Life Story Lessons with Mitzi Campbell

Do you often think about impact of your experiences on your life's path? On this episode of the Live Your Extraordinary Life podcast, Mitzi Campbell, fellow podcaster, life story enthusiast, joins me to discuss the importance of our stories and how our past can shape our present and future decisions, depending on the meaning we assign to those experiences. We also reflect upon the value of introspection and living in the moment - two key components of leading an extraordinary life.

Through her own personal journey of health challenges, Mitzi has discovered how embracing her life story, even the hard parts, has shaped her into the person she is today. She gives us a peek into her daily routine to maintain focus and balance during life transitions - a routine that contemplates spirituality, health, and personal development.

As we delved deeper into our conversation, Mitzi and I started to explore the spiritual aspects of personal growth and the significance of mindfulness. Mitzi introduced us to the Buddhist concept of samsara, emphasizing the importance of learning from our past. She also spoke about her Life Story School program, designed to help others explore their life stories and legacy. We wrapped up our talk by discussing the power of manifestation, the significance of positive self-talk, and the practice of gratitude.

Join us for another engaging episode and start your own journey to living your extraordinary life!

Connect with Mitzi:
IG @mitzianncampbell
YT | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMm2IXkKKSM
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blessons-podcast/id1657673056

Connect with Michelle Rios:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/michelle.rios.official/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.c.rios
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3ahwTlqiLU&list=PL-ltQ6Xzo-Ong4AXHstWTyHhvic536OuO
Website: https://michelleriosofficial.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I got the message that part of my job here is to help raise the consciousness, to help people to see what they don't see, to help people to learn what they're not learning. When we stay apart from one another, we stay apart from ourselves.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started and the world needs your light.

Speaker 3: 1:22

Hello everyone, I am so excited for this week's guest. I'm happy to introduce my friend and fellow podcaster, mitzi Campbell. Mitzi is host of the Blessons podcast, which I highly encourage everyone to go check out. We'll make sure we have all of the links in the show notes. She also happens to be someone who spent more than 30 years in the college teaching arena and both education and psychology. She has a wealth of experience and really talking about stories and that's really the premise of the Blessons podcast you really delve into people's stories and she does such a beautiful job interviewing people. So, without further ado, I am so pleased to welcome my friend, mitzi Campbell. Welcome to the show, mitzi.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Welcome to me. Thank you so much. What a beautiful introduction. I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 3: 2:14

Well, I'm so excited because I'm a huge fan. We started this journey roughly around the same time, and it's been so exciting to see the directions you've taken and how many stories you've brought to life a variety of individuals across the spectrum globally, and really how much of the human experience we have in common despite our different walks of life, and so it's just a thrill for me to be able to sit down with you and turn the tables on you. I've been on your show before, but I'm going to start right at the beginning here, Mitzi, with what does it mean to you, Mitzi Campbell, to live your extraordinary life?

Speaker 1: 2:55

I have actually thought about this quite a bit over the past couple of years because of the transitions I've been making in my life, and I believe that the key to living your extraordinary life is knowing yourself at every stage and knowing that you will change and that who you think you are may not be who you are tomorrow.

Speaker 3: 3:22

We find that unsettling at times. Right, we were just having this conversation when we're both going through these massive transitions. We've made these big leaps in our lives forward, which are incredibly exciting but also can be daunting at times. In your interviews, mitzi, what is it that you find that people find the most troubling? Is it not understanding why the story is the way it is, or processing the story? I know that storytelling in and of itself is something we both cherish. It's an important part of the work that we do and our histories. But tell me a little bit about I know you record your story as a superpower. Tell me a little bit more about that point of view.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Well, our experiences make us who we are. A lot of us would prefer to ignore or repress or shy away from experiences that we have gone through, that we found difficult or that we wish hadn't been a part of our story. But the key to again living an extraordinary life is embracing all of those parts of you. So when I talk to people, surprisingly the things that they struggle with are both the things that are the most troubling to them and also the things that they feel have contributed the most value to their lives. And those are often those difficult experiences, right. So that is the dichotomy that I come across with people. They find those things are the hardest, but yet they all. Almost across the board, people say that their most difficult experiences have been their biggest blessings.

