Design Your Life, Your Way - Strategic Growth for the Conscious Midlife Entrepreneur

Would you like to get better results from your social media marketing? Start thinking like a photographer.

It's been said that a social media post accompanied by a photo is ten times more likely to get engagement. That's important if you are using social media to generate interest in your brand, and your company's products and services.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

Why thinking like a photographer is useful in choosing social media images

How to choose which social media platform to focus your marketing

Why it's wise to experiment with different types of social media content

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

Uncertain How to Use New Twitter Polls? Here are 9 Ways!

How Aligning to Your Higher Self Helps in Marketing

Resources:

Subscribe to the Daily Word here

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Support the podcast here

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Join Dr. David Bernstein on his incredible journey as he discovers the secrets to aging successfully. Hear how his story of determination and resilience, influenced by his parents and his passion for research, led him to uncover his life-transforming five-step program. But as he reveals his findings, a shocking discovery awaits that could change everything...

Show Notes | Transcript

The best antidepressant ever invented is exercise. - David Bernstein

Introducing David Bernstein, an accomplished physician specializing in internal medicine and geriatrics. David's mission is to help people unlock the secrets to a long, healthy, and youthful life. As an engaging public speaker and author, he shares his expertise on medical topics with colleagues, the community, and people navigating the intricacies of aging. David's unique approach combines his extensive experience with cutting-edge research, allowing him to develop a strategy for enhancing longevity and vitality. His warm and friendly demeanor makes his advice both accessible and practical, empowering individuals to take charge of their health and well-being.

In this episode, you will be able to:

Uncover Dr. Bernstein's powerful Power of Five strategy for achieving longevity and maintaining a youthful appearance.

Delve into the process of addressing inflammation to lower the risk of heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Realize the invaluable role of exercise in boosting endorphins, improving overall health, and safeguarding against various diseases.

Understand the inextricable link between quality sleep, social interactions, and mental and physical wellbeing.

Enrich your life by embracing the GRACE principles: gratitude, relaxation, authenticity, community, and exercise for sustained health.

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

The Power of Community with Shannon Procise

In this episode, Shannon describes how people in communities can be more powerful than the individual alone.

Joyfully Managing Midlife Changes with Claire & James Davis

Claire & James explain why changing your belief system is foundational to greater health in midlife.

Trust Your Body, Love Your Body with Oralia Acosta

In this episode, Oralia shares how our thoughts and feelings affect the way we eat.

Resources:

Connect with Dr. David here

Email: David (at) powerof5life.com

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

☕ Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

TRANSCRIPT

Gloria Grace Rand

Namaste. I am so glad to be with you for another edition of Live Love Engage. And I've got a wonderful gentleman with us today who I am looking forward to having a discussion with, and I'm going to tell you about him. His name is David Bernstein, M. D. So, he is a doctor. In fact, he is a highly respected, award-winning physician who is board certified in both internal medicine and geriatrics. And he has integrated his experience and practice with up-to-date research to develop a strategy to enhance longevity and vitality. And he's also an entertaining and engaging public speaker as well as an author. And for those of you listening, he's got two of his books right behind him, which we are going to talk about during this interview today, but he speaks with, on medical topics with his colleagues and the community at large, with a focus on individuals and families facing the complex problems of aging, longevity, remaining healthy and youthful. And so, we're going to be talking quite a bit about all those things, I think, today. So, I first of all want to welcome Dr. David Bernstein to live, love, engage.

David Bernstein

Thank you, Gloria. It's a pleasure to be here.

Gloria Grace Rand

Well, I'm very interested in what your subject matter is because as someone who is starting to get up there in years, okay. I did celebrate my 60th birthday this year, and I intend to, I would like to go another 45 years. So, I've got high goals, I guess you should say, as long as I am healthy and active and all that while. So, when I learned a little bit about what your specialty is, I'm curious because I'd like to ask our guests a little bit about their journey and kind of how they got interested in doing the work that they're doing now. So, I was wondering, what was it that sort of got you interested in internal medicine, of course, but also but particularly the geriatrics end of the medical spectrum, I suppose.

