Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell

The Authentic Self

Ep #208 - The Authentic Self - An Interview with Author Iman Oubou

I can’t wait for this conversation. This episode of Empowering Chats welcomes author, Iman Oubou – her book, The Glass Ledge, is all about how to break through self-sabotage and embrace your power to create your success.

Her book is so full of information and it includes exercises for readers to do in order to get clear as they explore their inner landscape. I think it is such an empowering book. Iman and I had a thoughtful, engrossing conversation about her book and why she feels called to help women.

So I asked her, why The Glass Ledge title? We all know about the glass ceiling, but why the glass ledge?

Iman explains that the glass ledge is an expression she came up with to refer to how women self-sabotage themselves. She goes on to say that her goal is to give women the tools they need to balance on the glass ledge and not go tumbling over the edge. When women trip over the glass ledge (me included, I experienced this myself) we lose control or we find ourselves moving off our path. And when that happens, according to Iman, many of us revert to the old patterns of anxiety, panic, fear and hopelessness.

The balancing occurs, Iman believes, when you begin to break free of those patterns and learn to rely on your self-assurance, confidence and conviction. That is really in a nutshell how it works. Her goal in writing The Glass Ledge, was to remove the external factors that many of us use to point to as a way to justify why we are not accessing our dreams or goals in life.

According to Iman, it’s better to shift our goals to our internal battles. She points out that we can’t control exterior barriers but we can focus on the self-imposed barriers we put on ourselves and allow change to occur from that vantage point.

Iman and I both agree that it starts with self-awareness, whether it’s for women or men it is important to have self-awareness. The Glass Ledge is written in a way that forces you to ask yourself the hard questions and be honest with yourself in order to begin to shift and become self-aware in order to overcome those barriers.

Iman is also the founder of SWAAY, an all-in-one publishing platform for women, to champion the voices of female change-makers through the power of storytelling.

To learn more about Iman Oubou visit: swaay.com

To purchase her book: The Glass Ledge visit: amazon.com

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website at: SusanBurrell.com

Dream Big

Ep #207 - Dream Big - A Solo Episode with host Susan Burrell

We are now in the month of November and the theme for this month is “Enlighten.” And as I began to record this episode another word popped up that is now also part of this show, and that word is “Envision.”

And so, this show will focus on both of those themes. I always like to look up the definition of the words I choose to focus on – it helps me to see more of what lies within the word. To enlighten means to give intellectual or spiritual light to – in other words, to shed light on. And to Envision means, to imagine or visualize a future possibility.

This episode explores how we can seek or look inside ourselves in order to become enlightened. I believe we can only reach an enlightened state by opening up our hearts and listening to what needs to be heard. I feel we are not meant to seek answers outside of ourselves but rather go within to listen to our own wisdom. When we do that we become enlightened beings and that is when others sync up with us.

Learning to listen from within, not with our heads but with our hearts, is how we can access our inner-knowing and grow from that space.

Envision is also part of this show. And may well be the theme for Empowering Chats for 2023. As we come close to ending this year and approaching the next, I ask you to begin to take time to dabble in your vision – in what you would like to see for yourself in 2023. 

Can you Dream Big?

Can you begin to Envision and Shed Light on what 2023 can Become for You?

I truly believe that envisioning comes from that centered space within your heart, within yourself and it is accessible to all of us.

I invite you to take a listen to this show where I share with you my personal tools that are available on my website and through my book, Live An Empowered Life to help you get to your special place and envision what is next for you.

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com

To Purchase my book: Live An Empowered Life! A 30-Day Journey Book, visit: susanburrell.com/book

Love & Keeping It Fun!

Ep #206 - In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Lyz De Boer to discuss what it means to lead with love, as well as the key qualities that new leaders must express and embody to succeed.

I am excited to introduce my guest, Dr. Lyz DeBoer for this episode of Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell. She and I speak the same language and we had such a great time connecting on this chat.

We synched up because we are both in alignment with love.  Dr. Lyz, as she is so lovingly referred to by her friends and colleagues, is a hopeful romantic who empowers her clients to reach for love, with the fun factor always present. She is a love and relationship specialist and owner of Visionistas By Design Wellness Boutique. We talked about several things, including working with people and how to lead with love. In this transitional period of time we are all experiencing, I think it’s important that we have leaders that lead with love.

I think we all need to lead with love in our lives, in our relationships, with our partners, with our children and with family members. It is everywhere and Dr. Lyz’s work as a guide, leads people in learning how to heal, learn and grow.

