Healing yourself and others through Writing with Tina Djuretic

This is a video about Healing yourself and others through Writing with Tina Djuretic

In this episode of Roundy’s Rants, Raves and Reviews, host Roundy interviews author Tina DJuretic about her writing journey from two adult books—a memoir and a guide on healing—to her first children’s book released June 11 about bullying. Tina shares how childhood abuse, generational trauma, and a difficult breakup led her to write, how journaling and editing became part of her healing process, and why she believes bullying should be addressed with both self-advocacy and compassion for children who may be acting from trauma. She also discusses her years working on cruise ships, collecting travel mementos, and her recent training in sound bowl healing inspired by a Nepal ashram, including ideas for adapting sound healing for kids. Tina’s books are available on Amazon and IngramSpark, with resources and a free bullying-related PDF at sovereignandsage.com.

Author’s website:   https://www.sovereignandsage.com
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/tinadjuretic/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556884707274
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sovereign.sage
Link to my children's book: https://a.co/d/0jaiJ6fB

00:00 Meet Tina DJuretic
01:05 From Memoir to Healing
02:18 Writing a Bullying Book
03:41 Life at Sea Adventures
05:07 Sound Bath Journey
06:11 Healing Through Sound
12:14 Why She Started Writing
12:55 Breakup and Patterns
14:40 Generational Trauma Awakening
16:38 COVID and the Memoir Draft
17:37 Editing Into Healing
19:45 Owning Your Name
21:02 Writing As Therapy
22:35 Why Kids Books
25:25 Dragons And Bullying
27:07 Beta Readers And Art
29:13 Compassion For Bullies
30:05 Mission To Break Cycles
32:24 Where To Find Books
34:41 Final Message Authenticity

In a world full of uncertainty, how does one cope with unbearable loss and pain? A Christmas tragedy finds Steve and Maria struggling to find hope. With the love and support of family and friends, will they find peace as they walk through the fire of Uncertainty?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Welcome, welcome everyone. Today to Roundy's Rants, Raves, and Reviews. I am here today with author and newly children's author, Tina, and I can't say your last name without slaughtering it, so I'm gonna let you say it. And tell us I don't want to totally mess it up. But I'm excited to share her story with you guys today and her important message and get her book out there to teachers and to youth who need these lessons. So, Tina, will you introduce yourself a little bit more and tell us what you've been working on?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Absolutely. Hi, it's Tina Juretic. It's a Tast name. Yeah, it's Serbian. It's a silent D, and then it makes it easier to pronounce. But yeah, I went through that as a child as well. My whole life in school's like is that Diuretic? It's like, no, no, no, it's it's a J. It's a J. It's Juretic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Right there. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

It's just built in. Yes. Well, as you mentioned, I'm an author, and this is the third book that I've written, but quite a departure from my first two books that were for adults. I wrote a memoir. That's where I started my writing career, which was a massive undertaking. I had no idea what I was doing. And then that pivoted to a book on how to heal. Because while I was writing my memoir, I found healing, which was super important to me and changed my life for sure for the better and put me in control of my life rather than flailing and trying to catch up to trauma. And so I wrote a book on how to heal because I thought that was really important. And I had to learn those lessons myself, right? So by figuring it out, I kept notes, which was very smart because it was four years of you don't just heal in five minutes. And I'm still not finished. We never ever stop healing. It's a lifetime journey, right? But it's a beautiful, maddening, frightening, amazing, right? Process. I wouldn't trade it for the world. And I'm such a better person. And when I was finished that I was like, okay, I'm done writing. Yay. I got the two things out that I wanted. And then it was like, no, you're gonna write a children's book now. And I was like, what? I'm gonna do what? That was such a strange pivot for me. But my first children's book came out two weeks ago on June 11th, and it's about bullying. So it actually isn't a pivot at all. I mean, it is a pivot because I went from adults to children, but I was bullied as a child by my parents, not by school kids. In fact, the frightening thing is I could have become the bully because it's what I was learning to be from them. And so I thought this was still a really important message. And so I wrote about being bullies, about being bullied, but not just that, both sides of the story that sometimes bullies are kids that come from trauma or bad situations as well. And it's just this misplaced anger that they don't know what to do with it. And so sometimes we need to show compassion to our bullies. Not all bullies are mean kids, right? Some are for sure, narcissists in the making, but not all of them. So if we give them a chance and show them that there's a different way, then it might change someone's life. So yeah, so that's kind of what I've been doing for the last six years, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

