Linda's Corner: Inspiration for a Better Life

"I want to shine a light on my most shameful things so people feel less alone." - Dr. Samantha Harte. 

Samantha didn't think she was an addict.  She felt completely in control.  She assumed that experimenting with drinking and drugs was something that she could start and stop whenever she wanted.  When she realized that she needed to stop or die, she faced a problem.  She hated the 12 step program, but she needed help.  Updating the 12 step addiction recovery program with fresh language and the latest science of real change provided the solutions she needed to learn to love and forgive herself and live a sober life.  Dr. Samantha Harte is a mental health expert, physical therapist, author, performing artist, podcast host, and sober mom of two.  She has been featured on CBS, abc7, People magazine, New York Lifestyles Magazine, Time magazine and more.  You can learn more about Dr. Harte and her new book “Breaking the Circuit” at her website https://www.drsamanthaharte.com

Some of the highlights Dr. Harte shares in this episode:
Her harrowing personal story of addiction and struggle to recovery
What it's like to be a high functioning addict
Feeling overcome with feelings of shame
The importance of finding a friend to tell who wouldn't judge
At her first AA meeting she sat in the back, crossed her arms and thought, "I'm not like these people."
Why addiction begins as  "solution" to our deeper problems
The shock of having a sober mentor and friend relapse and succumb to suicide
Addiction doesn't care if you've been sober for a day or a decade, it's waiting for a weakness to pounce
I didn't want to die, but I didn't know how to live
Trying the 12 steps to heal her failing marriage
Addicts are destructive to the people around them and also to themselves
Have you ever made amends with yourself?
You are a good person who made bad choices
Learning to love yourself
Finding a vehicle to clear the shame
Learning how to stop negative self talk and express kindness and compassion to yourself
Becoming the highest version of yourself
Suffering from untreated perfectionism
The science of real change
You are worthy of love, connection and belonging
And more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges.

Parenting teenagers can be challenging, but if we understand what is normal and start teaching skills during the pre-teen years, we can maintain a positive relationship with our teenagers and prepare them for success.  Marcus Aurelius Higgs is a communication coach for parents of preteens.  You can reach Marcus at his website https://marcushiggs.com. 

Some of the highlights Marcus shares:
The pre-teen years are bridge stage that can change the directory of a child's whole life
Teen years are "break through" years of changing between looking inward toward family and turning outward to the world.
Understanding normal development helps parents and pre-teens better navigate the changes they experience
Trust is built over time
How to help a pre-teen or teen develop a strong sense of identity
How to overcome communication issues between parents and teens
How to help pre-teens and teens gain skills to manage their emotions
Emotions are valid, it's our behavior that we need to control
Parents model correct behavior.  You can't be what you can't see.
Autonomy supportive parenting
Do it with them, not for them.
How to teach problem solving skills
We are the stories we tell ourselves
Virtue spotting - seeing the good in them
ANTS - automatic negative thoughts
Helping parents transition from being a child's "manager" to the "guide on the side"
Teenagers don't communicate fairly - parents need to set the tone and literally be "the adult in the room"
How to create small pockets of time to listen and connect
You make time for the things that you care about - put it in your calendar
How to repair and reconnect
And more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges.

Haleh Shoa and her family escaped the Iranian Revolution of 1979 with their photo albums and not much else.   Now  Haleh is the Founder and CEO of Picturli a photo organization, archiving & design studio because she knows firsthand that you can replace material things, but you can't replace your memories.  In this interview, Haleh shares valuable tips on how you can organize and preserve your photos yourself  or hire a professional photo ninja to do it for you.   https://www.picturli.com/

To connect with Haleh at Picturli and to receive your 7-step guide to organizing and archiving your photos, visit www.picturelifecurated.com

Make sure to follow them on all their social channels:

www.instagram.com/picturli

www.facebook.com/picturli

Some of the highlights Haleh shares:

• You can replace material things, but you can't replace memories
• How to archive your family history 
• Where do I begin?  Start with your family tree - names and important dates
• Start with albums - what has already been done?
• You have permission to let go of duplicates and duds
• Download your photos to an external hard drive
• Scan and gather photos first, then organize
• What are your goals? 
• How to preserve physical copies of photos
• How to digitize photos
• What platforms are available to share with family and friends?
• Practice the 3-2-1 method to protect photos (3 copies, 2 locations, 1 off site)
• How to get a 7 step guide to archive photos
• Get information from the elders in the family
• Stay curious 
• Pack your patience
• Tips and tricks to simplify
• Be intentional when taking photos - delete the ones you don't want
• One day a week delete duplicates and duds on your phone rather than social media
• Waiting in line? This is a great time to delete duplicates and duds or select favorites
• If you have an iphone - use the duplicates button to clean out duplicates
• Screen shots of recipes?  - put them in an album to help with organization
• What is the difference between syncing and backing up? 
• And more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges.