Speaker 3: 5:04

So true, I think about it. The adversities of many of our childhoods are what propelled us forward in so many ways. But then you get people and I'm going to pull up Brené Brown because I think had her own existential crisis around on story and interpreting the data she was seeing. And I'm specifically looking around some stuff around belonging and she said, wow, it was really massive for her to get her arms around that. And she found herself going back in time and having to process her own story and I remember her sharing, going, put it on check, but all that childhood stuff and I don't want to check about all that stuff when I was little and everyone burst out laughing. Why is it that we have such a difficulty in going back? What is it that we have difficulty in embracing? Is it living the past? Is it?

Speaker 1: 5:52

going through it again. Well, I think it's because we're stuck in an emotional pattern or some sort of habit or some sort of limiting belief that comes from that place. But the way that I approach going into the past is from the present moment. So the term introspection actually has three main components to it, and one of them is that it's mental, it happens only in the mind, so you're never actually going anywhere, you're staying in your own mind.

Speaker 1: 6:25

When you go in the past, it's pertaining only to you and what's in your mind, so you're looking at the way that you're making meaning of things and not what things might have meant to anyone else.

Speaker 1: 6:38

And also it takes place in the present moment because that's the only place that you can ever be. So when we talk about living in the past or not wanting to dwell in the past, that's not even possible really, because you are here. You cannot be anywhere else. So I think it comes from fear and also because there's a lot of talk about oh, you should stay in the present moment, you should not go into the past. There's a lot of talk about that in the self-help world and the personal growth world, and so I think there's a little trepidation around it because people are kind of afraid of what they're going to find or they're afraid of the emotions that they're going to bring up. And that's the key is being able to take a look at it and then make new meaning and be able to say I don't need to be in that same emotional state that I was in when that originally happened, that I can come to it from a new place and make new emotions now from it and I don't think good from something bad.

Speaker 3: 7:33

When did you first realize stories were going to be something that you really wanted to focus on? How does your own story come into play? Tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 7:44

Oh gosh, for me in my fifties has been the time when I've really gone back into my own story. I've always known it was important and I've always felt it was a strength to be able to own my story and sort of live authentically. But in your fifties and I know it's a typical thing you really start to think about your life in a different kind of way and really take a look at who you've been and who you are and who you want to be, because you see the time limit looming ahead of you, you know your time is like legacy building becomes an important conversation.

Speaker 1: 8:18

That's right, that's right. Yeah, looking at my own story is really what propels me to be able to connect to everyone else's stories and just feeling that everything that's been happening in your life has been to teach you and so that you'll be better. Every moment that something happens teaches you something to make you better in the next moment, and that's how I look at my story. Even the parts that I don't like to look at, even the parts I wish that weren't there Well, I actually don't wish any parts weren't there. I embrace it all because it's made me who I am.

Speaker 3: 8:57

And I think the idea of examining our lives right what's the famous? Is it Socrates? An examiner is not worth living. That's really the point of going back and reviewing, like, what has happened? How is it made me who I am and how might I want to show up differently, despite what I have been through? And I think that's really important because, while I think these events shape our beliefs and shapes who we are, particularly your young adulthood, there become choices, when you become cognizant of them, that you need to make. Am I going to continue living in this belief pattern and thought process or am I going to make a conscious decision that this no longer serves me?

Speaker 3: 9:35

Right that this is an antiquated construct for my life, and I think that that's particularly midlife is usually when these really become. You push right up against them. They might have come up before, but you're so busy and now you're like okay, I've got to really address this and come to conclusions how I want them forward in my life. So I think that's really a powerful piece of it. Tell us a little bit about your own story. Where did you grow up? Let's see.

Speaker 1: 10:05

I grew up in a little town in the Poconos called Straudsburg, pennsylvania, and it's funny I was just reflecting on this morning that I really had a very joyful upbringing. I grew up in this rural area, in the woods, not in a neighborhood, so I spent a lot of time in nature. My father was always working outdoors, working on our house. He actually built our house with his own hands. It was a chicken coop, the house that my family home. It was part of a chicken farm. Did you raise?

Speaker 2: 10:44

chickens.

Speaker 1: 10:45

I said no, no, this was before my father, so you inherited. They bought the house.

