Stories of Inspiring Joy

Don Culp has been in the military for the past 23 years, and is married with 5 children. He entered the military at just 17 and a junior in high school. He completed basic training between his junior and senior year, and about a week after graduating high school he left to finish his AIT (advanced individual training). He had always wanted to be a pilot and fly, and in 2008 he found out they were selected to go to flight school. Today, Don is also a Flight Consultant on the civilian side teaching kids about STEM through Aerospace specifically related to flying.

In today’s episode Don candidly and vulnerably shares his family’s journey with his daughter Braelyn Aubrey. In 2008 when she was just six months old Braelyn started to show issues with minor eye deviations, and they soon came to find out that she was having seizures. In 2011 after Don graduated from flight school, he had to come home from his deployment in Iraq because Braelyn experienced another seizure and was taken to a local children’s hospital. This began a series of hospital visits, and after experiencing a stroke a portion of Braelyn’s brain was damaged. She started to show signs of improvement, and Don returned to his deployment. Braelyn had gone nine months without a seizure or hospital, but on a trip to Florida she had a seizure again.

On October 1, 2012, Don came home from work and saw that Braelyn was sick. As it got closer to bedtime he gave her a hug and she patted him on the back and kissed her goodnight, and told her that he loved her. As Don shares, he didn’t know that would be the last time he’d be able to do that. The next day when he was at work, Braelyn had passed away. As Don shares, his daughter had a fighting spirit, she never quit, and today he continues to work to emulate her no quit, joyful attitude.

Don started the Braelyn Aubrey foundation in her memory, and it’s through the foundation that he’s able to honor her, her memory, and help others like her. Today, Don and his family continue to honor Braelyn and her spirit. Don’s story is a beautiful reminder of the power of honoring the loved ones in our lives - their story and their memory - and just how important it is to make the most of our current situation. Don has learned he’s blessed beyond measure to have his wife and kids and to have had a child such as Braelyn in his life. Don’s biggest dream is to honor Braelyn’s memory and ensure her spirit lives on through all that he does.

To connect with Don and learn more about the Braelyn Aubrey Foundation you can reach out via email [email protected]

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

With his captivating and empowering style, Michael will leave people with the aspiration and inspiration to be better.

As a teenager, Michael was fortunate to receive guidance from positive adult role models who helped him overcome adversities and set high expectations for his future. Grateful for the role these mentors played in his own development, Michael decided to dedicate his professional life to helping people navigate the difficulties of life and launch their future into motion.

Michael received the 2010 USA Network’s Characters Unite Award for exceptional commitment to combating prejudice and discrimination while increasing tolerance and acceptance within the community. He is also the recipient of the 2014 100 Men of Color Award for leadership in education, government, mentorship, entrepreneurial success and community service. And most recently, he was awarded the EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD from Y-COP, the Youth Community Outreach Program in Mt. Vernon.

In today’s episode, Michael shares his journey shaking off the dirt in his life, and using it as a stepping stone. Today, Michael is sharing with us some of his dirt. His father was a raging alcoholic, and he grew up in poverty and dysfunction. His mother raised him and his siblings on her housekeeping salary. But this is where he started, it’s not where he’s ended. His dirt is the catalyst and the foundation for why he wants to reach out and help other people. Michael is a master encourager, because he draws on the things he went through growing up. His own experience has allowed him to be empathetic and put himself in the shoes of those who may suffer, or have challenges or obstacles that they have to deal with as they go through life. He’s created a phenomenal youth development organization called Power of Peace, where young people come together for two days to learn about themselves and create community with others, and a non-profit, Youth Voices Center where they help young people become better citizens, contribute to society, to take the things they’ve gone through and to use them as a catalyst for success rather than an opportunity for failure. Michael’s mission in life is to bring peace to those he comes in contact with and his story is powerful, and as he shares we can use the dirt in our lives as our transportation, and not our destination.

To learn more about Michael visit his website www.michaelarterberry.com and www.youthvoicescenter.org and on Facebook @michael.arterberry Instagram @ctthunder and Get a FREE copy of his book "Be Encouraged: 250 Days of Motivation and Encouragement" here

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

As a #1 international bestselling author, teacher and coach, Elle Hari is a Twin Flame and Ascension Alchemist who’s true purpose in life is guiding people on their Twin Flame journey— a transformation that reunites them with their Twin Flame and leads to self-love, joy, abundance and their soul’s highest calling.

