How Generational Healing Changes What We Pass Down with Jasmine Escalera

Michael interviews Dr. Jasmine Escalera, founder of the nonprofit Institute for Generational Healing, about recognizing and breaking inherited survival patterns passed through families. Escalera explains generational healing, how cycles can provide strength yet hinder desired lives, and the science behind inherited responses through epigenetics, alongside spirituality, modeling, and conditioning. They discuss misconceptions about trauma, distinguishing big T and little T trauma, and defining trauma as the body’s response. Escalera addresses accountability, compassion toward parents as humans, how far back to explore family stories, and the loneliness and grief cycle breakers face when families resist change. She outlines the institute’s pillars—research, education (including a generational healing 101 course), and transformation through community-based modalities beyond talk therapy—and how beliefs shape relationships and workplace behavior. Escalera shares her own journey from hyper-independence, emphasizes asking what’s holding you back and where it was learned, and notes her strength in hard work while learning balance. She shares ways to follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram, with a website coming soon.

Timestamps:
00:24  Welcome and Guest Intro
01:57  What Generational Healing Means
04:39  Science Behind Inherited Trauma
06:58  Responsibility to Break Cycles
10:44  Defining Trauma Big and Small
15:21  Family Stories and How Far Back
18:18  Cycle Breakers and Family Pushback
21:54  Institute Pillars and Healing Modalities
24:20  Beliefs at Work and Culture
30:30  How to Know What You Carry
34:20  Closing

Connect with Jasmine:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-escalera/
https://www.instagram.com/drjasmineescalera/
https://linktr.ee/drjasmineescalera

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management:
https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Top Voice Podcast where each week I sit down with leading voices in business leadership and transformation to unpack the issues that matter most. Together, we explore fresh insights, bold ideas, and real-world stories from people shaping how we think about change, culture, and what's possible. Hello, and welcome to the Top Voice podcast. I am super excited to have with us today Dr. Jasmine Escalera, who's been in her own little journey here that we were just talking about before we went live. And it's going to be a great conversation about how we break cycles. And I think a lot of people find themselves, uh Jasmine, in these moments of cycles that they experience that they didn't quite maybe build themselves, but got from around them. And that's the work you do. I'm going to give you a chance to tell your story and talk about the journey you're on here in just a second. Before we do that, for those of you who are listening and watching on the live feed, please do leave us a comment, leave us a question, let us know where you're tuning in from. We love to take those in real time. It's a great way to bring new insights into the show. For those of you who are listening on your favorite podcast platform, please do be sure to subscribe. It's the best way to support the show. Jasmine, let's start by telling us the story of who you are and what you do and your recent work to stop the patterns of generational issues and trauma that have been passed from generation to generation.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me on the show. This is like super exciting to be here with you. We had a talk a few weeks ago or a few months ago, and it was almost kind of like kindred spirits in a weird way. It was like we have so much in common. How did we not talk to each other earlier? But uh, so it's exciting to be here. So my name is Dr. Jasmine Escalera. I'm the founder of the Institute for Generational Healing. We are a nonprofit organization that is focused on the recognition of the science, the stories, and also the practices around generational healing. And before we were talking about, maybe we should mention what generational healing is. And I think that's a great idea because I get asked that question a lot. So, generational healing is the study or the recognition of the inherited survival patterns that get passed down through lineages or through generations. So we can kind of think of it in the standpoint of your family, your parents, their parents went through particular types of situations that might have caused trauma, might have caused them to go into survival mode. And essentially, those responses do get passed down. They get passed down biologically, they get passed down through conditioning, they get passed down through modeling. And essentially, generational healing is the recognition of these inherited patterns or inherited cycles and the understanding that many of these cycles bring strength, resilience, courage to you. But also these cycles might be hindering the type of life or lifestyle or love that you want to have. So it's the recognition of the strength and the resilience, but also the release of the components of these cycles that you don't want to continue to pass on in your lineage. And so what we do at the institute is we really bring to the forefront what generational healing is, how these inherited cycles get passed down, and really focusing on how do you break these cycles realistically.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Wow, that's a lot. And I thank you for the work that you do. And I think it's important. Let's let's before we dive into why you started to do this and maybe some of the how, let's still talk about a little bit of the what, because I think that there are some maybe misperceptions, misconceptions, maybe stereotypes associated with generational trauma, the things that we get passed down. I I'm a Gen X person, so we're the we're the suck it up generation. We just kind of parented ourselves, latchkey kids, go figure it out. Uh, and I think there's been some stereotypes, particularly around the generations and millennials and Gen Z, in terms of this concept even applying, that it's sort of a, it's not a real thing, you're just making it up in your head, all of those things. How do you let's just start with that? What is the some of the science around some of this? I know you've got a background in that. And and and how do we, how do we, how have how is our understanding of this changed over time?

