and now with mental health Doctor James Howard

well good afternoon everybody wherever you are in the world at this time and welcome to reclaiming authenticity finding one's courage to reclaim that which has always always always been in you I'm Doctor James how can if you'd like more information about me or leave me your comments about today show website it's www.bbs.com reclaiming authenticity all one word right there w w w. B b s radio. Calm slash ree claiming authenticity and so if you'd like to do that that number is 888-627-6008 that's 888-627-6008 and I'll be taking your calls after the break I do really appreciate and enjoy talking with Sarah

people broadcast podcast in case you want to go back and listen again or maybe you can't stay the whole hour with me but you to go back into the archives and maybe listen to shows that you you have messed up there are just a huge variety of them and they're also now available for download on Audible and Amazon music and I want to take a moment before we get into today show that that's why the thank everybody for your support last year and even half the year before that and you know just like say that you now have the opportunity to continue your support by becoming a monthly subscription

when Dallas scores a subscription is not required to listen to the Dee's podcast but it is greatly appreciated so again you do as you would need to do is just go on the website and click on the link and it will take you right to the subscription and I can choose any amount that you feel comfortable giving so very excited to be with you here every Friday 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time noon Pacific Standard Time and any other time in between and I just want to say for those who might be turning in for the first time just a just a hearty welcome welcome to the show I just really appreciate the offers time listeners and just a quick summary you know for those who might be listening for the first time just what reclaiming authenticity is all about because each and every week these broadcasts are dedicated to the integration of our spirituality and our Mental Health

that may seem like those two aspects don't go together but they certainly do they blend in nicely they integrate wonderfully so that these shows integrate spiritually and our mental health because you say it doesn't really matter who we are or where we are born or even into what family we were placed ours is a world that's filled with relationships you do from the time they're born even before then we are in relationship with our mothers who cut carried us and even I take it back one step further that because we are souls we already been in a relationship with God because I always go back to just a wonderful passage in scripture that says you know his God is speaking you know before you were born I knew you and just sit with that for a while and just see where that takes you to terms of your

spirituality that God had a relationship before us before we were born into this world and just you know you know who we are as so. The indeed we we are social beings social creatures if you will who spend our lives trying to make sense out of our world and quite often and trying to make sense of our world we try to find our place in the world and you know quite often I hear a lot of people who just asked that question you know well not only who am I but really where do I fit who do I fit with and as social beings it's often within this context of the relationships that we have with others that we unfortunately experience has a tremendous amount of pain and suffering and these could be anything from over acts of betrayal or

cruelty that somebody has inflicted against us or vice versa maybe we have inflicted that on somebody else to Simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but regardless many people bear the scars of the physical or psychological emotional even spiritual woundedness and think about in this show in this broadcast is basically how we tell these stories you know of who we are and where do we fit in this world how do we fit with other people and so forth but again it's it's how we tell these stories cuz I'm starting from a premise of we all have stories we all have lives okay but it didn't you don't we listen carefully to the stories that are being shared but it's do you listen to how the how you do a person tells their story or even how you tell your story is it

from a place of wilderness or maybe a place of disappointment and then really depending on how long we've been carrying around this Brokenness we might tell our stories from that deep deep place of bitterness and anguish experience our wounded this in relationships it's also within the context of healthy relationships that we can find our healing our voice are often Tiffany and I guarantee you you will begin to tell your story differently cuz you're you're at your then now telling that story from the healthier place

and the difficulty is often finding the courage to discover that which has always been in you and hands here we go we coming right back to reclaiming authenticity cuz that truth is always been in you it's just where did it go where is it and so you know it does take courage to look within to find what we brought into this world with it other as gifts or those Grace has the skills and even our uniqueness that we've come into the world with this is something that the Scottish Franciscan John duns scotus

