E15 - Amanda Soler

Amanda Soler is the Founder of SolFul Living, a Certified Meditation & Wellness Guide, the Host of SolFul Connections Podcast, and a Facilitator of Soul-Centered Transformation.

Expect to learn how Amanda went from COO of a Chamber of Commerce to guiding businesses and individuals from all walks of life in connecting with their souls, the ways her daughter's harrowing health journey brought her family closer together, what led her to doing yoga on her back porch in middle school, a practical guide to meditating with pre-teens, the importance of starting with nourishment, what she would like to see as our first step in healing this world, and so much more.

- Learn more about Solful Living: https://solfuliving.com/

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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0pCyOz6XwZBKRvoPQ27xgi
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Host: Kurt Bruckmann
Co-Producer, Associate Director: Alex Fabio

Transcript

Hey Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Core Energy Experience. I'm your host, Kurt Bruckmann. I hold my mastery in Core Energy Dynamics.

I'm a certified global coach. I write for Brainz Magazine, and I am an internationally acclaimed best selling author. Our guest today is Amanda Solar. She's a host of the Solful Connections podcast and founder of Solful Living, a platform to help people build their most meaningful lives. I'm joined here in the studio with our co producer and associate director, Alex Fabio.

If you haven't yet, please like and subscribe on whatever platform you're on. We appreciate your energy and support. Without you, this podcast would not be possible. Now here's our conversation with Amanda Solar. Look at you.

Thank you so much. How are you doing today? Thank you for coming on. That's awesome. I am so happy you asked me to be a guest, so thank you for having me on.

I'm doing great. Oh, that's great to hear. You know, there's a lot to talk about, you and I for sure. So is what we'd like to do is to start, this about you to, tell us, the audience, and all, about yourself from whatever timeline you like to start to present and perhaps future, and then we're gonna discuss, you know, well-being and all what it's all about. So Well, Kurt, it all began when my mom and dad fell in love.

No. I'm just kidding. I won't take you back that far. Well, you know, basically, my prior life before I established Soulful Living and Soulful Connections, I was COO of a Chamber of Commerce, a large, chamber of commerce in Southeastern Pennsylvania. And I was an editor of a magazine, a community and business magazine.

And, you know, I was loving that life and that, experience, helping people grow their businesses, building community and arts programs, you know, creating this magazine. And really, I will go back a little way just to tell you that, you know, my life, I was always one of those seekers. So I was always, since I was little, you know, reading books about being really fully in our humanness. And I mean, I I started doing yoga in fifth grade, which I think is kind of an unusual thing. So that was happening.

That was all happening and but I loved this career which connected me with people and people who were building their dreams. And in about 02/2006, my middle daughter, caught a cold and she stopped breathing. Oh my god. And it was a long journey. She ended up in the hospital in intensive care.

She needed open heart surgery, but ultimately, we were told that she couldn't survive because she had this really tiny airway, and it had rings encircling it. It was the size of a coffee straw. And they said, you know, this airway can't grow and she will grow, so she can't survive that. I'll just jump to the end of that story real quickly and tell you that today she is 20 years old and, you know, all sorts of good trouble out there. And, but it put us in intensive care and it put a hole onto our lives.

And that whole really lasted beyond that six months in in CHOP's intensive care because you know, ended up we needed some physical therapists and oxygen tanks and it and it was a journey. But I have to say, when I went back to my life at the chamber, I started thinking, okay, I I have information and just about life and about living and about how to find joy even when life is a mess. How to really find our wholeness and and a lot of other things, you know, I I learned. And I guess probably 2017, I started thinking, well, what can I do with this? I was an an editor of a magazine, so I would think, oh, I could, you know, create my own magazine, and so on and so forth.

And then when the pandemic happened in 2020, I had a minute. Because by that time, I was the mom of three daughters. I was a wife. I was COO. You know, all the things.

Busy busy. And I remember thinking, oh, this is the time. Like, I have a minute and I started to think, well, I could create a magazine and then I thought, but I have to get advertisers and, you know, I knew because I already produced a community and business magazine. So I went on YouTube and learned how to build a website. And as I was building this website in my bedroom, I was kind of going, what do I want to share?

For no reason other than that I wanted to share it. And then also at that time, I started a podcast called Two Mamas and a Microphone with an associate of mine. What a great name. It was really fun. We we just hit record and started talking.

You know, there was nothing other than we just felt like recording our conversations. Excellent. Yeah. Why not? And and that taught me a little bit about talking on a podcast.

And then when life resumed, I went back to my job at the chamber, but still kept the podcast. Only by this time, it was my own podcast, because, you know, everybody went back to their quote normal lives. And I had asked a musician friend to write a theme song because I wanted my own song for the opening. And he sang the word connections and that kind of titled the podcast really. And, you know, ultimately, the chamber in, like, 2022, it kind of crumbled and disassembled and became a much smaller organization.

