In this episode, I’m talking about what “showing up in love” means in any significant relationship. Two key learnings for me in recent weeks are the backbones of this piece:

💙The Purpose of Love, a sermon delivered by Pastor Richie Butler, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas. Sneak peek: the purpose of love is: 1) to check yourself and 2) to empower.

💛1 + 1 = 11, a metaphor created by Jessica Zweig in her book The Light Work. Sneak peek: the metaphor is about not bending to a “2” in any relationship, but instead, remaining a whole person or remaining as your “1”.

💙Together, these teachings create a powerful message about how we can and should show up in our relationships.

Resources related to this episode

✨Pastor Richie Butler’s The Purpose of Love sermon on YouTube

✨The Light Work, by Jessica Zweig

 Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

@bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI, TT & YT

Keywords

#healingmentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #traumahealing #abusesurvivors #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #letsheal #God #universe #spirituality #lightwork #lightworker

Highlights of this episode include

💛Words create worlds. When you say something out loud, your body feels it, and what your body feels, the Universe heals.

💙Our bodies keep score. Our lives depend on us forgiving ourselves. Don’t miss George’s thank you body meditation, which is linked below in the resources related to this episode.

💛Being a busyholic in chaos distracts us from feeling and processing our emotions; it’s an escape, just like any other form of escape or flight.

💙Prayer is talking to God, and meditation is listening to what God has to say to you.

💛There are many common themes across all religions and belief systems. Spirituality, God, is entirely about love.

💙We are spiritual beings having experiences as human beings for a time being.

Resources related to this episode

✨www.georgepkansas.com (George's speaker site)

✨www.icansir.org (Free videos for cancer survivors)

✨www.icansir.com (Books by George)

✨www.thankyoubody.love (George's thank you body meditation)

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

@bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI, TT & YT

Keywords

#healingmentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #traumahealing #abusesurvivors #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #letsheal #god #universe #spirituality #thebodykeepsscore

In this episode, I share part of my story as written in my book Becoming an Empowered Survivor. First, I talk about how I view trauma, abuse, and unhealthy survivorship, generally based on my lived experience and the stories that other survivors have shared with me. Then, you can hear me reading Chapter 3, Acknowledging Walls. In this chapter, I describe the wall I lived behind as a survivor, which was 45 years tall and 45 years thick, built by me once I discovered it. Behind my wall, before I healed, I was alone and lonely.

You may recognize yourself.

Resources related to this episode

💙Read my book Becoming an Empowered Survivor

💛Bring me to your stage as an Inspirational Speaker

💙Work with me as your HEALing Mentoring

💛Join the private Facebook Empowered Survivors Community

💙Hear me talking on other podcasts and read my Let's HEAL Blog

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

✨@bethjoneshealingmentor | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok

Keywords

#HEALingMentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #abuse #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #letsheal #alone #lonely #dissociation #substanceabuseawareness

This episode is about the benefits of HEALing through a combination of somatic (root: soma, Greek for the body) movement therapy and inner child work, including PLAY.

Highlights of this episode include

💛 Trauma-induced dysregulation of our body often drops us on our healing pathway, where we discover that sometimes our worst hurt is abandoning ourselves by trying to get what we need (e.g., love, belonging, acceptance) from others.

💙Our worth is our birthright; we all deserve love, belonging, acceptance, and safety. There is nothing that we must do to earn these things. A falsehood of life is that we must succumb to the hustle and grind of achievement to “earn” these things.

💛Somatic safety: the body heals when it feels safe in relationships, including in the relationship with ourselves. We experience significant healing growth in safe relationships.

💙Healing your inner child can’t be ignored, particularly when abuse occurs when we are children.

💛Inner child healing through somatics is a way to take us through our emotions that need to be expressed (safely): e.g., acknowledging parts we’ve abandoned (anger, sensuality); grieving and mourning; raging (expelling and witnessing); loving and compassion; and finally celebrating.

💙PLAY = dance, art, sports, singing; dress up (you’re a grown adult – go to a mall, try on clothes, and take pictures (no $ required)), etc.