he called it you know he called our uniqueness chant has this mess that we have and then everybody has a business what makes them unique because as I just alluded to I am a firm believer that we come into this world with everything we need for ourselves and others but through various experiences we've been you know tempted or maybe we already did this when we gave away parts of ourselves if not the whole part of that uniqueness or that this hness because perhaps we didn't feel as though we just simply couldn't live up to another person's expectation of us and that's a cruel trick in and of itself because that bar that standard if you will is always going to keep moving it's intended for us not to be able to live up to the expectations of others cuz it's always going to be shifting so we

try and try and try as hard as we can to reach that bar that somebody else has set for us and just when we think that we're going to be able to get it in at 8 and then therefore we can get their approval now it's just Out Of Reach again

and so we keep trying and trying and trying and before we know it we are exhausted but then we might end up blaming ourselves because we couldn't live up to the expectations of another but we realize that expectation that limitation shall we say comes from somebody else not us

but when we rest in the fact that we are who we are that we do have value dignity and worth we don't have to shout you say measure up to somebody else's standard of that we find our peace we find our Grace we find our gifts we find our strengths are resiliency we find our personalities and so forth and we can really come into our home this week and really find our voice we can begin to tell our stories from a place of empowerment there's sometimes that we might go through life and and as we've given away parts of ourselves that parts of that uniqueness we may have been tempted to hide that uniqueness from somebody else in order to survive you know an abuse and one

form or another or maybe those aspects of ourselves have been taken away from us and we didn't really have the strength to hang on to those things we didn't really have the strength to fight for those things wouldn't really know ourselves we didn't know that we had that strength if you are so gripped with fear or whatever the issue might have been but either way whatever we become aware that we've done these things it also takes tremendous courage to reclaim who we are then we can reclaim our voice and our uniqueness or our business and as I said this is what reclaiming authenticity is all about reclaiming authenticity focuses on the integration of spirituality and our mental health all within the context of our relationships with ourselves others and God or the divine

and you take this one step further before we move away from this particular area and you know how many of you out there I know I do the all we we long for that on Sundays to experience that forgiveness of kindness and compassion in relationships but a nice meditation a nice question that will keep us busy for quite some time is that in our search for forgiveness and kindness and compassion and love and so forth we have began with well how do we show those things to ourselves how do we treat ourselves this way because again I truly believe that whenever we are compassionate with ourselves we then can be compassionate with others and whenever we're forgiving of ourselves we then could be more forgiving with others and when were able to live in gratitude

with ourselves we then discover how this opens up our hearts doesn't see and live in gratitude with others and Transformations often begins with us

I had just extends out it ripples out it's going to affect all of our relationships and when I said when this occurs we will soon discover that we begin to tell our stories are life from a different place in us a place of healing wholeness and gratitude and our stories are worth telling because there is freedom there is resiliency there is Empower mint and wisdom that is shared through our lived experiences well how is your heart today I know that's a tagline of mine I always start off these shows with that but truly how is your heart today I hope your heart as well and I hope you are well and I hope that if you are struggling today even in the very slightest sense that you'll be able to find that piece in that rest and that comfort that you need

well I am entitled today's podcast as wisdom to voice is heard through lived experiences or another words if you want to break it down and just something you can put on the back of a T-shirt If our shoes could talk what would they say okay how about I take on if these walls could talk what would they butt with a towel okay but just let's go let you know what do we put on our feet for shoes could talk what would they say well yesterday January 27th Mark the observance of the international Holocaust Remembrance Day which commemorated the victims of the Holocaust and it was a day that the remember the the killing of six million Jews and Jewish people and two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population and millions and millions of others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators

all between the years of 1933 through 1945 and January 27th of every year has been selected by the United Nations General Assembly and it started back in November I think it was 2005 and this resolution came after a special session that was held earlier that year was on January 24th which marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust and this was perhaps the first time that the world began to see the horrors and tragedies that actually took place and there are hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of Holocaust Memorial Museum throughout the world and thousands and thousands and thousands of stories

that had been shared and one form or another

and I physically visited to Holocaust Memorial is here in the United States the first one was the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles I don't know if you've ever been there but it's just a just a little take different take on the the Holocaust experience because it really examines the roots of racism and Prejudice around the world and again it is quite an experience and it really brings home like where am I in this cuz we can say well I'm not racist or I'm not prejudiced and you know but it is going through the tour different times and different ways this question keeps coming up are you sure

and the very subtle ways that racism and Prejudice could emerge and we really have to take inventory with ourselves and just say yeah there might be something there I'm not aware of it it's very subtle in myself but then what do I need to do to eliminate this or or how can I raise awareness not only in myself but also with others