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Yeah, it's great that you asked that question because we are starting, you know, when I started in my journey of research and science, spirituality and science were two completely different things. And in fact, if you were spiritual, you couldn't be scientific. And if you were scientific, you couldn't be spiritual. And now we're actually seeing so much of that blending happening. And so we when we think about the science of this, there actually is a science of inherited cycles, and that's called epigenetics. And although the field is still pretty young, we are recognizing that if someone before you went through a traumatic experience, if someone before you went through something that in the environment shifted or changed or changed them, then essentially that does change gene expression, and that can be passed down through the generations, it can be passed down to you. So you do inherit, I don't want to say you inherit trauma, you inherit a response. So whatever your family went through and how that changes, in essence, their body, you can inherit that. And that can make it really challenging for you because essentially your nervous system can be dysregulated even if small things happen. And so this really does have a science attached to it and the spirituality attached to it as well. We know that our family has gone through many things, historical traumas, cultural traumas, traumas that do get uh passed down through just the way you think and believe. So we also know that thoughts can change your actions and behaviors, and even those things do get passed down as well, just through modeling and conditioning. So it isn't that this isn't real, it is that this is exceptionally real. Both the science and the spirituality are showing that it is. And what I think is really important is that it gives people a lens to be able to say, okay, I might act this way, think this way, behave this way, but I don't want to. And I can understand where this comes from. And because it didn't necessarily happen to me, got but got passed down to me, can almost kind of make it a little bit, I don't want to say easier, but a little bit more understanding to say, I can put this down now because it isn't mine to carry.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah. Excuse me. One of the things that I a phrase that I say quite a bit that I I use maybe in a little bit more uh tough love kind of way is that it may not be your fault, but it's your problem.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

And and it's the idea that you might not have caused the situation that you're in, or not all of it. We all take responsibility, I think, for the things that happen to us, but you've got to deal with it. And so, how does that angle play in here, which is this concept of I didn't originate it, but it's my responsibility to do something about the situation that I'm in? Because I think that piece of it, yeah, it drives a lot of observational commentary from others about your being a victim, all these sorts of things that lean into this conversation that make it kind of a loaded thing. So, how how does that dynamic play into this a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 7:47

I love it so much because I love your tough love version of it. And the way that I kind of think about it is very similarly, right? So these inherited survival patterns or inherited ways of being definitely got passed down. If you want to live a certain way and you want to have a certain kind of life, then it is your obligation to do the healing process so you can let these things go and live the full expression of you. Also, you know, you are a parent, we were talking about your kids, you don't want the cycle to continue with the next generation. So there is that responsibility as well. But the way that I also like to think about it is our ancestors and those who came before us don't want us to continue the cycle. They might have had to live a certain way, but you don't have to. And in fact, they want you to have the fullest expression of you. And so whenever I think about this, I think of, you know, when I first started my healing journey, I actually started it because it was triggered around me wanting to find love. I had been married and divorced. I had been in relationships that didn't work out. And I asked myself the question of what's going on? Like, why isn't this working for me? I want some, I want that partnership. And what I had to really realize was that I was carrying a form of hyper-independence and always feeling like I had to be this strong Latina because every woman before me had to live like that. But I could, in essence, let go of that mentality, of that belief system, and really start to understand what being strong look like, but still having partnership and being vulnerable and allowing for someone to hold me and allowing to let someone in. So that's really what generational healing is. I might have seen it act a certain way or be a certain way, but I don't want to continue to have it be like that for me. So how do I, in essence, embrace this beauty of who I am, but also change and shape it so that I get to live the life that I want and everybody after gets to really reap the benefit of that.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah. This is what a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing that. And I think you part of what you're describing is the is the concept of are we destined to become and repeat the patterns of our of our parents? And and you know, the nice part about kids is the kids are the ultimate reflective surface. Well, they will they they are not great interpreters, but they're great observers and they will mimic everything that you do from a very, very early time. And so if you want to change, have some kids because it'll show you everything about yourself that that you maybe don't always want to see. I I have two more maybe context questions before we jump into the why you started this. I think you've shared that story a little bit just now. But the so the first thing is this term trauma, because I think it gets a little bit overused at times. And there's there's clearly big T trauma that we can all identify that is easy to see. And I think you're talking about maybe there are levels to this. Where where do those levels fit in in this story of healing? Is it every level? Are there big things, small things everywhere in between?