And I walked into this, you know, working with Solful Living where I go into companies and, do teamwork programs and I coach one on one and I teach meditation because as an aside, I did get a certification in meditation instruction with the show organization. Excellent. And then I followed that with a, certification in, with the integrative institute of, health as a health coach. Just so that I could know, like, how you coach. I I had no I mean, you know, with the chamber, I was helping people grow their businesses, but, you know, working one on one with people is different.

So that is my story, Kurt, in in a nutshell. That's a big story in a nutshell. I gotta tell you that. You know, interesting that the chamber is what it is. You know, it it as you know, it can grow and then recede with population because people come in and out of town.

Yeah. They time out, whatever it might be is not needed so much. But the fact you're in there, servants is not surprising from what you have been describing to us about who you are. Certainly, a big part of who Amanda is, that serving part. Yeah.

Let's just go back for a minute to the yoga. What triggered that movement, that decision to take action in there at such a young, stage of your life? So when I was younger so I went through twelve years of Catholic school, and I I was a voracious reader. I always tell my girls, you know, we didn't have the Internet or twenty four hours television, and I read a lot. And so I was always interested in in everything.

I I read a lot of fiction, but that exposed and interested me, you know, to a lot of different topics. And I was in fifth grade at the Scholastics Book Fair in St. Jude's Elementary School. And I picked it up and I thought, okay. Bought it.

And then I did yoga, like, on our back deck every evening. All by yourself? All by myself. And, you know, isn't that it's it's kind of crazy. And I was just telling the story that when I was younger, I used to work, you know, in Catholic school.

In the evening, they used to have bingo. Maybe they still do. That was like a big thing, bingo. Oh, I like bingo. Bingo is great.

Bring it on. Yeah. Right. So I would help my mom, like, sell sell pizza. And I remember talking to somebody and saying, oh, I'm doing yoga.

And they and they were like, no. No. That's like a different religion. You know? It was so like, such another time.

Right? It was so fun. Mom was like, don't listen. Just do your yoga. You know?

But there is something about the fact that when I was so young, I was kind of, you know, when yoga works from the outside in. So when you do it, it just alters you and it really just calms you. And I think when you're calm and you're kind of in touch with yourself, you really feel connected to larger aspects of life. And so that introduced me to that at a young age. You're talking now your spirituality.

Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. And it was an interesting spirituality, which was an adjunct to what I was learning in school, which was like religion, which is not quite exactly the same. You know?

Yeah. Definitely different. Well, I'm glad you said that to define it because we do. And, the core energy dynamics part of it is our our six influencers, and one of them is spiritual, you know, environmental, mental, physical, social. And so when I bring up the the the spiritual, you know, the audience some will start to squirm a little bit, you know, because it it's not religion, you know.

That's we have to define that pretty quickly. We're all born with our own spirituality. So I think that's such an important distinction because, you know, your spirituality could be that you walk in in in nature and you're connected to the sky and the trees and the clouds and that the vastness of the world. And it could be, something much more rooted in, like a more typical religion whether it's Muslim or Christian or or Hindu or whatever it is. I think it's really just what fuels you.

It's a sense of expansion and that can be found in a variety of ways and it's really what works for you. But I agree with you. I think that, you know, connecting to something larger than yourself is really an essential part of leading a fulfilled life. I agree. Let's go there for a little bit.

So we know with the the core the core based energy is, you know, something we resonate with big as you know. And we have found and identified that to your point, we have to start somewhere. And so we start with our core, and that's where we are always residing from. And then we have what you call adjuncts, the, add ons to it, to your point, different means of spirituality in each and every one of us. So, when you are, working with people, how do you bring up and how do you work with their spiritual their spirituality?

So when I'm working with people, what I usually start with is the word nourish. Nourish. What nourishes you? And we just start there. And I think that, you know, when we start with what nourishes you, what feeds you, we kind of get to that larger picture.

So we when when we talk about nourishment, we do talk about food and movement and we also talk about, you know, whatever it is that feeds you you spiritually. And again, that could be a connection with nature. It could be classical music. Like, whatever it is that feeds you. We start there, you know.

And then I move from nourishment onto centering because, you know, I do have my certification in meditation instruction, and I'm kind of like a broken record. Do people know what a broken record is now at this stage in the game, Kurt? I don't know, but I was taught as a very young boy, you know, three, four, five years old to appreciate nature, to work with nature, be in nature, even, to understand, you know, how it operates. I e, there's always lightness. There's always light in nature somewhere around, and I'd be walking with my my grandfather or my father through woods.