Speaker 1: 10:50

He bought the house and transformed it. I mean, it was a residence, but he developed that house and developed the land. And that was how I grew up with a lot of appreciation for nature, a lot of making things out of nothing, being able to really work with materials physically and to work to create, and so he can make anything out of anything. You could ask him to make a fishing pole and he'll go in the basement and come out with all kinds of stuff and put it together and we'll catch a fish. He's just like that. He's very amazing. But my whole family was very creative. My mother, my grandmother and my grandfather always creating things, always making things are very artistic and so I grew up with that and we were a very close family and didn't have a lot of money, but I never realized that until later on. We always had a very happy life. So I'm very fortunate. I had a great childhood growing up there in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Dutch Shoe Fly Pie.

Speaker 3: 11:52

I love it, and you don't live far from there anymore, do you? Still in Pennsylvania? I'm in.

Speaker 1: 11:57

Pennsylvania. Now, yes, I went through a transition. My kids were finally out of the house and on their own, and I was living in New Jersey and found myself in a position where I was able to sell my house. So I thought, all right, it's time to do something new, and so I sold the family home, put all my stuff into storage and I renovated a smaller home in Pennsylvania that actually has an apartment. So I have a tenant in my home and then I live in an apartment for now, because I am kind of at that stage where I want the freedom to go wherever I want to go. So that's what I did I lightened the load and I'm not really sure where the journey is going to take me next, but for now here I am close to my dad, close to my sister, which was important to me, and my kids are kind of all over the place. So I'm able to just be free at the moment and I like that that sounds wonderful.

Speaker 3: 12:53

How many interviews are we at now in the podcast?

Speaker 1: 12:57

I am going to be putting up episode number 40 next week, so I was thinking about this too. I've been doing a lot of reflecting. I'm almost a year In January it will be a year and so it's almost unbelievable that it's been that and that I've stuck through it, because the statistics, as you know people who start podcasts and how many of them actually continue beyond a certain number of episodes is pretty small.

Speaker 3: 13:22

So I know we're herty people. We hang out in there, the Pennsylvania Dutch in the New England. Oh yes, the Breton, we don't give up right. No, I do not.

Speaker 1: 13:33

The LER is not an option. I do not give up. No, no, no, there's a goal. You just keep going until you reach it.

Speaker 3: 13:38

So let's talk a little bit about what you've found. You've done these 40 interviews so far. I'm sure you're seeing and hearing different stories, some universal themes that all of us go through. What are maybe some of the top two or three that really come to mind, that maybe, if not surprising work validating for you?

Speaker 1: 14:01

Well, I think that the biggest thing that stands out to me is that when I ask people at the end of every episode, I ask what their biggest lessons have been, what their blessings have been, and then I ask them a question that I call the most important thing, and I ask people to just tell me what do you think is the most important thing? And try to get them to go with their gut instinct. And for all of those answers that people give me, what really stands out to me is that none of the small stuff matters at all. It is the big themes family, love, faith, support system of people, connections. Those are the top four that every single person says, no matter what their circumstances have been in life. All of them say that. So it's all of those little things that we get so caught up in that we think are just dominating our minds and we worry about things and we ruminate, and none of those things, really, when you get down to brass tacks, are the most important things.

Speaker 3: 15:05

And nor do people really think about them and tell you about them when they're relaying this story of their life. That's not surprising. But then you think about the amount of time we obsess about things totally out of proportion.

Speaker 1: 15:19

Yeah, we spend a lot of time as stuck in the weeds, as they say, and so I'm very aware of that. I try to recognize that when it's happening to me which it happens I don't really know how you prevent it from happening, especially if you are a deep thinker or a highly sensitive person you're going to be noodling on things all the time.

Speaker 3: 15:40

Which I think you just described most of the podcast world deep thinkers and highly sensitive people that want to talk with other humans and hear more of what their point of view is and share that. That's probably all of us in this world let's talk a little bit about. I'm curious. You are very disciplined with your health. You really have a morning routine down like none other. I'm still working on it. It's the evolving morning practice. It has some elements that are always there, but it sort of evolves depending on the day. Tell me a little bit about your practice for staying on track, particularly in this new season of your life, while you're going through a major transition. I think that's very helpful for others that are contemplating a transition or in the middle of a transition to hear what do you do.