I'm sorry the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles the second Museum I visited was the Holocaust museum in Washington DC and a bit more involved this is a little bit more gut-wrenching for me I have to have to say because if you've ever been there I'll just share my experience here at that. At the beginning of the of this Holocaust Museum tour in Washington you're given why would call a passport with a picture of an individual who was held at one of the concentration camps and you hang on to this all the way through the tour

and I remember going through three levels of stories and newspaper headlines and clippings and pictures and political speeches and and videos of videos of pain videos of of all the inhumane experiences that are experiments that occurred during 1939 through 1945 and Nazi Germany and it can be quite emotionally overwhelming and the part that really tied my stomach in knots was when I came to a large room I think it was one of the last stuff that I forget where it wasn't at work but I think I was like one of the last aspects of the tour where you come to this large room and was just filled with mounds and mounds and mounds of shoes of the exterminated people

they were piled high on both sides of the room and there is he's gigantic exhaust fans but still you could smell the leather of the shoe you could you know and I often to this day can still remember the smell and there is just a faint hint of death in the air

and I saw many people staring at the shoes and weeping because for them it's finally hit home

every pair of these shoes

belong to a person I talk to every pair of these shoes was a person

and I remember sitting there and just again overwhelmed myself and just thought well I wonder what story is the shoes could tell Justin and how the person who owned them died but rather how the person who owned the shoes how did they live

what kind of Life do they have and so forth and then at the end of the tour you like I said you were given the passport of a picture of a person who was held at one of the concentration camps and you will you submit that the passport and you find out what happened with the person whether or not they had died in the concentration camps or they want on they lived in and adjust a little bit of a history that went with them but you didn't know that until you got to the end and it was quite shocking for many many people to realize that the person know who's face they have been looking at through all this tour

and the shoes and so forth didn't and the newspaper clippings in the videos and all that stuff you found out that this person had been exterminated and again it's just quite revealing to not only what happened during the Holocaust but also

the does this continue today in one form or another as far as the prejudices or as far as the racism or so forth

well if you've ever seen the movie Forrest Gump you remember that famous line that starts off at the beginning of the movie you know the opening scene of force is sitting there on on the bench with the woman and they're both waiting for a bus and there's a famous line or I should say a theme that starts to be woven throughout the movie and 46 there and you'll decide to get off but I'm always said life is like a box of chocolates we all know that line okay but the first goes on continues to talk about his mother and he said you know momma always said you could learn a lot about a person just by looking at their shoes

you know where they're going where they've been to goes on and on and on with this monologue and then for says I've worn lots of shoes and this is where the story or shall we say the Journey Begins and we see for swearing lots of shoes throughout his life the running shoes the shoes when he was in the Army has taken him to Vietnam and and so forth the special shoes that they're the kind I think they were like Nike's that Jenny had bought him for a present one one time and so forth okay and it's true we can learn a lot by looking at the different shoes that we and others have worn over the years and we seem to have a shoe for every occasion you know the shoes for work wear shoes for play shoes for dancing if you get dressed up and go dancing or shoes that we wear

funeral shoes we wear for church or synagogue or where you been you know the times that we are that we need to remove our shoes if we're coming into a person's house out of respect or if that brought a mosque we remove our shoes and so forth but just being reminded of the different shoes that we we're asked ourselves you know these questions you know where have these shoes taken us

where have these shoes you know where have they brought us to this present moment and it what kind of Life have we live so far and where our where is our life taking us