We lived in a wooded area. And, save for my father, I'd be walking with him and he'd be holding my hand. And one time he said, you know, Kurt, I'm gonna let go of your hand and I'm going to walk ahead of you. And I got teary eyed and he said, don't don't fear anything. What do you fear from?

Well, it's dark, dad. I don't see any light. He said, Kurt, there's always light. It's a temporary thing. Look up.

There's stars. Or if it's a cloudy night, there might not be, but there's always a bit of light somewhere. You know, that was the message, and that if it's not in the moment right now, it's coming. You know? Light light's gonna come.

Physical light we're talking about. And I love that. Yeah. And I really that really set me off to really appreciate nature and notice nature, be a part of nature, and it's part of who I am. So it's, it brought me fully into understanding behavior, and I studied behavior when I was younger.

Always was watching out on behavior and appreciate people and how they how they interact with one another, what that means. But it's to me, it's a lot of it's nature based, and then we go back to the spirituality of that too. Yeah. So it's, it's interesting how everyone looks at it a little bit different, but there's always something in that spirituality moment that we can find is to your point to peace and to that calm. Right?

Right. I think that without centering, you don't really know what makes you happy. You don't really know what you want. What I do when I, I recently had the opportunity to teach, seventh to ninth graders meditation. Wow.

And yeah. I know. Right? It was so wonderful, to not only be forcing my opinions and thoughts on my daughters, but to get to extend beyond them. But Sure.

Really what I what I can relate to a seventh to ninth grade girl because the world is really noisy and expectations out there can feel like your own expectations. You know, other people's desires can feel like our desires. It's really hard to separate that noise. That's our measuring ourselves to other people which we we know not to do. Right?

That's right. But but it's so normal to do. I mean, it's really rooted in primal survival instincts, you know, to be part of a group is very, very primal. And so all a lot of what we do is just very much rooted in that, you know, reptilian part of our brains that is just all about survival. Yeah.

And And we don't succeed in I don't succeed in isolation. I just wanna add that in there because you guess what we're talking about now, collaboration and and working with other people and and like like energy. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, to find what is my energy.

Who are my people? What do I want them to look like? You kinda have to get quiet for a second, and we're not good at that especially today. You know, we have so many distractions and distractions are so appealing. Our brain loves distractions.

You know, our brain would like nothing else but to be busy all of the time. So true. Yes. So yeah. So centering is like a next step, for me.

That's great. And when you, go into that that meditation with the younger, the children, how are how do they receive that? How do you how does that come out? I mean, how do you get them to be so calm and and, being able to meditate? A lot of people would have difficulty with including myself when I first learned about it.

Yeah. I think well, it's kind of challenging for adults and for kids to quiet our minds. But I will say that it doesn't have to be, you know, twenty minutes, you know, it can be thirty seconds. What I do with younger people is just like this bubble exercise, you know. Picture your thoughts and picture them in a bubble and just kind of watch them.

Close your eyes and just watch your thoughts even if you do that for a minute because it is interesting to see, you know, when I explained to them, 98% of our thoughts are the same ones. We think the same thoughts all day long. Cycle, cycle, cycle. Exactly. And it's kind of saying, oh, I'm thinking about that.

You know, I'm watching your thoughts. So kind of mindfulness, we start there. And I also explain that our brains, it doesn't want us to be quiet. It likes drama and it's in it likes engagement. And I also talk about the fact that even when you're alone in your room, your brain is still active.

She's still talking. And what she says is not always accurate and it's not always helpful and it's not always kind. That's for sure. You know, that's kind of what we talk about, but I don't do anything where we're sitting there silently for a really extended period of time. Excellent.

I think even myself, it's a discipline and I think and I I explained it's kind of like lifting weights. When you're lifting weights, you don't feel fabulous. PS, Kurt, I've only heard because I don't lift weights. There you go. Next week, I'll start.

Right. But Stretch stretching stretching is the the new lifting weights. I do that. There you go. But when you're lifting them, you know, you're not automatically stronger.

It's the practice of doing it, and the reward comes later. You know, it doesn't come really why you're lifting the weights. And that's the thing with meditation. It's it's in and of itself, it's not always the most pleasurable thing that you'll do. The reward is later when you're able to navigate through crisis or through just even a conversation that's uncomfortable and you do it with a little bit more grace.

Sure. There you go. Absolutely. That word grace, we like kindness and grace, bunch of respect. You know, it's interesting when I'm working with people and we start talking about how we quiet ourselves or how we bring ourselves back into the the center, the core, if you will, and work from within out.

I'll use, hurricane metaphor. In other words, the hurricane. What's going on in the hurricane? To your point, noise, there's a lot going on there, and people can get very intimidated by it. They can withdraw.

