A Quest for Well-Being

Yoga Therapy is a means to utilize the various tools of yoga: intelligent movement, breath, meditation, visualization, and life-style to facilitate an individual's healing process. Essential Yoga Therapy offers a gentle, therapeutic orientation to yoga that is supportive of those with limited mobility. The springboard for developing our programs arises from the same fundamental teaching of yoga: That we bear responsibility for reducing suffering in ourselves; and once we have achieved a level of health we are to be in service to others. Whether you are entering our door as a client or a student-teacher, the EYT orientation will help you to grow in wisdom and self-awareness, assisting you in living a more conscious, joyful and fulfilling life. Valeria interviews Robin Rothenberg, the author of Restoring Prana: A Therapeutic Guide for Yoga Teachers, Therapists and Healthcare Practitioners — One of the most common issues clients face is lack of energy, vitality or prana and this book presents a simple yet revolutionary breathing approach to restore balance. Grounded in the yogic teachings, this text introduces the Buteyko breathing method as a more contemporary way of understanding the original intention of pranayama. Through extensive research, Robin Rothenberg establishes that as with Dr. Buteyko's breath retraining technique, the ancient yogis prescribed breathing less not more. Vedic science and physiology are broken down and explained in accessible ways. The book presents a new understanding and application of breathing to address a wide range of ailments, including COPD, asthma, hay-fever, autoimmune disorders, anxiety, sleep apnoea and neurological conditions. Robin Rothenberg is deeply involved in yoga therapy and research since 2000, Robin runs a thousand-hour Accredited Yoga Therapy Training Program, and a busy private practice outside Seattle, Washington. Her unique weave of traditional Vedic teachings and practices with Western science create an orientation towards yoga that is accessible, practical, and transformational. Restoring Prana has received wide acclaim globally for grounding the esoteric teachings of pranayama in a scientific framework that allows practitioners to experience the healing power of the breath and reclaim the vital energy of life. To learn more about Robin Rothenberg please visit her website: https://essentialyogatherapy.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast

Science shows that involvement in social relationships benefits health. When both of you are demonstrating self-respect and happiness, you are more likely to be healthy. Well-being includes your physical health but goes beyond to include mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects. The Bahá'í teachings say this: "... [M]an's supreme honor and real happiness lie in self-respect, in high resolves and noble purposes, in integrity and moral quality, in immaculacy of mind." 'Abdu'l-Bahá As a couple, the more you integrate and harmonize all aspects of health and create well-being, the happier you are likely to be. It works from the other direction too: The happier you are, the likelier you will both be healthy. With well-being, you feel more "in balance," and there is a "flow" of positive energy between you as a couple and between your activities. When the two of you are healthy and happy together, you have more energy and time to parent well, see friends and family, and participate in your work and community service. You are present. You show up. You make a positive difference. As you collaborate, accompany, and encourage each other, health and happiness increase. When you are united in creating well-being, you are healthier as individuals and in your relationship. Science has discovered this insight: "Eating right and moving more—especially if we want to do these things on a regular basis and over a long span of time—are easier when we are inspired, cajoled, praised, and supported by the people who matter the most to us in our daily lives."5 Thomas N. Bradbury, PhD, and Benjamin R. Karney, PhD When you cooperate as a team, you are more likely to: Turn to each other to talk about your challenges Make and keep medical and dental appointments Eat healthier meals Reduce harmful habits Have stronger immune systems Seek help as needed Recover faster when you become ill As equal partners, you look at the totality of your lives and choose the roles and responsibilities that are fair and respectful to both of you. You avoid the pitfalls of dominating each other, doing constant reminders, hiding behavior, or criticizing each other' actions. Instead, you look for ways to share your experiences, and you are more likely to encourage and help each other. You contribute to one another physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Valeria interviews Susanne Alexander, the author of Creating Well-Being for Couples and Families: Increasing Health, Spirituality, and Happiness. Susanne M. Alexander is a Relationship and Marriage Educator, author, coach, and publisher with Marriage Transformation® at the website www.marriagetransformation.com. Her online learning platform is: TransformationLearningCenter.com. Susanne believes that knowledge and skill-building are vital for healthy people and relationships. She meets with individual and couple clients globally for personal and relationship preparation, growth, and strengthening. She is certified to offer character, relationship, and marriage readiness assessments. Susanne has been single, dating, engaged, married, divorced, and widowed. She is a child, stepchild, parent, stepparent, and grandparent. Susanne is originally from Canada and now lives with her husband in Tennessee, in the United States. She has a diversity of experience to share! To learn more about Susanne Alexander please visit her website: https://marriagetransformation.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast

On awaking, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all. On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and play, bless them. The peace of your blessing will companion them on their way, and the aura of its gentle fragrance will be a light on their path. On meeting people and talking to them, bless them in their health, their work, their joy, their relationship to the universe, themselves and others. Bless them in their abundance and their finances... bless them in every conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds of healing but one day will spring forth as flowers in the waste places of your own life. As you walk, bless the city in which you live, its government and teachers, its nurses and street sweepers, its children and bankers, its priests and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing: bless them totally, sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield which protects you from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow that was aimed at you. To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total, unrestricted good for others and events from the deepest chamber of your heart: it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter awe that which is always a gift from the Creator. He who is hallowed by your blessing is set aside, consecrated, holy, whole. To bless is yet to invoke divine care upon, to speak or think gratefully for, to confer happiness upon - although we ourselves are never the bestower, but simply the joyful witnesses of Life's abundance. To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the ultimate form of giving, because those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray that burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives. When something goes completely askew in your day, some unexpected event knocks down your plans and you too also, burst into blessing: for life is teaching you a lesson, and the very event you believe to be unwanted, you yourself called forth, so as to learn the lesson you might balk against were you not to bless it. Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts of angels follow in their path. To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden to material eyes; it is to activate the law of attraction which, from the furthest reaches of the universe, will bring into your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy. When you pass a prison, mentally bless it's inmates in their innocence and freedom, their gentleness, pure essence and unconditional forgiveness; for one can only be a prisoner of one's self-image, and a free man can walk unshackled in the courtyard of a jail, just as citizens of countries where freedom reigns can be prisoners when fear lurks in their thoughts. When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their present wholeness, for even in their suffering, their wholeness awaits in them to be discovered. When your eyes behold a man in tears, or seemingly broken by life, bless him in his vitality and joy: for the material senses present but the inverted image of the ultimate splendor and perfection which only the inner eye beholds. It is impossible to bless and judge at the same time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought the desire to bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall behold, everywhere, the very face of God. P.S. And of course, above all, do not forget to bless the utterly beautiful person YOU are. — From "The Gentle Art of Blessing" by Pierre Pradervand Valeria interviews Pierre. Pierre Pradervand was born May 31, 1937 and grew up in London and Geneva. He studied at the universities of Geneva, Berne, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Bearer of a doctorate in sociology from La Sorbonne University, Pierre worked for decades in personal development and social justice. His impressive career includes assignments in 40 countries on five continents as a researcher, coordinator of development programs, journalist, and international adviser. A sought-after speaker by French and English-speaking audiences, Pierre now lives in Switzerland where he writes, gives workshops on personal development and how to include spirituality in everyday life, all of them bearing the "living in a different way" energy. Pierre is also a professional celebrant. For over 20 years he has been accompanying an amazing Afro-American death row inmate from Texas who has become a spiritual model for hundreds around the world (see his book on Roger W. McGowen, Messages of Life from Death Row). He also volunteers with a Geneva-based international NGO, the Women's World Summit Foundation which is active in the field of decreasing violence against women and children (see www.woman.ch), Author of 17 books (in French), his best-known English books are The Gentle Art of Blessing, 365 Blessings to Heal Myself and the World and Messages of Life from Death Row. To learn more about Pierre Pradervand please visit his website: http://pierrepradervand.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life to the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.