SPEAKER_03 11:08

Yeah, I love this question because when I think about trauma, yes, there's the big T trauma that we would all say is universal. Wow, that's a traumatic thing to go through. Um, and then there's what we would call like little T trauma, which is a personal experience, something that is traumatic to you. But the way that I like to think about trauma is it's not the situation, it's the body response to the situation. So if we think of it from that capacity, then any trauma really is a trauma. It's dependent on how the person experiences it and what it changes within them. Now, of course, if it's chronic trauma versus acute trauma, so a single situation versus repeated situations, it's definitely going to have a different effect on your body. But trauma really is the effect on the individual and the body. And so when we think about generational healing and when we think about that, what we're really contemplating here is how did particular situations, whether they were big T traumas or little T traumas, affect those in your family? And how did that then change their behaviors, their thoughts, their ways of living, their ways of surviving that got passed over to you?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah. That that really helps. I think so much we we use that term to describe a broad situation of scenarios or a broad category of scenarios that I think it ends up losing. I've just seen so many people kind of, you know, smack talk against other folks and oh, here comes the trauma word again, and someone's just using this as an excuse to get out of taking accountability for whatever. And I think it's important that we're able to have a dialogue around that that's not so loaded and maybe overused as well as maybe underused in the wrong ways. I don't know how how do we get past that? How do we get through that? Because I think it is a loaded conversation.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Honestly, and this is something that I really try to talk a lot about. When we think about generational healing, the thing that I always tell people is have it helps you become more compassionate and empathetic. Um, because you know, there was there was a time when I was really upset, frustrated, angry with my parents and with certain members of my family. Because when I went through my healing journey, it was like, wait a second, I'm spending all this time working on me because of what you did to me or, you know, what you passed down to me. But it it was the ability for me to be able to look at them and say, wow, you are humans that had a human experience and you went through a lot of things, and that changed who you are at your core. And so when we think about trauma, when we think about people experiencing whatever it is they experience that inevitably changed who they are, I think it's about grace and compassion and empathy and understanding. You may not have experienced that, so you don't know what it's like, but we can take a step back and we can say, wow, you experienced it. It changed you. How can I be compassionate to you? Isn't that just what human beings should be?

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yeah. I I I love that. And I I say this all the time. I think one of the biggest elements of our adult development as people is when we finally learn to see our parents as human beings.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

As people that have strengths and weaknesses and hopes and fears and regrets and gaps and and all of that, because I think it allows us to let go of some of those things. I I have I have three three brothers. Uh, one of them has a hard time with my parents, and and still to this day, he's older than me. I'm 53. So you can imagine how long that gets held held on. And and you know, it it really brings a lot of distress to a lot of people in those situations. So, so how and it's tough because you've got to have that self-realization that you both have some power, I think, over it, but you also have to forgive. So, my my last question on this kind of demographics thing, but it it's kind of tied to this, is how far do we get to go back? Because clearly it's easy for us to say, my parents or my caregivers, immediate, whoever that may be, are the first line of accountability. But how far do we get to look backwards and say, this came from here, and therefore I'm I'm the recipient?