Perhaps they might get engaged, but they get thrown out, however it might be. So in the hurricane, people get quiet, and then I'll look into the audience and I'll say, well, what's what's in the middle of the hurricane? The hands start to go up, you know, the eye, yet the eye what's the eye? The calm, you know, so to to your point, there is this availability we have, and all people have it, is to be able to find that center, as you referred to it, you know, the core, and the energy we have within to work on the to bring it outside. And, you know, just to be able to use metaphors like that, you know, are selling what your metaphor was as well.

Very selling. People can identify to that more, you know. Yes. And it's really about that and the communication of, you know, what we want to be identified and how that comes out. So tell me, do you deal with NLP, neuro linguistic programming?

You know, no. I mean, the most I have dealt with that is, you know, affirmations, but I'm not I don't know any much about it. So I don't wanna pretend that I don't. Yeah. Well, it it it very simply, neuro linguistic program is how language, influences our thoughts and our behavior.

That's really it and how we speak to ourselves. So one of the reasons why I incorporated it into the the core energy dynamics, is because it it we tend the inner critic, you've been point you pointed that out a little while ago. You know, there's a lot that that cycling of thought, you know, how do I get out of the rabbit hole, this and the other thing. So with the, speaking different language, a different way to ourselves, we're able to, work with, and get our core abilities out more successfully and in a kinder way. So in other words, an an example I'll use, well, if we're if we wanna lose 10 pounds in a week and the goal is to lose 10 pounds, well, we get to the week and the week's over, I've lost only eight because I set a goal.

Well, how does it feel if we say intention? The intention is to lose 10 pounds, and I've lost eight. So it's a win win, essentially, because we're not placing that hard, you know, dynamic on ourselves that it must be done that goal word. So it's shifting different words in different ways so we can speak to ourselves gently, more kindly, you know, and deliver that to the world. Because as you know, the world is very tumultuous right now.

Yes. And, hey, we'll get we'll get to that later on. The the self mastery, a part of who you are, Can we go there and explain to the audience, what that means to you and to everyone else and how that is executed? Well, that's interesting because just talking about, you know, language, self mastery. I don't know that I use that terminology, but I will say I do talk a lot about self actualization, which maybe is the same, you know, the same concept.

A bit. Sister brothers maybe at the same point. Yeah. They are definitely different. Yeah.

Cousins. There we go. Yeah. Cousins. Yeah.

Yeah. I agree. I mean, when I think self mastery, I think that, for example, go back to the nourishment. So when I'm thinking nourishment, I think about food, words, all of the things that are fulfilling books, learning. But, of course, I'll reach, say, for candy.

But then I think, well, what am I hungry for in that moment? What am I actually hungry for? What is the need that that's fulfilling? And when I think about self mastery, that's kind of what I think. I think it's really about understanding what compels us to do something.

And then we're better able to make more evolution more evolved choices. So I think about what you were just saying about the goals, and I think sometimes people will say, well, I never make New Year's goals because they never they never happen. And I do think it's because they think, okay, this year I'm gonna read 20 books. I'm gonna walk five miles a day. I'm going to lose 20 pounds.

And then they kind of go on with their lives and it doesn't really happen because those are really hard things to change and they don't kind of look at their habits and look at the steps and look at their why and look at all the things that they need to look at in order to make those changes. So when I think about self mastery, I guess what I think about is okay, let's look at the life I want. Let's look at who I want to be because another one of those four, you know, I talked about nourishment and connection. There's also alignment. Yeah.

So am I who I say I am? Am I who I want to be? You know, is it all in alignment? Who I am, who I actually am, who I wish to be and who I say I am? Are they all the same?

And so for me self mastery is about making that all aligned. Who I am, who I want to be, and who I say I am, all in alignment. Does that make sense? Taking the action. It does a 100.

Yeah. And then breaking down those actions because honestly and breaking down why I even want them and what they all mean to me. I think that the whole self actualization is a lifelong journey and a very intricate and deep deep, activity. Yes. To your point, we need to work on ourselves and we can achieve whatever we really desire.

You hear so many people who have overcome things, I e your daughter. You know, the impossible word told us the impossible. One of my taglines is from impossible to I'M-possible because impossible is in the impossible word. Right? Yeah.

And, you know, it's, it's so important for us to realize that it's not easy. Things are not an easy fix. And perhaps if they are an easy fix, then maybe there's something different that we don't know about that might be coming up a little later in the subject or whatever it may be. But, you know, we go back again to your daughter and let's go there for a little bit. Sure.