Mary Caroll Moore heroically overcame her battle with cancer and helps others untap their creative healing powers through writing, art and music.   Mary is a bestselling and award-winning author, chef and former cooking school instructor, artist and a breast cancer survivor.  You can reach Mary at her website https://www.marycarrollmoore.com/

Some of the highlights Mary shares:

• Research shows that writing, art and music aid in the healing process
• Expressing yourself creatively facilitates healing
• By saving others we also save ourselves
• To make writing more powerful in the healing process, write with deliberate intent.  Describe the scenario that traumatized you, how you felt then, and how you feel now.
• Remember to reach out and ask for help and support when going through trauma
• Host a "hat party" for a friend who has been diagnosed with cancer, of plan one for yourself
• I don't want to just survive, but thrive!
•  Cancer is an opportunity to evaluate your life and decide what else you'd like to do.  It can be a doorway to new possibilities
•  My job is to find the joy
• Our bodies heal when we're in a parasympathetic dominant state - the more we can relax and feel peace, the quicker our body can heal itself 
• Finding joy in eating and growing food
• Creativity is more than just art, gardening is also a way to participate in the creation process
• Mary's mother was a World War II pilot - example of heroism
• Heroism can be personal as we transform ourselves
• What is a hero?  Someone who doesn't put limits on themselves and serves others
• And more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges.

You can improve your positivity by as much as 200% in just 15 days with small daily action steps.  Marc Fussell's  brilliant "Take 2 Minutes" progressive web app not only changes lives, it saves them.   Marc Fussell is an entrepreneurial technologist and the founder of Take 2 Minutes non-profit.  You can learn more about Marc and his non-profit at his website https://www.take2minutes.org.  

Some of the highlights Marc shares:

• How daily positivity helped his son through tough times
• The research behind positive psychology
• Our brain's default setting is to seek out danger and negativity
• We can retrain our brain by creating new neural pathways that find positivity
• Gratitude journals - but what if I can't think of anything to be grateful for?
• How simple gratitude challenges can prime our brains towards gratitude
• 3 good things - what is this practice and how can it help me?
• You can change your mindset with 2 fast and easy daily practices - gratitude journal in the morning and 3 good things in the evening 
• Research shows that gratitude journals and 3 good things produce better results than SSRI's  (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) 
• How to create new neural pathways while we sleep
• Focus groups showed 200% increase in positivity within 30 days
• Increase feelings of worthiness and lovability
• How SMS is more affective than a traditional app
• Gain access to meditation on demand, breathing exercises, proven methods to promote better sleep, reduce anxiety and more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges.

Kasia Dodd explains that you cannot have an "inner child" without also having an "inner parent."  By retraining our inner parent, the inner child becomes free.  Polish born psychologist Katarzyna "Kasia" Dodd is an author and the founder of Inherence LLC.  She also pioneered the introduction of Emotional Freedom Techniques in Poland.  You can reach Kasia at her website https://katarzynadodd.com.  

Some highlights Kasia shares:

• The search for the underlying structure that fits all circumstances and life experiences
• Explanation of our "inner child" and "inner parent" and their roles in our wellbeing
• Your "inner child" is powerful and ready to play, it's actually the "inner parent" that projects false images and interpretations onto the inner child - when we release our attachments to those images, interpretations, etc. the child becomes free to express joy
• How to heal and retrain our inner parent
• Guilt is misplaced responsibility
• Focus your attention on what you have control over
• When we heal, our actions may look similar to before, yet our feelings are completely different
• Others treat you not the way you treat them, but the way you treat yourself
• And more 

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges.

How is your greatness like a genie in a bottle?  Dr. Shai Tubali explains how to recognize and access your own power in this fascinating discussion on awareness.  Dr. Shai Tubali is an international best selling author and a leading authority in the field of self-development and self-empowerment.  You can reach Dr. Tubali at his website https://shaitubali.com and his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ShaiTubali.

Some of the highlights Dr. Tubali shares:

•  We have two parts to ourselves:  our experience and our awareness
• To be "conscious" means to be "aware"
• If we are not aware, then we become shaped by our experiences and reduced to our reactions
• Awareness is like a genie in a bottle - we think we're small, but we are more powerful than we realize
• What is the law of attention?
• When we feed our problems, fears, reactions with our attention, they grow
• Whatever we give attention to becomes powerful, meaningful and significant
• How to gain power over our emotions and memories
• How increased awareness brings liberation and freedom
• Gaining a sense of who we are
• I am
• How to use increased consciousness to heal from trauma
• How we minimize ourselves so we feel helpless and powerless
• How to gain a sense of inner power
• How to choose our awareness
• True listening includes what we receive and our reaction to what we receive
• And more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges. 