Speaker 1: 16:31

Well, first of all, sleep is super important to me. I must have eight hours at least of sleep. I often find myself even getting nine. I do not worry about if I'm feeling ready to go and lay in my bed in the evening, I just go and do that. It doesn't matter what time it is. I'm not one of those people who thinks you have to have a certain time for things. I think listening to your body is very important Before the morning even happens. I'm very focused on getting a good night's sleep. I think that's extremely important.

Speaker 1: 17:01

Then I usually, when I wake up, the first thing I do is I don't get up right away, I lay there with my eyes closed and I do a form of meditation where I'm going through and setting myself up for a positive day by mentally affirming the things that I want to have, maybe asking for the most benevolent outcome for whatever it is that I'm about to do for that day, and just kind of connecting with myself and my God, my higher power, my source, whatever you want to call it, like the universe. That's what I do. I do a little bit of that sort of meditating, connecting before I even open my eyes. When I feel ready. I open my eyes, I get up and it changes. But right now I gave up coffee for health reasons. I gave up jumping in too quickly. I get up and have lemon water every morning After that. Right now I am drinking a special celery juice, which is just a juice celery, and drink that. That's for health reasons as well. I probably wouldn't do that forever, but for now that's what I'm doing.

Speaker 1: 18:07

I usually sit for a little while, usually with my partner, and we just sit together. Sometimes we don't even talk, we just enjoy that quiet time in the morning and I don't look at any media, any news, nothing like that. I really don't read or watch any news at all, maybe just to catch up on an overview now and then. But that's it. Then I have to do.

Speaker 1: 18:32

When you're working in entrepreneurship, you do have to take care of a couple of things pretty early. I do usually post something online for the day because I find that for me, doing it early gets the most engagement. That's why I do that. Beyond that, I don't do any other work right away. After that I do some things for myself. Usually I go through a yoga routine for my scoliosis. I'm treating scoliosis, so I'm doing that, then I'll start to do something else like a form of exercise. It'll usually be a walk, or I'll go do yoga or I'll do some weightlifting. Then, after I do those things for me, then I jump in. I really jump in with both feet at that point.

Speaker 3: 19:15

It feels like a full day already. Time cover is knocking. It's like a favorite routine here.

Speaker 1: 19:21

By the time I jump into my work, it's probably eight o'clock, maybe nine o'clock. Then I start working. Sometimes I even start working in my pajamas. If I don't have to go anywhere, I'll just start working. Like I said, that freedom so I can do what I need to do on my computer. I can run errands and have appointments. Then I can set up different interviews and conversations online. It's flexible after that.

Speaker 1: 19:45

I don't have any hard and fast routine after that, just taking time for myself every day, usually in the morning, but at some point of the day I go outside and stand on the ground barefoot. I love that. I find that is so satisfying and it makes my central nervous system feel very calm. I've been doing that. I think, the thing about for any routine you got to be flexible. Some things are going to be a good fit at some point and then you're going to change it up because maybe you'll either bring it in or you'll need to get rid of something. I don't think you should be too rigid about your routines. I think you should allow it to flow and be flexible with it. Anyway, that's what it looks for me right now.

Speaker 3: 20:26

I love it. All right. What are your mantras right now? What are those affirmations that you're saying to yourself as you go through your day? Or do you have a word for the year that you've been focused on? What are those things for Mitzi?

Speaker 1: 20:39

I like to use this one every day in every way. I am getting better and better. I use that one a lot. I also will listen for a message that sounds a little woo-woo, but I will try to tune in. I will maybe ask if there's anything that I need to know for the day or if there's anything that I should be saying in that day or helping others with in that day. I'll get a lot of empowering messages that I think come from my inner voice, just things like keep going, you're on the right track. What you're doing now is what you're meant to be doing. Don't worry, things like that, those things will naturally come. They're just the normal things that everybody says. Another thing I like to do is just look in the mirror and really look at yourself. Look yourself in the eyes. When you look in the eyes, the eyes are just beautiful. When you look in your own eye, have you ever looked in your own eyes and seen how beautiful they are?

Speaker 3: 21:39

Occasionally maybe I'll do a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 21:42

Look colors look, designs that are in there Just appreciating yourself, and that you're here, you're alive, you're making a difference. Just by being here in the world and existing, you're making a difference. I think everybody's life is like that movie it's a wonderful life. You are having an effect on the world in a way that you don't have any idea about, and so just being aware of that and accepting it, without knowing necessarily what the effect is, just accepting that your existence has a beautiful effect on someone, somewhere, something, somehow, that's another good one.