The Team at Dr. Lyz’s wellness boutique came up with a set of core values for their company with Love at the center.

Dr. Lyz and I talked about the importance of opening yourself up with curiosity not judgement. And how this can be a fun process. This is not something to be afraid of but rather to be embraced with curiosity and love. It’s a conscious choice. We also talked about how it is okay to have the hateful, angry feelings and the importance of acknowledging them. And then recognizing that there is no need to take action based on those hateful feelings. It is always better to respond with love. That’s why we both agreed that it’s important to slow down, to breathe and to take a moment to pause before responding in a negative or destructive way.  The simplest action is to stop, breathe and ground in love.

It not only lifts you up but it lifts up those in your circle.

To learn more about Dr. Lyz DeBoer please visit her website: drlyz.com

To listen to her podcast, Empowered by Design visit: drlyz.com/empowered-by-design-podcast

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: susanburrell.com

 

Are You Enough?

Ep # 205 - Are You Enough? An Interview with Author, Carrie Severson

The title of the book from my next guest grabbed me in such a way that I absolutely knew I had to have her on Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell. And so, with that I welcome Carrie Severson. She is the CEO of the hybrid book publishing company, Unapologetic Voice House and author of, Unapologetically Enough: Reshaping Success and Self-Love.

I started this chat by asking Carrie why she chose this title for her book. And from here Carrie shared her story of hating the word, “enough” – in fact hating it to the point of turning it into a 4-letter word and then banning it from her vocabulary. For many years Carrie felt like she was never enough. Never enough for herself, for her family, for her friends, etc., etc.

After she wrote this book and was contemplating a title, her editor suggested, “Unapologetically Enough.” Carrie had a melt-down. She did not want this as her title and fought it. She still had a lot of negative reactions to the word “enough” and did not want this word to grace her book cover. Carrie said that after she had a good cry and accepted that perhaps this should be the title, she began to research the word, “enough.” And what she found when she went to the dictionary was the word, “abundant,” used in the definition to describe “enough.” And so she came to realize how powerful and positive the word, “enough” was, and is.

In Carrie’s words, she feels it fits women for where we are as a collective right now. I agreed with her expressing how so many are speaking up, standing up and saying enough. Both by saying, “I am enough” and “Enough! No more.” It is showing up everywhere.

Carrie’s journey both in life and in writing this book came first from a sense of fear that she wasn’t enough. And she allowed her fear to lead the way in her life.

Her story takes a dramatic turn when she comes to the realization that she was always enough. And she takes fear out of the equation. Not that fear doesn’t sometimes play a part in our lives. In Carrie’s case she recognized that it took that initial fear to wake her up so she could see this was not the way to self-love. It took a lot of work and a lot of self-reflection.

I am personally so grateful for Carrie and others like her for being so brave and sharing their story. Many women, myself included, have walked this path and we know there are others like us whom we can learn from. This makes me not only grateful but immensely proud to join this circle of empowered women.

The real truth for women can and will surface as the old paradigm shifts from a patriarchal dominance to one that embraces the divine feminine and we all accept our own “enough-ness.”

To purchase Carrie’s book please visit:

amazon.com/Unapologetically-Enough-Reshaping-Success-Self-Love

To learn more about Carrie Severson please visit her website at: unapologeticallyenough.com

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website at: susanburrell.com

Communion With Your Soul

Ep # 204 - Communion With Your Soul - An interview with author, Dr. Rima Bonario

I am so energetically amped about this episode with my amazing guest, Rima Bonario who has written a book called The Seven Queendoms.

As I dived into this empowering chat with Rima, I felt called to open this episode with the following poem which is nestled within the pages of her book.  So here goes. This is so powerful, so much so, that it made me cry as I recited it.

“I ask you sisters; will you die dispossessed of your body? Will you abdicate the throne of your heart? Will you hide from the wisdom of your soul? No Lovely, you will not. You will rise. You will find and reclaim your wild, wise, sexy, smart, sovereign self. Take the hand of your sisters and rise. We will not cut ourselves into a thousand pieces to try and take up less room or fit in the space we have been told is ours. This is our life. This is our castle and it longs for our Queen to come home. To awaken. To sit down. To be here now. To lead and to love. Heed the call sisters, come home to your heart. Come live in your skin. Come dance with your soul. Be truly, deeply, madly home. For you have waited long enough.”