After following her own Twin Flame journey, Elle left her job as a lawyer and began coaching students as they traveled theirs. As painful as her Twin Flame journey was, she wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. Without it, she wouldn’t have learned the Divine Truth of Creation, which is necessary to help people advance on their soul’s journey. Through her personal experiences and coaching, she’s developed revolutionary methods that help her students unconditionally love themselves at the deepest level possible. Elle’s students discover who they truly are, at the soul level, manifesting their greatest dreams by discovering and fulfilling their true soul's purpose.

Devoted to helping people overcome fear, pain and self-sabotaging limitations, she guides her students to their true nature of bliss and perpetual happiness. Her mission is driven by a passion to expand people’s knowledge and awareness of Twin Flames and assist humanity’s spiritual ascension on a global scale.

In today’s episode, Elle shares her journey of how her purpose found her. She started off her career as a lawyer, and over time she began to realize that it wasn’t her passion. At the same time she found herself divorced and a single mother, and there was part of her that was excited for her next chapter. She met someone new, and shortly after she found herself hitting rock bottom. She didn’t recognize herself anymore, she couldn’t function, and she recognized that something had to change. She found out that she was experiencing a twin flame journey, an awakening to get to know yourself on the deepest level possible, on the level of your soul, who you truly are. It’s a spiritual journey of unconditional and immense self-love. Elle’s own twin flame journey has inspired her to write a book and work with others to trust their own path, to trust their rock bottom, and discover their own inner truth.

To learn more about Elle and her work visit her website https://www.masteryofascensionalchemy.com and on Instagram @bewithyourtwinflame Facebook @twinflameteacher and YouTube here

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here

Tabitha Babcock is the founder of Bquet of Word. Relationships can take work, but who said 'work' can't be a beautiful party. Bquet of Words is a resource to celebrate your friends in a vibrant way. Building better friendships can be joy-filled and beautiful.

In today’s episode Tabitha shares a piece of her story and how it came to be, and the inspiration behind Bquet of Word, a resource for your to build better friendships and champion your own people with intention. Tabitha runs towards things, her life is beautiful and full of joy. Her passion for sharing how to build better friendships helps bring beauty to others. Tabitha shares the importance of true friendship and community, especially for women, and that beauty truly means showing up for one another with vulnerability and intention. As Tabitha shares, in society we place high importance on romantic relationships, but we seldom talk about the importance of deep and lasting friendships. Friendships take work, but 'work' can be celebratory, encouraging, and joy-filled. It’s her hope that we all have the opportunity to have authentic relationships, that we put in the ‘work’ to create a less isolated world.

To connect with Tabitha visit her website www.bquetofwords.co and on Instagram @bquet_ @tab.itharae

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

Laura Formentini has always been a curious and empathic person. It is that sensitivity that has led her to travel the world and bring aid wherever she goes, be it in the form of raising funds to renovate an entire orphanage in Kenya, a run-down clinic in Malawi, or Co-Found an animal sanctuary in Sicily, Italy. Laura is also a nonprofit photographer who has had the privilege of working with countless organizations around the world. Laura is a believer that Love in Action heals not only the world, but that it also holds the key to our own healing.

In today’s episode, Laura shares her journey to her work opening up the animal sanctuary, Rifugio Isola del Sole, and how love in action heals the heart. Her work in Sicily provides a sanctuary for animals, it’s a way of showing that where there is love, there is always life. While advocating travel to impact the world for positive global change, Laura turned into a child welfare activist and an advocate to prevent cruelty to animals.

Her philanthropic fundraising has taken place in Italy, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, and Puerto Rico. An archaeologist, conservationist, and photographer, Laura is also Vice President of Rifugio Isola del Sole, an animal sanctuary in Southern Italy, where she spearheads the free sterilization of street dogs and cats. Other causes she supports include––People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Mercy for Animals, Best Friends Animal Society, Kiva, Mercy for Animals, the ASPCA, and the LAV (Lega Anti-Vivisezione Italia).