There's I know you mentioned beforehand, and I'm wondering, is this gonna also be a book? Because I was just thinking about this too, with what you're gonna do with all your stuff we were talking about earlier. You should write a story about your travels at each of these items. Oh yeah. I was like, yeah, we could have a little blog or a novels about all of these things that you're your travels because you said you were working on cruise ships beforehand.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

I was, yeah. I spent six years on ships and I got to see the world, which was really amazing. So many people on ships end up doing the same runs over and over, right? Alaska the Caribbean, Alaska, the Caribbean, something like that. But I was so lucky in my career. I got to spend a couple years in Australian waters where I saw all of Asia, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand. I spent several years in Europe. So I really got to go from the top of Norway into the Arctic Circle down into Egypt, South America, and I did a world cruise even. So I got to go to just random far places like Tahiti and Pitcairn Island, right? Locos to Pitcairn Island. Well, nobody does. Yeah, and all along the way I collected beautiful momentums because I'm I'm an artist in the and I appreciate beauty and art. And when I see something that speaks to me, then I buy it. And I'm also a photographer, so I do have photos of these places, but the things on my wall show the story of my life, if you will, and they remind me where I've been and what I can accomplish, even though I came from such a terrible beginnings. I did those things for myself, and I'm proud of that. And yeah, it would be fun to write books about those things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I can I can imagine a photography book with stories in there about oh, that would be anyway. That's a good thing. Yeah, it's on my list writings to do it. On my never ending list live things. I also saw you learned how to do sound back healing. Yes, that's my latest undertaking. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Before we get into everything, I was just like these things intrigue me about because everyone thinks that the author is just this one big person. You've got like these interesting little side quests that are going on. I'm curious. What got you into that?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Well, so I used to be a musician. When I went to college, it was to do theater, and I just always loved music. And even though I don't go now, I did grow up in a church and I loved the music and I was in the choir and I love to sing. And so I believe in the power of music. I believe in the healing power of music. And I'm still a very sound person. Sounds can really bother me. Like right now, they're drilling outside, which seems to be never ending in the city. It's just never stops. Oh my God. Right. They're fixing my building, and they have been doing it for six years. So it's literally been never ending. But also there's sounds that please me so much. So when I started my healing journey, one of the things that I started to push away from, I started to honor my body more because it's something that I didn't honor through my trauma, because it was part of the abuse when I was a child. Not only was there severe physical abuse, but also mental abuse every day being told you're fat, you're nothing, you'll never accomplish anything. I don't love you. I didn't want you. Like just it really makes you, even if on the outward sides I'm very bravado and very bold, on the inside I was very broken and I hated my body. And every day I looked in the mirror and I backed up that teaching. Oh my God, you're so fat, right? Like I started saying it to myself. I started to really honor my body in the last couple of years. And part of that is paying attention to what I consume. And I don't just mean food, I mean what I'm reading. I mean, I was obsessed with James Patterson. He's one of my favorite writers, but it's always murder and mayhem. I mean, even though he's a great writer and I still thoroughly enjoy it. Is that what I want to put in my body? Is murder and mayhem and then watching the same thing on TV with all the cop shows and all of these things? And so I really started to pay attention to that and what I was listening to is as well. I mean, some of the lyrics of songs that we love, they're not good. They're teaching us that heartache is great and we should seek that because what makes a great song. And so, all of that to say that I've really started to every day I put on something that has maybe five, two, eight hertz or is just spot music, if you want to call it that. For