I had to grab for tissues as I finished reciting this piece.  I have been profoundly affected by these words, as this is a journey I have personally been on. Cutting myself into a thousand pieces so I could fit into the box. I think this passage describes so many women.

Why Queendoms? I asked Rima as we stepped into this chat. According to Rima it comes down to the concept of Sovereignty. It is the notion that we have absolute authority over ourselves. That we are free from external influence and that we are able to be in a state of self-governance. And the truth is many of us are not in that space.

This poem speaks to the journey many of us have been on. It speaks to us to reclaim our truth. We have the right to exist. To take up space. To be in communion with our soul. And that means we sometimes fly in the face of what the world tells us we “should” be doing.

It is about being the Queen of our own lives.

I feel this is the divine right time for us to be having this conversation with Rima as it falls on the heels of The Queen of England’s death. The call is to sit on the Throne within our, your Soul. To take the hand of your inner Queen.

It’s about accessing the feminine form of power. It’s not about fitting into the masculine mold that society expects of us but rather to allow the inner feminine power that we as women hold internally to shine and then to lead from that space.

Rima’s book speaks to the feminine quality we all hold. It is not a book to be read passively. It requires action on your part – and by taking part in the exercises in the book is how you begin to get in touch with your inner Queen.

Another powerful poem that appears in the book (and spoke to me as well) goes as follows:

“Oh sisters. Stand firm upon the earth. Open your feet and breathe. Open your heart and feel. Meet your soul and remember. It is time to remember. It’s time to come home. You are whole and holy, now and forever. The time has come to be seen. We are ready. You are ready. Be Bold. Be Free. Be Wild. Be You. Find your sisters and join hands for today we wake together. Today we wake. Together.”

To learn more about Dr. Rima Bonario and the work she does please visit her website: RimaBonario.com

To purchase her book, The Seven Queendoms visit: amazon.com/Seven-Queendoms-Embodying-Feminine-Sovereignty

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com

Permission to Be Emotional

Ep #203 - Permission to Be Emotional - An Interview with Author and Spiritual Teacher, Joffre McClung.

 

In this episode of Empowering Chats with Susan Burrell I welcome Joffre McClung. Besides being an author and a spiritual teacher she is also, what I like to call a common sense activist.

Joffre’s latest book is a workbook and guide to finding yourself and journeying back to self-love. As we entered into this conversation, we both realized how often the work of transforming and changing really is a whole lot of hard work. It’s the kind of work many of us don’t want to tackle. We often look for the quick fix, the easy path to enlightenment and it doesn’t exist. Only when you are truly committed to doing the work and looking under the rocks, to see what is hiding there, that change and transformation can occur.

Joffre tackles this subject of self-love in her new book, The Heart of the Matter, by asking deep questions to get you, the reader diving into your inner self and un-earthing that which needs to be investigated. It is set-up as a workbook on purpose so that you can use it as a way to get back to yourself and begin the journey of self-love.

Joffre’s first book was all about grief and overcoming it. Joffre shares her story with me on how she dealt with the back-to-back deaths of close family members and friends. Her mother, best friend, aunt and her sister all died within an 8-year span. It was one of the darkest periods of Joffre’s life and yet even in that dark place there were gifts that showed up for her.

Writing helped her get through her grief and re-discover her creativity and herself. She had to do the hard inner work, including her own deep grieving. Walking this path helped her to recognize the end, the saying goodbye to what was, so that she could welcome the beginning of something new.

In Joffre’s experience and mine as well, we realize that when you have darkness around you is when you really need to do the work – the homework of diving deep into self to see where you are meant to grow.  Only by having the contrast that life provides can we as individuals and soul-centered beings learn to grow and move into our higher selves. The light and the dark must be present together in order for us as to know the difference.

We don’t always like it and we don’t always want to step into the lesson, but in order to ascend and move beyond the hurt we must walk this path.

In this empowering chat we touched on so many aspects of growth with the main focus always bouncing back to self. We cannot control the outside world we can only control ourselves and our inner world. We get to choose how we want to respond to all that is coming towards us. And by doing the hard inner work is when we can make the shift so that our response becomes one of love rather than anger.

The biggest work is getting to the place of self-love – not self-like – but true self-love so that you can lean on yourself and know that deep down all is good in your inner-world. When you get there is when you can truly understand that nothing else matters. Love of self, leads to love of others, leads to whole life love and grounding.

It is also very important to give yourself permission to feel what you are feeling – get emotional, cry, scream do whatever you need to do in order to feel the deep emotions. Because only then will you begin to understand yourself and love all the bits that make up the unique person that you are.