"Everything has energy and consciousness, even your coffee table! – Quantum physics gives us a peak into this unreal world behind what we call reality. How we feel about our homes has an impact on the energy there. And vice versa. So if we feel good about our homes, it just confirms the good feeling there. The opposite is also true." – says Maureen Calamia A luminous space is restorative and nurturing. It's a place that inspires us, helps us achieve our goals, and ignites our personal power. In Creating Luminous Spaces, Maureen Calamia shares her ground- breaking method using feng shui and biophilic design to achieve greater harmony in our lives. By tapping into the wisdom of the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) we can restore our bond with nature, both in our inner natures and our outer world, which is vital for greater joy and peace in our lives. The Five Elements is an ancient system that is simple and available to all of us. Maureen shares real stories from her life, clients, and students, which demonstrate how the Elements have enriched their lives. She also includes thought-provoking exercises, meditations, and practical ways to create an environment that will enhance our wellbeing. Maureen's book is both a teaching on the way of nature as well as a workbook for spiritual growth. "We are in a time of a great shift in consciousness and we are just starting to understand, again, the ways of nature and its power over us. The ancient and the modern ideas come together in this cutting-edge path to help guide us during this shift and discover our hidden light within our authentic selves." — Maureen Calamia In this episode, Valeria interviews Maureen. Maureen Calamia is a founder of Luminous Spaces Feng Shui School and Re-Nature Consulting as a corporate speaker and retreat leader. An expert in energy, mindfulness, stress management and consciousness, she helps her clients restore greater wellbeing by tapping into the Five Element archetypes. Maureen merges the wisdom of feng shui and earth energy healing with biophilia, our need to be truly connected to the natural world for joy and wellbeing. Author of Creating Luminous Spaces (Conari Press, 2018) she empowers others to discover and nourish their True Nature in their inner and outer spaces. Maureen has written for Huffington Post, Elephant Journal, MindBodyGreen, and OMTimes Magazine.. To learn more about Maureen Calamia please visit her website: http://luminous-spaces.com For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast

"Eagle, will you teach me how to fly?" Eagle glanced at me and nodded. Then it looked straight ahead for a moment as if contemplating where to start. It communicated with me telepathically in thought-forms. "First, never take off unless you know where you are going." What a good point. "Once you are in the air, stay alert as you look for opportunities, and be flexible enough to change course if an opportunity arises." A vision appeared before me of a bird flying towards a branch. It spotted an insect and immediately darted towards the insect, then flew on, landing on a different branch than the one it had originally aimed for. I imagined how ridiculous it would be if birds always had to end up at the destinations they aimed for. I envisaged them bumping into each other, unable to alter their course, and making redundant flights with the only purpose of landing on the original target." — writes Leanne Babcock Valeria interviews Leanne is the author of Open Me: The true story of a magical journey from fear to freedom. Open Me is the true story of how Leanne opened herself to the whispers of her heart—of how she learned to listen, to trust, to be truly free. It is the story of a journey on which she faced her worst fears, listened to her intuition and the wisdom of nature, and was guided by the trees, stones, and birds. Traveling to sacred places around the world, Leanne deepened her exploration of who she is. Magic and miracles began to happen as she found the courage to heal. Finally, she met the challenge of love with newfound freedom and fearlessly continued to follow the voice of her spirit. Leanne Babcock is a coach, speaker, and author. People say her coaching program shakes up the roots of their soul and opens their mind and heart. It transforms their life. She is an NLP Master Practitioner, Master Coach in multiple Brain Integration Techniques, and a Master Coach and Trainer in the Babcock Coaching technology. Also trained in hypnotherapy, Transactional Analysis, and ontological coaching, she has worked extensively in the realms of intuition and shamanism. Working with people in business, government and public has given me a wide range of experience. Leanne's focus has mainly been with heart-centered leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives. Now she works extensively with women helping them to boldly claim who they truly are and to live fulfilling and purposeful lives. But more simply, Leanne is just a courageous wild woman who listens to the trees. To learn more about Leanne Babcock please visit her website: www.leannebabcock.ca For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast ** Bio intro and outro one by Heidi Lynn Peters.

