Find Your Spark

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Brooke and Stephanie share why they are excited to be participating in #SELday with millions of others throughout the world. They discuss why they believe social and emotional learning is foundational to all learning and life, and the uniqueness of SPARK in this field. Everyone is invited to learn more about and participate in #SELday on March 26th, 2021! https://selday.org/

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Stephanie talks about how after months of suffering, she is finally no longer living in a state of fear due to her thinking about the mouse who used to live in her house. She reflects on what life was like when she was in that state and the huge difference in quality of life now that she is no longer in it. In this more relaxed state, Stephanie wonders about the possibility of simultaneously being afraid and feeling at peace with it. In other words, not being afraid of being afraid. Such freedom from fear has huge potential for humanity. While Stephanie has been able to get some distance from her fear in other situations, when it comes to rodents, it might be a bridge too far!

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Brooke and Ashley talk about the constant dichotomy people seem to be up against between following your inspirations (your SPARK) and following your responsibilities. They explore their own insights around how easy it is to be tricked by the thought that we have to choose when in reality if we just learned to trust our SPARK, the rest would be taken care of. Be sure to listen to the end to hear how learning this helped our most recent 2nd grade SPARK student realize he could actually throw a football with TOM BRADY! Finally, in honor of the Super Bowl this Sunday- GO BUCS!!!

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

― Howard Thurman

In this episode of the Find your SPARK Podcast, Ashley Hunt and Jena Travise talk about their habits and how they see them in a different way. Listen as Ashley shares what she has learned about habits from Dr. Amy Johnson and how it has helped her to see that habits are just your brains best way of trying to help you out. When you understand how something works, it just makes it easier to navigate. Recognizing your habits and seeing your habitual thinking behind them is helpful in breaking those unwanted ones so don't beat yourself up for having them. When you are nicer to yourselves, that is when change happens, so give yourself grace and get curious about those habits. To hear more about habits from Dr. Amy Johnson check out her website at https://dramyjohnson.com/habits/unwanted-habits/

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK podcast, Ashley and Brooke reflect on week 1 of 2021...and why they still have hope. Listen as they share how they navigate the uncertainty of the world and make the case for innate resilience rather than an uphill battle to rebuild it. This is a conversation worth a reflection.

In this podcast, Ashley and Brooke are joined by Brooke's teenage daughter Jayda. They all came together days prior to 2021 and discussed what each of their hopes and dreams would be for 2021.

Listen as they reflect on what they have learned from 2020, and what they hope comes from 2021.

Disclaimer: If you have not watched Soul, this podcast episode contains SPOILERS, you have been warned!

In this episode, Brooke and Ashley are joined by Brooke's daughter Jayda. They all recently watched the Pixar movie Soul, and couldn't wait to come together and talk about it!

On a recent Disney trip, Ashley first learned of this movie when she saw a shirt at Disney that read "Find Your SPARK". Well, if you know us at SPARK, you know that's our tag line for everything, it's even the name of this podcast, so naturally it stopped Ashley in her tracks! Once she googled the movie, she immediately told everyone at SPARK that we all needed to watch this movie!

In this episode, we dive into the meaning behind this powerful movie, and why it was so exciting for all of us at The Spark Initiative to watch. We share what we each took away from it, and Jayda, Brooke's teenage daughter reveals the insights she had and why she sobbed for 5 minutes straight once the movie ended.

Also, if you worked on this film, we would LOVE to talk to you!!! We LOVE this movie so much and are so passionate about it's meaning, it's why we do what we do! So reach out, we would love to speak! [email protected]

In this episode of the Find your SPARK Podcast, Brooke, Ashley and Jena reflect on all the growing pains, learning curves and growth spurts of 2020. They share about all of the unknowns that Covid-19 brought and how it forced them to be more in the moment without even realizing it. They talk about how some pretty amazing things came from not knowing and how life just has a way of taking care of us and points us in the right direction if we are open to it. They also share about how things never really slowed down at the SAPRK Initiative and this past year really created more space for learning and creativity. So much has happened in 2020 that has given us the opportunity to reflect on, get curious about and see things that we didn't see before. Listen as they reflect on their experiences in the past year and the awareness that it brought.

In this episode of the Find your SPARK Podcast, poor Stephanie is really feeling the fear of mice. She dreads the evening when they become active, is sleeping upright with the lights on to ensure they don’t break through the crack in the bottom of her bedroom door and is considering all options to rid her of this fear, including moving. Her son Alexander, on the other hand, is quite delighted by the new life in the house and doesn’t see the problem – talk about separate realities! Will Stephanie have to move? Will the Christmas cat solve her problem? OR will she be able to solve it herself, taking no action whatsoever? Tune in as she shares about her dilemma and current thinking.

In this episode of the Find your SPARK Podcast, Ashley Hunt and Nicole Wilson talk about how their mentoring classes have been going post quarantine. As you may know, SPARK is normally in a handful of local schools at this time facilitating SPARK Mentoring Programs. Since quarantine has ended and schools are open in their community, they have found it challenging to get into schools because of the district’s new rules due to COVID. Ashley and Nicole share their excitement on facilitating SPARK in a local private school and explain the changes they see and how you can always adjust and make an impact on kids! They also share how adjusting to these times have created so many new and convenient ideas for their organization and the people they work with. Listen as they share, SPARK Community - Now vs. Then! As always, if you have any topics you would like to hear for the next SPARK Podcast or would like to be a guest star, please email us at [email protected].