TesseLeads

Professor Binna Kandola admits "This is a process of learning and learning, being self-reflective, getting feedback and actually trying to do better is the most important thing. "I had to educate myself when I was writing the book Racism at Work; the Danger of Indifference. I am learning myself. There's lots of other things that I don't know about. I am learning about myself! Sometimes I just need to listen. When somebody tells me something, I need to pay attention. Obviously its up to me to make up my own mind. That's the big, biggest thing I've learned".

Tomide has been raised to find ways to be persistent and to be creative – keeping her eye on the price. When she was in school, especially in high school, she failed a lot of exams, especially in junior school. Her parents were great, ensuring that the opportunities that she did not have materialised. Her mum did not let her give up and would sit her down, and work with her to find out what she was good at, whilst continuing to improve in areas she was not so good at.

The story of Robert McCrea - a successful producer and actor, reads like something out of a Hollywood movie. His personal journey screams "resilience through adversity ."

Rob's father managed to escape from the prison camp. He was a refugee from Burma at the end of the second world war whose reference for fathering was the Japanese prisoner of war camp which wasn't much fun. His grandfather was executed in front of his father. Rob's grandmother managed to escape from the women's prison camp with two of her daughters. They managed to collect Rob's father and his slightly older brother from the men's prison camp.

With all of the guns, they actually had to cross the battle plane to get to the other side. The two week walk through the jungle, from a place called Michiana in Burma through the jungle to Lido road, which is where the allied forces were based could only take place at night time. Unfortunately, they didn't all make it on that journey. This environment that Rob was born into with very high achieving brave and strong women. His grandmother underwent hardships that you can't even begin to imagine! Brought up by a father who knew anything can happen in the world, Rob become a very resilient child who grew into a very resilient young man. Rob and his sister lived in a lot of different Asian countries without actually going to Burma. His father was keen that his children had the opportunity to live and be schooled in those countries, not as expats, but as locals. While they were in touch with where they came from, they had no understanding of prejudice. For an early age Rob and his sister realised the importance of being non judgemental.

During the pandemic, a new meaning came to Dr Nate with compassion mixed with accountability. This is even more valuable, and the work with clients is more important at that time, when compassion needs to be reconciled with accountability. Every day with Covid -19 opens a different chapter. The need for balance has never been more important as every day it takes on a new meaning.

Dr Nate admits that his personality is not naturally compassionate or naturally empathetic. "I'm self-centered. I want to work on things. I prefer to work on tasks than be with people by nature. So I'm a pretty selfish task-oriented person by nature, by personality. So it's a constant journey of constant struggle. But I grew up around a family that had amazing values and showed me these things." How he treats people depends on whether his compassionate switches are on or off.

Life can be Poetry in Motion as Kate Hammer invokes the call of Madonna ( as mother ) "not about performance or conformance, the invitation is to walk, step in, or step out with compassion, care, soothing and empathy. "

Inside the rings that Kate and her husband exchanged were the letters WWO the number 2 and the letter B, which stands for where we ought to be from a Quaker song based on the tune of an old Anglican hymn called "simple gifts". "I can turn and turn and come down just right. If I am lucky and find where I ought to be."

We can suffer losses or face the horror to a loss that is impending. There's a different kind of horror to a loss that's totally unexpected. Trauma kicks. A dream turns into the nightmare that you were not expecting. The heartbreak opens a window of grief. For Kate this happened when her mother died unexpectedly. Kate promised herself to bear that responsibility with grace. Quite strangely she realised that she had become the mother. She had always had a mom who she had been close to. She mothered her daughter who had a grandmother. Kate's promise was to do something that her mother had never been very good at. This is to invite people in, to ask for help, to seek support, to admit when she did not understand things. Learning how to do that asking has been one of her greatest gifts.

Self love matters! Nancy White tells us why. It not only empowers us, it also helps us to be able to love and empower other people. We're all unique and different. If we can't love ourselves first and foremost, we can not love anybody else. Part of self-love is those things that are not only in our physical and financial arena, but in the spiritual and emotional arena. Whether it's setting goals, going through healing processes, making these things a priority in this season in life, self-love is the fuel that enriches our lives. Sometimes poor self image gets in the way. It is so important for us to have around us people we know, like and trust.

This pervasive emotion ran like a thread throughout her life. She did not see herself, in books she read , or on the television, or in stories told or anywhere else.

Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith (Esua) was the first and only woman of colour elected as President of Leicester University Students Union in the 1970s. She talks about her first book called "The Space Between Black and White", which was published by Jacaranda#2020.

In search of meaning, looking for new experiences, moving to new place, having fun, learning new languages led Chinese born Melody Song, co founder of Do Good Here to Canada and then to Berlin, Germany. Her mum, a translator for cultural ministries took her to ballet as a child which gave her access to ballet shows. She lived in Canada for 20 years, 15 of those years she served as a fundraiser at Alberta ballet. To Melody names matter 'You're given a name for a reason. Learning how to pronounce someone's name correctly I think is the first step of empathy, - the act of trying to understand and connect with someone can start here. Our names have interesting stories and unique meanings' she told TesseLeads.

Providing meaning and purpose has become paramount for Melody who finds she cannot live without purpose. She worked for an oil and gas company but found that was not rewarding enough. Her fun job was working for a zoo as a fundraiser, where she felt she had made a difference in preserving wildlife that were extinct in Canada for 75 years. When the conservation director said she had 'helped wildlife today and helped to make the world better' she knew she was in her ideal job.