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think, you know, what it's making me think of is we're losing a sense of family stories. And I think that's just because we don't live in community anymore. Like, you know, we used to live with generations of individuals just in one home or in one area or in one community. And I think we're losing the sense of our story and what those who came before us really went through. I wouldn't say it's about how many lineages or how many lines to go back. I think it's really just about understanding your family story and understanding what certain people in your family went through that have caused maybe your parents, your grandparents, your great-great-grandparents to be able to kind of act the way that they do or behave the way that they do. So I had the ability to, up until the age I was 11 or 12 years old, I had my mother, my grandmother, and my great, my great-grandmother. Um, and I got to see these three powerful, strong, exceptionally strong Latinas, right? Who just held it down constantly. But I also had the opportunity to hear what life was like for my great-grandmother in Puerto Rico, having 18 children and you know, tending to farms and, you know, all of this. So I think it's really just about taking the opportunity or time, if possible, to just listen to the stories and ask the questions of those who are still here with us, because they can give us the opportunity to be able to connect the dots in a way that maybe we're not connecting the dots right now. And I do have to say that when I'm a very fact-based person as a scientist, so I see everything as data. So I step away from everything from feelings and everything, and I just look at it from the standpoint of what does the tapestry look like? And when you can look at it in that regard and you can understand what your family went through, even in just those small glimpses of stories, it really helps you to be able to say, wow, I I kind of get it now.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah, yeah. Context matters. And at the time, you can't put yourself in other people's shoes. I say this all the time. No, there are no two brains on planet Earth that are the same, and they'll never be the same. You can occupy the same house and you know, live in three generations, but you're not the same people because you grew up in a different time, you grew up in a different context, you drew up in a different cultural frame, even though you might be part of the same culture and all of that. So, all of that I think plays a role. And and it leads me to think about so what happens when you break the cycle? And I've seen this occur. And the the the your parents, maybe the people in your family start to push back. Oh, what do you think? You're better than us now. You you don't have to do the things that we do. This is the way we do things in our family. What how do we how do we handle that? Because I've I've seen that a lot.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