David Bernstein

Well, I'm glad you asked. It's one of my favorite topics to talk about because when I was growing up, my dad was an immigrant to this country who fought and was wounded in World War II and was injured and showed me the determination to succeed in life. And that was a really big part of who I am. And he and my mom encouraged me to do something different than what he did in his life, although he was successful as a manufacturer of women's clothes, that's not what I didn't want to be wearing women's clothes. And my brother chose to do that, not wear it, but manufacture women's clothes. So, I was encouraged to become a doctor and use my brain, and that was one of my influences and inspirations. Another was my mom's frustration with the care that her parents, my grandparents, got when they aged because she would come home from visits with them and go into the doctor and said, they don't know anything. They don't care. They don't listen. She said, when you become a doctor, you be nice to old people and be kind and compassionate. And I said, okay, I'll do that, mom. I listened. And sometime in 1973, I saw a National Geographic magazine, and the cover had a man on it. He was an older looking man, and he was a centenarian. And I read this story cover to cover. I saved the magazine. You can do anything with Google these days. I have a cover of it, and it was written by Alexander Leif. And just today I was writing a letter to the editor about my experience with that article because it prompted me to want to learn about centenarians, about what you can do to live to be 100. And it was decades before the Blue Zones were written about, and that was incorporated into my fabric, along with a speaker at my graduation who talked about being an author. And I said, I want to do that, too. So I went to medical school, and I went to college before that and learned about Gerontology. And then in medical school, I wanted to serve an underserved area, and Geriatrics was one of them. And I have a great career of taking care of older adults. Took a lot of pressure off. I mean, it was like juggling multiple balls at one time because there's lots of people with chronic illnesses and how to take care of it. But also there were opportunities to talk to people about what made them age successfully. And even though I may have taken care of a patient from the time they were 60 until they were 90 and I was 35 and I aged, I always felt like I was 35. And it responds to what you said a little while ago, Gloria that I continue to think I'm a little person, a young man, and I don't feel that I'm my age, just like you don't feel your age, and you just feel like it's another day. And I'm still this young, vibrant person, and I got to learn what their lives are about and what made them age, successfully or not, if that were the case.

Gloria Grace Rand

Yeah, absolutely. And it was interesting. I've got a close friend that I went to college with, and we're still in touch, and her birthday is actually two days after mine. And she's like, Gloria, yeah, I don't feel like I'm 60. I feel like I'm still just 35 or something, because I don't see that. And I know when I think back to what my parents were like when they were 60, they seemed a bit older. And I know my mom had a lot of more health problems than I did. Fortunately, I'm healthy, but she had high blood pressure and arthritis and all these things. But the other thing I was just thinking of too, though, as you were talking about that getting into this specialty. I was just thinking that it's actually a really good I guess the timing, perhaps possibly, of you getting into this or when you were born, to be able to come into this, because of all the baby boomers that are of course, they've been getting into that category. And like I said, and I'm the tail end of the baby boomer generation now, so we're all getting up there now. It's interesting that you said that you also decided that you thought about becoming an author. So, tell us a little bit about that process, because I'm sure you're busy with your medical practice. And then so when and how did you decide that you're going to start writing some books? And then we'll talk more about specifically about those books in particular in a minute.

David Bernstein

Well, some of it was triggered at my graduation from high school when the author came to speak to us. And I've been in contact with him, and he's a very prolific author. He's been involved in 25 or 50 top 100 books, top best-selling books, because he does a lot of research for people, and he is a ghost writer, but he's very successful. And I think all of us who have any element of creativity, who practice medicine, think about, well, you can't make this stuff up, and I got to write about this, and this is really amazing, or this is an amazing story, and I filed them all away over the course of time. That's the creative part of this. And then I started writing some stuff, and I went to a course for physician authors to learn how to integrate all that stuff into your life and do that. So, I put my mind to it and my effort to it. And the odd thing about it was my first book. It has a funny title. It's a bit sarcastic. I have some good news and some bad news. You're old. I thought it was going to be all the funny things that I experienced o

Attributes such as passion, courage, flexibility, integrity, and a strong work ethic are all important for helping an entrepreneur create a successful business. And there is one essential trait that stands above the rest.

Show Notes

A recent study of nearly 250 entrepreneurs by the University of San Francisco found that 72 percent of them reported mental health problems, with nearly a third reported dealing with depression. This is one reason why it's important for entrepreneurs to cultivate a positive attitude.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

Why optimism is an essential character trait for entrepreneurs

How a sense of humor can help you get through difficult times

How to stay positive when things don’t go your way

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

Expressive Meditation with Pragito Dove

In this episode, Pragito explains why laughter is so beneficial for our health.