because you see behind every pair of shoes there is a person and behind every person there's a story worth waiting to be told and since there's a story waiting to be told it is worth listening to for the nuggets of wisdom contained in them and this is where wisdom has passed on. You know we can gain knowledge by all the books that we read and so forth and we can say oh yeah I read about that experience that seems like it would be wonderful but if we line up their stories with a lived experience yeah I went through that I was there I did this and so forth We Tell those stories from a much deeper deeper wisdom

it's not just all yeah I know about something it is yeah I lived through something I am living something

and I mentioned earlier this discovery of what lies within us is is basically one of my deep-seated believes you know that everybody comes into this world already gifted with the skills and the talents and personalities and excetera for this life and we have these things in order to discover and cultivate and use to the benefit of not just ourselves but for the benefit of others

our gifts are very good and precious that we have but they're not meant to be hoarded they're meant to be shared they're meant to be here, can I help you how can I help you discover what lies within you and so forth

cuz you know damn through history and you should know by now if you've been following me I have a lover of history and I just that the stories contained there are just so so rich and down through history one of the greatest spiritual in the often that the greatest spiritual teachers and gurus are the ones who enabled or Empower us to discover the potential of what lies within us

and a guru it's it just took a clean title found in Hinduism is is more than a s a a teacher it's traditionally the the guru is reverential figure to the student and the guru serves as a counselor to say you know one who helps mold the values and shares not just a little knowledge but this experiential knowledge as in one and also say is an Exemplar in life and inspirational Source if you will and that one who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student and spiritual guide is also you know that the guru helps one to discover the same potential realities that the guru himself or herself has already realized

okay and this is where the experiential knowledge comes in like that which I have found that which I have discovered I pass on to you so that you may discover the very same things that lie within you and so forth and whether it's with in Western or Eastern cultures effective teachers mentors and leaders you know by Any Other Name. History have been characterized by those who helped pull out of others who helped pull out of ourselves the very best of who we are in fact that they help us to be healed and empowered to begin telling all our stories differently

can they meet us where we are they here are stories and the reason why they were able to help us and Empower us to tell our stories differently is because I have not have yet to meet and you know teacher Guru who will allow anybody to settle for for you know videography it's just they meet us where we are

but through the deep deep-seated love for us you're like okay let's let's keep going this healing will take you then too much better places much deeper into who you truly truly are so ya teacher as mentors gurus and so forth will meet us exactly where we are and exactly as we begin to tell our stories but there is such potential there that even you know if there is resistance on our part you know a good teacher you know a very powerful Guru and so forth are very patient with us knowing that we and everybody else is on his or her own spiritual journey

because everybody arrives at the truth sooner or later

and effective teachers and mentors and leaders and so forth and power others to discover if I can say this to help us to discover greatness in themselves and other people and you know this that's just clarify this you know that the are effective teachers and mentors and leaders never ever ever seek to control another person

it's it's just not in their nature so if you run across in the teacher and Mentor a leader who wants to control you forget it they don't have your best interest in mind because effective teachers mentors and leaders who have done their own spiritual work who share their own experiential knowledge they do not seek to control they seek to release and and hope that we have the courage then to embrace that freedom

there is great and Paramount hear a great teachers mentors and leaders can do this because they themselves have discovered how to live in forgiveness and gratitude and love on a daily basis I would really love to hear what's on your heart about this subject so again if you would like to call in this number is 888-627-6008 that's 888 6 to 7 6008 and I'll be taking your calls after the break again you are listening to reclaiming authenticity and I'm your host dr. James Howard I'll be back with you in one minute

okay welcome back I'm dr. James how can you are listening to reclaiming authenticity well earlier in the show I was talking about how storytelling and listening to stories go hand-in-hand and some people are better storytellers than other brothers know some stick to a shot we say oh well for her script and and they want to make sure that every deed little detail is shared and then that we have others who are kind of all over the place with their thoughts and they leaving out important details and making up others and so forth and right before the break I was sharing you know just how great teachers and mentors and L