Speaker 3: 22:20

And I think, particularly on this journey of entrepreneurship, we probably run into things that are from our past. I know for certain we've talked about this before but so many of our external validations that we're accustomed to don't exist in this realm. The whole new area of exploration, particularly in personal development, I think you're this natural inclination to look inward, which we all know we need to do. But do you ever struggle with that? Or is it something that you have now? You're just very comfortable with as you press up against, maybe old norms, to say no time to go inward, time to go to the place of wisdom?

Speaker 1: 23:02

I do feel that it's easy for me, but I have taken some personality tests so I know about myself that I am very open-minded. I was like in the 98.9 percentile for open-mindedness. 99% of the people are not as open-minded, so I think that characteristic allows me to gravitate toward introspection and looking at my inner self more easily than it might be for someone else. Not to say that it's not possible, but some people, I think, maybe are less comfortable with it or just maybe it isn't a natural inclination for them, but it is for me. So that's why it's easy for me, because I know that about myself. It's just one of my inherent characteristics.

Speaker 3: 23:43

That naturally begs the question where are your struggles? What are the things that are challenging for you? Because you are adapting some things that I think most people find more challenging to drop down deep in both of that introspection process, but we all know what it's important to do. Tell me what maybe, or things that you have had to think and cope differently with or navigate in this lifetime.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Well, I think one of the most difficult things for me is health challenges, and this has only been since I've been in my 30s.

Speaker 1: 24:18

I would say it's been a major focus because I lost my mom to cancer. I did not know really what was happening with her when she was going through it. She and my father were pretty private about it and I had three little kids under five and so I didn't know really how to help her. And they wanted to handle it and we were all kind of living our lives and my family and it was so fast the time that she went through it and then she passed away and I didn't expect that to happen. And so then, looking back at it, I became kind of a health nut after that like a real health nut, I mean, irrationally so and I just immediately switched everything over to all organic stuff and all my cleaning products. I started gradually getting rid of all the toxins in the household and it took a few years to get to the point where I understood more of the science behind why I was doing that, and also I think it's become much more in the forefront now than it was 20 years ago.

Speaker 1: 25:20

It's much more mainstream and there's a lot more available. But anyway, that has been. My biggest challenge is balancing in my mind between remaining rational about it and kind of keeping like fears at bay around it, and so that's come up for me a lot this year because I'm the same age now that my mom was when she died. So it's been a very, very difficult year in terms of that. Yeah, so how this like the biggest thing? Some of the people in my life would tell you I'm probably overboard with it, but you know that's how I have to be to cope with that right now.

Speaker 3: 25:56

And so, yeah, those of us looking in from the outside to see this very vibrant Mitzi living her life. So, oh, thank you.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Well, that's why I want to be. I want to be the healthiest person I could possibly be, I want to be portraying vibrance, I want to be living that way, I want to be feeling that way. So I work really hard to do that. I did go through a health challenge last year where I one morning woke up suddenly with vertigo and it manifested in some other neurological symptoms. That didn't really go away completely and I'm still kind of dealing with it, but that's one of the reasons why I've given up the coffee and I've given up alcohol, and I start with lemon, water and celery juice and do that, and because I'm working on some autoimmune stuff.

Speaker 1: 26:39

But feeling good and it's definitely getting better, but great, oh, thank you. But it will change your life. When something like that happens. If you get hit over the head with some kind of a health problem that doesn't resolve easily, it does cause you to really pause and take a look and reevaluate, and so that's what I've been doing, which is not good for a health nut, for that to happen to it.

Speaker 1: 27:04

Well, because it's kind of pushed me over the edge, but it's fine. But yes, that was a turning point, and that was really when I started moving in a different direction with my career and found myself unable to continue to teach my courses in the college classroom because I wasn't able to use any of my devices for a long time because of dizziness and vertigo, and so it was pushing me in a different direction. That's the way I look at it, and because I think that we have things that we're meant to do and for me, it was time for me to start being the teacher that I've always been, but in the bigger classroom of life rather than in the small classroom in the college.