Laura has also been sponsoring over 40 children around the globe through PlanUSA for the past 16 years. Born in Milan, Laura has lived in Italy, Missouri, Colorado, and California, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Archaeology and Art History from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Laura is honored to meet you here and excited you have a desire to learn more about taking action, what she callsLove in Action, to create a better world.

To connect with Laura visit her website www.lauraformentini.com and www.RifugioIsolaDelSole.com and on Instagram @authorlauraformentini

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

Shunia is a duo that combines addictive melodies, ancient chants and polycultural rhythms into a sound that feels both new and timeless. Their music captures and conveys deep energies and spirit. The state of "shunia" means stillness, receptivity. A stillness of power, not passivity. Shunia’s members, Lisa Reagan and Suzanne Jackson, combine their influences, inspirations and experiences to form genre-defying music with the power to transform and to connect you to the energy within and around you. It can put you in touch with something as simple as your five senses or as mysterious as the infinite.

Experience the music of Shunia, it will transport you.

In today’s new episode, Lisa Reagan shares her journey to Shunia through yoga and chanting, how she released control and allowed a magical world to open up before her, and how she and Suzanne came together. As Lisa so beautifully shares, she realized in the end there really is no other choice than to trust the process, and to let go and trust the higher intelligence that keeps this whole universe going. For Lisa, it meant to believe in something out there that was so great, that all she had to do was get out of the way and allow that intelligence to come through and guide her. Lisa’s story is a beautiful reminder of the power of releasing fear, allowing energy to flow through us, and what happens when we trust the sacred worlds that exist within. It’s this experience and this knowing that inspired Lisa to start the group Shunia, because she wanted to share this music with others and give them the gift of this magical tool of chanting and sound.

To learn more about Lisa and Suzanne of Shunia visit their website https://shuniasound.com and on Instagram @shuniasound Facebook @shuniasound on YouTube here and on Spotify here

You can tune into two released tracks in advance of their self-titled album, SHUNIA (album available Jan. 15, 2021):

“Sa Re Sa Sa”

YouTube: https://youtu.be/7VJ0Kqz_Y30

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6wGa86EwJZQgi2wCpPnya9?si=4tMIev5pSai70MfUn5RpEA

“Breeze at Dawn”

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/0_F88VuYObY

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1cpv1ZnsMpsBYtPTQIUdnq

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

Reina Rose is an International Best Selling Author and host of the ROKU TV Show “Soul Nutrition”. She shares with readers and audiences alike the various ways of nourishing the soul. Digging deep into what truly satisfies the inner life.

Reina takes ancient wisdom and distills it into practical tools that modern audiences can easily implement. Covering topics from stress management and meditation to prayer and personal awareness, Reina leads her audiences on a journey towards personal and spiritual fulfillment.

Reina is also the author of Sin Tastes Good: Nourishing Your Soul in an Empty Calories World. Sin Tastes Good takes readers on an inward journey to discovering their very souls. Comparing this path of self-discovery with the body’s need for healthy nourishment, STG reminds readers that the ancient concept of sin simply means to miss the mark. It may look like a bellyache full of sticky sweet candy or a behavior that leaves us feeling empty and aching. STG helps readers ask new questions and consider different answers in search of inner fulfillment.

In today’s episode, Reina shares what it means to be a soul nutritionist, and how we can begin to nourish our souls to live a heaven on earth kind of life. Reina shares powerful tips to nourish our soul, and one of those tips is spending time in silence. When we allow ourselves to sit in silence, we clear the clutter of our mind and allow inspiration to come through. As we develop this practice, we can begin to hear more clearly the divine intelligence that is within all us. As Reina shares, what often comes from these moments of stillness is a moment of peace, and that sense of peace starts within the individual. It’s Reina’s mission to bring peace, one individual at a time, because if we are living heaven on earth, then we will change the world around us.

