My guest today is Melissa Garson, a Certified Life Coach, Author, Speaker and as some of her clients say, a GAME Changer! The Founder of Melissa Garson Coaching, Melissa coaches clients all over the world by phone and has been educating and inspiring women of all ages for over 25 years. She earned her Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and her certification in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction from the Jefferson Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine. Melissa’s approach is as thorough and direct as it is compassionate and healing. She is all about helping her clients handle life’s challenges gracefully and become more positive and feel genuinely excited about their lives. Melissa has two adult children and lives in New York City. 

Melissa talks about bringing mindfulness into our daily lives, even – and especially – at difficult times. She details the four ingredients in her recipe for happiness, and we dive deeply into what it means to truly love yourself, the practice of gratitude, mindfulness, and learning.

To learn more about Melissa, check out her website (http://www.melissagarson.com), follow her on Twitter (@mgmelissagarson), and pick up her first book, “The Recipe For Real Happiness,” available on Amazon [https://amzn.to/2GyiWEE].

Melissa recommends “Learned Optimism,” by Martin Seligman, which you can get at Amazon [https://amzn.to/2Btos5E].

It would really mean a lot to me if you would go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review (hopefully a great one!), leave a 5 star rating, subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode, and download the episodes! And please spread the word and help our community grow!

Thank you so much spending your time with me! And if you aren’t following me already, you can find me on Instagram and Facebook, and click here to receive my newsletter.

May you live purposefully, may you love yourself, and may you love life.

Bye for now!

This episode is the sixth in a six-part series in which I take you through six different pathways to happiness, to human flourishing, and with each one I provide you with tools that you can use. This is all based on the current research through a framework called PERMA-V. In today’s episode I teach you all about the V – Vitality – and every other week, when I do a solo episode, I be discuss another one of the 6 pathways. After you listen to each episode, I hope you’ll practice the tools I’m providing so you can apply this to your own life.

Here’s a bit of background to help put all of this in context. In the first episode in this series (Episode 30) I discussed a bit of the history of psychology in the twentieth century and the birth of the field of positive psychology, which stemmed from the recognition that we needed to focus on and learn more about wellness, and not just illness. A key idea in positive psychology is that the absence of illness is not wellness. Just because you don’t have diabetes or cancer doesn’t mean you’re healthy, and just because you haven’t been diagnosed with depression or bipolar disorder doesn’t mean you’re thriving and flourishing. Positive psychology started developing the understanding that, more than the surface happiness, which, while it’s pleasurable, is more fleeting, we should be learning to cultivate a deeper, more fulfilling happiness. I addressed the concept of the hedonic treadmill as part of the reason why the search for more money and a better job doesn’t lead to true, deep, lasting happiness, and what Aristotle called “eudaimonia,” or wellbeing and flourishing.

The field of positive psychology has been studying what it takes to really cultivate our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others, and a recent theory has laid out 6 pathways to flourishing: PERMA-V.

• Positivity
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning and Purpose
• Accomplishment and Achievement
• Vitality

In today’s episode I discuss Vitality. As women we are too often critical of our bodies. We criticize our gray hairs or our wrinkles or our belly fat. Instead, we need to shift our relationship with our bodies and appreciate all the amazing things it does. Can your body walk, run, and swim? Can it hike? Can it hug a loved one? Can it kiss and can it make love? Can it wander around a farmer’s market or a cute new neighborhood? Can it pick up a child or a grandchild? Our bodies are doing amazing things all the time, and we need to recognize and appreciate it instead of tear it down.

I discuss the importance of embracing and nurturing our need for sensuality, and I talk about our fixation with our weight and how we can shift our focus to having a healthy body instead of a thin body. I also address our need for adequate movement and sleep in order for our bodies to thrive.

In this episode I announce the the next running of my signature group coaching program, EMPOWERED! To learn more about it and to grab your spot (it's only open to ten women), go to http://purposegirl.com/empowered.

With this episode we’ve introduced a new feature: Voicemail! I would love to hear your feedback, your thoughts, your comments on The PurposeGirl Podcast. Please go to purposegirl.com/voicemail to leave a voice message for me, and I’ll be including some of them in my next Q & A episode! Tell me what you love about the show, what else you’d like me to cover, and what’s going on in your life!

It would really mean a lot to me if you would go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review (hopefully a great one!), leave a 5 star rating, subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode, and download the episodes! And please spread the word and help our community grow!

Thank you so much spending your time with me! And if you aren’t following me already, you can find me on Instagram and Facebook, and click here to receive my newsletter.

May you live purposefully, may you love yourself, and may you love life.

Bye for now!

My guest today is Shira Turkl-Rubin. Shira started Soul Flyte, a boutique yoga and fitness studio in Nyack, NY, from scratch. Her knowledge of yoga, fitness, digestive health, body awareness, meditation and nutrition lead her here to this very moment when she decided to open her own studio in a bustling town filled with curious, open minded people. Shira is an E-RYT 200 and 500 hour certified yoga instructor with specialties in AntiGravity, restorative, kids, digestive yoga, vinyasa and hatha. Shira has used the AntiGravity technique to rehabilitate her neck as well as her belly. She has suffered from ulcerative colitis since 2007 and the act of tipping herself upside down daily – without the pressure on her neck of a headstand or regular handstand – has brought her major relief.

Shira studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, as well as different types of yoga, in order to improve her own health, and eventually began teaching others. While “mainstream medicine” has its place, and a very important one, it doesn't have all the answers, and Shira emphasizes the importance of what we put into our own bodies and how we treat our bodies. Through the use of yoga, nutrition counseling, and meditation, Shira is able to bring great relief to her clients with IBD.

Shira talks about her own entrepreneurial path to becoming a successful business owner and offers some helpful suggestions and inspiration for those interested in launching their own business.

Shira recommends the book, Body Belief, by Aimee Raupp, which you can get at Amazon [https://amzn.to/2rnR4bK], and you can get Shira’s ebook, The Fix Your Belly Blues Program, at her personal website [http://www.shiraturkl.com].

To learn more about Shira Turkl-Rubin and her studio, check out her website [https://www.soulflyte.com/], and find her on Instagram [@soulflyte], Twitter [@soulflytestudio], Facebook [@soulflyte], YouTube [Soul Flyte], and Pinterest [@soulflyte].

It would really mean a lot to me if you would go to iTunes and leave me a review (hopefully a great one!), leave a 5 star rating, subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode, and download the episodes! And please spread the word and help our community grow!

Thank you so much spending your time with me! And if you aren’t following me already, you can find me on Instagram and Facebook, and click here to receive my newsletter.

May you live purposefully, may you love yourself, and may you love life.

Bye for now!