"Your body is your most priceless possession. Take Care of it." —Jack Lalane We are all aging. From conception to birth, we all go through a cycle of growth and degeneration. Thus, aging and death are inevitable. No one lives this life forever. Throughout our lives, we earn wrinkles, gray hair, baldness, and shriveled bodies. We bear the marks and scars of battles won and lost during a life well-lived. As our bodies fade, our wisdom grows and we become more interesting, adding more dimension to our character. Beauty and vitality are entrenched below our skin, and they continue to radiate through our deteriorating exterior. Mastering The Health Continuum goes beyond aesthetic vanity and instead focuses on optimizing you on the inside to fuel the flame of your vitality so your inner beauty will long outlive your outer beauty. With the abundance of information available at your fingertips— Google, Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest—you have endless options for diets, exercise, miracle drinks, recipes, fads, and gimmicks. We are inundated with pressure and noise constantly reminding us of the unrealistic expectations we have set around beauty, health, healing, and aging for that matter. It is an illusion with an impossible immediacy to achieve. There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer. Bio-individuality is a key consideration when determining the most appropriate plan or program to follow to achieve your health goals. Over the years, many of Dr. Nancy Miggins' patients have appreciated her approach to helping them develop an appropriate health strategy based on their unique bio-individuality. Keeping your bio-individuality in mind, you need to know where you are right now on the health continuum, what health challenges you are experiencing, and your end goal. You can then efficiently and intelligently sift through your options, determining what will bring you closer to or further away from your goal. Ultimately, what matters most is how you feel about yourself and the progress you make toward your goals. This journey is about you compared to you. You are not in a race against anyone else. Valeria interviews Dr. Nancy Miggins the author of Mastering the Health Continuum: 8 Daily Practices to Boost Energy, Optimize Health, and Age Gracefully Dr Nancy Miggins is a double board-certified Doctor of Chiropractic specializing in Functional Medicine. She is the best-selling author of Mastering the Health Continuum: 8 Daily Practices to Boost Energy, Optimize Health and Age Gracefully. It gives the solution to reclaim your power over your health and achieve your healing potential. Dr Nancy helps health seekers take the guesswork out of what diet and lifestyle approaches are best for their unique body. She breaks down the science and transforms it into a "why" that motivates action. Her heart-felt compassion and shameless approach inspires an "I can do this" attitude. She promotes a radical gradualism approach to complete health transformation. To learn more about Dr. Nancy Miggins please visit her website: https://www.drnancymiggins.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast ** Bio intro and outro one by Heidi Lynn Peters.

"Don't wait until you're completely down and out to begin trying to pull yourself out of the ravine. Do things preemptively to cultivate happiness. Go back to the list of ideas to Raise Your Vibe and incorporate as many as possible into every day. Every day, do something positive before bed, sleep well, wake rested, and think or say positive statements that feel good such as "This is going to be the best day of my life," and feel it as if it is. Set positive intentions for your day and be sure to pay attention to what you say to yourself and how those thoughts make you feel all throughout the day. Practice visualizing your new reality. Stop giving your full attention to your current reality if it doesn't feel good or this will block your ability to visualize. Worrying is visualizing what you do not want so turn toward appreciation instead. If you have a challenging situation, begin to reach for a feeling of relief. Focus on what you do want and this will begin to crowd out what you do not want. Begin by accepting the situation. It has happened and is now in the past. Remember to use my resilience tool, ARE. Acceptance is at a neutral level in the ladder of low-to-high vibration energies. Try to release all struggle since this does not serve you or help the situation, then begin to expect the best. Learn to develop more resilience. Release your attempt to control outside people and circumstances and stay in your power. Try to be more playful and have fun with this. Nothing is the end of the world—really. Make mundane or even difficult tasks into a game and have fun and don't forget to smile often. Begin to live with deliberate positivity and watch what happens. Practice feeling the feeling of it and feel the power and clarity that comes from this good feeling. When you have a challenging situation that arises, which will continue to happen, do this simple exercise. Think about something you love and appreciate. Get the good feeling that thought generates and hold onto it. Now think about the topic that is concerning you and find something to appreciate about it and get a good feeling again. It is always easier to handle challenges when you begin from a good place first, which is why it needs to be a daily practice to feel good. Once you find your happy place, stay there as long as you can and allow it to become a part of you. You must expand your thinking (which expands your energy vibration) to expand your life. You have control over your destiny, and when you learn and practice ways to feel good, this is ultimate freedom." — writes Janet McKee Valeria interviews Janet. She is a speaker, bestselling author, high-performance consultant, and CEO of SanaView. She is one of only 200 elite coaches in the world Certified in High Performance by the High-Performance Institute and is an inducted as a member of the National Association of Experts, Writers, and Speakers. Janet McKee is author of the new book, Stressless Success: The Surprising Secrets to a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Prosperity (Laurel Mountain Publishing, Feb. 1, 2020). Janet created the acclaimed Accelerated High-Performance Program and the emPower3 Leadership + Lifestyle Retreats to empower others to break negative patterns and achieve greater success. To learn more about Janet McKee please visit her website: www.janetmckee.com For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast ** Bio intro and outro one by Heidi Lynn Peters.

