Choose Love Movement

"We are all hoarders." That statement was made by Peggy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., author of Release: Create a Clutter Free and Soul Driven Life. It applies to everyone, myself included. After reading her inspiring book, I started uncluttering my cabinets and it felt like a new beginning. Peggy explains that we can become imprisoned by our mental, emotional, energetic, relationship, and especially physical clutter so we need to continually evaluate our lives to declutter and cultivate a healthier way of living.

Peggy has worked in counseling and healing for over 25 years, counseling adolescents and adults with mental health and addiction issues in a variety of clinical settings, including private practice, wilderness therapy, psychiatric inpatient, and residential treatment. She expanded her clinical work to include holistic and mind-body approaches by training for several years in Hakomi Body-Centered Psychotherapy, as well as Intuition Medicine®, a practice of intuitive energy healing and has lived and worked at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in New York and was a consulting producer on Oprah Winfrey's Emmy-winning TV series Super Soul Sunday.

Peggy's book offers practical insights about decluttering to help people improve their lives by freeing them from clutter and living in alignment with their true soul nature. In this podcast, we have an insightful conversation about the difference between the ego and soul aspect that co-exist and what they represent; how we are in service to others; becoming present; how to experience and learn from loneliness; our need for socialization; how release affects our lives; love and spiritual aspects of life; and the different types of grief and trauma and how to move through it. This is such a deep discussion that delves deep into all aspects of our lives, including courage to release rather than hold on, to accept rather than resist, and to live with only things that help you share your love and connect with the world in your own unique ways.  Peggy reinforces that we need to be present to make choices and appreciate each other. Trust yourself, she says. "We're all in this together and my book is an invitation for us to help each other."

Scarlett was so happy to chat with Carin Winter, founder of Mission Be, a non-profit organization that offers mindfulness-based educational programs to help students better manage stress and regulate emotion, and the creator of our Choose Love Brave Breath. We start off with a grounding meditation that moves into the interesting story of what led Carin to create her organization. After seeing children struggle with pain, neglect, and feeling unseen, she recognized the need for social emotional learning on a daily basis to help them feel valued, loved, and appreciated. She discusses how the tragedy propelled her forward to launch mindful programming, shares how Jesse inspired her, explains the organization's relationship to 9/11, and the power of love.  We also talk about the various benefits of mindfulness for both children and adults. Carin is filled with lots of information on how we can move forward in our brave new world.

This fascinating podcast focuses on the effects of COVID on adolescents and teenagers. Jacqueline Simpson-Dunne, a Board Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, founder of Child Mental Health Solutions, and member of the Choose Love Advisory Committee, offers insight into the mindset and behavior of children. We discuss trauma, anxiety, lack of human connection, effects of technology, and social and emotional intelligence. 

Jacqueline offers ways parents can help and guide their children at their developmental level. She perceptively states: "There is no perfect pandemic parent," and offers effective solutions for parents to help their children deal with adversity and uncertainties and develop resilience. She also explains signs parents can be aware of that signify a need to seek professional help. 

This is a full discussion of cultivating a healthy relationship between children, parents, and even spouses.  You will gain so much knowledge from this far-reaching podcast.

Dr. Eve Goldstein, a licensed clinical psychologist and learning specialist, and Danielle Matthew, a licensed family therapist and bullying expert, join me in a very eye-opening podcast to discuss their mission to help children learn social and emotional skills and support our educators in their shared experiences.  Both therapists strive to eliminate the stigma around mental health and advocate for mental health training and empowering educators and parents to equip children with the skills and tools to cope and thrive in the classroom. We talk about their seminars and e-courses on post-Covid stress for educators and post-traumatic growth for students. In the podcast, you'll learn about the need to build socially intelligent children, ways to alleviate divisiveness and anxiety to strengthen connection with each other, and the importance of being more self-compassionate. It's all based on a foundation of hope -- to make the future a better place by working together in supporting our educators and students and giving them the resources to positively move forward.