 

To learn more about Joffre McClung please visit her website at: JoffreMcclung.com

To purchase her book, The Heart of the Matter: JoffreMcclung.com/book

To learn more about the work I do please visit my website at: SusanBurrell.com

Reclaiming Your Health

Ep #202 -  Reclaiming Your Health - An Interview with Author and Wellness Coach, Jovanka Ciares.

Jovanka Ciares' latest book, “Reclaiming Wellness,” is not just about reclaiming wellness but it’s also about claiming yourself and becoming an empowered individual. One who owns their body and understands how their body functions.

Jovanka’s personal journey began in Puerto Rico, where she was raised. She and her family lived alongside the land, the rainforest, and her family’s food did not travel far from its origin to reach their table. Eating the foods from the land and having them home cooked was common for Jovanka in her early years. Then she moved to New York City to pursue her education. And that’s when her body gave her what she calls “a smack down.” Chronic sickness soon became part of her daily life. By her mid-twenties she was told by Western medicine that they could do nothing for her. And that she would have to learn to live in pain and discomfort for the rest of her life.

Can you imagine being told that by your trusted doctor(s)? Well, that was not acceptable to Jovanka so she began to explore other options. She began by reclaiming her heritage and the foods she grew up with. She also incorporated other healing practices such as, traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Herbalism.

Jovanka's journey involved doing a deep dive both for her personal wellness and her spiritual growth. In her book, “Reclaiming Wellness,” she gives her readers many tools for how to heal your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies.

Some of the tools Jovanka touches on in her book include, meditation, hypnosis, journaling, acupuncture and so much more. And as we have both learned through life experience, not everything works for everybody. The important lesson here is to be open to the possibilities and be willing to try different modalities until you find what works for you.

We also talked about the importance of seeing your doctor(s) as partners in your journey to heal. You are the authority of your body and the doctor may be the expert in a specific field of medicine but that does not make the doctor an expert on your body. It’s all about working together so you can reach understanding and become knowledgeable in the quest to heal your body.

To learn more about Jovanka Ciares please visit her website: JovankaCiares.com

To purchase her book, “Reclaiming Wellness” go to: amazon.com

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website at: SusanBurrell.com

The Intuition of Fear

Ep #201 -  The Intuition of Fear - An Interview with Teacher and Author, Ricci Jane Adams.

How do you follow your intuition? In this episode of Empowering Chats, my guest Ricci Jane Adams and I tackle that question. Ricci starts the conversation by asking us to be open to the invitation of following our intuition.

Ricci’s mother was her first spiritual teacher. She was taught deep, classical wisdom. However, confusion set in for her as she watched her mother express these spiritual truths while also observing that her mother was not happy in her life.  This led Ricci on a quest to figure out what was true for her.  She saw a contradiction of what her mother preached and how she lived her life. Ricci kept asking herself, “Why be spiritual if your life was not going to be great?”

That’s when Ricci realized the missing piece was the shadow work. A lot of her mom’s path was connecting to these high spiritual frequencies and despite that practice it was not transforming her mom’s trauma or her eternal state of being. This journey helped Ricci realize that if she was going to make this spiritual path her life’s work, she was going to have to figure out why so many spiritual people are unhappy. She realized she was unhappy and so was her mom, and others she came in contact with.

As Ricci began to do her own research it led her to start the Institute for Intuitive Intelligence. What she found was that the most powerful way to increase your intuition was to go into the subconscious and face your shadow side. By facing your fears in a safe environment then you don’t need to be taught how to be more intuitive. She found that by removing the fear, the block is removed and the intuition that has always been there gets the opportunity to begin flowing again.

That is the main kind of spiritual work that Ricci does at the Institute. They are a multi-faceted training school that specializes in trauma. At the Institute they start by asking questions of Fear. By doing that first, they can help people unpack that which they are fearful of. Ricci feels that much of our suffering and trauma can simply be the resistance that is being aimed at the fear we don’t want to face.

Many facets of fear are explored at the institute – including the dominant program of how you lead your life. Is it from a place of fear or a place of love? Radically different and yet connected just the same.  Ricci also shared that her mom's spiritual journey also evolved and she is now a part of Ricci's team at her institute.