Speaker 3: 27:46

And so I've been getting major impact globally for sure. Thank you, that's what I want to do.

Speaker 1: 27:52

I just read the story yesterday about the starfish. Have you ever heard of that story? No, tell us. I'm not going to tell it verbatim, but it's like a legend. There's a guy walking along the beach and he notices that there's all of these starfish washed ashore. There's just thousands and thousands of starfish being washed ashore. And he's walking along and he sees that there's a woman standing along the shore and she's picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the ocean. And she just keeps picking up starfish and throwing them back in the ocean. And he comes upon her and he says there are thousands of starfish here, thousands. What makes you think that just what you're doing is making any impact at all? It's not making any difference, you're never going to be able to get all these starfish back in the ocean. And she picks up a starfish and she throws it in the ocean and she says it made a difference for that one and it's so good touching, all right, your thumbs.

Speaker 3: 28:41

That's beautiful. That's how I feel and it's true. I mean, you don't even know who you're impacting as you pick at your guys. Tell me about what you're reading right now. What's on your nightstand? What's been maybe the most impactful thing that you've read of late that you would like to share?

Speaker 1: 29:00

I probably have four or five books going at the same time. It's terrible. I was on a kick to get through one book a week in the beginning of the year and I was doing it that way and it was working out great. But then I started to pile up four or five different books at a time and I got myself into trouble.

Speaker 3: 29:16

Now, are you the traditional writer? Do you have to have a book in your hand or have you resorted to the audible? I do both.

Speaker 1: 29:23

I do both Because, honestly, I'm the kind of person who always has to have something to do. I don't write in the car and just do nothing. I actually have an audio book on while I'm writing in the car, or podcast Our podcast, absolutely yeah. So in my audible right now I am listening to David Goggins Never Finished I'm partway through that. I'm still reading Craig Siegel's book I'm not finished with it yet the Reinvention Formula, so I'm reading that. I'm reading a new one by Dr Tom Walters who is going to be on my podcast. It's called Rehab Therapy. It's a beautiful book, so I'm in the middle of that one. And I'm reading a manuscript from someone. It's a private manuscript but somebody else is written, so I'm reading that and it's really cool. So also on my nightstand there's which I just finished the Biology of Belief by Dr Bruce Lipton. The Anatomy of the Spirit by Carolyn Miss those are just finished those over the past couple of months On my to be read list.

Speaker 1: 30:24

Right now I'm also in the middle of Marcus Aurelius Meditations. I haven't finished that yet. That's kind of heavy. I think that's one of those books you can read a little bit at a time and keep going back to it, because it's really just a lot of very heavy revelations and mantras for meditation. And then I have this book that I'm dying to read, but it's so big. It's Gabor Mate, the Myth of Normal. It's coming up on my list. That one's really important to me, and I have a bunch of others. I can't even think of them. I have so many books in my stack to read. I want to read something in fiction, so I'm going to pick out something to read, probably on Audible. A piece of fiction too, but oh my God.

Speaker 3: 31:04

Well, you know, I just had to nail up this. I just had to nail up this, laura, on the podcast, and we spent some time talking about Bruce Lipton's Biology of Belief, because it's so intertwined in a lot of the work that we do and it was wonderful to go back actually and take another look at it because it had been a while. But such an important piece of work. Tell me a little bit about what it is. You hope people will get in Blean from the Blessons podcast.

Speaker 1: 31:32

What I really want people to be able to do, I guess, ultimately, is to be able to connect to yourself by connecting to others, so that when someone is telling their story or talking about what they're doing as a result of their experiences, how their experiences have made them who they are and what kind of important work they're doing in the world because that's often a part of it I want people to be able to just have that spark something in themselves.

Speaker 1: 31:59

So they think for a moment oh yeah, I remember when this happened in my life and then they think a little bit about what that means in their life and how it ties in to what makes them who they are and what makes them do what they do. What's the understanding? Originally, it was about human connection. I was really drawn to doing it because I felt the world was so divided and this is going to sound woo-woo, but I got the message that part of my job here is to help raise the consciousness, to help people to see what they don't see, to help people to learn what they're not learning, and that when we stay apart from one another, we stay apart from ourselves.