You know, you're bringing up something that I don't think we talk enough about when it comes to cycle breakers. So cycle breakers are often seen as the black sheep. You know, they're often the ones that get a lot of pushback because, you know, in in Latino households, it's like we sweep everything under the rug, you know, and oftentimes you're eating holiday dinners right next to the person who traumatized you as a kid. So it's it's there's a lot of things that are not talked about. And as a cycle breaker, you are essentially uncovering and unearthing and bringing to light a lot of things that family members simply don't want to look at, they don't want to touch. And many family members don't want to go through the healing process with you. Um, and that's really challenging. So, one of the things that I always say is the cycle breaker, it's often a very lonely place, a lonely, a lonely path to take. It's not like that forever, though. So, for example, um, you know, when I first started really unearthing and digging up things in my family, a lot of people looked at me sideways. And now some of those very same people are more inquisitive, asking questions, want to know. Um, my parents themselves really started doing things that were wild to me. I was like, oh my God, you're like different people now. So you become that person that in the beginning it's it's challenging because of just simply what you're doing, but the people who want to come on that journey with you will. And the people who don't can't. And sometimes that's your own family members, and there's a lot of grief that comes with that. But what you are doing is deciding to have a different life and deciding that it changes, your whole line changes from you moving forward. And I I like to tend to tell people to focus on that and to know deep down in your heart that those who want to be on the journey with you will start it in their own time.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yeah. I that's the the the grief word I think is really important because we we tend to want other people to have the experience we're having.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Particularly when we've got a realization or um a light bulb moment that goes off and we see a future of possibility or something that's different, and we want to pull people along. And when they choose not to do that, it can be it can be really sad because you you you know, you have to intentionally let that go. Uh and so I I yeah, I I'm just just listening to you talk. I mean, I we we just jumped in and started getting into the details here about all of this stuff. I I can imagine this is an incredibly complex journey that people go on. Sometimes they do it without noticing, sometimes they do it with the help of people like you. Talk to us about how you help we've been talking about individuals, but you even help communities, groups think about this differently. How how does this happen? And it obviously doesn't happen overnight. So talk to us about the journey and and more practically the strategies and tactics that you use for the work that you do.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Yeah, so the Institute, the Institute for Generational Healing has three pillars um research, education, and transformation. So our goal is to bring to the forefront. The research that is coming up around generational healing, around how to break these inherited cycles, and also around epigenetics. So we really want to focus on who are the amazing researchers and scientists out there doing this work at the forefront of this work and how can we showcase it in a way that people really understand. When you know something has a scientific backbacking, it can be a little bit more like, okay, I get that. Now we're gonna jump in. We also do focus on education. So what we're really working on right now is the first ever course on generational healing, a sort of 101 course to really be able to understand exactly what we've been talking about. What is generational healing? What is cycle breaking? What are inherited cycles? And how do you start the process of really being able to understand what you're carrying and what you want to release? And then when it comes to transformation, one of our biggest, biggest things is we want to educate the public as well on what are the healing modalities that you can tap into in your own communities that can help you. Things that aren't necessarily talk therapy, because for many communities that still is a bit abrasive, but things that really tap into the way our ancestors healed normally. So my belief system is that if you want to heal the soul and heal the ancestors' soul, you got to get back to the ancestors' work. And so we're really bringing to the forefront who are the people in our communities that are doing these sort of ancestral healing modalities that really can call, especially to the black and brown community. So those are the things that we're really bringing to light. What's the research? What's the science? How can we educate the public more around what this really is and how powerful it is? And then how do we really bring to light what these healing modalities look like? I'm all for therapy and talk therapy, but what we want to focus on is what are the other ways that you can heal, that you can heal within community, that you can heal within your group and your family that are that are different than just speaking about the trauma, but really focusing on on the internal work.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Yeah. I it brings up a question for me that I maybe want to transition a little bit to the let's talk about the world of work for a second. We've been talking about people, but and I want to talk about that because you brought up the word belief. And our our beliefs are I I ask this to people all the time. Where did you get your beliefs from? And it it's kind of a funny, uh open-ended question, and they'll usually ask, well, well, what do you mean? Which beliefs? And I go, all of them. I don't know, pick some. And of course, you we all have multiple levels of beliefs. I have beliefs about religion and politics and family and culture and work and science and all of these things. And you're talking on some level about changing among the most personally held, deeply held beliefs that we have. And I bring that up because when I go into companies and help them try to change, I'm I'm dealing with those same beliefs. We don't always realize how the boundary gets crossed in the world of work around our deeply held personal beliefs and how they show up and how we treat our coworkers, our leaders, our subordinates. I I know you're not you're focused at a different level now, but you came from the world of coaching. How does this play into what we think about and what's happening across the workforce these days?

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Oh man, this is such a good question.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Sorry, we can keep going longer. So if we need to be more.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

