Tag: overcoming negativity

Q and A with Dawna from La Grande, Oregon, USA 



“You will thank yourself in the future for being courageous now.”

Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I love helping those around me reach their goals and building up their confidence through quality portraiture and marketing photography. Through the years, I have watched families, businesses, and individuals grow, and this always brings a smile to my face. I’ve met various people from all walks of life; some have even become my personal friends. I have a wide variety of interests, including nature, cooking, and soap-making with my daughter. Aspects of the financial and budgeting world also intrigue me. I am currently aspiring to couple my passion for finances with my current business. 

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: Early in my childhood, I lived in Seattle, WA, before moving to the mountains of Eastern Oregon. I was raised with a strong work ethic and the attitude of “If someone else can do it, I can too.” My need to learn the newest thing or take on the next adventure never let me sit still for long. My friends and I spent countless hours climbing the hillsides where I grew up and laughing until we couldn’t breathe; it is no surprise that I am still close with them in my 30s. I was involved in many sports and clubs, in which we learned to lift others up, not put them down. Growing up in Girl Scouts, I learned the basics of business and sales at a young age. My teenage years were filled with art classes and 4-H, which are still important aspects of who I am today.  

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: Making mistakes is part of life, but learning from them can make us unstoppable. There is no need to worry about your past or your upbringing; whenever you want, you can become a better version of yourself. Discomfort has been one barrier that I am grateful to have crossed. I promise it will pay off to abandon your comfort zone, face your fears of the unknown, and allow yourself to feel vulnerable in order to grow. You will thank yourself in the future for being courageous now. Always allow yourself to be the best possible version of yourself and don’t compromise your integrity to someone else’s opinion of you. We are all meant to shine bright. If someone else can do it, why not you? 

Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: As women, we have the freedom to take advantage of opportunities, knowing we are equally capable. Just as with anyone else, this includes the risk of falling flat on our faces, but it also includes the strength to get back up again. It’s a beautiful thing to be in control of our choices and aware of our own personal strengths. The principles of feminism should encompass every aspect of life and empower us to help other women around us succeed.

Follow my social media: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pieceofmindbydawnawalker

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forgetmenotphotosbydawna/

Thank you for reading!

Q and A with Andrea from Guatemala City



“Compassion is the glue!”

Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I struggled a lot in the first years of my practice as a clinical psychologist. Getting clients was super hard, taking into account that we didn’t have social media back then, so the referrals were 100% through word of mouth. I struggled to understand how to price my sessions and all the business side of the practice. Now, 25 years later, I’ve learned a thing or two about how to run a business and start your practice, especially for those in the mental health field. I’ve always been passionate about teaching and mentoring others, so we can all work together to help others heal while thriving ourselves. 

After working with a renowned clinical psychologist helping her to certify more than 600 coaches worldwide, I decided to help them get started, guiding them on how to set up their practice. I am also passionate about helping people collaborate with each other, contrary to competition, so we can all shine through our own uniqueness. This is why and how “The Helpers Tent” came to life. 

Now, I have my practice as a clinical psychologist and also work as the CEO of The Helpers Tent. It’s a space of collaboration and community between therapists, coaches, and all helpers in the mental health field.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I was born in a small country (Guatemala in Central America).  My family was pretty much conservative and pursuing higher education was the only expectation they had of my sisters and me. When I was very young, I spent all my lunch breaks drawing and painting, and I used to sell those to my classmates, so I think I was born with a business mind. I was also always the “mediator” between my friend’s conflicts and loved to read and learn about human biology, history, and evolution. I’ve always been just fascinated by human existence and interactions between one another. I am a seeker and an observer…a researcher.

My father is a doctor in economics and owns a company in the stock market field. He taught us how to fight for our dreams, and my mom supported each one of us in our own uniqueness. After graduating from high school, I went to college and started my minor in economics. I survived the first years, but then I discovered that my purpose was to become a psychologist and help others heal. So, I started my studies in clinical psychology…and boom! I was in my element. 

I started to feel authentic and that everything I was learning resonated because it was already within me.  Now, I combine my abilities and skills as a clinical psychologist with my innate and learned tools to make a business and The Helpers Tent come to life.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: Learn to pay attention. Carefully and thoroughly. To yourself and to others. To open doors and opportunities. Once you pause and listen carefully, you can tap into your life’s North Star, which will lead you to your purpose and mission. Embrace your uniqueness; there is nobody like you or like me. Once we understand and embrace our uniqueness we start to collaborate, to feel safe, and instead of competing with each other and judging each other, we start to feel abundant in our interconnectedness. We are interdependent beings and in that interdependence, ABUNDANCE lies.

Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism involves a transformation of consciousness through the understanding of women’s history in the world so we can question and challenge our rights, roles, and position in society. Through this consciousness, we can embrace and understand the power of nurturing, caring, and our internal knowledge. We don’t need to enter the world wearing a masculine disguise, we need to honor and cultivate all those feminine energy assets that allow human beings to connect from love. This is why to me, feminism is not an ideology, it is a state of being. It is a conscious action that comes from awareness of how our struggles throughout history have allowed us to evolve and transform, to go from passiveness to activeness, to movement that can ultimately help us heal the world through compassion and radical actions from love.

MORE FROM ANDREA: The healing of our world will come from the integration of each human being. Integration of mind, body, and soul. Compassion is the glue! Once we are integrated, we can connect to each other as whole beings and love from abundance and not from needs and unfulfilled spaces that cause so much suffering in human relationships.

www.thehelperstent.com

IG: @thehelperstent

FB: The Helpers Tent Community

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-gonz%C3%A1lez-b338baa/

Thank you for reading!

Q and A with Mai Ka from Saint Paul, Minnesota



“Like a plant that’s meant to grow in the wilderness, one cannot be tamed if they’re meant to soar.”

Q: What are you passionate about? 

A: I am passionate about healing, inner success, and inner happiness. The passion I have for the work I do is mainly inspired by my own personal experience of 16 years of mental health issues. I learned a lot and realized a lot of things from those years. I am an artist and an entrepreneur. My current work involves life coaching on self-healing, photography, and spiritual healing.

I recently became a life coach after having healed from my most traumatic wounds and am inspired to help others make that powerful change in their life. Through my own experience, I learned that no one’s coming. If I don’t save myself, no one’s going to save me. I also learned that no matter how good we are at providing guidance and advice, if we don’t practice those ourselves and if we don’t take the chance to work on ourselves, it’s useless. The changes that we crave will never manifest themselves into our reality and we’ll never truly understand the hardships behind them. 

Photography for me was therapy at the beginning. It started as a way for me to capture and remember the purest, most peaceful, and happiest moments during the darkest time of my life. I love landscape photography and being out in nature, going to parks and trails. I wanted to capture these memories to remember. From there, it expanded into this passion for helping others embrace themselves and their presence. As for spiritual healing, it is a gift I am blessed with in this lifetime to be that of a vessel for both realms. I get to be of service to all life forms and be that of a healing guide. Aside from these current projects, I have a long-time project that I have been working on. It is a nonprofit organization that is currently in the development stage. The goal of the nonprofit is to nurture, empower, and educate orphans worldwide.

The 16 years of my mental health experience is the inspiration behind this nonprofit project. At the time, I realized that as an individual who grew up rich, with families, with friends, and with a home to go to yet still have to go through all this agony, then life must have been extremely indescribable and unimaginably challenging for those who grew up with little to nothing. By creating the nonprofit, I hope to be able to lead orphans down a more positive and less difficult path.

Q: What were your younger years like?

A: I grew up in a very traditional and conservative family. My family immigrated to the United States when I was six years old. Since then it felt like I was forced to grow up. On top of that, I am also the oldest of six siblings so there was this invisible pressure to be a good role model for them and for any younger ones within my extended family. Seeing how my family struggles internally and externally really inspired me to do what I do today. I may seem rebellious for creating a life that I would enjoy that’s different from the traditional ways of life, such as having a 9-5 job, or getting all sorts of degrees only to have a good-paying job. However, through all of my hardships, I am proud of myself because as a cycle breaker, I got to pave a new path for my younger siblings to walk on and I got to introduce everyone to limitless opportunities.

Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?

A: A valuable lesson I learned is to never forget who I am and where I came from. Our humble beginnings are not a burden, it is a blessing. It is a laborious but beautiful experience. It teaches us the true value of life and allows us to appreciate the burst of color there is to life. When we have little, we crave more, but when we have a lot, we have nothing. Life is simple and beautiful the way it is, but if we don’t appreciate it, we become lifeless.

Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism to me is connection. Through the vulnerability of women, it allows everyone to connect on a deep authentic soulful level.

MORE FROM MK: Another inspiration for my work is all of the people I met over the years, especially those who supported me. I believe in the ripple effect of paying it forward. Through my work, I hope that one day all the goodness I put forth will come back to let them know that the kindness, the effort, and the energy they spent on me didn’t go to waste. This is my way of thanking them.

Thank you for reading!

Website: everestmk.com

Facebook: 

Facebook & Instagram Main Profile Name: Mai Ka

Instagram: Mai Kai (@maimai.itsmk)

Song: Behind Your Shadow – MK  (https://youtu.be/pgT4e6SXV0c)

Video: This is My Story (https://youtu.be/OaNBoR9Jrmc)