Speaker 3: 32:44

Tell me a little bit about your spiritual practice or philosophy or belief. How is that impact the way you look at the world?

Speaker 1: 32:53

Oh, it has a big impact. I'm a very, very spiritual person, enormously spiritual, probably not as dogmatically religious, but much more open and spiritual. I have studied Buddhism pretty heavily and that I'm very drawn to. And I wouldn't say I'm officially practicing Buddhist, but I love the Buddhist philosophy, the idea of samsara, which is the wheel of life, that you keep going through lifetimes because you're here learning and you're growing. That's what I feel like makes the most sense to me.

Speaker 1: 33:28

It doesn't make sense to me that we're just here and then we go and there's nothing left, because we know scientifically that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Right, we don't get destroyed. Our spirit will go on. We just don't understand in what form that takes. That makes sense to me. I could be wrong, but that makes sense to me. The spiritual belief of mine is just in this go round, you're here to learn as much and just to get as high up in the consciousness and that little part of the cycle as you can, so that the next time around you start out from there and then you go higher, and then you start out from there and then you go higher. I mean, I hope that's what happens.

Speaker 3: 34:08

That sounds like a good place for me. The whole idea of this being on the spiritual journey makes tremendous sense to me. It certainly is something I share in common with you, I don't know as much about the Buddhist faith, but I know this idea of whether or not we come back because there are lessons we have not learned. That transcends Buddhism in many different religions for that matter practices of what you haven't learned. You come back and you get to repeat. That's a good way to look at things too, just in terms of what are you working on right? Are we in constant awareness of what it is we're experiencing in our own personal development, or are we caught up, perhaps, in the things of this world, in the weeds, as we talked about earlier, and how might that actually be congestion preventing us from moving forward to that higher consciousness?

Speaker 1: 35:02

Yeah, that's why, when we talked about the difficulty some people have in going inside and the difficulty some people have in going into their past experiences, that's why it's so important to do that, because you don't want to get stuck. You want to learn. If there's a memory calling you, it's because you have something to see there. You have something to learn from that. If there's something that you can't shake, it's because there's something in it for you that you need to explore. The universe will, either in this lifetime or another. It will keep trying to hit you over the head with things until you learn them.

Speaker 3: 35:42

I think it goes back to that saying right, there are some people that live 75 full years of life and there are others that repeat the same year 75 times over. I don't want us to be in that category. Right, we want to be moving in this. What have we learned? How do we move forward? How do we continue to evolve as beings that are going through this very human experience? Sometimes it's trying, it'll bring you to your knees, but then it has the most beautiful experiences and even the most difficult things we've talked about can be used for good.

Speaker 1: 36:17

Absolutely yeah. That is how you overcome difficult experiences by changing the meaning, because you get to decide the meaning. I've been doing a lot of research on memories because I'm running a program and some of the people in the program, my students, are learning to access their memories. We've been talking about the process of doing that and how it's intentional. The memories that are there for you are there because they're calling you. You shouldn't be afraid that if something's coming up for you, it's because you can handle it. It's because you know already inside that you can handle it. The key to dealing with those difficult memories is to be able to understand that those people, that whatever happened to you or for you in that experience, there are other people probably in those things, but none of those other people are in your memory. You're the only one with the memory. You're the one who gets to make the meaning of it. You get to rewrite it, you get to say what it means and you get to say that it's okay to change what it means. That's how you deal with it by going in there and taking something difficult and making something good out of it, finding the silver lining.

Speaker 1: 37:31

Maya Angelou, I mean this is one of my favorite quotes. This is just a paraphrase, but when you know better, you do better. That's life, that is the essence of life knowing better and doing better. You can't do better if you're not willing to look at the things, to know them, so that you can do better. Don't be ashamed of anything in your life. Don't carry that. Just look at it as data. Everything that's happened is information. That's a really perspective. Try to take the emotion. Try to come to it from the person you are now, not from the person that felt whatever that was then. One of my favorite quotes is Carl Jung. I love Carl Jung, he's one of my favorite psychologists and he said until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life.

Speaker 3: 38:21

He has another one. All things before 40 is just research, right, I think that happens before 40 is just research in the human experience, which I think is really good. And so a couple of things. You have a course starting on stories. Tell us a little bit about that and how people can find out more, how they can find you Well, I do have a program.

