The Intentional Athlete Podcast

In the last episode, I was fortunate to connect with my mother in a way I had not ever done.  It was incredibly powerful for me to learn about events that caused pain and hurt in my mom's soul.  That's something that has allowed me to connect and heal in deeper ways that I had not yet experienced.  Our mothers are the first woman we will love.  Healing those mother wounds are fucking powerful.  Join me as I share some of mine with you as I hope this helps you with yours!  

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

Get your tissues ready as we have my mom, Debbie Leppala on the show to talk about how she's experienced this podcast and get into some of the hardships that she has faced in her lifetime.  It was incredibly powerful to sit down with my mom and have a vulnerable and honest conversation.  She shared with me a few things I was unaware that she had experienced and I can see how those things have impacted aspects of my life.  

The Belonging Blueprint!

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

In the last episode, I sat down with my sister, Jessica Leppala, to talk about the journey that led her down a path of substance abuse and then on to become an alcohol and drug counselor.  It was an incredibly emotional episode for both of us and we both walked away from that experience connected in ways that we had not ever felt.  It was so incredibly healing for both of us to have that conversation.  In this episode, I am going to reflect more about that experience and some events leading up to that from my perspective.  

Jessica, I'm so very grateful that you were able to find your way forward in life.  A way to overcome substance abuse and find self-love.  I love you! 

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

I hope you are ready for an emotional episode here!  Today, host Ross Leppala, has his sister, Jessica Leppala, on the show to talk about some of her life stories.  For many years Jessica struggle with substance abuse that nearly took her life.  Now after nearly a decade of sobriety, she has turned her experiences into a gift to help others overcome their battles with addictions.  

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with special guest Jessica Leppala!

Facebook: Jessica Leppala

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

In this episode, your host, Ross Leppala, dives in on some conversation around what emotional invalidation can look like.  Particularly as a young kid who is already struggling with understanding their emotions.  I specifically talk about a few ways that I experienced as a kid growing up and how that showed up later on in my life where I can often struggle to connect with my emotions.  A perspective that I hold is that most of our mental health issues come from a lack of emotional intelligence.  Being emotionally invalidated is a huge contributing factor to a lack of emotional intelligence.  And of course, I end with a self-care tool that has been helpful for my own healing in this specific area of my life. 

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony    

All too often in our culture, we learn to cope with our life's struggle by methods of suppression.  That suppression can grow as we get older and develop into life-impacting addictions.  In this episode your host, Ross Leppala, has a special guest, Ashely Will, join him to share her story and road to recovery.  Ashely gets vulnerable about her past life where she struggles to cope with various events that sent her down a path of alcohol abuse.  After much loss and heartache, she was able to find the help that she needed to get her life back on her terms.  Join us as we take a healing journey to sobriety!

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with special guest Ashely Will!

Instagram: awill_lift

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

There is a lot of misunderstanding around the idea of vulnerability.  Many people think it is a weakness, but in reality, it takes more strength to be vulnerable.  It's "easy" to close down and hide your truth, but that also comes at a great cost.  Your inner peace!  Prior to recording the last episode with my friend Matthew Bivens, we were chatting about vulnerable conversations and how as we grow, it becomes easier to have vulnerable conversations about the past, but can still be challenging to have current moment vulnerability.  In this episode, I'm going to talk about the ideas around being vulnerable, what it does for you and share a recent vulnerable experience from my life.  Something I aim to do more of, being more present tense vulnerable with you all.  It is my intention that through demonstrating this, you can see how it is a gift to our healing and the honoring of our most authentic selves!

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

Your host, Ross Leppala, sits down with special guest, transformational specialist Matthew Bivens.  In this episode, we talk about how Matthew has transformed his life from being driven by fear to leaning in and choosing love.  Matthew works with people all over the place to help them live an abundant, loving, life after finding his own way to having it all.  

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with Matthew Bivens

Website: https://www.matthewbivens.com/coaching/

Podcast: https://podcast.matthewbivens.com/

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

What an incredible year it has been for the Project UnchainED podcast.  It has been an incredible journey and your host, Ross Leppala, has some special giveaways here to celebrate this occasion.  He also flips the script a bit on this episode and does things a bit differently.  Check it out and find out how you can enter the cash prize giveaway!

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

More often than not, our limits are created by our thoughts.  Things that we believe to be true, end up limiting our experiences in life.  That is a huge part of why Project Unchained is here in the first place!  We want to find those limiting beliefs and break free from them.  Breaking free from those figurative chains that keep us down in life.  Join me as we find and explore more ways to live unchained!  

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony