Find Your Spark

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Nicole, Jena and Zaria come together to share their stories and experiences during the past 5 weeks delivering the Insight to Well-Being program to male Veterans and a group of women at the Falkenburg Jail. They each share some insights and ah hah moments they saw from the participants and the impact this program left on them all. They also share how they felt a deeper connection in the groups when they shared personal stories and talked at a human to human level, which allowed for labels and judgements to fall away and created an safe space for the participants to discover their innate well-being.

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Ashley and Brooke talk about the importance of trusting that others have everything they need inside to make their own decision, even when we may not agree with them. Ashley speaks about how recent events have highlighted this fact for her, and how she was able to find peace over fear by understanding that everyone has a SPARK, and therefore they will come to their own decisions on what they feel may be right for them. It’s not on us to decide for others. Listen as Brooke and Ashley discuss how this can be difficult, especially when it’s those closest to us but how they both navigate through.

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, we are honored to introduce the newest member of the SPARK team, Mike Bates. Mike has dedicated the last 37 years of his life to working with education and leadership teams around the world. We are inspired by Mike’s passion to see the potential in all students—especially those in need of intensive academic and behavioral intervention. Tune in to hear Mike’s engaging stories of digital education in 1985 (wait, what?!), the power of impactful teachers, kids expressing themselves beyond harmful labels, and how the stories/images we create in our mind are often times mis-leading and unhelpful. Mike discusses ‘the wow-factor’, which inspired him to join SPARK. Finally, as we (somewhat) jokingly set Mike off on his journey to help us reach millions of kids uncover their wellbeing, he poignantly reminded us of Peter Block’s wisdom: “How do you change the world? One room at a time. Which room? The one you’re in.” We’re thrilled Mike has joined us in the room that matters the most – the inner “room” of each and every one of us, the room where our spark resides. Change your “inner room” and the whole world changes.

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Brooke and Ashley sit down to talk about the nurturing ability we have to intentionally find space within ourselves, even in the midst of overwhelm. Recently, Brooke moved her family of 7 into a new house that has a lot more space than her pervious town house and it showed her, in real time, how physical space allowed for the release of tension and overwhelm between her children and even her dogs. That got her to reflect on the healing ability to find that space within herself, even in times there isn’t the ability to find physical space. Listen as Brooke and Ashley share their experiences about the healing and nurturing SPACE within us all.

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Jena and Nicole talk about uncomfortable situations and the ability to adapt to change. They also share certain situations they’ve experienced uncomfortable feelings and how they navigated through it with a different perspective of the mind. Trusting your potential and ability is key and the only thing that gets in our way sometimes is our own thinking.

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Jena and Ashley sit down to talk about mental health needs for adults, specifically educators. Our youth intern, Carys Mullins, recently wrote a blog titled “Only Human: Teachers’ Mental Health Matters Too, A Student’s Perspective” and it had us really think about this topic. Jena shares about a recent event that happened at her own son’s school and how she saw the teachers struggling from this, but still showed up the next day ready to teach. She talks about how she saw so many resources for the students, and then decided to check in on her son’s teacher as she was also struggling with processing things. Ashley and Jena then speak about the importance of all adults understanding their mental wellness, the role that our own state of mind plays, and that all feelings are okay. Listen as they share their perspectives, and why this is a topic that should be looked at and spoken about more.  

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Jena shares about her experience of feeling anxious and frustrated over the past week. After doing an activity with skittles in one of her SPARK classes, she realizes exactly what she is doing to herself and questions why she isn’t filling her cup with more yellow skittles! Listen as Jena explains how just realizing what is happening can be helpful and can make those unwanted thoughts and feeling pass a little quicker.

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Nicole invites our last year’s #SparkingChangeInterns Sadie, Zaria and Brandon to share their perspectives and the importance of Black History Month. They each discuss their view on what society says about it, their own personal insights about the month, and how they have learned so much more about this month as a culture, beyond what they learned in school. They also share what they would like to say to the younger generation about Black History Month. 

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK podcast, Ashley and Stephanie reflect upon their recent blockages with working out and doing easy work tasks, they discuss the power of momentum. Momentum is defined as 1) The strength or force that something has when it is moving or 2) the strength or force that allows something to continue or to grow stronger or faster as time passes. It’s that key moment when the balance of energy shifts from inertia to movement. It’s seeds are cracks in our mental blockages. It can be sensed when you notice ‘things happening’. In a metaphor probably taken way too far, Stephanie and Ashley share their stories of being stuck at the station on a creaky, rusty train that finally starts to move when little baby steps are taken. Stephanie’s currently riding the momentum of work productivity and Ashley is still taking steps to get her workout train on the tracks so it can grow momentum.

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK podcast, Stephanie Fox shares an important reminder that we are never alone in our feelings. A school counselor recently shared with Stephanie that this was the most profound realization her group of teens had while doing the SPARK Mentoring Program. Simple and profound, this fact allows us to feel empowered, connected and relieved. In order to have this insight, we need language around our emotional experience, which has been shown by research to be related to greater emotional regulation and psychological well-being. Tune in if you need to be reminded that you are never alone in any feeling including shame, vulnerability, fear or worry.