It's so juicy. Um, so you have to think about it. And you mentioned belief, right? So what you believe doesn't sit in one area of your life, it sits across all areas. So, you know, if you are the type of person who is like, for example, me, I'm super hyper-independent, I'm like the strong, always getting everything done. But what I realized when I got into the work world was that I was just mimicking that same behavior, not only in the way I was engaging in relationships, but the way I was engaging in every relationship, including in the work world. So we have to kind of put it into context is a belief system is a system and it focuses on every single body of your life, every single area. So what you believe in one area just naturally translates into all. And I saw this a lot when I was coaching um women of color. I would, you know, kind of have this conversation with them around, oh, you have to be visible, you know, you have to speak up, you have to ask for what you want. But culturally, many of these women were not taught that that's actually what you're supposed to do. They were more so culturally taught to take a step back, to uh let other people lead. We've often, you know, heard that term of like respect your elders. So when they go into the workforce, they're not taught, they were never taught to take up space. In fact, that they were taught to be very small and to allow other people to run the show. So we have to take that into consideration, especially when we're coaching individuals, when we're working with people, what's the cultural dynamic? What's the belief system? What has what has this individual gone through, even from a religious standpoint, that is dictating how they're engaging in the workplace? That matters tremendously. I remember also, you know, someone basically saying to me, well, we can't tell, for example, black men to stand up and be visible at work and then tell them outside of work, you can't be visible because it's unsafe. And in fact, you know, you could potentially be killed for something. So you have to kind of think about it from that context. Um, I also, when I was thinking about establishing the institute, one of the things that I wanted to do as a researcher was I wanted to put out a relationship quiz, basically, because I'm very into relationships and relationship dynamics to understand for women and women of color what are the inherited, what are the inherited cycles that you've taken on that are essentially stopping you from having the relationships you want in family, in love, in community. And what I really noticed was that these patterns show up in every single area of their lives. They are the ones that are saying it. It isn't that, well, I am hyper-independent and that means I can't have love. It is, I am hyper-independent and that means that I'm not able to do the job that I want to do at work either. So it just spreads everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah. I I and we could have a whole conversation on just how to unwind all of that. And I I bring it up because in the the research that I just released, and in fact, I did a post about this yesterday, as a as a Gen X person, there are these generational, and I use the word in terms of like phases of life, so boomers, Gen X, et cetera, that I think there's some stereotypes that we carry with us, but some of the data is starting to show in the data that I just released that the Gen X Gen Xers, when they get to work, they expect to figure it out on their own, leadership modeling and changing their behavior. It's it's something they don't expect from above, and it's something that they therefore then don't expect those below them to need. It's sort of again, just suck it up and figure it out. That's what I did. But but there's a whole separate dynamic when it comes to change and leading at work. And so I just I bring that up to maybe help people who are listening to this conversation understand there aren't bright lines between the things that you do and these things carry over. And, you know, at work, there's only so many ways we can press on some of these. But look, I've I've run workshops where people they cry all the time and they cry because they're looking at things for the first time through a lens that maybe they've avoided in their personal life. So uh that leads me to maybe ask the question is is, and we're we're we're at we're getting close to time, but this is just too good. So I want to talk a little bit more. How do I know if I have this?

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Yeah, that's a great question. So I tend to believe that we all do, right? Like we all have something that we learned from someone before us that needs to be let go. But I guess the the question, so it's interesting. Someone recently asked me, how did you start this journey? And I started the journey, as I mentioned earlier. I asked myself, what's the number one thing that I want to have in this lifetime? The experience that I have want to have, the lusciousness in life that I want to have above anything else. You can take everything else away, and this is it for me. And the answer was love. You know, I want to experience real love of who I am and experience that with someone, right? And when I asked myself that question, I turned the question back onto myself and said, Well, okay, then what is it that I'm doing or thinking that is holding me back from having the thing that I really want to experience in this lifetime? And once I dug into that, I started to then ask myself, well, where did this come from? And that's where it just started to get really juicy because I realized that my concept of love, I didn't create that. Like that I wasn't a little girl, and I was like, you know what, we should all be super hyper-independent and strong, and we don't need no man. That was what I was told. And so, you know, I think one of the most powerful things that we can all do, and this is really scary, right? It's very scary, is to ask ourselves if we're really living the life that we want to live, if we're really experiencing the things that we want to experience, if we really have the things that internally we desire. And if not, to ask yourself how you're holding yourself back, no one else, you. And if we really got real with ourselves and then asked ourselves the question of, well, where did I learn this? That's gonna unravel so much for you. Just that one question, where did I learn this? And so I believe that we we all inherit something. And it's our responsibility, as you mentioned, to kind of ask ourselves the deeper questions of is this something that's allowing me to move forward or is it something that's keeping me stagnant? And if it's something that's keeping me stagnant, it has obviously gotten me this far, but it's not gonna get me to where I need to go.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Yeah. You I I'm gonna cosign something that you just said, because I use this question again in the context of maybe more transformational things at work and in work life, is what's what's holding you back? There is a fundamental truth, which is the only person you can change is you. You cannot change another person, you cannot modify another person, you can influence other people, but the best way to do that is through your own behavior. And and if you can acknowledge that first and then ask yourself the question, what's holding me back? What it does, what I've found, it particularly at work, is it triggers the thing that you've asked, which is envision the life that you want. What's keeping you from doing that? It's not what are your goals, because we all have goals to be more, better in all the ways that most people do. But the question is, what's the distance between you and that future? And and so I I just love that you it warms my heart that you asked that question because I think people don't appreciate it. It's it's in my book. It's a question I ask all the time. What's holding you back? And if you can get really honest about that, uh really big things can happen. And I and so I just applaud that that's the that's the lens you're taking.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