Societal norms tend to dictate a reliance on the rational mind for life decisions, but we must work hard to avoid this in order to connect with our higher selves. Turning off the mind's ever-flowing fountain of thoughts will allow the heart and gut to be heard. Once all three brains are connected and "allowed" to properly function, the seeker will form a conduit to the higher-self, opening up to ancient wisdoms because the very nature of language is that every word loses truth in translation. The only way to sync all three brains is through relaxation and meditation. You are indeed integrating your mind and body, and this will allow you to hear your higher-self for the first time. When all three brains are connected, the seeker will open the gate for heart coherence. Heart coherence is when the heart is vibrating and beating in a positive emotion giving you a sense of well-being, and it is the next step toward your Heart-Fire activation. Simply breathe into your heart center and hold love for something like a pet or spouse.14 This is the one-minute method that is recommended by the Heart Math Institute to achieve heart coherence. A seeker of truth and harmony wants to integrate the gut, heart, and brain because it unlocks sensory inputs that are typically blocked by the rational mind. Unconsciously blocking input from your entire nervous system is a learned skill in the industrious age of production. Industrious production does not want you to truly feel your environment because this technique of living doesn't conform to the accepted picture of reality. The goal of living using your gut, heart, and brain is to achieve the feeling of Pono; feeling right with self on all levels of life. By integrating the entire nervous system, you will open the gate to Heart-Fire activation and heart coherence, and you will allow the process of opening your heart center to begin. Heart-Fire activation will also strengthen your spiritual practice by bringing unconditional love and compassion into your life. Remember: unconditional love and compassion are the vibrations and frequencies that manifest your soul's contract! By holding this vibration, you are commanding your dreams and your future. Even right now, your highest potential is right in front of you, lingering behind a veil. It is simply vibrating at a higher frequency and to obtain it, all you have to do is match that vibration. When your thoughts and emotions are equal to your highest frequency, you will activate your Heart- Fire and miracles will happen. Valeria interviews Thomas Wurm, the author of Awakened by Heart-Fire: Wildland Fire Stories and The Secrets to The Universe. Thomas Wurm is a wildland firefighter, author, mindset coach, integrative psychology practitioner, fitness trainer and nutrition specialist. With danger waiting around every corner, his fire career guided him to see the true nature of life. Thomas used what he learned on the fireline and applied it to self-help and spiritualism with the powerful intention of helping others be healthy, safe, and happy. Thomas uses Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Meditation, and mindset coaching as tools for success in his practice. He studied at the Awakened Academy, Empowerment Partnership, International NLP Center, International Sports Science Association, Self-Publish School, and on the wildland fireline in the western United States. To learn more about Thomas Wurm please visit his website: www.MountainMindTricks.com For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast ** Bio intro and outro one by Heidi Lynn Peters.