To learn more about Ricci Jane Adams and the Institute for Intuitive Intelligence please visit her website at: RicciJaneAdams.com

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com

 

Ubuntu - I Am Because We Are

Ep #200 - Ubuntu - I Am Because We Are - A Solo Episode with host Susan Burrell

In this solo episode which launches the month of September I am choosing to focus on Namaste and the Humanity that we all share. Many of you who listen to my show know that I end each show with the phrase “Namaste.” The definition of Namaste is, “I bow to you.” I was also taught that it means, “The humanity in me bows to the humanity in you.”  And as I was contemplating this show and the meaning behind the word, Namaste, I pulled out some of my notes on Ghandi. The saying, “I bow to you,” is a Hindu saying and came to me when I began to explore Ghandi’s life. This saying, “I bow to you” started to come into common use in the 1940s.

And as I reviewed my notes on Ghandi and the book I have about his life, I also came across an essay by Archbishop Desmond Tutu that appears at the beginning of my Ghandi book.

This particular essay, which again is written by Desmond Tutu speaks to this phrase of “the humanity in me bows to the humanity in you” and he speaks of the ancient African phrase of Ubuntu. It has to do with honoring the essence of what it is to be human.

According to Desmond Tutu no one comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how to think or walk, speak or behave unless we learned it from our fellow human beings. We need other human beings in order to be human.  So, I ask you to pause here and think about that phrase, “The humanity in me bows to the humanity in you.”   And I ask you the question, “What does this phrase mean to you? What does it feel like to know you are bound to other human beings?”

Take a look in your personal life. Are there places where you feel angry or resentful? Look within to see if anger towards yourself or others is present. This is what creates divisiveness and division of humanity. Because the truth is, the humanity in you recognizes and celebrates the humanity and gifts in your fellow human beings. That is Namaste. That is Ubuntu.

Ubuntu’s power of reconciliation is accessible to all. Even those we deem evil. And in this philosophy, as stated in this essay by Desmond Tutu he points out that both victims and perpetrators are connected. Perhaps another way to see it is that the person you feel has done you wrong is actually losing more of his/her humanity because they are unconscious of the behavior they are inflicting. And so those connected to their humanity must present the Ubuntu and consciously give to the other by “bowing to the humanity in others.”

It's a powerful message and one I think we all need to embrace.

To learn more about the work I do I invite you to visit my website: SusanBurrell.com

To explore the life of Desmond Tutu please visit: www.tutu.org.za

Pinch Me - Provence

Ep #199 - Pinch Me Provence - An Interview with Travel Enthusiast, Lori Howard

This episode of Empowering Chats is all about travel and getting out and experiencing people and cultures from other places. Whether you are traveling internationally or domestically, you always have the opportunity to learn something new and meet people from other walks of life. I believe experiencing new and exciting places enriches your life and gives you the opportunity to learn something new about yourself and others.

And so let’s dive into this Empowering Chat with Lori Howard, a very dear friend of mine. Lori is a travel enthusiast and the owner of Pinch Me – Provence, a boutique, personalized travel company based in the Provence region of France.  My husband Kevin and I had the most amazing time when we went to visit Lori and her husband Pascal. And I am not just saying this because we are friends – I am saying this because it is so true and Lori is amazing at what she does. She took us by the hand and showed us some very special places surrounding her hometown. And this extra touch made our trip very memorable.

I felt more like a local than a tourist as I traveled through the Provence region. Lori gives you the most perfect experience. All you have to do is put your bags down, open your heart and step into the journey.

Lori fell in love with France when she was an exchange student in her twenties, which also coincided with her falling in love with a French boy by the name of Pascal. It was magical and special but then life intervened and they each went their own way cultivating their lives, marrying other people and creating their families. Then they hit their fifties and life changed drastically for both of them. And they found themselves single and dating again. In 2015 Lori married Pascal and moved to France. This was a drastic change for Lori. She left her job, her hometown in the United States, sold everything and said goodbye to her family to go live in France.

Brave became Lori’s moniker as she dived into this new life for herself. And yet she did this because she wanted to, she always had this dream of living in France and when life presented her with these options she felt pulled to say yes.

Lori’s big joy is giving people the feeling of being local as they travel through the Provence region.  She finds the hidden gems, the local out of the way cafes and other jewels that are not frequented by tourists. And this makes her job, as the travel enthusiast that she is, so fun and so easy. Lori’s goal is to craft the best package for her clients. Her aim is to make it easy and fun for people to travel through the region. She creates personal intimate travel packages for clients based on their specific wants and needs.

To learn more about what Lori does and how to build you special travel itinerary visit her website at:

PinchMeProvence.com

To learn more about how I show up in the world please visit my website: SusanBurrell.com