After the loss of her newborn daughter in 1994, Dr. Joanne Cacciatore devoted her life to studying traumatic grief and conducted a groundbreaking study on mass grief after Sandy Hook.  A research professor at Arizona State University, founder of the MISS Foundation (an international organization for families experiencing the death of a child), and author of the award-winning book, "Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief," Joanne and I have an honest conversation about the different kinds of psychological and emotional loss, the effect of loneliness, the importance of compassion, understanding death, how animals and pets are powerful crisis support systems, and the human need for emotional connection.  You'll also learn how she founded the Selah Carefarm in Arizona for the traumatically bereaved that also houses rescued and abused animals. This podcast will make you think, feel, and understand how you can live a more meaningful life.

‘Take care of yourself.’ Those are wise words from Elly Kukk, a dear friend, Reiki Master, Certified Positive Discipline Family Trainer, and creator of the original Choose Love for Home program that is now also a Master Class.  On a recent episode of our ChooSELove podcast, Elly shares her wisdom about energy work for healing and dealing with stress and explains the importance of focusing on how we're feeling and responding. She offers quick, useful tips for self-care to feel better every day. A mother of three boys, Elly also talks about positive discipline, how parents are role models for their children, and we share personal examples of how we relate to our children. This episode is jam-packed with excellent ideas to form a closer, more loving bond with our children where we have fun while growing and learning together.

"I will never give up." Those are powerful words from Dana Liesegang who is not only my dear friend and Colorado Choose Love Ambassador, she is a survivor. At age 19, Dana was sexually assaulted by a fellow Navy sailor, thrown off a cliff, and was on the brink of death.  In this podcast Dana takes you on her incredible journey of waking up in a hospital hours later paralyzed from the neck down, with doctors giving no hope for recovery. She explains how tapping into her resilience, inner spirit, and stubbornness allowed her to persevere, and how forgiveness was the key to her recovery and allows her to live a life of happiness and gratitude. We talk about the Choose Love Formula and how choosing love helps Dana in every area of her life and allows her to move forward every day.  As Dana says, she hopes to be the light for others to show that they can survive anything and her powerful memoir, “Falling Up: My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victory,” proves it's possible.

You are going to love  this podcast. I talk with Prescott Ellison, a multi-faceted Emmy and Grammy Award-winner and creator of Superfood Friends. Prescott is partnering with Choose Love to bring his multifaceted nutrition program into homes, schools, and communities. We have a great conversation about our shared mission of changing the lives of children around the world because, after all, love and compassion, nutrition and fitness, and also brain health all work together.

Prescott shares his interesting backstory of learning the importance of food as a youth and how he developed his nutrition program that also extends into sports, music, and agriculture. Oh, and he explains how he invented the Body Bench that facilitates body weight exercises. Listen in to get Prescott’s special herbal tea recipe!

Did you know the brain of babies develops at a rate of 1 million connections per second? You'll learn crucial information about the brain in my conversation with Deborah McNelis, founder of Brain Insights, whose mission is to make the understanding of early brain development common knowledge for every adult for the benefit of all children and the entire community.  We explore Deborah's neuro-nurturing model for early brain development and the 4 components for brain health. Also, we talk about the importance of unstructured play, making connections, being present, and social and emotional intelligence. I know you'll appreciate the way Deborah breaks down the complicated terminology of brain development into simple, easy-to-understand terms and the interesting real-life examples she offers.

https://www.braininsightsonline.com/pages/our-mission

I had the most wonderful conversation with Shari O’Loughlin, CEO of The Compassionate Friends and author of the fascinating book Life From the Ashes: Finding Signs of Hope After Loss. Shari talks honestly about her feelings upon losing her 14-year-old son, Connor, in an airplane crash and how she went on to live her life in mindfulness gratitude. We discuss the topics of guilt, forgiveness, hope, and healing, and the self care tool kit she created  to help her move forward after experiencing profound loss. Shari and I bonded over our shared experiences, how we appreciate precious moments in our daily lives, and the special signs our children leave us that give us much-needed comfort.

https://www.compassionatefriends.org/