Real Eyes Realize

This podcast features Cain Carroll who is a loving being at the intersectionality of spiritual awakening and integrative medicine.  Enjoy our REAL conversation, with lightness, humor, and an honest look at universal teachings, primarily that each of us is already and always Inherently Whole.  In this podcast, we learn more about Cain’s Clearbright Framework, a roadmap for inquiry around inherent wholeness in Nine Petals of life.  We also hear about Cain’s partnership with Dr. Josefa Rangel, MD, in their Innate Medicine business venture, helping patients restore the full potency of their health and healing capacity by identifying and transforming key elements of disharmony and imbalance within their lives.

Cain Carroll: Cain Carroll is a wild mystic and rebel spiritual teacher whose embodiment of radical presence and teachings on awakened consciousness offer a fresh and much needed blueprint for the new humanity we yearn for. He is the architect of the Clearbright Teachings that invite seekers back into intimacy the sacredness of life, and co-creator of Innate Medicine — a new paradigm in whole person healing — with Josefa Rangel, MD.

This podcast features Anne Heffron who is a screenwriter, book author, and an incredible writing coach.  She compares writing to poop.  She surmises, “What if we realized writing is as basic a function as pooping … it is within us and wants to get out!  We also don’t sit around and evaluate poop either. Think about that.”  What a world it would be if we all felt free enough to write from an authentic and true place within.  Anne relates her coaching to a “stick of dynamite” when it comes to helping her clients move past rules and the learned structure of writing, and our inherent editing mind, and teaches people how to find their authentic voice and the question their life is here to answer.

Anne Heffron: Anne Heffron has taught writing for most of her adult life. She has been eating ice cream for even longer. She is currently writer-in-residence, farmer-in-training at Spirit Hill Farm in Sebastopol and holds online classes for adopted people with Pam Cordano. As a writing coach, she teaches both groups of people and individuals how to express their most authentic selves on paper. She got a dog not long ago and is deeply, wildly, in love.

This podcast features Caitlin Hoffman who is a Silicon Valley educator, academic coach, academic intervention specialist, and screen addiction specialist who shares with us her own life journey and calling to work with adolescents. Caitlin is no stranger to struggle, from growing up with hippie parents in the 1960’s to experiencing tragic losses in life, and she shares her outlook about temporary , and preciousness of life.  She also shares her knowledge and experience in working with teens and families before and during COVID, and her views of a post-pandemic world where mental health challenges will continue to surface.

Caitlin Hoffman: Caitlin has extensive experience working with parents, teenagers, and schools as a Silicon Valley educator, academic coach, academic intervention specialist, and screen addiction specialist.  She has over thirty-five years of experience in academia and  is the Founder of All Minds Matter, Academic Coaching Works, Parenting Works and Digital Detox Works.  Caitlin excels at advocating for adolescents, and helping parents navigate the complexities of the education system, specializing in working with students who are gifted and talented (GATE), have ADD/ADHD, depression, anxiety, or other learning challenges.  Through academic coaching, she creates new pathways for teens and parents.

This podcast features Jessica Eastland as she gets REAL with us on the struggles illustrated by her father’s fight with ALS and also the grace with which her family moves through challenges when life throws hard things at you. Jessica is an educator and a positive community builder committed to raising awareness and support for non-profits working to end ALS (ALS Association, ALS TDI, I Am ALS).

Jessica Eastland: Jessica is an elementary school teacher with a passion for social emotional well-being. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband, where they were both born and raised. They live very near to most of their extended family, and she loves every second of it! A woman of many hobbies, Jessica enjoys any opportunity to be creative and to get outside in nature. She is currently working her way through the 2021 52 Week Hike Challenge! Though life can throw many hard curve balls, she doesn't let the beautiful moments and lessons go unnoticed.

This podcast features the author of the incredible book, “Wake Up, Grateful”, and one of the most mindful and grateful leaders you will ever experience.  Kristi is also a cancer survivor and we discuss the shifts in her own life when the very fact of waking up another day reinvigorates her belief: “I get to be alive today!”  We discuss the difference between gratitude and grateful living and many more nuggets of wisdom (hint: your relationship with red and yellow traffic lights may be changed forever!)  Enjoy this heart-felt and intimate window into the eyes of Kristi Nelson and learn what it means to love with our hearts banging on their hinges... Wide Open!

Kristi Nelson: Kristi is the executive director of A Network for Grateful Living.  She has a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and has spent more than 30 years in nonprofit leadership, development, and consulting.  She has worked at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and the Soul of Money Institute. Kristi is a Stage IV cancer survivor who cherishes living among friends and family in western Massachusetts.

