into care

• Addiction, mental health, and the need to see the whole person

• Second chances and rebuilding after a criminal conviction

• How personal pain can become a source of purpose

• What communities can do differently to respond to substance use disorder

This is not a conversation about recovery from a distance. It’s about lived experience, messy realities, resilience, community, and hope.

Because sometimes recovery begins with something as simple as finding one person willing to say, “You’re not beyond help.”

Connect :seed of recovery

What happens to your faith when life gives you something you never expected?

In this episode of Beyond the Mind, we sit down with Dr. Gerald “Dr. G” Robison, pastor, teacher, author, and speaker, for an honest conversation about faith, adversity, purpose, and finding joy even when life is difficult.

Dr. G has pastored churches across three continents, trained Bible teachers in more than 25 countries, and authored numerous books. But one of the most defining experiences of his life was facing tongue cancer—not once, but twice.

Through surgeries, uncertainty, and confronting his own mortality, Dr. G discovered perspectives on faith and life that went far beyond simply asking, “Why is this happening to me?”

In this conversation, we explore:

• How cancer changed Dr. G’s perspective on faith and life

• Why humor can be powerful during difficult seasons

• The difference between happiness and genuine joy

• What it means to be “more than saved for more than heaven”

• Why we sometimes struggle to do what we know we “ought” to do

• How to navigate seasons when faith feels difficult

• Why asking “Why?” can sometimes reveal more about us than we realize

• The importance of thinking deeply about faith rather than relying only on feelings

• How adversity can shape our understanding of purpose

This is a conversation about what happens beneath the surface of faith when life gets hard—and how difficult experiences can sometimes lead us toward deeper understanding, greater purpose, and genuine joy.

Because sometimes, we don’t get the answers to every “why.” But we can still discover meaning in the middle of the questions.

https://geraldrobison.com/

What if the life you’ve worked so hard to create isn’t actually the life that’s true to you?

In this episode of Beyond the Mind, we sit down with Lynda Leonce, an authenticity and parenting coach, energy healing facilitator, mentor, and workshop host, to explore what happens when we stop living from fear, obligation, expectations, and people-pleasing—and begin listening to our own inner truth.

Lynda shares her deeply personal journey from building the life she believed she was supposed to want to recognizing that something was missing. That realization led her into a process of self-discovery, inner work, and ultimately a more authentic way of living.

We explore:

• What authenticity really means beyond simply “being yourself”

• How fear and people-pleasing can influence our biggest life decisions

• Why we often follow society’s definition of success without questioning it

• How to recognize the quiet signals that something in your life needs to change

• When it’s time to let go of something you once believed was meant for you

• Why parenting can reveal our own unresolved expectations and emotions

• How parents can learn to understand the child in front of them rather than the child they imagined

• The importance of learning to trust yourself

• Why starting over doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve failed

• How to create a life from the inside out rather than from external expectations

This is a conversation about authenticity, self-discovery, parenting, courage, and the freedom that comes from finally allowing yourself to live from your own truth.

Because sometimes, the question isn’t “How do I fix my life?”

It’s simply:

“Is this life actually mine?”

🎙️ This is Beyond the Mind.

What happens when the person who looks like they have it all together is quietly struggling beneath the surface?

In this episode of Beyond the Mind, we sit down with Dr. Nneka Oluoha, a Nigerian American physician, novelist, and speaker, to explore the complex relationship between mental health, culture, family, identity, immigration, and resilience.

As an internal medicine physician and the author of Live for Me, Nkem, Dr. Oluoha brings together the worlds of medicine and storytelling to shed light on emotional struggles that often remain hidden.

Together, we explore:

• Why successful people can still struggle silently with depression and emotional pain
• How culture and family expectations influence the way we understand mental health
• The challenges of navigating identity between two cultures
• The connection between mental and physical health
• Why depression doesn’t always look the way we expect
• How family members can better support someone who is struggling
• Why storytelling can create empathy and challenge mental health stigma
• How immigration and belonging can shape our emotional lives
• What Live for Me, Nkem teaches us about depression, relationships, motherhood, and resilience
• The importance of looking beyond what someone presents to the world

This is a deeply human conversation about the things we carry quietly, the expectations that shape us, and the power of being truly seen and understood.

Because sometimes, the person you think is doing perfectly fine may be the person who most needs someone to ask, “How are you really doing?”

🎙️ This is Beyond the Mind.

What happens when your lab results say “normal,” but you know you don’t feel normal?

You’re exhausted. You’re dealing with brain fog, bloating, stubborn weight gain, poor sleep, or low energy—and yet, you’re told everything looks fine.

In this episode of Beyond the Mind, we sit down with Estela Rojas, a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner, Navy Nurse Corps Officer, and health coach with more than two decades of clinical and military experience.

After years of working with women in traditional healthcare, Estela noticed a recurring pattern: many women were struggling with symptoms that affected their daily lives even when their standard lab results didn’t reveal an obvious problem. This led her toward functional medicine and root-cause health coaching.

Together, we explore what it means to look at the bigger picture of health rather than focusing only on individual symptoms.

We talk about:

• Why you can feel unwell even when your labs are considered “normal”
• The connection between chronic stress, sleep, energy, and overall well-being
• Why sustainable weight management is more complicated than simply eating less and exercising more
• The problems with restrictive diets and quick-fix approaches
• How nutrition, movement, sleep, and daily habits influence how we feel
• The relationship between physical health, confidence, and self-image
• Why knowing what to do isn’t always enough to create lasting change
• How women can become better advocates for their own health
• The importance of listening to your body and looking at the whole picture
  

Most importantly, this conversation is about moving away from the idea that women simply need to try harder and toward a more thoughtful understanding of what their bodies may be communicating.

Because sometimes the question isn’t just, “Are my labs normal?”

It’s also:

“What is my body trying to tell me?”

Beyond the Mind—where we go deeper into the mind, body, and experiences that shape our lives.

Estella https://www.estelarojas.com/apply