This episode we have a very honorable guest and TedX speaker, Sara Delaney. Sara is the Founder and Executive Director of Asheville-based nonprofit organization Africa Healing Exchange (AHE) and the owner of 3 Mountains, a social enterprise with product lines Silverback Carbonated Tea & Tîma Tea. Sara is a passionate global activist and social entrepreneur and has been working with the people of Rwanda for over a decade. She has degrees from Simmons College, Grande Ecole Du Commerce, and SIT Graduate Institute, in the fields of Business Management and Nonprofit Development. She recently completed an International Executive Fellowship with Mama Hope Foundation and was named as Diversity Journal’s “Women Worth Watching” and is the next TedX Asheville speaker. Sara is originally from Vermont and lives in Asheville with her husband and their two sons.

In this episode we cover giving back, how trauma knows no time, what Rwanda can teach us, and the spirit of resilience.

If you'd like to learn more about Sara and Africa Healing Exchange, please visit:

Learn more: www.AfricaHealingExchange.org

Donate: https://tinyurl.com/y3enef7d 

Visit Rwanda with Sara: https://tinyurl.com/y35cof2s

Drink Rwandan Tea: www.3Mountains.org 

 We are so excited to introduce our guest for this week’s episode, Ian Morris.

Ian Morris is the founder of Listening to Smile, a unique sound wellness and healing modality. Ian has over 20 years of experience as a musician and has studied and worked in the performing arts field all of his life. After dealing with chronic illness and the anxiety and depression that followed, Ian decided to explore sound and frequency. His healing was a direct result of the music he created and the frequencies that were chosen to facilitate healing. 

This work grew into the live sound healing events called “Sonic Meditations” and multiple albums for listeners to incorporate on their own. Listening to Smile has now expanded into an international community.

In this episode we cover topics like chronic illness and how it relates to victimhood, how desperation is powerful, the history of sound healing, and music’s effect on our minds and bodies.

If you’d like to learn more about and Ian and Listening to Smile, please visit their website at: www.listeningtosmile.com. If you’d like to listen to Ian’s music, check out Listening to Smile on Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, youtube, and all other major listening platforms.

This week, we are so grateful to be talking with our guest, Ben Harris. 

Ben is the Director Of Communications and Constituent Engagement for Georgia State Representative for District 48, Mary Robichaux. In previous years, Ben taught in the world-class Career Advancement Center of the Robinson College of Business. Ben even mentored entrepreneurs in Rwanda through the African Entrepreneur Collective. But today we’re going to be focusing on a specific part of Ben’s story. 

After losing his brother Michael during his service in the United States Marine Corps, Ben has eagerly offered his voice and Michael's story to TAPS (The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) for the purpose of helping service members and their families get the support they deserve. 

Ben’s story has led him from Georgia all the way to a Washington, DC, joint conference of the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs. He has also used his voice through writings and interviews featured in the Associated Press, the Department of Defensive Armed Forces Press Service, the Washington Post, and the Voice of America, among others. 

Currently, Ben serves as the facilitator for TAPS' Atlanta Care Group, which meets monthly and provides support to new and returning survivors of military loss.

In this episode we discuss vulnerability, sharing your story to help others, isolation, and what it means to support someone through grief.

If you would like to know more about TAPS and the work Ben is doing in the community please make sure to visit www.taps.org. In addition, if you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, there are people on the other end of this phone number 24/7. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. 

If you'd like to learn more about Ben's story head over to: https://archive.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=116856

Welcome back to Curiously Enough! This week we are chatting with a special guest, Kim May. Kim has spent the past 35 years assisting people interested in improving their minds, bodies and spiritual well-being. She is a certified Personal Fitness Trainer, author, speaker, empowerment workshop facilitator, a leader of Native American women’s lodge practices, and licensed Science of Mind Practitioner. In addition, Kim’s journey of sobriety allows her to bring her experience and wisdom into the work she does with others. 

Kim’s passion is assisting people in regaining their innate power and awareness that THEY are their own best advocate, as well as helping them tune into the subtle messages that are constantly being offered by the body as well as their intuition.

In this episode we discuss how to tap into and find your spirituality, what beliefs are at their core, and how the willingness to explore your inner world is first step to finding inner peace.

If you would like to learn more about Kim May and the work she is doing, please visit her website: thehappinessroadmap.com

We’re so excited to have our first couple on the podcast! Meghan Neeley & Erika Cederdahl are the founders of Two Lesbians In Love. They lead transformational retreats and offer relationship coaching for lesbian, bisexual and Queer women. They also hold conscious date nights where couples learn what they really want to experience in their relationship while also learning the root of recurring issues. To top if off, Meghan and Erika even host their own podcast- Two Lesbians in Love where they reveal what it’s actually like for two women to be in a loving relationship together in addition to offering guidance and community. They each came out when they were 20 years old. In addition to a BA in psychology and LGBT studies their combined education includes over 3000 hours of training in relationship coaching, yoga teacher training, and bodywork. Two Lesbians In Love is devoted to creating a transformational space for women in relationship with women where there is safety, no fear of who’s watching, and creating a relationship you desire without running on default.

In this episode we get curious about: LGBTQ and the media, gender roles, internalized homophobia, and privilege. We get super vulnerable- you don't want to miss this one.

If you would like to learn more about Meghan & Erika head over to twolesbiansinlove.com and you can listen to their podcast on any major listening platforms.