And that and finding that well-being, how did you and and your daughter and family as a whole, sort of, this is a loaded question. Sure. How did you all find that that that piece that you're talking about? That the ability to be centered into and to break through hearing the no's and understanding that they're gonna, you know, you're gonna strive for yeses, and you're going to overcome, not succumb. There you had a lot going on there.

Can you, break that down a little bit for us and how you guys achieved such such profound success with it all? Sure. So, you know, and there were stages. So I will say when my daughter was born, I, you know, I kept thinking something was wrong. And I judged myself for thinking that because I thought what is wrong with me and I would mention things to the doctor like I would say, hey.

She was my second child so I would say, you know, my other one was able to pick her head up at this point and the doctors would say, oh, you know, mom, they're all different and that kind of thing. And I I just felt something was wrong. And and then it it it got to a point where she was, six months and really caught a terrible cold and and long story, but ended up in intensive care, intubated. And they couldn't extubate her. They just couldn't get her off the ventilator to breathe on her own and they couldn't figure it out.

And because, you know, she looks like any other, you know, baby at that point. And her I always say she's creatively constructed internally. You can't see it, but everything inside of her is very creatively made. And, so in the very beginning, I really I I have to say one of my first lessons is that every time a doctor told me something and I didn't believe it, I would call a friend and I would say, oh my gosh. This is happening.

And my friend would say, get to the hospital. This is wrong. Don't listen. And one of the things that I will say I learned start to finish is build your community. The people around you are so essential.

And I'll go even a step further. When they found out that my daughter was in such dire straits and, you know, they sat us down. And one time, they sat me down with grief counselors, and they said she can't survive. And I think they expected, you know, me to collapse. And I was just thinking, well, no.

She's going to survive because my brain just, you know, you can't go there. It was too big. And and that doesn't mean to imply that there were not days where I was sitting in the hallway of the hospital crying. I had days where I would be driving and I would be screaming. I literally would scream while driving the car.

So I don't wanna imply that I was just skipping merely through thinking positive thoughts because I hope no one's taken any of this lately because it's very deep. This is very moving. And I just wanna say something real quick and you but please go on. You were you created your success posse, and that's a big thing that we push in the core energy dynamics. Surround yourself with people that can help and be a win win.

You help back and serve back. So we call it a success posse. A success what? Posse. Oh, I love it.

Success posse. Because I will say, I'll take that one step further. When I would have doctors who would sit down with me, I had one doctor who, was crying and she said we love, you know, we love her. We feel bad. We don't want her to die.

You know, we feel so bad about this. And I thought, you're off the team. Because I had this mentality and I think my father kind of endowed me with this. If somebody doesn't believe they can't be on the team. I will say, unless they were essential to her survival.

There was, like, an airways an airway specialist who didn't believe it would end well, but we needed him. And so there he's he stayed with us. But if I was dealing with somebody who did not believe that she could survive, they were not part of the team. I I and I've taken that lesson from the hospital into life. You know, if you don't believe in me, you're off my team.

And I feel that, like, it's so that's, I guess, my version of the success posse. Absolutely. Excellent. And, you know, I also learned, you know, I had had a lifetime of trying to please others and make everybody happy with me. And I was in a situation where I believe something different than doctors.

And so they would sit around me telling me one thing, and I believed something different. Talk about trusting your process, Amanda. Woah. And, you know, I think I sometimes think because she was still so young that it was very primal. As a as a mother, I was very I was kind of operating from a very primal place.

But I do remember thinking, I can't worry about what they think about me because it's my daughter's life. And again, taking that into just everyday life, you know, it teaches you you can't really worry about that, you know. The only degree I worried about it was I thought, okay, everything was motivated in my life to have people in our room in intensive care. So I didn't wanna be antagonistic, you know. I made sure that I was pleasant to be around and as much as possible because I really did want everybody to want to be in our room where we lived for those six months.

And, you know, everything everything in my life was dedicated to the the life of our family, not just the life of my daughter. I had another daughter who was there in the hospital room. She went to nursery school and then my husband would bring her to the hospital. And people say, well, you know, you had her in intensive care? And, yes, because that's where we were.

And so that was, you know, our family. That's where we lived. And actually, that daughter, my oldest daughter, she thinks fondly. Strangely enough, she thinks back upon that time is like, remember it was like a grand adventure and that's how we kind of posed posed it. And my my middle daughter was she had a critical airway so she was laying there with lots of wires and she was on a a ventilator.

And I would say to my older daughter, you know, touch her and, you know, she can feel you and and just maintaining that relationship. So I think, you know, I when I there were so many lessons of even about belief. I don't understand belief. I don't understand prayer. I don't understand when you live in intensive care in Children's Hospital, you see babies die and you see babies live.