Yeah, no, I love that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yeah. So we've talked about a lot, Jasmine. We just sort of jumped in and got to all the good parts, but I I want to give people maybe a way to summarize this. So when you think about generational healing and the work that we all need to do, what are two to three things that you want the listener or viewer to take away from this conversation?

SPEAKER_03 34:34

I think the first thing is one of our core beliefs at IGH, which is it didn't, it didn't start with you, but um, it doesn't have to be carried forward with you. Like you can let it go. That is the number one thing we believe is it may not have started with you, but it it for sure can end with you. I think the second thing really is grace and compassion to self, to those in your family, to those who came before you, realizing that everyone has to, everyone lives life based off of, you know, the cards that they're dealt. And sometimes individuals are not dealt the best cards, but they do their best. And I think that if we can have more grace and compassion to those in our families, to those in our communities, we might start to see things a little bit differently. And so those would be the two things is you can break the cycle and you know, focus on really giving understanding people in essence and giving them a little bit more grace and compassion.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

I I think those are two great things that we can all start thinking about in our lives today. So uh thank you for just diving into that. As you know, as I mentioned, we have a closing tradition on this podcast as well, which is a question that was left for you by the last guest. And they always have a way of working out, and and you've you've told a bit of your story here, but I think it's such a great bridge. So the question that's been left for you is what's something that comes easy to you that you find completely natural, but other people struggle with? And how have you built your career around that?

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Oh, I think this is so this is so interesting, and it's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. So um I grew up like thinking that hard work is it's just what you do. Like you just work hard. And so what comes very easy and very naturally to me is hard work. Like I can put in the work 14, 16 hours a day. It's no issue for me, and I won't even complain about it. Um, and that has been something that has been so instrumental to, you know, my success is being able to put that effort in. However, and this is interesting, is um, I believe in the dichotomy of everything, the good and the bad. Um, and I would say that even though this is one thing that I would consider is a great strength of mine, it also is something that I am trying to learn how to honor and also learn when to release, not to release it in its full extent, but when to release and how to live in more balance. Because the one thing that I say is I will not create an institute that's supposed to help people release their own survival and live in mine. And so, although hard work is very, very important to me, I'm also learning softness and balance and fun and joy.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Again, great things to learn. And it's really interesting how life kind of gives you the experience that you need, maybe not the one that you always want. And it sounds like you're going through that. And uh, and so I just I I really do applaud the work that you're doing, your passion, your commitment to this, your own leading by example, I think is something that really, really is coming through in the work that you do. And so, with that, where where can people follow you, learn more about the institute, follow you in terms of different socials and just connect overall?

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Absolutely. So I be on the LinkedIn streets almost every day. So you can follow me on LinkedIn. Um, but you can also follow me uh at Dr. Jasmine Escalera on Instagram. I love to post daily stories there just to give behind the scenes of what it's really like to build an institute like this. Um, and our website is coming soon. So LinkedIn and Instagram would be great for now to just tap in. And our website will be coming very, very soon.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

We look forward to seeing that. We'll put all of that in the show note captions. Thank you again for coming on and for, you know, when we first met, you you were not in this lane yet. You were talking about it and getting ready to do it. And it's just great to see everything you're putting into it here. And I wish you nothing but the best success in the world. So thank you for all the work that you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Thank you. This has been fun.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

For those of you that tuned in today, thank you so much. Uh, please again, please do be sure to subscribe to the podcast. It's the best way to support the show. What a unique episode today. I hope everyone gets a chance to listen to this. If you're going through anything, if you're if you're struggling with something that you think you might need a path or an answer, I think this conversation and reaching out to Jasmine is the place to start. Well, thank you again, and we'll see you again next week on the Top Voice Podcast.