me, it's a spiritual thing. And it has changed the way I do things, it changes the energy in my home. Everyone who enters my home is just, oh my God, every time I come in here, I just feel instantly relaxed. Yes, that is intentional. So sound healing kind of goes with that. I've been sort of creeping towards that, I think, for the last couple of years as I've become aware of just what sound does. And so I went to Nepal and I thought, I'm gonna buy a sound bowl, right? My intent was to buy one. I know they come in sets, but I thought I'll buy one because I have a little one that's pretty, but it's really decorative. And I got it at a night market in Hong Kong from a lady from Nepal, and but it is decorative. And so I thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get a proper sound healing bowl. And I booked this tour to go there for three weeks, and then I decided I'm gonna go five days early and throw myself into an ashram. And I love yoga, so I'm gonna do yoga, I'm gonna do meditation, and they offered sound healing, and I was like, perfect. So I sat through the first session of sound healing, and it's I'd never been to a proper sound healing thing before. And that that was it. I mean, once I felt the vibration, it's like a tuning fork, right? Same idea. You put a tuning fork, I think it's against your neck or something, and it really does realign your body and healing. Doctors' offices used to have them before we started to rely so much on pharmaceutical drugs. So when I felt that vibration in my body, I was just like, oh my God, I have to have this. I have to do this. And because the children's books for me are not just about entertaining, they're about addressing real problems and helping kids today, because kids are really struggling in this crazy world that we've become. I thought somehow I knew that sound healing was gonna be part of how I help children. I didn't know how yet because I only knew how to do it. Or I thought, how could how can a kid sit here for an hour for sound healing? That's not gonna work, right? No kid's gonna sit through that. But I knew that there was a reason. And so I immediately, the ashram, the family that ran the ashram, he took me to a place where I picked out handmade bowls and then I had them carved into what I wanted. Beautiful symbolism on them. Yeah, really exceptional. I made sure it didn't change the sound at all because that was really vital. And a lot of people say it changes it, but this woman said, Oh, I've been doing this for 40 years, it does not change the sound. Plus, we test them after we carve them to make sure it's the same. Absolutely, that they're good. And and I ended up buying 14 bowls because there's a suitcase just to bring them home. Oh my god, they were what 40 pounds? Just the same bowls. Yeah, I ended up having to have a second paying for a second bag. I was just vastly overweight, is what it was. But I love them and I got them home, and I've been practicing with them self-healing as well as practicing group healing so that I can offer this service. And I've been working with my teacher on how to make this for children, and she had such great suggestions. She said, I used to do this for kids. You can absolutely, just not for an hour, you know, and you need to incorporate absolutely you need to incorporate things like movement and breath work and then end it with some sound scaling and get them involved. So, yeah, so that's the journey of the sound bowls, and I have no regrets. They're beautiful, and they just every time I use them, they just gosh, I just feel instantly so calm and so grounded and so at peace. So it's for me, I think it's an incredible natural therapy. I I agree.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Music to me has always been that for me as well, because I did music in theater, but I've always loved music, and there's something spiritual about it. It is, it's just something that every soul in the world, it doesn't matter what culture, language you speak, music just it both sides, right? You said negative all the way through to the healing part of it. I would sit for hours and hours. You could tell what day I had based on how I was playing the piano. Yeah, for sure. For hours and hours, either music that was already there or just playing my feelings through it and stuff like that. But you're it was a way of me resetting and realigning who I was and stuff, and and so yeah, I totally agree. Music is definitely such a part of the soul that we have inside of us, that's for sure. Absolutely. Well, cool. So you went from that and you're still on this whole journey of those things and stuff. What got you started into writing? What was it that really I'm gonna write now?