Power of Positive Thinking with Francisco Oller Garcia

Francisco shares why he believes a positive mindset is so important to deal with life’s challenges.

Using Humor to Prevent Suicide with Frank King

In this episode, Frank talks about how he brings humor to difficult subjects, and uses his life lessons to start the conversation around depression and suicide.

Resources:

Find Support from the National Alliance of Mental Illness here

Subscribe to the Daily Word here

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

Kenya had experienced many traumas, from physical, emotional and sexual abuse to a premature labor and stillbirth; but when she held her breathless child in her arms, she knew she had to make a change. With therapy, journaling, and affirmations she was able to turn her suffering into triumph and help others do the same. But where do you go when the trauma comes from within?

Show Notes | Transcript

We're here to live a good life, we're here to live a happy life. And whatever resources are there for us to do that, we have to take advantage of. - Kenya Lee

Meet Kenya Lee, a multifaceted woman who has transformed her life through her experiences as a registered nurse, artist, and author. Kenya's passion for women's empowerment has led her to become an expert in guiding women through self-awareness and mental health challenges. Her book, The Path to Emotional Greatness Yielding to Personal Transformation, is a testament to her resilience and determination to help others. In conversation with Gloria Grace Rand, Kenya shares her trinity strategy in overcoming trauma and developing healthy coping mechanisms.

In this episode, you will be able to:

Triumph over trauma by harnessing the power of counseling and mental health resources.

Discover the essential components of emotional, physical, and mental wellness balance.

Shatter the stigma surrounding mental health and therapy and embrace self-care.

Unleash the healing potential of personal stories for yourself and others.

Master the Trinity Strategy to build a resilient coping toolbox.

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

Lessons from Trauma Work with Sarah Brassard

Sarah explains in this episode why we naturally deny our trauma, how to start facing your trauma, and practices that can help you in your recovery journey.

Clutter, Trauma and Beliefs with Krystal Holm

In this interview, Krystal shares how clutter affects your physical, mental & emotional well-being.

Turn Post Traumatic Stress into Growth with Cathay Reta

Cathay shares how her decision to walk the Camino at age 65 helped her overcome trauma.

Resources:

Connect with Kenya here

Support Kenya's non-profit Faith In Girls here

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

☕ Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00 - Gloria Grace Rand - You're listening to the Live Love Engage podcast. On today's show, my guest shares three tools that can help you triumph over trauma. Stay tuned.

00:00:15 - Gloria Grace Rand - I am Gloria Grace Rand, founder of The Love Method and author of the number one Amazon bestseller, Live. Love Engage - How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Start Being Yourself. In this podcast, we share practical advice from a spiritual perspective on how to live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically so you can create a life and business with more impact, influence, and income. Welcome to live. Love Engage.

00:00:50 - Gloria Grace Rand - Namaste. I am so glad to be with you for another edition of Live. Love. Engage. And I'm looking forward to our discussion today with the wonderful Kenya Lee, who is joining us today. And I'm going to tell you all about her. She is a registered nurse, she's an artist, she's an author, she's a women's empowerment expert. And she assists many women to navigate their self-awareness and obtain optimal mental health. And she's got a story to tell, which we're going to get into in a moment, but she sort of documented her story in a new book called The Path to Emotional Greatness Yielding to Personal Transformation, or otherwise known as The Path to Egypt. And that all of that emotional greatness yielding is the word Egypt, which I love acronyms. And so I love that you did that. So first off, I want to welcome you, Kenya, to Live. Love. Engage.

00:01:56 - Kenya Lee - Thank you so much, Gloria. It's a pleasure being here. I'm so excited to talk about everything and have a great time with you.

00:02:06 - Gloria Grace Rand - Absolutely. Yeah, we are going to do that and we're going to be talking about a lot of stuff. She and I were discussing a little bit before we started recording the podcast today and just about some of the things we have in common. A shared, shall we say, of where we grew up similar. And she's also involved in all sorts of amazing things and projects. But I like to start off the podcast usually with asking our guests about what the journey that got you where you are today and in particular, starting off it sounds like I think nurse might have been your first part of your career, but what led you to eventually become a women's empowerment expert?