really Empower us to get in touch with those stories and they listen to our stories and you know from where in us are we telling that story is it from a place of pain and woundedness or bitterness or shame and through their patients and through the sharing of their own lived experiences that that that wisdom that comes through because they have done their spiritual work they help us to be able to heal and we begin to tell our stories just a little bit differently stories to share with you quickly came across just a great example of how another person describes the effectiveness of his teachers and mentors and leaders and jarosz it's from the book Dancing the dream dancing the dreaming written by Jamie Sands and talks about how did the ancient Mayans use

a great object that we find in our houses everyday you might even have one you as part of your dinner it is the onion and she writes that the that the Mayans use the onion to represent the layers upon layers that are peeled away to reveal the spiritual essence of The Shield human being it is natural for humans to grow and change to move in different directions from the patterns developed in childhood but it is the courageous human I was willing to embrace the work required to strip away the layers of the onion needed to reach authentic freedom

we reach this kind of Freedom when we see every adversity or challenge in life has a way of tempering the warrior nature into bright strong courage in her knowing and Truth we learned that the layers of the onion are peeled away when we Embrace Life with all its many joys and Sorrows understanding that all experiences are valid initiations that give us the Power of Choice that ability to discern allows us to choose how to relate to the events in our lives and to move through the doors that those experiences have opened for us

and as I shared right before the break that the most effective leaders of teachers and mentors and gurus never seek to control another person but instead they see to release and and hope that we have the courage than to embrace that freedom teacher mentors and leaders that are very effective in our lives and power us and rejoice with us when we find that freedom

well we do have to listen to others around us you know our teachers gurus mentors and leaders to what they are saying but you know exclusively but also to their method of how do they impart that truth and oftentimes the most effective means of teaching come from people who are great storytellers + 4 plots analogies and even irony one of my favorite favorite genres that were or way stories are written in different genres I should say is irony it's just we going to Astoria Spectrum one thing anyways if you know we'd learned something completely you know that we need to hear and storytellers have this shared ancient wisdom that has ignited powerful transformations in those who have ears to hear

so to speak and nothing new has our hearts has been a great teacher shares a story and storytelling is one of the basic and yet most powerful means of imparting truth because we taken those stories not necessarily through our ears but we taking those stories mainly in our hearts

and it is in those moments that we often feel we're by the the moral of the story shall we say has reached and grabbed Us by the soul and we'll never ever let go

and then there are no again then there are some people who have never shared the story of their lives with others in fact to take this one step deeper you know some people who have never been given the chance or the permission to share stories that lied about within you know deep deep deep under the emotional wounds and scars hidden from the rest of the world I when this occurs helping people find their narrative empowers them also defined their healing which brings us right back into relationships it all brings us back to the relationships with ourselves and others and God are the Define narrative therapy is actually a style of therapy that helps people become the intuitive expert in their lives you know nobody can tell your story like you

after all it's your story it's your life nobody can say well you told that wrong or that wasn't correct or something. What's your story it's your narrative it's your perspective and in narrative therapy there is no fascist on the stories that we tell that help us develop and carry you know and carry us through our lives

it's a form of therapy that views people as separate from their problems okay and an example of this would be able to help a person separate what has happened to them as an individual and I should say and from their interpretations or assumptions from who they are as a person who has this value dignity and worth okay because you see you might have done some pretty awful things in your life but does that make you an awful person

now

again you can't you're a person who came into this world a soul that came into this world already equipped already graced already gifted with everything you need but perhaps you've not recognized and embraced your fullest potential and therefore you are that person with the value dignity and worth but there are times when you act in ignorance of it

so as part of the healing from our past but sake not only involves telling our stories but also involves reclaiming our empowerment to rewrite our stories that are now life empowering and life-affirming

and then we don't achieve this empowerment from an embellished delusional view that nicely ties up our story is in a bow okay if there's nothing false about I we don't try to embellish it like Wallace make the sound better it's like no this is this is our truth and it with all its in in all its rottenness that's not actually a word that actually work but there are three wonderful benefits to narrative therapy and this is what makes it very very effective one the play Untold or unspoken moments of a person's life into his or her current story

what are those moments what are those pieces in our lives are aspects in our lives which we have a hard time telling

those times in which we don't have the words the times when we we just the pain is so deep and we haven't come up with any word in the English language the touchdown