SPEAKER_00 13:33

I'm gonna just what got that going? So much like you said to me before we started that God speaks to you and told you you had to write a book. For me, my beliefs are a little bit different, but it's the same concept, if you will. We just have a different idea of probably what God is, but that's right, that's the beauty of doing these podcasts is that we can be different and still come along, look at us and respect each other, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Whatever greater power, exactly. It's whatever speaking to us.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Yes. If it's good for you, awesome, right? Why would we condemn something that's not good?

SPEAKER_01 14:06

So I'm getting to the same place.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Exactly. Yeah. I I went through a terrible breakup with my last partner, and through this, it revealed a couple things for me. First of all, that I had a pattern that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I always joked that I liked men who were emotionally unavailable because that's the only thing I ever seemed to date. And I didn't date a lot, but there were three major relationships and a smaller one in my life. But with the last one, I finally was able to understand, oh, you're addicted to narcissists, like in a bad, ugly way. And it made a lot of sense because my parents were narcissists and I didn't even have that word before. So this was a new word that ironically the last one taught me because he constantly accused his ex-wife of being one. And so one day I just looked it up and really understood it. And I thought, oh, isn't it funny how the one who is usually the one that points the most fingers, right? The one who screams the loudest when a relationship ends is usually the problem. The one who silently just takes it is the one who's usually the wronged person. But at any rate, it did two things. It helped me to see that pattern and to go, okay, stop asking the wrong question. Stop saying what's wrong with all the men in the world. Why can't I get a good one? And and I literally just pointed the finger at myself and just sort of went, No, what's wrong with you? That all you're attracted to are this type of person. Well, it's time to go inwards. And so I did because at the same time I had buried my childhood, which tells you just that there was trauma there. And I knew there was trauma there, and I knew that I had very abusive parents, and but I didn't remember. I just knew that a lot of it come came from my sisters, some of it were small snippets of memory, but I started to have nightmares and pieces were starting to reveal themselves. And so I went, Oh, okay, it's time to deal with this. So I sought help. And for me, I went to a spiritual lady, a channeler, if you will. And so she helped me walk through childhood. She didn't tell me every detail, not her job to do. She walked me through the hero's journey, if you will. At this age, this happened. At this age, that happened. At this age, you rebelled at that age, you were starting to come into yourself more like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

But she also walked me through my parents' trauma. And that was very eye-opening because they never talked about their lives either. I always suspected that they came from severe abuse themselves. But she walked me through it. And not just them, eight generations on one side, five on the other. So she's this is serious generational trauma. And I became obsessed with wanting to not just heal myself, but heal this generational trauma. And by the time the session was over, she said to me, You're gonna write a memoir. And I was like, Whoa, where did that come from, right? I've never written anything before. And she said, I'm not gonna share with the world, right? Right. I said, so about my travels, about the exciting part of my life. She's doing good things. Yeah. Like you talked about the photo book, right? I was like, always wanted to do that. Yes. But she was like, No, you're gonna write about this. And I was like, No, no, no, because not even myself, because I've always been a fairly author's humor, open book, but I didn't wanna do that to my parents. My father's passed, but my mother's still alive. My sisters are still alive, my exes are still alive. And I thought, oh God, even if I don't attack them, which was never my intent, they're not gonna come off very well. Not my sisters, but you know, the people who who caused a lot of harm. Yeah, I just thought I can't do that. And she said, You will do this. And then it was like, well, when am I supposed to have time to do this? Right? I'm a really busy person. And she said, Don't worry, time's coming. You're gonna have two years. And then COVID hit, and I had no job for two years because I'm a tour guide, no job.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

And tore her way down.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Yeah, nothing but time, nothing but time and isolation, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Perpendent to reflect.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Oh my god, how many people wrote books during COVID just because they had time, right? Yeah, so she told me this probably it was August, the following year, and I knew that I would finish touring around October, and that's when I began writing, and I didn't know where to begin. I I had no idea what the book was even about. So I just started journaling, just taking pieces of my life in order that I could remember and just writing about them and then writing about the next thing. And when I was done, I mean I had this volume of work. It was like 1,500 pages or something insane, right? Which I just wrote for two years. But when I finished, I went, okay, I know where this is going now. It has to end with healing. It has to, otherwise, what's the point? Right? It's not just to air dirty laundry.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