00:02:54 - Kenya Lee - Well, Gloria, it's one of those situations after you are able to master something or you go through a tough time, you want to give back and you want to see the next person that is going through that same tough time have a positive outcome. So for me, I had went through so many challenges as being a young teen troubled, very low self-esteem. And so that landed me in a lot of pitfalls of life. And growing up in the Detroit area, as you're familiar with, can be pretty sticky in terms of urban culture. And I was able to thankfully navigate my way out of that from an emotional standpoint. And so me wanting to empower others is simply me wanting to give what I've learned over the years. Because there was a point that I thought that there was no coming out of this crazy mindset that I had of not feeling worthy, not being desirable, not being desirable of love, genuine love. So, my passion for giving to other women is due to having such a tough time coming out of it myself, and I know that it's possible.

00:04:25 - Gloria Grace Rand - Yeah, that seems to be a very common denominator in a lot of people's stories. When we do have the opportunity to overcome some challenge, it does then make us want, or at least for most people, I think they do want to be able to give back and to help others. So, can you share with us a little bit about what are some of the challenges that you faced specifically growing up that you did have to overcome?

00:04:55 - Kenya Lee - So I was a young lady that was raised by a single mom. My father was not existent in the household. He was outside of the home and really not there from a parental standpoint. Of course, I knew who he was and I would see him from time to time. But that void for me in terms of a father figure really impacted me in a negative way. So when I went on to have intimate relationships, boyfriends and that sort of thing, my concept of a man was completely distorted because I did not have a real mold and a real foundation of what that really was supposed to be. So, it led me into some pretty destructive relationships, one of which was pretty significant and lengthy, where there was domestic violence. So, I went through a lot of abuse emotionally, physically, sexually, and just not loving myself. When you come up sometimes and it affects people different ways, Gloria, some people say, oh, well, I didn't have my dad with me and I came out just fine. Well, that's wonderful for you, but in some instances it really has an impact on a woman's life. And for me, I was very, very sensitive to that and so it distorted how I looked, my outlook on things. So that is how the ball, so to speak, got rolling in terms of me not being at my maximum potential. And going on with having these sorts of relationships was due to my wanting a father figure in a distorted kind of way. So, I chose guys that were the possessive or man's men, the macho kind of guy, just because subconsciously and you don't know when you're going through it, you're looking for that father, that missing component to quench that thirst. And so, with that came a lot of trauma, as I said, the physical and emotional trauma of just not choosing the correct person. But aside from that, not putting myself as priority, I always was secondary in the equation. And that's because I chose to be that way out of inability of loving myself and having a real understanding of who I really was.

00:07:42 - Gloria Grace Rand - What happened to start leading you to be able to start valuing yourself and to start loving yourself? Because obviously you do now because you've written a book to be able to help others. So somehow you were able to find that recipe and to be able to turn things around. What was that for you?

00:07:59 - Kenya Lee - I'm glad you asked. That was the turning point for me. So, it was several years ago I became pregnant and I struggled with, do I want to have a child right now? I was pretty young, but yet grown. But my relationship in which the child was conceived under was less than ideal, to say the least. That's where all of the abuse was happening. And so I proceeded to go through the pregnancy. Okay, I'm going to make the best of this, looking forward to having this baby, and I'm going to figure out life as it goes. And what happened is in my 23rd week of pregnancy, I went into premature labor and my water broke and baby was so small. And at that time, back then, things are a little different now and medical science has evolved where it's a little more conducive for children to make it. But back then I was told, look, this is not going to be viable. She's not going to make it. And so, I had to give birth. I had to actually go through the entire motion of giving birth and holding a child that I love dearly and seeing her breathless. And I said, wow, okay, Kenya, I think it's time for you to wake up. I think you're not doing things correctly. And that was the turning point for me in recognizing wholeheartedly that I need to do something different for my life because I'm unhealthy in so many aspects. And this relationship that I'm involved in,...

One of the myths about running a business is that hard work is the secret to success. The reality is that hard work actually creates burnout if there is no balance or boundaries. Successful business owners are the ones who find a way to delegate and outsource tasks so they're not headed for burnout.