I remember listening to the story of woman who was interviewing hundreds of people who lived through the partition and India between people of the Hindu faith and people who are born a Muslim or the Islamic faith and the whole when India was becoming you know what sound Nation there was this partition that was drawn a map and people had to based on their family or they're faced or read them both you know they had to get on one side of the line or the other so to speak and there was a lot of Bloodshed that I was going on at the time a lot of just hatred going back and forth and then so forth and I forget that the name of the reporter or the journalist I should say she went in and interviewed

will afterwards and she said the most striking thing that she heard had nothing to do with words but instead she was very clever and and how she listened to these people stories cuz some people were very forthcoming and shared painful horrific very graphic pictures with her instead of the story started to unfold and then she said there were people who shared stories who would pause in between

and that struck her as like I wonder what else is going on here I wonder what's in the pause I wonder what's not being shared I wonder what people have difficulty sharing

will you have that moment of silence

and these moments of Silence

are also part of our stories

so with narrative therapy it did actually allows those Untold or those unspoken moments of a person's life to be placed in the current story

what is it that is very difficult very painful very gut wrenching to share kind of like what I witnessed and walking through the Holocaust Museum and and Washington DC I just coming to that room filled with shoes

there are no words for that

many people just wet because it finally hit them that for every pair of shoes they were looking at was a person who had died

there is tremendous silence in that room there was a tremendous pause

what was the second aspect where that should say the benefit of narrative therapy is that this method also helps people connect to an emotional content and Retail their stories from what I like to call the head and heart center and how many times have you heard story store stories where a person just seems to be reporting where they just sounded very you know cognitive where it's at they're telling the story from their head there is no emotional content there is no identification of like where are you in the story where is your voice but it's almost told from an absurd you know I deserve her

and the last aspect last wonderful aspect of narrative therapy is that it did really helps people construct New Perspectives and insights and relation to how they tell their stories

okay again it's not an embellishment it's not making it up as we go it's how then in the light of everything

and healing is taking place how are you now telling that story

and let's bring it back to you know just what I was talking about with the fact of teachers and sages and gurus this is what makes effective teachers and sages and gurus and leader so important in our lives is that they know how to enter into another person's life history on life story and become part of it and transformed them into embracing who they are they they they transformed the Storyteller if you will into so

everything that you've gone through

how are you

all the wild helping the person realize their heads so much more than this is the potential that they see for people to be something that they may even have yet to realize in themselves

I always grab a tape myself I always gravitate to the teachers and sages and gurus and leaders who can do this very very well just smooth days they just do by their presents the real to enter into our our life stories they become part of it they transform us into embracing I don't know who you are but then they show us the potential to be something that we haven't even dropped off yet that we haven't even realized

what is the prominent theme that emerges time and time again when the people not only find the power of their voice but also to be able to listen to the empowerment of others

did they to find their voice and that people are never the same again

and when they find her voice is like the sound of thunder

and this is often the case with anybody was gone through any kind of trauma in their life in which a person's assumptions have been completely shattered and and to find and reclaim your voice takes time but it can be done

healing is for everybody not just for a select few and again

guru's teacher's effective leaders and so forth know how to empower people they see that potential in all people to embrace their own truth. Oh Lord it over them not to control another person but to set them free to show them what it is that they can become because it's in there it's in you it's in me but do we have the courage to go in and discover those things

and I'd say it takes courage because we may not realize what we're going to be fine we may be so afraid that we're going to find something that the side wasn't ready for or we might be gripped with the sphere of well if I find something I have to let go of other things and we might be so used to the way things were even the unhealthy part that we don't want to let them go

let me re-read some reason or another we found great comfort and peace so speak and hanging onto very dysfunctional things or dysfunctional people in our lives and we just realized that in order to take hold of something better we have to let go of what we've been hanging on to that is no longer Life Giving To Us

well an interesting parts of not only finding and then claiming and using our voice and telling all our stories from that's in the empowerment that we have ants all through the lets you know kind of told the stories from the perspective of the shoes that we've worn Ironically in being able to find and claim and use our voices will have an effect on our brain because of transformation will occur there and the world of science would call this phenomena brain plasticity or neuroplasticity just basic layman's terms that just means being able to rewire the brain and neuroplasticity allows the neurons were the nerve cells in the brain to be able to compensate for injury or disease and to adjust the all the activities in response to new situations

or to changes in let's say a person's environment

yeah it is quite fascinating it is something that still but I would say it's in its infancy stage and we're just getting started trying to understand but yet we've also come a long way in terms of just how plastic or how the brain can rewire itself how the brain can heal because there's an old saying in and Neuroscience that neurons that the fire together are wired together and it just means that the more you run this neurological circuit in your brain the stronger that circuit becomes you know and which we've known as well before we've even been able to turn this neuroplasticity we would say that well practice makes perfect

because how many times we practice and practice and practice and do something over and over and over again and now we are memory with it is not just limited to the brain but down into the various cells down into our fingertips and we have that muscle memory where we just you know the body remembers so the brain learned how to get to reprocess you know Sight and Sound and taste and smell and touch and even how we speak and send signals to muscles so that the people can walk again you know and that's the fascinating part that the ability to read learn and learn new things or to enhance existing cognitive capabilities even you know research has gone so far to help people recover from Strokes or traumatic brain injuries and there's another great movie out there

it's called The King's Speech I forgot it when what year this movie actually came out in but this was a story of the life of King George's son and it is at The King's Speech which was at the beginning of World War II and in the movie that starred Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush and King George the fourth had a severe speech impediment you know he pretty much stuttered and he actually had to retrain his brain to control his stuttering problem because well when your king you have to give speeches or if you're president you have to give speeches if you are a leader you're going to have to give speeches and and I kind of just a fascinating story line of how he was able to do this and

how he actually had to come to terms with just her Lee childhood trauma that he had faced and how he had reacted to and how he actually forced down his his voice because he was not allowed as a child to

shall we say voice his opinion so he had to go in and reclaim it and he trained his his brain to stop the stuttering and and continue and like I said it's just a great great movie and you're building a pond that you know this research in this area of neuroplasticity has really given hope to millions of people in a force pair of parents of special-needs children it it really has demonstrated how we can use speech and language therapy to improve communication or even current orbis a problem behavioral challenges and musicians you know just wonderfully illustrate this experience dependent neuroplasticity because whenever you learn to play an instrument you are involving the left brain and the right brain you know the synchronicity

and music therapy is an excellent way for people to rewire their brain activity especially when it comes to reading and playing music at the same time and another good example of neuroplasticity is learning a new language you know when somebody is learning a new language that the neurons responsible for language or often connect but the sounds of language or recognizing pictures associated with the language itself and so if you're a fan of Rosetta Stone or other language programs that integrate sights and sounds with with prominent nouns and pronouns and so forth verbs and common phrases of course you're going to be able to learn that more easily than just say sound repetition alone

so there are many many ways in which we can tell and retell our stories so I just want to encourage you to stay for a while anyway look at your shoes and realize the shoes that you wear different occasions that you wear different shoes and where have they taken your life so far cuz you ain't seen nothing yet and a silent conversation with the shoes and listen to what they would say if they could talk and not just where they have taken you but where do you see your life going from here and how you have been able to tell your story thus far and What needs to change and heal in your life so that you can begin telling your story from healthier places within you rather than from a place of bitterness

for Rage or anger or disappointment and frustration dr. James how can you have been listening to reclaiming authenticity again I invite you to visit the website and leave me your comments about today show or just reach out to make love to hear your comments and invite you to tune in Next Friday afternoon 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time noon Pacific time if you're unable to spend that our with me next week invite you to download one of the podcast and listen that way so in the meantime may you be at peace may you find your voice and until we talk to each other again may God hold us in God's hands take care God bless

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