So then I went back and obviously started making massive cuts, cut it in half, cut it in half again. I did three or four swipes through it. But what was fascinating to me was to see how far I'd come. Because when I went back to read it, I was like, oh, good God, this is like an angry teenager's journal, right? I could feel my rage and my blame and my anger. But I'd done so much healing throughout the first process because I didn't get to just write. Every time I came to a roadblock or just I just couldn't, I'd spend five hours on a sentence and go, okay, I'm not getting anywhere right now. I would realize that my spirit was saying to me, No, you don't get to move forward right now. You need to heal what you just wrote about. This isn't just about writing. This is about so there's a lot of stop and start as I had to figure out living in isolation with no money. So I couldn't just go talk to a therapist or even talk to the same teacher that I'd been talking to because she cost money as well. It was like, oh, I'm really on my own here. And I had to figure it out, and I did with the help of great teachers on platforms, right? I mean, I didn't do it all by myself. I certainly got advice from wonderful YouTube teachers and things on the internet and things that worked though, they worked. And so that that was the first book, that healing journey. And every time I did a new pass-through, an edit, the blame came out, the language changed, the blame came out, the language changed until it got to the last version where if there was even one iota of blame in it, it stuck out like a sore thumb, as opposed to the first version where it was almost all blame. And yeah, it was a beautiful, challenging tear, tear and joy and laughter and all of it, haunted by my demons, if you will. But it worked, and I'm and I don't regret it. And I never used the names of anyone in my book, and I never intended to put my name on the front of it either, to be quite honest. And right from the beginning, she said, change the names in the book for sure, but your name will go on the front. And I was like, What's the point of changing all the names if my name's on the front? She's like, Your name will go on the front. I was like, No, it's not. And then when I saw her two years later, I was like, No, the name's gonna go in front. She's like, Okay, six months later, she's like, Your name needs to go on it. I'm like, No, it's not going on. She's like, Okay, she she never pushed me until it came time to actually publish it. And then she was like, You need to put your name on the front. And I said, I can't do that. She said, You've spent four years, because it was really a four-year process by this point. I hired outside editors, obviously, and then professionals to help me get it to where it needed to be. She said, What's the point of stripping away all your masks that you've been given by society, by your parents, by everyone else, so that you can stand in your authenticity if you won't stand in your authenticity? And I just went, Oh, damn you. How can you ask other people to do that if you won't do it? And I was like, Oh man. So she's like, Time to stop hiding. Your name needs to go on it. And here we are.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

And I told you the story, you had to own it.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