And I'm not presumptuous enough to say that I understand why that is. What I learned is that I just have to surrender the intellectual part of myself when I'm in that kind of a crisis and choose to believe. And so I remember thinking, well, you know, that old biblical. You can't take you know, you can take the girl of Catholic school, but you can't take the Catholic out of the girl. So I would No.

It will. I would remember that line, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, which is really small. And sometimes that's all the faith that I had. Sometimes I didn't have more than that. But it taught me that there's a power within us or around us that we can access that I cannot explain and I can't begin to understand, but it's there.

And, you know, I just leave that there, but that is really one of my lessons. It's in our core, you know, that's part of who we are to to your reference to it and to how I sort of frame it. Same same but different different, talk about it a little bit. Really, empowering and interesting that you're able to call upon yourself to maintain that anabolic energy, you know, and the Core Energy Dynamics we work with two different types of energy. Anabolic is the filling, the constructive, the high energy, the dopamine fill, you know, to resonate things in a way that's gonna be fulfilling.

The other is the opposite is the catabolic, The draining, the breakdown, the deconstructive, the, the the low line energy, the catabolic dumps. You know, the cortisol dumps rather, you know, what happened in there. You in a time where the Cortisol was flying the low line energy was there the energy was rampant in every way Imaginable really listening to this is so moving and you chose to take it to the anabolic that filling constructive, manner so everyone around you could, feel it. And you generated such empowering energy. Really interesting to hear about all of it, Amanda.

And, thank you for for delivering that. Well, so let's go into well-being a little bit. Will you explain to the audience what well-being means to you and to your life and how you help other people understand what well-being is? Sure. So for me, I think we talked a little bit earlier about the whole of our person.

So well-being to me is about being well physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And I do think we are all bio individual. So I do think what works for me might not work for you and and so on. I think, health though is multidimensional. So for myself and just for any of my clients, I do focus on the multidimensionality of health and our own bio individuality.

So it really is about what finding number one, again, what you want your life to look like and how you want to live in the world and then building underneath that, you know, building that life. And that, is everything from nourishment, you know, food to movement to purpose. I mean, when I was with the chamber, we had, a health and wellness committee. And back in the day, we started you know, as soon as National Geographic came out with the blue zones, those parts of the world where people live the longest, We started reading about that and incorporating that into our health and and wellness programs at the Chamber of Commerce. So that's kind of something I still incorporate.

And I think about, you know, those people in Okinawa, for example. So it's not just about eating, what's what's there, what's natural to that environment, but it's also they have ikigai, which is purpose. They have something called mowai, which I have. It's when you're in Okinawa, they give you people from the time you're born throughout your life. And that's your mowai.

Those are your people. Those are your you call them success posse. That's your success posse. And they believe that's one of the secrets to a long and fulfilling life. So who is in your mowai?

You know? We talk about that. It's a so it really wellness to me is very multilayered. Oh, and one thing I think is so important is it's about movement. It's not necessarily about going to a gym.

I mean, my mom and dad are 90 and 91. And they are vibrant and I look to them and they've always focused on relationship, focused on reading and building their mental acuity. They have always been rooted in service and purpose. Yeah. They have always moved and they might not go to a gym, but they've we weeded the garden, walked their dog, you know, so that kind of thing.

To me, that's what wellness looks like. Beautiful. Yes. I agree with all of it and how you frame it is really interesting and empowering. You know, people don't hear this, type of talk so so much anymore or I should say, are getting used to hearing it again.

More and more of it's coming out. So people like you are in such, high demand and more people are willing to listen and to do the work and to understand what Amanda's professing on how to work with oneself for a better lifestyle, a better means of being. And, you know, it's we need it now more than ever. You know this. You've been in the industry, you know, a long time and you've been through some very harrowing, life experiences and so happy that your daughter came out of everything and is as beautiful as it is today.

How is the family after all that? If you could just touch one more time, it's just, it's a difficult subject, I know, but you speak it so well. When you guys went into this action with your daughter and then you came out and everything started healing and you were getting back to some sort of what we call normalcy, whatever the heck that may be. But, anyway, you know, how how was that for you guys? You know, I think about that time, you know, when we first came back into normal life, it was not quite so normal.

We had a lot of, my daughter had an NG tube, so she was hooked up to a machine to feed her. We were, both my husband and I were had to learn how to replace an NG tube because she would rip it out. She was on every two hours feeding cycle. And then we had occupational therapists and physical therapists. And yet, I went back and I thought, okay.

I'm back to work. I'm doing my yoga. I'm doing all of this. My husband was doing doing his work. We were taking care of our kids.