Speaker 1: 38:46

It's my signature program. I'm going to be offering it. There's a live course coming up that'll be running for 12 weeks, beginning in October, and it's called Life Story School and it's a place for self-discovery because really, what I feel very strongly about is that self-discovery and self-inquiry and self-knowledge and self-exploration is the elixir of life. Very good, this is not just because I'm also a college professor. It's not just about talking about yourself and your life. I go into all kinds of brain research, mindset research. We talk about metacognition, introspection, different areas of the mind, growth, mindset, fixed mindset, human biases, patterns, habits, beliefs I mean the whole thing. All kinds of research on that. Research on memory, research on why we remember the things we do. And then, at the same time as you're doing that understanding at a cognitive level, you're also exploring your personal experiences and then building out a timeline of your life so that you can A understand it and see those lessons and see those things that you don't see right now. Because if you're not where you want to be and you've tried all kinds of things, it's because there's something you can't see and that's on the inside. That's why self-discovery is the elixir, in my opinion. So that's what it does, and at the end of it you'll have built out your story of your life for yourself or your family as a legacy, and then you can add to it, because you're not going to remember everything on the spot. You're going to continue to build those. But memory is intentional.

Speaker 1: 40:27

Memories don't just happen. Well, they can. You can. Certain things can come up spontaneously, but memory has to be activated in a lot of cases. So you'll notice that if you start to think about something in your life or if you hear someone talking and that sparks a memory for you, then it'll spark another one. And then the next day you'll be in the shower and you'll remember something new. Or you'll be driving down the road and you'll see something. You'll go oh my gosh, now I remember when that happened in my life. And once you open the floodgates, that's when the magic really happens, because that's when you get to really find out who you've been, so that you can finally be that person who you want to be. I mean, how many people do you know, michelle? Or like I just can't get there. I don't know what's stopping me. Your work is doing the same thing trying to help people to access that living your extraordinary life.

Speaker 3: 41:18

I think that that's where most people are right. Most people are in some level of it's okay, but is it exactly where I want to be? No, and so what we're really looking at is how do we move? What are those things that need to happen? And part of it is really understanding yourself in order to say I'm willing to make those changes or take those steps in order to go from the ordinary to the extraordinary. I really love life fully, live, full, on right, live life. If you were to say this is my best life and I'm loving it, instead of being fearful of that and stepping into it full force.

Speaker 1: 41:56

Because all the roots and all the causes, all the foundations of all of those things that are holding you back are all in your story. You just need to figure out where they are and then you need to flip the narrative on them.

Speaker 3: 42:08

So, mitzi, for our listeners, where can people find more about you, and very specifically about this course? Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1: 42:16

Well, I have a website that's new and it's MitziCamblecom, and all of the information is there. If you want to go right to the course, it's MitziCamblecom backslash course. But I also have a newsletter people can subscribe to. I have a free Facebook group. That's very low key exploration of the self and past experiences. That's available and all the info is right there on my website. And also Instagram is the place where I'm probably most active and there I am at Mitzi and Campbell, so I'd love to connect with people. Anybody can send me a message If you're interested in hearing more or just talking to me. You're asking me a question. I love it.

Speaker 3: 42:54

I highly encourage it. Mitzi is just a wonderful human being. One of the individuals I met very early on in the podcasting process and we've remained really good friends, and that's saying a lot. In this world of there's so much going on and so many of the folks that we started with aren't in this anymore, but statistically it makes sense. If you haven't already, I highly recommend that you go to their Spotify or Apple and take a listen to the Bless Ones podcast. It really is a beautiful format for storytelling, so highly encourage people to go there as well. Mitzi, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your thoughts on how to have extraordinary life and the work that you're doing to help people live their extraordinary lives, because it really is meaningful, and I've enjoyed every minute of listening to your story and your thoughts and I'm grateful for you and your friendship.

Speaker 1: 43:48

Thank you, Michelle. I'm so grateful for you. You're so beautiful and what you put out into the world is just having that butterfly effect that makes the goodness flutter through.

Speaker 3: 44:00

Well, thank you Until next time. Everyone live your extraordinary life.

Speaker 2: 44:09

Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations for future topics, please reach out to me at michellereosofficialcom. Lastly, please consider supporting this podcast by sharing it. Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.