I had to own it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah. I love how the writing journey. And it doesn't matter if you're gonna publish or not. It's something I tell my students too. It's like when you write and share anything apart yourself, it's healing. It's helping you explore those things, and you don't have to publish it, but to write it is to help you understand it and get through it. And I go back and read, oh my goodness, all my journals when I was a kid, and I'm like, oh my goodness, but that's how I was dealing with my being bullied and stuff at school and all those things like that, right? I look at I read back and I was like, You're right. Sounds very angsty, very like, oh my god. Right? Oh my god, I I'd be worried about this teenager too. But it was through that writing process that it helped me to learn how to cope and deal and understand and function through all of that, right? Those things will never get published. Like you know what they grew you. Right, but they're who I am now and they come through my writing and what I'm talking about and those writings and stuff in those ways now. And in a way that's to share and help other people as well.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Well, and also it helps you to put yourself in the position of people who are currently being bullied. Have situations changed since the last 30, 40 years. Yeah, of course. But the pain and what you're expressing are still humans, exactly. People, especially children, they rarely express themselves through words unless they journal. It's their actions that show you that something is wrong. They tell you by their behavior. And if you can remember your own behavior, because you wrote it down, that helps you to also interpret even what's going on with kids, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Exactly. And that transitions perfectly into so you took this and you're like, what made you think now I want to help kids with this? Because you're writing for adults, you're traveling, you're doing all these things. What said, hey, let me help kids now.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah. Right? Because honestly, and I don't even have kids, right? So this was part of my trauma, was that I was so traumatized as kids that as a 12-year-old, I swore I would never have children because I would never pass on this generational trauma. I mean, those weren't the words I used at the time. It was that I don't want to become my parents, right? Is what the thought was when I was 12. And so when I finished writing the second book, which was a how to, if you will, on how to heal, I was like, okay, I'm done, right? Now I'm gonna start doing what? Right? Give workshops. I wanted to take it further. And my teacher again said to me, interesting, because she hears all the voices. And she said to me, Interesting, you're gonna start writing children's books. And I went, What? Left field, right? What? I said, Well, how can I possibly write about children when I don't even have any? I don't even know what kids are going through. And she was like, she just looked at me like I was crazy, right? She's like, You did her the whole book. She just so first of all, you were a kid. Second of all, you have tons of nieces and nephews. I'm like, true. She's your mother had a child when you were 12, when you were its mother, because that's true. My mom went through serious postpartum depression and was incapable of raising her for the first couple of years. And the first person she ever said mama to was me as a little girl, as a little baby. And so she's like, You have plenty of it. But what inspired it is that there were a couple of children in my family that were going through some struggles with one had nightmares, severe nightmares. And the other one, she wasn't having nightmares, but she sees fairies when she goes to the forest. And so she believes in the spirit world. And I did these two things with these kids just spontaneously, and that helped them. And she said, I think it's those two actions that you did that your soul kind of went, Oh, you're good at this, right? Kids respond to you. And I've always loved children, and it's true. I'm the person that walks down the street, and every pet, every dog, every child stares at me, wants my attention. And I used to joke about it when I was like in my full-on 20s, going, I'm never having kids. It was like, why do these kids keep staring at me? But now I realize that I actually love it. I love children. I love playing with them and I love the way their mind works and their innocence and their honesty. And so she said, You're gonna write children's books. And I went, okay, right? I don't fight this anymore because I've seen the truth in it and the success of it. And I know that she speaks always the truth and that she's only doing what's best for me when I meet what my my my mission is, if you will. And so I sat down and I just kind of went, What's the first book gonna be about? I had no idea. I knew it would be about dragons. I love dragons, I think they're magical creatures. I think dinosaurs, dragons. Did we really have dinosaurs, or did we just have dragons? But I whatever. What they tell us and what happened are not the same thing. Um we've been lied to, let's face it. I was doing a meditation and this woman channeled a dragon, and it was so powerful to me that I just instantly went, Oh, this is the dragon I'm gonna use. Even the name, which is Tiamat. Tiamat is an old myth mythological creature from actually, I spelt it differently. Tiamat T M-A-T is how it's spelt, but I used M-E-T. I don't even know if I did that intentionally or if I just did it and it just stuck. But and I thought, a dragon is so powerful and they are protectors of children. And that's where it just went, oh, perfect. Then we need a child that needs protection. And bullying was the first thing that popped into my mind because I know children are really suffering from bullying. It's an age-old issue. Like you said, you were bullied as a kid, and it probably happened 150 years ago, too. I mean, bullying has always been there, might change its format, but or does it, right? It's probably just the same, it's just different language, maybe. Yeah. And so I just thought bullying and a dragon to teach strength. This just made so much sense to me. And I sat down and I just ran with it. And it just came easier than I expected. And I loved every minute of it. And then just once it was written, I passed it off to my girlfriend's kids because I don't even have anyone to test it on. But was like, oh my God, who am I even gonna get? I don't even have any kids to show this to. Can we write a story together? And I'm like, Yeah, we can. So she'll take six or eight pages, she'll draw the pictures, and she'll have me write the words, but they're words from her mouth. I'm not creating the words. She does the whole thing. She just asks someone to write it. So I thought, oh, I'm sending it to her. I mean, she's perfect. She must have 40 of these books that she's written since she was young. And she's only, what, seven or eight now? It's not like she's an old kid. So I sent it to her. No pictures to go with it, just the words. And I just thought, let's see how this lands. And she came back and she was like, Oh my God, I loved it. And I love that you gave her a crystal at the end, a dragon stone for protection. And I love the dragons and I loved everything. And then she's there was only just this little part here that scared me a little bit. And I don't know that I liked that, right? So I was like, she was so honest. It was so beautiful. And so I tweaked it a little bit. I took her advice, and I didn't take out the little scary part because it was intentional to I just made it less scary, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

You have to scare it a little bit in life something.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

When it's like any fairy tale you read, there's that little moment of fear, but it didn't only last for a second. It's just the dragon appears and she sees the eyes and she's scared for a second, but then she realizes this nice dragon. So it's just that moment, but yeah, I just loved it. And then handing it over to an illustrator and watching her take my words. And I'm such I love art, as you can tell, right? I love art so much to see her bring them to life with these pictures was just such a magical experience. I enjoyed it every moment of writing the children's books. There was no deep dive self-healing in that one. So it was really, it was enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