And one day, I was I opened my closet door and I was crawling around for shoes. I was going probably to a business card exchange or some other chamber function. And they were buried, and I opened my eyes and I looked at my closet. And my closet, I'm not even the neatest person in the world, but it looks like somebody had vandalized it. It was so crazy because I had come home from the hospital and I had bags and I threw them in there and I went back to life.

And honestly, in that moment, I said, stop. You need to stop. You are pretending life is the same and it's not the same. And that is something I think is so important for everybody to hear. Sometimes, bad things are happening and you kind of have to surrender and stop what you're doing and regroup.

I looked up the, origin of the world of the word resilience because I kind of feel like I'm a resilient person. Well, interestingly, it's kind of like rooted in this coil and it's, there's a part of the coil which stops and is ready to spring but it's kind of recoiled. It's rooted resilience and recoiling. And I think we have to remember that. I think we have to remember that sometimes we need to just stop.

So that's kind of what we did as a family. We paused. And that was when I went, what just happened to us? I mean, we were a little out of the woods, not quite out of the woods. That came years and years and years later.

But I remember reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. You know, he had been in the holocaust, and he found meaning in the horrors that he and his family experienced. Yeah. And I just needed to see, like, how can I find meaning in this situation? So it was a rebuilding process.

It was a rebuilding. Another thing that happened is when I went back to my normal life, I didn't recognize at first, but I recognized ultimately I had kind of lost my compassion gene. My compassion was rooted in compassion for my family, saving the life of my daughter and saving the health of my family. And I didn't have any left. So it was building that compassion gene back up.

It was what happens when you live in an intensive care and things are happening to other people that you can't control. So there was there was a rebuilding, and I think that that is what happened. And then we found ourselves we had a third child. She was like a little unexpected gift. Oh, beautiful.

Beautiful. So, you know, we just basically went back and rebuilt who we were as a family, redefined that. Of course, had many different, you know, challenges and crisis that every family has. And I would say, where we are today as a family is really, rooted in connection for one another and the desire for all of the best for each other. You know?

Fabulous. When we were in the hospital, there was a point where my husband thought one thing and I thought another thing. And this is about the life of our daughter. Oh. And that could be really a break in a relationship.

Absolutely. It has torn families apart. You know that. Things like this have torn families apart. Absolutely and understandably.

But I do remember one time they were taking her away for surgery. We were standing together kind of just leaning into each other. And one thing that I always knew is that there's only one person in the world who would be as damaged and broken if my daughter died and that's my husband. And so, you know, that's a very deep connection because we one thing that we always wanted was the life of my daughter. So whatever our differences about how that could be achieved, they peeled in comparison to that ultimate desire.

And so ultimately, I think crisis with with us has always reconnected and reaffirmed, our relationship. Your joint spirituality, if I may. Yeah. You know, it's part of what attracted you and your husband and then your your children all along and that's a beautiful thing. You know, if I may, change equals awareness plus understanding.

So this is a part of what you guys went through in a very, very intense way. And in the core energy dynamics, Amanda, we we start with something to help us understand how we work with transition and ultimate transformation. And that is we start with the awareness, and then we go move into the acceptance. And with the acceptance, we validate it. Now we've given ourself, opportunity to start looking at, choice, and we profess to choose conscious choice, not the knee jerk reaction choice.

Yeah. With that being said, we now make ourselves available to trust our process into the transition and ultimately into a transformation. This is what we do all of our lives. It's not one stage. It's something that is a continuum.

So as you profoundly put it, you know, you guys went through it in, oh my gosh, in, severe and intense ways, and you upheld. You were resilient. You collaborated, with others, sometimes really not wanting to, but making the decision to do such. And in that collaboration, you formed, again, the success policy, but you formed your people around you that were able to assist in every way. Remember, we don't succeed in isolation.

We can't do it alone. You hear doctors talking about that, and ones that are very upfront about it. Say, hey, look. It's not just me. It's the so called assistants, and it's really everybody.

It's a collaborative. And it sounds like you did a lot of that there. And and when you were talking about what you do for your career and your business, it's there too. You've mentioned that, really, really resounding, things. So if if I may ask, what is your daughter up to these days?

She's really doing well. She is a jewelry designer at this point in her life. And, she she's always been very creative, but she's also very she's very smart, and she is really doing well. When she was about 14, she's just turned 20 in June. We were told that her she could survive her airway.

Her airway, which we were told what couldn't grow did grow. It continued to grow. And we would always obviously check on that because she has some other internet anatomical differences that cause her a little bit of a challenge. Sure. But honestly, she handles her challenges with with Grace.

And it's interesting. I keep using the word Grace because my oldest daughter's name is Grace. Oh, lovely. Appropriate. But, yeah, she's doing I have three daughters, and they're all really, they're inspiring to me.

They're complicated and interesting, and I love listening to them and, learning from them. God. That's fabulous. Always learning. Right?

