Following Your Dreams with Melissa Pettignano

Treating Your Body Right – Robin Westen on The Empowerment Show

itunes pic [https://assets.podomatic.net/ts/cd/a9/b9/melissa20944/3000x3000_9833549.jpg] “My body is not me. Its mine.” Dahn Yoga How are you treating the vessel carrying you around? Are you giving it love and care or are you filling it with no so good things? In this episode we learn the importance of conscious eating and taking the time to cleanse our digestive system. Caring for our bodies also includes clearing our minds through meditation, using deep breathing for stress relief, releasing our monkey mind chatter, and acknowledging our emotions without judgment. Robin Westen talks about having a respect for our bodies and learning how to care for it properly. Robin received an Emmy Award for the ABC health show FYI. She is currently the medical director for Thirdage.com, the largest health site for baby boomers on the web. She is the author of the Harvard Medical School Guide Getting Your Child To Eat (Almost) Anything, Ten Days to Detox, V is for Vagina (coauthored with Alyssa Dweck, MD), and her most recent books The Yoga-Body Cleanse: A 7-Day Ayurvedic Detox to Rejuvenate Your Body and Calm Your Mind [http://www.amazon.com/The-Yoga-Body-Cleanse-Ayurvedic-Rejuvenate/dp/1612432794%3FSubscriptionId%3D0ENGV10E9K9QDNSJ5C82%26tag%3Dflatwave-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1612432794] and The 2-Day Superfood Cleanse: A Weekly Detox Program to Boost Energy, Lose Weight and Maintain Optimal Health [http://www.amazon.com/The-2-Day-Superfood-Cleanse-Maintain/dp/1612432921%3FSubscriptionId%3D0ENGV10E9K9QDNSJ5C82%26tag%3Dflatwave-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1612432921]. She’s written featured articles for dozens of national magazines including Glamour, Vegetarian Times, Psychology Today, SELF, Cosmopolitan, and others. Robin has been practicing yoga, meditation, and cleansing for over fifteen years.    Listen in to this lively discussion of what it takes to be health mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Following Your Dreams with Melissa Pettignano

itunes pic [https://assets.podomatic.net/ts/cd/a9/b9/melissa20944/3000x3000_9755142.jpg] At 26 Melissa Pettignano is launching her second book and her first album. She is a shining example of how a positive attitude and a deep faith can help us move mountains. The Empowerment Show host Melissa Heisler and Melissa Pettignano discuss how to be a driving force to bring good into the world. Even when others may attack you, responding with love, understanding, and compassion can heal wounds. Staying positive brings more positivity into your life. Through forgiveness we free ourselves from negativity and create a space for self-care. Through understanding and accepting our differences and similarities we can come back together as one human family. Learn more about author and performer Melissa Pettignano [http://www.suzannelantana.com/], the People of Distinction Humanitarian Award [http://www.peopleofdistinction.org/], and the charities she supports including the Homelessness Group [http://www.homeaid.org/] and Persecution International Christian Concern [http://www.persecution.org/]. What can you be inspired to do today?

A Shocking New Take on Disabilities – Jane Hash on The Empowerment Show

itunes pic [https://assets.podomatic.net/ts/cd/a9/b9/melissa20944/3000x3000_9705035.jpg] Plain Jane: The Shockumentary is no normal documentary about a woman with disabilities. Because Jane Hash is no ordinary woman. Jane was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a condition which is manifested by extremely brittle bones. At birth, Jane had twenty-six broken bones and was not expected to live three hours. By the time she was in high school, she had broken two hundred bones. But she doesn’t want your sympathy nor does she want praise for making it through her daily routine. As she says, “I don’t have a degree in sitting on my ass.” What Jane wants is for you to see those with disabilities differently. To see them as people first, not as a resource for what activist Stella Young calls “Inspirational Porn” or as weaklings who need to be rescued. This is not a story of coping with a disease. Jane’s story is about an empowered woman living the life she chooses, making films, starting companies like Classy Little Fashions [http://www.classylittlefashions.org/], and leading a fun and adventurous life. Jane is inspirational not because of her disease but because of her message of acceptance, the courage to try new things, and the desire to live life to the fullest. Listen in to this fun and thought-provoking interview. Then view Plain Jane: The Shockumentary [http://vimeo.com/ondemand/shockumentary] for some eye-opening laughs.