You just gotta take what you've learned in that deep dive and go here for kids.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Positive way.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Yes, absolutely. And in a compassionate way, like I spoke to you before we started. Sometimes bullies are just misunderstood kids. Not every bully is a mean child. And so I wanted to show compassion as well that sometimes bullies are just kids with misplaced feelings. Perhaps they're emulating their brothers or sisters, or just emulating their parents, or maybe they've been through trauma themselves, and it's just they don't have the capacity to deal with it. So, children, again, they don't always tell us what's wrong. They show us through their body language, through their actions. And so I wanted to incorporate that in the book as well. And so I did. And yeah, I think there's balance in that, right? So learn to stand up for yourself, absolutely, but find out if they need some compassion first. And if they don't, well, then just stand up for yourself, right? Like you, you do have to be able to defend yourself. And I don't mean physically, I mean just to learn to say it's okay to stand up and go, I'm not tolerating that behavior because bullied kids often grow up to be bullied adults. We need to stop this before it it creates more generational trauma, right? Bringing us right back to that. If we can educate our kids with these ways of dealing with their emotions in a healthy way, then they're gonna grow up to be adults who deal with their emotions in a healthy way and also to recognize when other people are not. And if I could prevent someone from doing what I did and falling into these incredibly toxic relationships because they don't know how to deal with their emotions, then I would I love that. I please, yes, let that be my mission.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Right. Yeah, exactly. And to learn when they're young how to do that. And I also to give that compassion to the others. So protecting yourself, but also giving that grace because when we do that, we can help them kill, hopefully. We can get them the help that they need. Because hey, some of them might be being bullied or going through something that they need to help through and we have to get them the help too, but it doesn't mean being silent, it means speaking up and standing up and going, Okay, this isn't right. So we're not gonna destroy you for anything.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Because we need to show more love, right? In the world. We need to. We all need to, especially with the way the world is going right now. We're being taught to hate people who differ from us. This is the worst thing ever. We used to celebrate our differences, it's what made us all humans and beautiful. So, how have we come so far from that? And uh again, let's start with our children to say show compassion to others and find out why they're behaving that way before you just make judgments. And sometimes by just putting out your hand or showing a little bit of love, it can change someone's world, it can change their life completely.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

And it's changing one little world that can change their world and then the next world. Yeah, that's how we do it. One little world at a time. Everything on our own, right? Yes. Be the light you want to see in the world, right? Absolutely. It's the way it is, for sure. Well, where can we find your work? Where can we follow you in your journey and keep up on the next ones coming out? And and doing that.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

How can we get your boys? So I have my books are on Amazon. I am self-published, and for any school teachers out there, anyone like that, they're also on Ingram Spark. So with the Great Bang discount, of course, that retailers get. If anyone's interested in ever having me to come in, I would love to read the book at a library or children or any capacity that I can. I also have an author's website. It's called sovereignandsage.com. And there's two pages to it: my adults' book, and then I have the children's book, which there's icons at the top, easy to find. Gaia loves me will be my children's book umbrella, if you will. And there's also for any, again, anyone out there, parents or teachers, there's a free PDF file that you can download. You don't even have to buy the book to do it, that comes with dragon lessons about great for teachers and great for moms and dads. That was one of the things I loved about handing off the paper to the little girl that read it. Her name's Clara, is that her mom said to me afterwards, it sparked a half-hour conversation once we were done about bullying and how we can stand up to bullies. And I, when she said that, that was almost more valuable than she loved the book. It was like, yes, it sparked the conversation naturally. And I loved that because that was the whole point. And so there's a PDF file there that's there. If anyone wants it, please download it. You can come and I'd be happy to share that with you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

I would love I was just thinking homeschool families and stuff too. This would be great. You can zoom in to some homeschool groups. I would love that. Yeah, you bet. You bet. Please reach out to me.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

There's a place on my website that has my email address. So you can, in fact, reach out to me personally and I will respond because that is the point, right? Is to make a difference.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Yeah, it's entertaining, of course it is, but it also it's with purpose. Absolutely. Yeah. You it can be both, right? Books can be both entertaining and educational without feeling like they're educational to the kids, right? That's super important.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

We hope that's the way it goes, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:51

At least they hope it is. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Very cool. Well, before we leave today, is there a last message or thought that you were you feel it's important to share with my our audience here today?

SPEAKER_00 36:04

For my adults out there, please just be yourself. Don't feel like you have to be anyone else. Don't feel like you have to be what society or your maybe family taught you to be. Be authentic, be yourself, find your joy. And to the parents out there, pay attention to your children. They are telling you through their actions what they're going through. And they need you. They need your love and they need your compassion and they need your teachings and guidance. So, yeah, that's my message.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

I love it. Thank you so much for being with us today, Tina. And everyone go out and get your books and share it with others. And we'll see you guys next time.