💛Hear Rebekah’s easy tips for loving yourself – creative ideas on positive affirmations (e.g., put a picture of your young self on the wall and add positive affirmations to him/her) and playlists (e.g., of love songs that you sing to yourself)

💙Hear us discussing my experience with somatic movement therapy and why the therapy allowed me to expel guilt and shame, which had to go first to pave the way to my healing pathway.

Resources related to this episode

✨Book: The Gifts of Imperfection: 10th Anniversary Edition: Features a new foreword and brand-new tools, by Brené Brown

✨IG: empowered_by_us • Instagram

✨Email: [email protected]

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

@bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI, TT & YT

Ambiguous loss. Have you experienced it? Most likely, we all have.

I had never heard of this form of trauma before discussing it with my longtime friend, Diane. We’ve known each other for 30 years, yet the topic never came up until recently as she walks her healing journey and has identified the painful experiences in her life. Her ambiguous loss is the result of people exiting their relationship but without finality. When these people exited, they are or were still alive, but the relationship for Diane shifted to a void and a longing for someone who likely would never be in her life again in the same way.

Highlights of this episode include

💛Ambiguous loss is a trauma that may require healing if you’ve experienced it, and most of us have, in one or more of our relationships (divorce, dementia, mental or emotional handicap, alcoholism, etc.)

💙Ambiguous loss is hard to identify and hard to heal, but healing is possible, and it’s never too late

💛The difference in grief from ambiguous loss vs grief from death

💙Equipping children with the mental health tools to offset the effects of trauma and abuse: positive mental health practices, like mindfulness and breathing techniques

Resources related to this episode

✨Diane Ihrig on the www: Diane Ihrig Real Estate

✨Connect with Diane on FB: dianesellsntx | Facebook

✨Connect with Diane on IG: dianesellsntx | Instagram

✨Connect with Diane on LI: Diane Ihrig | LinkedIn

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

@bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI & TT

Keywords

#HEALingMentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #abuse #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #ambiguousloss #grief #griefjourney #divorce #dimentia #alcoholism #alcoholismawareness

Mike is inspiring! When I think about Empowered Survivors, Mike is a shining example. His healing journey led him to his life’s purpose, where he works every day to save people—young people—from fentanyl poisoning through awareness. He intentionally seeks out men and fathers with his message, which is essential because, as I say often, trauma and abuse know no demographic boundaries.

Highlights of this episode include

💛The importance of trauma-related prevention through awareness, whether fentanyl poisoning, child se*ual abuse, or any other preventable trauma; this is how sharing our stories brings purpose to our pain

💙25Preston7 is a series of tributes to Mike’s late son, Preston, filmed in national parks and intended to create awareness about the grave reality of fentanyl poisoning

💛Mike’s HEALing journey and finding purpose out of pain

💙Mike’s work with Texas Against Fentanyl, including healing through the organization as a support group, engaging in law reform and advocacy and creating public awareness through speaking in schools and to parents

💛Fentanyl poisoning has nothing to do with substance abuse or addiction; first-time users are dying, and sometimes “users” don’t know that fentanyl is in whatever they are taking

💙Demand for drugs--legal and illegal--and mental health are issues that need to be addressed in fighting fentanyl poisoning

Resources related to this episode

✨Mike Land on the www: 25Preston7

✨Texas Against Fentanyl: TXAF: Texas Against Fentanyl – Fake Pills take Real Lives

✨Connect with Mike on FB: Facebook

✨Connect with Mike on IG: 25preston7 | Instagram

✨Connect with Mike on LI: Michael Land | LinkedIn

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

@bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI & TT

Keywords

#HEALingMentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #abuse #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #fentanylawareness #fentanyl #fentanylcrisis #fentanylpoisoning #25preston7 #txaf #paintopurpose

I get a lot of questions about the most effective therapy modalities I use on my HEALing journey. EMDR--Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing--is at the top of my list, but I can only give the layman’s description of what’s happening in my brain. Here is Monica, my trauma therapist, giving an expert’s description of what’s really happening in the brain as a result of trauma and how EMDR helps us to desensitize and reprocess our past experiences.