Show Notes

A common myth about business is that an entrepreneur must be completely focused on their company each hour of every day. However, those that do often find themselves drowning in their business – exhausted and overworked.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

What successful entrepeneurs have in common

The cost of NOT investing in yourself

Top reasons why we're afraid to invest in ourselves

Resources:

Subscribe to the Daily Word here

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

Emily Gold Mears had always been passionate about science and healthcare literacy, but it wasn't until she delved deeper into her own health that she discovered the unexpected: personalized solutions are key to optimizing one's wellness. As she uncovered the power of functional medicine and lifestyle adjustments, Emily's journey highlighted the need for a collaborative approach to healthcare, empowering individuals to take control of their well-being.

Show Notes | Transcript

We each know how we respond to everything; the doctor doesn't know those things. One has to at the very least collaborate with their doctor and ideally do a lot of due diligence and additional research. - Emily Gold Mears

Emily Gold Mears is a citizen scientist, biohacker and author of Optimizing Your Health: An Approachable Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Disease. A former attorney, Gold Mears shifted her advocacy efforts to seek information on optimizing one’s health through extensive research analysis in science and medicine. Her research focuses on the intersection of functional and allopathic medicine, and the critical requirements for individuals to become their own healthcare advocates.

In this episode, you will be able to:

Discover functional medicine's powerful influence on uncovering chronic diseases' root causes.

Uncover the essential role sleep, nutrition, and gut health play in preventing disease.

Learn about the potential negative effects LED light bulbs may have on your sleep and biology.

Implement small, incremental steps that can drastically impact your overall health and wellness.

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

Culinary Medicine & Mindfulness with Chef Dr. Mike

In this episode, Chef Dr. Mike shares why beating yourself up about making bad food choices is unproductive.

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Learn why Thom King started a company that offers a healthy, more natural alternative to sugars.

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In this episode, Nicole explains why she is so passionate about helping women over 40 shape up.

Resources:

Connect with Emily here

Find Emily on Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn: @emilygoldmears

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

☕ Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

TRANSCRIPT

Gloria Grace Rand: Namaste. I am so glad to be with you for another episode of Live Love Engage, and I've got a lovely guest with us on the program today who we're going to meet in a second. But her name, let me introduce you to her first. Her name is Emily Gold Mears and she is a citizen scientist, biohacker and author of optimizing Your Health an Approachable guide to reducing your risk of Chronic disease. She's also a former attorney, but she shifted her advocacy efforts to seek information on optimizing one's health through extensive research, analysis, and science and medicine. And her research actually focuses on the intersection of functional and allopathic medicine and the critical requirements for individuals to become their own healthcare advocates, which I think is really important. So I want to officially now welcome you, Emily, to lie, love, engage.

Emily Gold Mears: Well, thank you, Gloria. It's nice to be here with you.

Gloria Grace Rand: I am very interested in what you have to say. We actually met a while ago at a publicity summit where you're promoting your book. I was intrigued by your background and everything, but I would love for you to share with our audience first a little bit about your journey. So you started off in life, I guess, as an attorney, and now you've sort of shifted your focus. So I was wondering if you could share a little bit about what prompted that.

Emily Gold Mears: Well, yes, I did practice law for a while. I must confess, I did not love the practice of law, but I did it, and I always loved science and health and medicine. And I observed many years ago that in our country, we have a real science literacy problem. And this was only magnified by the pandemic, and it became very clear by the pandemic that we have one. And I have been affiliated with a number of organizations for years who give presentations and seminars, and I have been trying to persuade them for ten years that they have to do better with their science presentations because we need to educate the public about science. I was largely ignored, and everyone is very interested in global politics, which are interesting and are important, but one can do more than one thing. And the pandemic really highlighted all of the junk science that was being promoted. And if people were paying attention, they saw that the different reactions to the COVID virus had a lot to do with one's underlying health condition. And I thought, okay, I need to share the information that I've learned. And I had already become a healthcare advocate and a science advocate, and I researched and learned so many really interesting things that one can do to optimize their health. I thought, I need to share these things because many of them are free or low cost. And so therefore, there isn't a lot of financial incentive for the business community or the healthcare community to promote many of these things. But people need to know. I mean, the American public is getting sicker and sicker by the day. A recent statistic put out by the CDC shows that lifespan is declining, and that's all an indication that the current approach is not working. And I think that I've found a better approach. So therefore, I'm trying to encourage people to become their own healthcare advocate and at the very least, collaborate with their healthcare professional.