We’re so excited to welcome our guest for today, Papillon DeBoer. Poppy is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified Structural Therapist in Asheville, NC. His focus is on trauma, outsiders, loners & the marginalized, adolescents, and existential or spiritual counseling. 

Poppy has been working with people to create change since 1997, when he worked as a community organizer in a rough Chicago neighborhood.  Then, he went on to study and practice deep tissue massage as a way of making change more personal. He worked with clients for many years, to move and feel differently, and to release trauma. 

Poppy has also flipped pizzas, painted houses, lived out of a backpack, and managed a treehouse hostel. Over the last five years, he has worked as a case manager at a local crisis shelter for runaway and homeless youth in addition to facilitating workshops, healing rituals, and even completing his book “Secret Teachings of the Butterfly”.  

In this episode we talk about: the phases of changing, what trauma is and does, the acceptance + commitment approach, and the staggering statistic of male survivors of sexual assault.

If you would you like to know more about Poppy and the work he is doing please do yourself a favor and visit his website www.agencyofchange.net or ourvoicenc.org. 

Welcome to Curiously Enough, Episode 19. This week we talk with Tina Madison White, a brave + inspiring human being. Tina is the Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Pride Center, in Asheville, North Carolina, and a member of the board of directors for the Human Rights Campaign.  After 35 years in business management, she has shifted her focus to activism, writing and speaking.

Tina entered the workforce in the 1980s as a white, Ivy League-educated male. She spent most of the next 30 years consulting to and working for large corporations. Her specialty was business transformation: redesigning systems, processes, and organizations to improve performance.

In 2013, Tina embarked on her most ambitious transformation project yet: herself. With the support of her wife, Mary, and her family and colleagues, Tina finally acknowledged the gender identity she had spent fifty years working so hard to hide. 

Today, Tina’s transformation continues. She is learning how to be a community activist and a public servant. She speaks and writes on issues of diversity & inclusion, organization transformation, social justice, and personal identity. In 2015, she published her book, “Between Shadow & Sun: A Husband‘s Journey Through Gender - A Wife’s Labor of Love”.

Tina holds an MBA in Strategy & Finance from the Booth School of Business and a BA in Economics from Princeton University. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina with Mary, her wife of nineteen years. From there, they watch their five children and five grandchildren take on the world.

In this episode we dig deep into: speaking up about your truth + the rewards that follow, what labels are and aren't good for, the journey of being transgender, and how to support LGBTQ.

If you would like to learn more about Tina and the work she’s doing please head over to www.personinside.com.

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We are so excited to welcome our guest for today, Nate Martinez. Nate has spent the past 20 years performing, recording and producing music. Over the past seven years his pursuit has broadened and he began seeking out how music and, more importantly, how sound can dramatically shift our perspective, raise our consciousness, and even heal us. 

In 2011, Nate began studying shamanism and intuitive healing which eventually led him to become certified in sound therapy. Then, in 2014 he created NTM Sound as a way to share his knowledge and experience with others and a way to share sound therapy treatments to individuals and sound baths for the community. 

At NTM Sound, Nate uses Biosonic tuning forks, Himalayan singing bowls, overtone singing, breathwork, shamanic drumming, and crystal quartz bowls. He uses these tools to provide a safe and relaxing environment where you can focus on what is out of balance in your body and life to bring you towards a place of harmony. Currently, Nate leads regular sound bath meditations across New York City in addition to facilitating workshops and sound baths for organizations and companies as part of wellness initiatives. He is a public speaker specializing in conversations on sound therapy as a path to mindfulness and the art of listening. 

Nate’s work in sound meditation and sound therapy has been integral in growing an awareness of the field, and he has been featured in Vogue, Prevention, New York magazine, the Huffington Post, Well + Good, Yahoo Health, and MindBodyGreen, among others.

In this episode we dive deep into: intuition, why listening isn't just auditory, letting go, reclaiming your voice, and so much more!

If you would like to know more about Nate and the work he is doing please do yourself a favor and visit him at ntmsound.com or visit him on instagram at ntmsoundhealing. 

Welcome to Curiously Enough! This week we have Mayor of West Chester, PA, Dianne Herrin. Dianne took her oath in office in Pennsylvania as West Chester’s Mayor on January 2, 2018. For 15 years, Dianne has served the Borough as Chair or member of several committees - including the Comprehensive Plan Task Force, the Sustainability Advisory Committee, and the Shade Tree Commission. During this time she has also effectively advocated for quality of life issues impacting residents. 

In 2007 she led a successful effort to keep building heights in the downtown reasonable and help preserve the historic brand that makes West Chester so special. Dianne is committed to ensuring effective communications with residents and business owners, and she works to help unite our diverse community behind our shared aspirations and through creative problem-solving.

She is Vice President of Practical Energy Solutions, a Borough-based commercial energy efficiency and renewable energy consulting firm serving school districts, municipalities, and commercial businesses throughout the Philadelphia region.

If you would like to know more about the mayor’s work and involvement within the community please make sure to visit her website at www.mayordianneherrin.com

Mayor's Opioid Task Force: https://www.opioidactionwc.org

In this episode we talk about: The Mayor's Opioid Task Force + Why it Started, Alcohol in a Community and The Role of Law Enforcement, Some Thoughts on Legalizing Marijuana, and The Power of a Community Coming Together.