Becky Ellis is the daughter of a decorated World War II veteran who carried a heavy burden of PTSD that affected generations.  Becky's shares the wisdom learned through hard conversations that helped bring generational healing.  Becky has spent over 20 years in the publishing industry, she is the author of “Little Avalanches,” and the daughter of a highly decorated World War II combat sergeant.  You can reach Becky at her website https://beckyellis.net

Some of the highlights Becky shares:  

• How the trauma of a war veteran can be passed down several generations
• How military families can live behind a veil of secrecy 
• In combat situations, people are expected to turn off emotions and become dehumanized - then are expected to just flip a switch and turn it all back on when they get home
• People don't want to talk about hard things, because they don't want to remember hard things, but hard conversations can bring about healing
• We are profoundly affected by the secrets we carry
• It was safe to talk to my father when he was 89, but it wasn't when he was 50 - waiting until people are ready requires patience and perseverance
• Carrying survivors guilt
• Seeing others for who they are, not for who we want or need them to be
• Perspective challenges traditional notions of relationships
• How to start a hard conversation 
• "There's something I want to say, and I don't know how to do it..."
• Increasing compassion for family members and for all of humanity
• People need to be seen, heard, and felt
• Healing happens when we "feel" each other
• We can "feel" even if we can't "understand"
• It takes practice
• Adults take in memoirs like children take in fairy tales - it's a form of practice
• Break cycles of generational pain and suffering
• And more

 Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges. 

The science of happiness shows that you can literally hardwire your brain to be happier.  Listen to this informative interview with Hashish Kothari to learn how you can re-wire your brain in as little as 60 seconds.  Ashish is a transformational leader, the Founder & CEO of Happiness Squad, the host of the Happiness Squad Podcast, and author of the Amazon No. 1 Bestseller, "Hardwired for Happiness."  You can reach Ashish at his website https://happinesssquad.com. 

Some of the highlights Ashish shares:

• What keeps us stuck in fear?
• Why does "pursuing happiness" lead to unhappiness?
• What is the formula for success?
• Personal story of working hard, achieving financial, corporate, and relationship success yet feeling anxiety and despair rather than satisfaction and happiness - what's wrong?
• Why am I not flourishing?
• How we can transform from fear to freedom
• How to make ourselves a "research lab"
• Using "me-search" to see if something works for you
• Why it's important to align our work/career with our talents, strengths, and what we love
• We are drowning in knowledge but parched for practice
• How to bridge the gap between knowing and doing
• The path of knowing, doing and becoming come through practice and sharing with others
• How to change how you show up
• Using "micro practices" to rewire your brain in just 1-5 minutes a day
• Start with something small, connect with something you already do, do it together and celebrate
• How to use a "mindful minute" to recenter throughout the work day
• Taking 6 mindful breaths is enough to make a difference
• Bring your mind to your body - your body has no choice but to live in the present, but our minds can wander to the past or worry about the future - how to bring your mind to the present
• Overcoming feelings of overwhelm
• Stop doing for a moment and just be
• When we feel overwhelmed we tend to either react or try to numb ourselves
• We exist in a sympathetic "fight or flight" state 70-90% of the time
• When we have an energy deficit, it negatively affects our relationships
• Live a life without regrets
• We can't choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we show up and how we respond
• We become what we practice
• We can reprogram our brains
• It is doable!
• And more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges. 

Kidnappers captured Gloria Londono, threw her in a trunk of their car and held her ransom for 90 days.  To make matters worse, her three year old daughter was in daycare and there would be no mother to pick her up.   Gloria is a certified life coach, podcaster, the author of Flourish In Captivity, and at age 25 was the victim of kidnapping.  You can reach Gloria at her website www.glorialondono.co. 

Some of the highlights Gloria shares:

• Her terrifying story of being kidnapped at gunpoint and held in the dark for 90 days
• She was a single mother with a three year old daughter
• Dealing with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and Stockholm Syndrome 
• Being in survival mode
• Understanding our nervous system and our "fight, flight, freeze, or appease" survival instincts
• How trauma can affect our relationships
• You can be physically trapped and mentally free and you can be physically free and mentally trapped
• Recreating trauma cycles
• Recognizing the stories we tell ourselves and how to rewrite them
• Learning how to feel safe in your body and in your world
• Finding tools to deal with emotional triggers
• Learning how to live in the present
• We somatize our trauma (it manifests as physical problems)
• My goal is to be free in my mind and my body
• Why forgiveness is a miracle tool to achieve freedom
• Unconditional love
• Healthy people don't hurt us, it's always people that are hurting that hurt others
• And more

Please share, subscribe, leave a rating and review, visit the Linda's Corner website at lindascornerpodcast.com and/or follow on youtube, facebook, instagram, and pinterest @lindascornerpodcast. Thanks!

Also please visit the Hope for Healing website at hopeforhealingfoundation.org for free resources to increase happiness, build confidence and self esteem, improve relationships, manage stress, and calm feelings of depression and anxiety.   Become the champion of your own story as you overcome your challenges.