Moving Beyond Childhood Abuse – Robin Marvel on The Empowerment Show

itunes pic [https://assets.podomatic.net/ts/cd/a9/b9/melissa20944/3000x3000-660x660+11+37_9704650.jpg] Robin Marvel [http://www.robinmarvel.com/] had a troubling childhood including domestic abuse, parental kidnappings, drug abuse, and homelessness. She never learned to have self-worth. Robin turned to alcohol and partying when she was fifteen years old to receive validation and attention. This led to a teenage pregnancy which motivated her to not be a statistic and to make a better life for her daughter. Because she was an adult too early between caring for her parents and then her own child, she fell back into drinking in her 20’s wanting to experience the freedom of childhood she didn’t have earlier. This relapse became her true wake-up call to make a change.  She said, “This is not how my story is going to change.” Robin is the author of Life Check: 7 Steps to Balance Your Life joins the Empowerment Show to talk about choice, understanding, forgiving oneself and others, loving oneself, acknowledging self-worth, uncovering the lessons, and moving forward. As food pantries were very important in Robin’s youth, she and her husband started United Hands of Change [http://unitedhandsofchange.webs.com/] which encourages people give them a hand-up not a handout. Are you ready to break the cycle of abuse and alcoholism, release your victimhood, and make a real change in your life?

What To Do When You Don’t Fit In - Lifeworks Psychotherapy on The Empowerment Show

itunes pic [https://assets.podomatic.net/ts/cd/a9/b9/melissa20944/3000x3000_9702258.jpg] At one time in our life or another we feel like we don’t fit in. We feel like an outsider, like we don’t belong. We don’t feel understood and, even worse, we begin to feel like there is something wrong with us. It does not matter if you feel excluded due to your ethnicity or religion, or if you feel outside society because you are lesbian, bi-sexual, gay, transgender, queer, kink, or polyamorous, the result is the same. You feel excluded by mainstream society. In addition to this you may not have the same rights and privileges as others. Rami Henrich, LCSW, and Cindy Trawinski, Psy. D, of Lifeworks Psychotherapy [http://www.lifeworkspsychotherapy.com/] in Chicago join The Empowerment Show to talk about ways we can accept others and ourselves on a deeper level. By fully seeing and embrace who we are, we can begin to move past our inner marginalization providing us with a platform to change societal marginalization. Listen in to this discussion about marginalization between and within groups, inner marginalization, and how deep democracy may be able to help make a change to how we accept ourselves and others. By recognizing our underlying humanity, we can all start putting Rami Henrich, L.C.S.W., is a licensed clinical social worker and a Diplomate in Process-oriented Psychology (or Process Work [http://www.lifeworkspsychotherapy.com/our-approaches/what-we-do/]), as well as a founding partner of LifeWorks Psychotherapy Center and North Shore Psychotherapy Associates.  Rami has studied, taught and applied Process-oriented Psychology as developed by Arnold Mindell, Ph.D [http://www.lifeworkspsychotherapy.com/resources-2/resources/]., for over 13 years.  She has a special interest in working with relationship difficulties and those who identify as living an alternative lifestyle.  Rami is also a certified Imago Relationship Therapist [http://gettingtheloveyouwant.com/]. Cindy Trawinski, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, a Diplomate in Process-oriented Psychology (also known as Process Work [http://www.lifeworkspsychotherapy.com/our-approaches/what-we-do/]) and a certified Imago Relationship Therapist.  She is a founding partner of LifeWorks Psychotherapy Center and North Shore Psychotherapy Associates and has offices in Skokie, IL.  Cindy is the former CEO of the Process Work Institute [http://www.processwork.org/], in Portland, OR and a member of the International Association of Process-oriented Psychology [http://www.iapop.com/] (IAPOP), in Zurich, Switzerland. Cindy is also an assistant professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology where she teaches courses on Diversity and Multicultural Issues.