Gloria Grace Rand: Before we get into the specifics of your book, I would love for you to explain a little bit, because I kind of have an idea, but there may be, I'm sure, others also listening and or watching who may not be sure of what it is. In your bio, it mentioned that you focus on the intersection of functional and allopathic medicine. Can you share what is the difference between those two?

Emily Gold Mears: Indeed I can. Yes. Allopathic medicine is just another word for conventionally trained doctors. When people go to medical school, they're trained in a very specific way that is referred to as allopathic medicine. Many of the medical schools are sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, and many of these doctors are taught a certain way, which usually is according to the standard of care, which means that they are promoting the one size fits all healthcare approach that our United States healthcare system promotes. And it turns out that's not really working for most of the diseases. Now, if one is in a car accident or breaks a bone or has an acute infection, I encourage them to go straight to their conventionally trained doctor because they're well equipped to treat them and treat them effectively. But unfortunately, what is going to kill most of us are these chronic diseases: cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, autoimmune disease. And thus far, in my opinion, the conventionally trained or the allopathic approach has not been quite as effective as it needs to be. And functional medicine looks at the source of the issue. Rather than treating the symptoms with a pharmaceutical or something else, a functional medicine doctor tries to determine, why do you have this? What is the source of your autoimmune disease? Why did you get cancer? And most of these diseases are multifactorial, but most of them, contrary to popular belief, have a very small genetic component, maybe 10%, and they have an enormous environmental and lifestyle component. And that's good news, because that means that we can take charge. We can alter our environment and our lifestyle, more our lifestyle than our environment. But there are things we can do about our environment that will improve our health and reduce our risk of getting these diseases.

Gloria Grace Rand: Thank you for, number one, for explaining that. And that is what I had suspected, and I know that I've found that to be the case as well. I know I'm very grateful. And also, I think part of it is just the way, part of how I grew up in that watching my mother take all of these pills for all of the different disorders and things that she had high blood pressure and heart disease and diabetes and things like that. And I was like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that as an adult. And thankfully, I have not had to do that. I only might take a vitamin here and there or something. And I agree that American medicine is really great at fixing bones. I broke an ankle once and I definitely went to the emergency room and got it taken care of and very happy about that. But you're right. I think it's so much that these other things that there are other factors. Can you maybe elaborate a little bit? Because you talk about lifestyle and environmental factors, maybe share I don't know, what have you found? Maybe kind of like maybe the top couple of things that people need to be aware of in order to optimize their health.

Emily Gold Mears: So the top things, the most important things, are those which people have heard a lot about. And I would put sleep at the top. If one has dysfunctional sleep, which many of us do, they're going to have a tough time optimizing other things. And there are many ways that people can optimize their sleep. As we get older, we just don't sleep as efficiently or as easily as we did when we were younger. But it's critically important to take the steps to improve their sleep. And some of those are very easy. And I would recommend not taking any of the pharmaceutical sleep aids because that just causes other problems....

Women own 42% of all companies in the United States, which is an amazing statistic! But women aren't keeping pace when it comes to making money. Only 12 percent of female entrepreneurs generate more than $100,000 a year in revenues - which is why mindset mastery to conquer fear and self-doubt is so important.

Show Notes

Search online and you can find plenty of articles on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Common tips include setting goals, delegating tasks, developing leadership skills. But the most important criteria is being able to master your mindset - especially when it comes to limiting beliefs and dealing with fear and self-doubt.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

How self-doubt hurts a female entrepreneur's success

Why humility can be a woman’s Achilles heel

Top fears all entrepreneurs face

Resources:

Subscribe to the Daily Word here

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

On the surface, remembering past events seems like a harmless exercise. But there is a downside to reminiscing that can cause emotional pain.

Show Notes

Do you ever spend time thinking about past mistakes? Thinking about fond memories once in a while is usually not a problem. But dwelling on negative events for long periods of time isn't productive.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

The benefits of reminiscing

How reminiscing can be harmful

The difference between reminiscing and reflecting

Why honoring the past can help free your future

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

Reconciling Grief and Happiness with Emily Thiroux Threatt

In this episode, Emily shares the strategy she uses to bring grief and happiness together.

Letting Go of the Ties that Bind

I talk about the limiting beliefs I inherited from my mom and share what to do when you’re not getting the results you desire.

Finding Love through Grief with Cynthia Mitchell

In this episode, Cynthia explains what is important to know while you’re grieving.

Resources:

Subscribe to the Daily Word here

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

Struggling with the disempowerment and manipulation of his Tibetan Buddhist community, Neil McKinlay thought he'd found solace in meditation. But little did he know that meditation would lead to an unexpected twist in his story - a journey of healing and self-discovery, offering him the chance to reclaim his inner knowing and find direction in life. What will Neil discover on his journey?

Show Notes | Transcript

"Through this process of turning toward and settling in and coming into contact with these basic qualities... we do begin to have a sense of path." - Neil McKinlay

Neil McKinlay is a meditation teacher and mentor whose inspiring journey led him to explore the healing power of meditation and the importance of community in mental well-being. Neil started practicing meditation as a teenager and went on to study and practice in Tibetan Buddhism communities. After facing a challenging time in his life, Neil discovered the transformative potential of meditation in guiding him through his healing process. With a focus on embodied meditation, Neil teaches and shares his experience with others through his podcast, Bringing Meditation to Life, and his online communities. Join Neil as he dives into the world of meditation and its role in mental health and personal growth.

In this episode, you will be able to:

Discover the healing potential of meditation during life's challenges.

Understand the vital role community plays in maintaining mental stability.

Uncover your inner qualities through meditation habits.

Achieve the perfect balance between patience and direction in meditation.

Gain insight into the rise of mindfulness in the business world.

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

Meditation is the Path to Self-Love

In this episode, I talk about the impact meditation has had on my life and why I recommend it as a practice to everyone!

Meditation for Guidance with Daniel John Hanneman

Daniel shares how you can own your value, why it’s important to trust yourself, and what it means to step into who you truly are.

Expressive Meditation with Pragito Dove

In this episode, Pragito explains how expressive meditation helps us to release repressed emotions.

Resources:

Connect with Neil: here

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

☕ Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter

TRANSCRIPT

Gloria Grace Rand

Namaste. I am Gloria Grace Rand, and I am so glad to be with you today for another episode of Live Love Engage as you just heard from the intro. And I've got a guest who I'm really looking forward to talk with today because Neil McKinlay is a meditation teacher and mentor, and he offers a range of resources that encourage and empower us to link meditation and daily living to let the wisdom we touch through our practice come into the world. And these include two online communities, and he has his own podcast called Bringing Meditation to Life. So I want to welcome you first off, Neil, to live, love, engage.

Neil McKinlay

Thanks very much, Gloria. It's great to be here. I appreciate this opportunity.

Gloria Grace Rand

As I said, I'm looking forward to it because meditation is a practice that I've been doing for, oh, my goodness, let's see, since 2009. So what does that make? That's a long time now. Let's just put it that way. I don't feel like doing the math right now, but it's been a while, and I've gotten a lot of benefits out of it. And so I know we'll talk a bit more about that, but I do like to start off on our podcast, asking our guests a little bit about their journey. And I know you've had a unique experience with meditation, and where you are now that wasn't always pleasant. So I wonder if you can share with us a little bit about that.

Neil McKinlay

Yeah, well, I learned to meditate as a teenager. I was a competitive swimmer, and a swim coach taught us one rainy night in Vancouver. It was an interesting time to be involved in athletics.

This is the late 70s, early 80s, and what we now consider commonly as sports psychology was beginning to edge its way into my world. At least the coaches that I worked with were open to this. And so we did all this really weird stuff for the time, like visualization and progressive relaxation and goal setting and subliminal messaging and all this stuff. And part of that suite of tools and resources was meditation. I was taught to meditate at a swim meet during my competitive swimming years.

And about 30 years ago, I started to give my engagement with the practice a little bit more formal shape. I was compelled by something that I still can't describe what, but I was compelled by something from the beginning. I started to study and practice in two successive communities. Both of them were grounded in Tibetan Buddhism. Both of them provided opportunities for formal engage, to engage formal curriculum, to do long retreats.