This podcast is a special one for many reasons.  At the outset of REAL Eyes Realize, Christina and Jessica, as podcast partners, set out to have REAL conversations.  In December 2020, Jessica’s life got rocked when her father unexpectedly left this earth.  As a team, we took a compassionate pause to grieve with Jess and this podcast marks our return to our monthly cadence.  It has been a painful and awakening time for all.  This podcast takes us through the perilous journey of grief as it ties to dealing with suicide of a loved one, a formidable father figure, and the ways in which one very special being (Jess Smith) has been navigating the ups and downs of impermanence.

 Jessica Smith: Jessica is a Writer, Podcast Host (of the show Career Coaching with Jessness), Career Coach, and Public Speaker based in Modesto, CA. She’s an explorer of life and sees it as one big experiment to learn and grow. Jess believes the main ingredient we need to cultivate is a connection to our -NESS and to embody the knowing that we’re not here to figure out what to do, but rather, who we are. This journey of experimentation isn’t for the faint of heart, but to begin all you need is a willing-NESS and open mind. 

Jess works 1:1 with coaching clients, is available for speaking engagements and guest appearances, and is currently co-creating with Spirit to bring book #2 into the world.

Join us to unpack the pitfalls and opportunities of sustainable aid that can support communities around the world, for the long-term. Julia Midland specializes in gender empowerment and works in humanitarian assistance, governance, health, counter-trafficking, counter-terrorism, and post-conflict rebuilding in some of the most war-torn places in the world. She shares with us a deep understanding of the problems with typical aid models and insight into what can be done for more community-centered programming.  We’re excited to learn with Julia and understand more about REAL liberation for all.

Julia Midland: Julia has worked in international policy and humanitarian aid for over 15 years, evaluating the efficacy of aid programming and impact vs. intended outcome. Specializing in gender and conflict, she has worked across numerous sectors, including education, humanitarian assistance, governance, health, counter-trafficking, illicit finance, and counter-terrorism. Her work across the globe, with particular expertise in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has given her an acute understanding of the problems with the typical aid model, and insight into how to make development programming more sustainable through equitable, community-centered intervention.

This podcast highlights Lonnell Graham's Ripple Effect Actualizing Love (a.k.a REAL change!) in his family, community, and our world. We learn how Lonnell got started (think of a devoted Dad with political aspirations) and the work he does today operating from a place of deep personal truth. We will visit themes of education, the importance of never stopping learning, stoking our inner fire, mentor influences in life, and how Lonnell has been able to serve in a world of dealing with systemic racism.

Lonnell Graham: Lonnell grew up in the Midwest. He was born in St. Louis and spent most of his childhood and young adult years in Kansas City. After graduating from Rockhurst University, he and his college sweetheart moved to San Jose, California. While there, he got married, earned a living as an insurance broker, and started a family. After feeling unfulfilled in the corporate sector, he became a stay-at-home Dad to his two children. He also discovered yoga and a new purpose in his life. Lonnell was a paraprofessional and a substitute teacher in the Kansas City and San Jose school districts and has always felt a calling towards being a civil servant. His dedication to the youth and teaching inspired his new career as a yoga instructor. Now, living in Houston, Texas he can be found teaching yoga at various gyms and studios and is an active member of his community!

Join us to look at the world through eyes that see the interconnectivity of us all on our heroic journey, and seeing how all activities in our life are gifts that come into our path when we dance in the karmic raindrops of life. We discuss how to deal with challenges such as burnout, mis-identification, and life impermanence through the eyes of cancer. In this podcast, we are invited to learn, grow, and see through the REAL Eyes of these two blessed beings.

Manoj Chalam: Manoj is the Murti Wallah, somebody who schleps and sells Murtis (statues of Hindu & Buddhist deities), teaches their symbolisms, archetypes, philosophy, mythology and a story teller who combines science, popular culture, psychotherapy and whatever he can get his hands on. He’s a scientist by training (Ph.D. In chemical engineering from Cornell) and also trying to keep teachings real with a healthy dose of humor.

Jyothi Chalam: Jyothi is a scholar of Advaita Vedanta (non dual philosophy) and an accomplished South Indian classical music singer. Jyothi is a master teacher when it comes to sadhana and Vedanta philosophy. Jyothi's guru is Swami Tattvavidanandaji from Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Pennsylvania. Jyothi spends at least 3 months every year at their ashram studying the Vedantic scriptures of the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Brahma Sutras.