Isn't that it? We're always growing. 100%. We never stop growing your example from your children to your parents at 90 and 91 who continue to feed themselves. And for our audience, please, you know, this is what Amanda and I like to help with is that we never stop growing.

We run into our difficulties, but there are pathways through them, around them. However, we need to get to get over it because there's more coming and, you know, to keep ourselves prepared. Right, Amanda? You know to to let us, you know, again step into ourselves, and that's what we really, hope all of you are have been, working on yourself these days because it's important. You know, life is faster than it's ever been, man, I'm sure you'll agree.

You know, we grew up in sort of an analog we did grow up in analog age, and things were matriculating slowly. And then we hit the, computer stage in the mid nineties, late nineties, and then 2,000 YK ring's gonna go dark. You know, the the fear of that coming in. Yes. You know, and then this constant rebirth of rejuvenation of what the Internet meant to us, you know, I.

E. The advancement of cell phones, etcetera, and the pandemic comes along. You know, it's been a lot of change and now AI is here. So, you know, all these things are very disruptive and that's what we were talking about earlier and you and I have found similar pathways to calm ourselves and be able to collect ourselves and be able to execute to the best our ability of what we desire. And, that's, you know, part of what it's all about.

There's not one thing as we know because we're multidimensional humans and there's, others, but we certainly have touched on something very important today in Amanda. I thank you for being so raw and authentic today. It's really been, very inspiring, and the content you've been delivering is fantastic. So, I wanna thank you for that. Well, Curt, thank you so much for what you're doing with Core Energy and for having me on the podcast me on the podcast and for having these important conversations.

I do think they, move all of us forward, and I appreciate coming on, and I appreciate the work that you're doing. Thank you, Amanda. Back at you and all that. So if I may, just one last question before we get ready to sign off and then we'll have you, give us some place where we can find Amanda and what you do and all. So, one last question is simply this.

You're a white sheet, blank piece of paper right now. The world is in a very tumultuous time. There's a lot of, changes shifting, you know, misdirection, redirection going on more than any time in modern history. Mankind, perhaps, you know, we might be able to free to say that. So if you would, what would you, as a white page right now, like to see happen in the world as it is today?

Well, I think I would love to start with all of us learning this is gonna sound corny as I'm saying it, but to love No. I've never cried. To love ourselves. And I'll tell you why. I think when I look at the world, it looks, you know, we're sick right now.

It seems like a lot of us are sick. We're operating from places of damage and of trauma. And I think that things that we're seeing, you know, cruelty or war or whatever it is, it's it's rooted in illness and in damage. And I was thinking recently about, you know, when people say you've gotta love yourself, which does that even mean? You know, what does that mean?

And I think we start with loving ourselves which means in looking at ourselves, looking at our inner pockets of pain which is kind of scary, but looking, accepting who we are, and celebrating who we are. And then I think on that white page, I would move out from ourselves and do the same for your family. And then do the same for your neighbors. And then do the same for your your community. And keep extending that acceptance and celebration of self well beyond, well, well beyond the core, Kurt.

I'll use your word. Thank you. Starting with the core and moving out. That, I guess, would be my initial just off the cuff answer to that really deep question. Yes.

It is. And I I feel that it beautifully. Thank you so much again for being raw and authentic about it. You know, it is troubling times, and you're right. There is a lot of sickness out there.

And the recovery is is taking, is a different way of recovery now. And this is what you and I are here for and others out in the world to help explain that to people and how they they can they can work with that and not be and not succumb to it, not be suppressed by it, not give up hope, all that. So thank you for that answer. It was awesome. Well, you've been you've been tremendous.

Again, thank you so much for coming on, Amanda, Alex, and I really appreciate it. And I know the audience appreciates it very much too. You've delivered some beautiful and fabulous, content for all of us to take away. And again, thank you very much. So before we sign off to the audience, would you please let them know where we can find Amanda and any sort of way that you'd like us to?

So you can find me by going to my website, which is solfuliving.com. You can listen to the podcast, Solful Connections. That's, again, s o l f u l connections. And, you know, I have all the social medias that, you know, we all have except I don't have TikTok. I have not ventured there yet, Kurt.

So you can look up Solful Living on Facebook and Instagram, and and LinkedIn. Fantastic. Excellent. Well, there you have it, audience. A fantastic day today.

We're celebrating with joy and happiness and to reach into yourselves and love yourself first. To love thyself is to love thy neighbor and to love thy neighbor is to love thyself. So let's practice what Amanda has given us here, and we're very thankful for that. So audience, thank you very much for coming in today and your time and your energy. We appreciate it.

And remember, your mind is your power. Stay empowered.