A Transformational Healing Process has begun on the planet Earth. Due to a profound change that has taken place in the energy field of Collective Human Emotional Consciousness, resources are now available to us to do healing that has never before been possible in recorded human history. Human beings now, for the first time, have the capacity to directly address the core issues of the human dilemma. The Truth as Robert Burney feels and understands it is that who we are, are Spiritual Beings having a human experience. We are not here as some kind of punishment! We are here to experience being human. To go through that puzzling human experience we call life. The dance of life. The dance that is life. The Dance of Wounded Souls. We are the wounded souls. We are the Spiritual Beings who have been wounded by coming into human bodies in the Spiritually-hostile environment that has been present on planet Earth for thousands of years. The conditions on the planet have changed! That is the Joyous news that I have to share with you. The dance is changing. Since before the dawn of recorded history, the dance of life for humans has been primarily one of survival, of endurance, of suffering. We have now entered a very special time in human history. An Age of Healing and Joy has dawned in human consciousness on this planet. We now have tools, knowledge, and most importantly, clearer access to healing energy and Spiritual guidance than has ever before been available in recorded human history on this planet. The dance is changing. A Transformational Healing Process has begun on planet Earth. We have begun the process of breaking out of the vicious, self- perpetuating cycles of destructive behavior that humans have been trapped in for thousands of years. The destructive dance is changing into a dance of healing. The new dance of healing is most simply called "Recovery", while the old destructive dance has acquired a new name: Codependence. Valeria interviews Robert Burney. Robert Burney is a pioneer in the area of codependency recovery / inner child healing. His first book Codependence The Dance of Wounded Souls has been called "one of the truly transformational works of our time" - and he has been described as "a metaphysical Stephen Hawking." A counselor / coach and Spiritual Teacher whose work has been compared to John Bradshaw's "except much more spiritual" and described as "taking inner child healing to a new level." Robert has developed a pioneering approach to codependency recovery - an inner child healing paradigm - that offers a powerful, life-changing formula for integrating Love, Spiritual Truth, and intellectual knowledge of healthy behavior into one's emotional experience of life - a blueprint for individuals to transform their core relationship with self and life. His website joy2meu.com offers over 200 pages of free original content and he shares the transformational formula he discovered for inner healing through telephone / Skype counseling with people around the world and in Day Long Workshops that he offers periodically. A few years ago he launched a mobile-friendly version of his site for all the people accessing the internet on Mobile devices: joy2meu2.com To learn more about Robert Burney please visit his website: https://www.joy2meu2.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast ** Bio intro and outro one by Heidi Lynn Peters.

Psychological studies have described and shown the benefits of human-animal relationships on one's health and well-being. It was also found that people did not always need to be among animals to achieve these benefits. Simply looking at animals or their images can have a healthy impact on levels of happiness. Introducing elements of nature to our living space can have a positive impact on our cognition, emotion, and stress management. For over 100 years physicians have recommended using animals as an additional treatment for illness, for example, to decrease stress levels and pain intensity, and to improve moods. Many sources have shown that several factors can unbalance the internal state of "happiness". A few important factors that people seem to struggle with will be highlighted, such as the act of blaming external sources, for instance, blaming other people or circum- stances for the way we feel. This is not to reduce some of unpleasant life experiences, but rather to understand that everyone has control to some degree over their own feelings. By monitoring our thoughts, one can learn to turn negative thoughts into more positive ones, or at the very least to neutralize the negative ones. Life always comes in waves, and we can learn to make the most of the sense of delight when we attain its heights. Such uplifting feelings teach us to appreciate what we have and enjoy that specific moment. Having experienced life's ebb and flow we know that there are more than precious moments. Hardship and difficult times are equally important as they contribute to our internal resources and our resilience by adding contrast to the high notes in our lives. We learn about ourselves and our reactions in order to implement and improve coping strategies. By taking responsibility and realizing that, to some degree, we can control our mind-set in the more difficult situations, we are a step closer to increased "happiness". – writes Katarina Gaborova In this episode, Valeria interviews Katarina the author of VIVA: Tools for Well-being. Katarina Gaborova, (Msc Psychology) was born in Slovakia and is currently a practicing psychologist in the Hague, Netherlands. This was also a place where she opened her own private practice K. G. Psychological Services (www.psychologistinthehague.com) in 2009. She has been a huge fan of motivational videos, talks and inspirational quotes, which inspired her to create her first book V!VA Tools for well-being (published in 2015 by Petrabooks in Canada). Since then, she has been creating a variety of motivational tools (workbooks, card decks, books ) that can be used in therapy or as every day mentors in people's homes. Katarina has been living in various countries including England, Australia, Italy. By being an expat, she devoted herself to offer support to the international community. Recently, her main focus is related to the topics of positive psychology, anxiety, trauma treatments and how our thoughts can influence our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. To learn more about Katarina Gaborova please visit her website: www.katarinagaborova.com For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast ** Bio intro and outro one by Heidi Lynn Peters.