To learn more about Reina and her new book visit her website www.reina-rose.com and on Instagram @The_soul_nutritionist Facebook @thesoulnutritionist Twitter @soulnutritionrr

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here

Jen Broyles is a Holistic Health Coach, SOMA Breath work Instructor, Essential Oils Coach and founder of the Sacred Breath Community. She helps individuals restore and optimize their health by calming the nervous system, reducing stress, awakening their inner healer. Her personal story is what inspired her to educate and guide others. After dealing with digestive issues, anxiety, and hormone imbalances for years, Jen decided to leave her career in pharmaceutical sales and returned to school to study integrative nutrition followed by training in essential oils and breathwork. She believes that nourishing the mind, body, and soul with healing foods, proper breathing, self-love, and healthy emotional processing leads to a transformative healing experience. With a combination of breathwork, essential oils, nutrition, and other holistic modalities Jen helps clients create a lifestyle of health, vitality and freedom. For more information including wellness resources, breathing techniques, essential oil guidance and an introduction to the Sacred Breath Community, you can visit Jen’s website at www.jenbroyles.com.

In today’s episode, Jen shares her journey into the world of natural health. After searching for answers and solutions to her own health challenges, she realized she needed to seek other solutions other than your typical prescription medication. She started to read and learn more about nutrition, holistic health, functional and integrative medicine, and her eyes were opened to new possibilities. She started to regain hope, found her passion, and empowered herself along the way. From there, her journey unfolded. If there’s anything she’s learned from sharing her story, it’s that the human spirit is resilient. As long as there is hope, there is perseverance. Today, she hopes to give that sense of hope and possibility to others too.

To learn more about Jen and her work visit her website https://www.jenbroyles.com/ https://www.jenbroyles.com/sacred-breath/ and on Facebook here Instagram @jenbroyleshealthcoach Twitter @jenbroyles1 YouTube @JenBroyles LinkedIn @jenbroyleshealthcoach

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

After struggling for years and losing both his company and his longtime girlfriend all in the same week, author Andrew Kap knew something had to change. And unless he found a way to bounce back, he’d never enjoy the life he worked so hard for. It was in that moment that he finally decided to give the Law of Attraction an honest try.

Within three months, he was in a healthier relationship than he had ever been. Within four, he was making more money than he ever had before. And within six, literally everything that was wrong in his life had finally gone right.

His latest offering, “The Last Law of Attraction Book You’ll Ever Need To Read” offers readers a never-before-seen understanding of the topic — that no other “LOA” book has ever been able to do — by going the extra mile of finally addressing WHY people who get excited about trying it still can’t manage to get in the habit of using these methods for just five minutes a day. The book has enjoyed continued success, including hundreds of 5-star rave reviews, #1 Best Seller status in multiple categories on Amazon, and a growing YouTube channel devoted to it.

In today’s episode, Andrew shares his story with the Law of Attraction, and how he finally got it to work for him. Eight years ago Andrew was struggling, he lost both his business and his girlfriend of three years, all within the span of one week. It was within that moment, after years of trial and error with the LOA that he finally made the decision that he was going to finally go all in with it, and practice it every single day. Within two weeks he felt better, within three months he was in a brand new and healthier relationship, within four months he was making more money than ever before, and within six months everything was different. Andrew’s story is inspiring, and he shares the key to get you started with the LOA. It’s Andrews hope that his story will inspire you to make the LOA work for you too.

To learn more about Andrew and his new book visit hm on YouTube @andrewkap and you can find his book here www.LastLawofAttractionBook.com

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

Antoinette Beauchamp is an empowerment mindset coach, speaker, author, and meditation teacher. As an ELI-MP certified professional coach, she inspires and challenges women to lead with passion, find balance, step into their power, and own who they were born to be.

Antoinette shares her story coming to her coaching work, and the impact she’s having on women, businesses, and female leaders. Antoinette knows that women have a drive in them that makes them so special, and it’s her mission to share it. Antoinette’s journey has been filled with highs and lows, and for a long time her negative thoughts, imposter syndrome, and playing small held her back. She realized that she could do it all, she could take that first step towards her dreams, and she just needed to try. That’s exactly what she did. There was no greater passion in her heart than living her purpose to help women transform their lives, and nothing could hold her back.

To connect with Antoniette visit her website www.antoinettebeauchamp.com Instagram @antoinettebeauchamp_ and via email [email protected]

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here