And then, as you suggested, around 2016 or so, my relationship with the second community started to unravel to a certain extent. I started to feel uncomfortable with the way the leader was treating students, especially close students, senior students, long standing students like myself. It just became apparent to me over a period of these years that in spite of what I'd believed, in spite of what I'd been told myself, in spite of what I told others as a senior member of that community, what was driving that community was not the teachings. It wasn't the practice, it wasn't the development or the well-being of students, but really the self-centered impulses of a leader.

And the extent that he was willing to go, to assert these impulses, to my eye, created an environment that was characterized by manipulation and disrespect and disempowerment. To give you an example of this, one general example. He was a master of what I call the bait and switch, promising one thing we're going to do this, and then taking it away and replacing it with something else. Expecting all of us to go along silently pretending like what had ever happened before had never actually occurred. Which, maybe in isolation doesn't sound like much.

But when the dynamic repeats over a period of years and when plans and schedules and lives are upended by this, all by an authority figure that one trusts and an authority figure who seems to have little concern for the consequences of this, the effect was, for me, crazy making. It really distorted my relationship with my own inner knowing. And by 2019, that disorientation or that distortion had become so severe that I was mentally compromised. I was physically compromised and I had to just leave. So in February 2020, I made this difficult but utterly necessary choice to leave this 20 year relationship with this teacher in this community and opened up a path of recovery and healing, path of exploration and discovery, path of renewing my relationship with meditation that continues to this day.

Gloria Grace Rand

Wow. And it's interesting the timing of that too. It's like right before the Pandemic shut down too. How did that affect you or not affect you?

Neil McKinlay

Well, it was a very difficult one to blow if I focus only upon my own experience. And that's really difficult when we're talking about the Pandemic, because, of course, the effects of the Pandemic, I mean, global, they're incredibly far reaching. But focusing only upon my own experience with blow number one, I saw this community that I'd been part of for 20 years, this relationship, fall apart. I saw a significant amount of my livelihood because it was invested in that context, fall apart. And then with the Pandemic showing up, all the rest of it disappeared. And so within the span of two or three months, 100% of my livelihood vanished. And there are certainly other things that we could talk about in terms of impact, but, oh my gosh, that was a really intense impact just there.

Gloria Grace Rand

So what did you do? How did you kind of obviously you're doing well now and it seems to be anyway, so what did you do to kind of get yourself back going again, shall we say?

Neil McKinlay

Well, I was really lost, so we've got this one-two blow. And I was lost and literally lost. I didn't know where I was, I didn't know what I was going to do. And there were two things that happened that were noteworthy in my path of personal and I guess professional recovery that I need to be clear is ongoing. This is not something that's in the past, I still have good days and I still have bad days. So this is what I did, this is what I'm doing. So there are two things that were really interesting that arose in this context is the first is I turned towards what was familiar to me.

I turned towards meditation. And it was just like that first time when I was taught how to meditate, when I just felt compelled toward the practice in a way I couldn't describe. I couldn't tell you why I turned toward meditation in this context, but that's what I did. And I started to settle into what was happening for me through the practice. So not getting rid of, not changing, but settling into that sense of lostness.

And as I settled into that sense of lostness, there was this experience of knowing that became apparent that often spoke directly to what was happening to me, directly to what I was going through, which suggested to me a phase of meditation that I had never recognized before. One in which I let the wisdom that arises out of the settling of meditation actually guide me into my life. And that's what I started doing. That's a silver lining of being completely lost. It's like, well, what else am I going to do?

And if what arose suggested I was tired, I would rest. It was that basic. If it suggested I was lonely, I would reach out....

As a business owner, are you struggling with the constant pressure and stress of running your own company? Learn powerful techniques to help you manage stress, avoid burnout, and thrive in your entrepreneurial journey.

Show Notes

Since April is Stress Awareness Month, today's Live. Love. Engage. episode focuses on how you can manage stress and avoid burnout as a business owner.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

Why it's important to take care of your physical, mental & emotional body

Specific stress management tips

Why time management is so important

The benefits of taking a mental health break

Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:

Why It’s OK to Take a Mental Health Day

How Aligning to Your Higher Self Helps in Marketing

Resources:

Subscribe to the Daily Word here

Join the Soulful Women's Network here

Send me a message here

Support the podcast here

❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating here

Connect with Gloria: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Twitter