The result: Life gets easier!!

Highlights of this episode include

💛Dealing with the catch-22 of needing help but not knowing why or exactly what you need help healing from and learning some signs to look for that might help your therapist to help you.

💙Building rapport is fundamental to a successful therapeutic relationship because of the significance of the relationship related to our well-being.

💛Touching on something painful that needs healing should not be confused with a perceived lack of rapport that ends the therapeutic relationship.

💙Sometimes trauma therapy is more challenging than the trauma itself, but persevering through the difficulty is paramount to healing.

💛Victims carry shame that is not ours, like an infection the perpetrator gives us.

💙Beyond EMDR to brain spotting and expanding positive feelings.

Resources related to this episode

✨On the www: Monica Borschel, PhD - Attachment and Divorce Recovery Coach

✨Connect with Dr Monica on FB: drmonicaborschel | Facebook

✨Connect with Dr Monica on IG: drmonicaborschel | Instagram

✨Connect with Dr Monica on LI: Monica Borschel, Ph.D. | LinkedIn

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

@bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI & TT

Keywords

#HEALingMentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #abuse #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #EMDR #emdrtherapy #traumatherapy #traumatherapist #brainspotting

Much of my HEALing journey has been exploring and understanding love across various relationships, including self-love. Brian describes the same concept as diversifying our self-worth portfolio, including investing in ourselves. I love the different ways in which we talk about the same actions. Plus, you don’t want to miss our funny (okay…it’s nerdy) conversation as two former accountants applying investment portfolio ideas to relationships. But it works!!

Highlights of this episode include

💛Being born to a life of service versus transitioning to serving others as part of a Second Mountain journey

💙How what we experience every day in the job we work at, including work-related trauma, can move us from a place of being happy at the beginning to malcontent at the end

💛What feels like career development may be a form of self-isolation as we spend more time at work and with work colleagues, sacrificing other meaningful relationships

💙Diversifying your self-worth portfolio, including investing in different relationships and benefiting from your return on investments (ROI); investing = choosing to engage; ROI = fulfillment

💛Identifying whether your self-worth portfolio needs diversification and thoughts on how to address your need

💙The difference between the cliché phrase “work/life balance” versus what should be the reality of “life/work integration”

Resources related to this episode

✨Brian Boetig on the www at Global Trace LLC

✨Connect with the guest on LinkedIn | Brian Boetig

✨Book: Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement by Kevin M. Gilmartin, Ph. D.

✨Book: The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

@bethjoneshealingmentor on FB, IG, LI & TT

Keywords

#HEALingMentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #abuse #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #selfworth #selfworthportfolio #secondmountain #worklifebalance #lifeworkbalance #davidbrooks #kevingilmartin

This short story is about my journey to finding my voice, from a place of silence not too many years ago to where I am today, launching the Let’s HEAL! Show.

Resources related to this episode

💛Finding Your Voice: A Pathway to Recovery for Survivors of Abuse, by Mannette Morgan (Self Help Book for Survivors of Abuse)

Connect with me through the Empowered Survivors website

💙Read my book Becoming an Empowered Survivor

💛Bring me to your stage as an Inspirational Speaker

💙Work with me as your HEALing Mentoring

💛Join the private Facebook Empowered Survivors Community

💙Hear me talking on other podcasts and read my Let's HEAL Blog

Connect with the HEALing Mentor on social media

✨@bethjoneshealingmentor | Facebook

✨@bethjoneshealingmentor | Instagram

✨Beth Jones | LinkedIn

✨@bethjoneshealingmentor | TikTok

✨Beth Jones - YouTube

Keywords

#HEALingMentor #empoweredsurvivors #youtoocanheal #hopeevolveandlove #trauma #abuse #survivor #survivorship #heal #healing #healingjourney #findingmyvoice #endsilence