SWIHA Blog

Do you know your neighbors or those you work with very well? Do you know what their big dreams are (or were) and the things that prevent them from achieving them?

If you can say "yes" to truly knowing your neighbors or workmates, you are among the minority. According to a General Social Survey, more than a third of the population in the US says they don't know their neighbors at all, and over half admit that they rarely or never interact with their neighbors.

Sadly, I was part of that statistic. I've lived across the street for over 15 years from a woman I have barely spoken to or interacted with, other than an occasional wave as I was driving away to work or coming back home at the end of the day. No big deal, right? Wrong!

As we return from the Fourth of July holiday, words like “freedom” and “independence” clearly ring true as privileges we enjoy as Americans. However, these two words also have greater significance— they describe what it is to be an independent entrepreneur.

The brave souls who create businesses are called entrepreneurs, and according to Entrepreneur Magazine, they have the "capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture, along with its risks, in order to make a profit".  In my opinion, there are four important words that need to be added to the definition, and they are, “who are brave enough.”

As a longtime entrepreneur and life coaching expert, I choose to define entrepreneurs as  “passionate people who are brave enough to trust themselves to develop, organize and manage a business venture in order to make a profit by serving others as a part of their life purpose!”  

Ester Mina Silinsky believes that G-d has granted her 120 years to complete her life’s work. At 61 years old, she is happily married, has raised nine children, and intends to use the rest of her remaining years to help others manage their own health using holistic methods and ancient wisdom obtained through SWIHA Holistic Wellness Practitioner program— now known as the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner program. Since only two of her children still live at home, Ester is at a stage of her life where she can focus on enjoying her family and on her career as the owner of Holyland Holistics.

When building a sustainable business as a holistic practitioner--be it through life coaching, massage therapy, or any other modality--what others think of us IS our business, especially when what they say is ABOUT our business. Word of mouth, or viva voce, can make or break a business or a practitioner’s private practice. Viva voce is a Latin phrase that means “the living voice.” With today’s digital media platforms—such as Yelp, Facebook, and Google+—there is sudden room for the world to publish exactly what they think about your business… quickly and often without recourse! Once a “bad” review is registered, it is nearly impossible to reverse the rating that shows up on your business' page.

Naturally, we want to do all we can to create positive word-of-mouth to help grow our private practices and holistic businesses. For guidance on this matter, we can turn to the wisdom in Don Miguel Ruiz’s most famous book, The Four Agreements, which has sold around 5.2 million copies in the U.S and has been translated into 38 languages.

PTSD paralyzes, terrifies, saddens, and dulls the senses. We have long known that our mind and body record everything that happens to us. These highs and lows create Richter-scale size memories in our minds, with our emotional “seismograph” documenting the most crystallizing and paralyzing events of our life. If we were to take a metaphorical scan of the mind, we would clearly see PTSD appearing on the “map” as a series of dark, sharp peaks — indicators of turmoil from which it is very difficult to escape. Those dealing with PTSD get mired in those dark spots.

Grieving through the “Dark Spots”

Recently, after over twenty years of distinguished service to his country and three years of trying to reconcile the battles in his mind through intermittent psychiatric hospital stays, my stepson Todd made the permanent decision to end his life.

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself,” wrote Joseph Campbell, the iconic mythologist best known for his work The Hero's Journey.

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, historically designed to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Unfortunately, some of those brave individuals no longer walk with us on Earth because they have chosen to make a life-ending decision, often due to the complications of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In fact, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs estimates that roughly 11-20% of veterans who have served in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom suffer from PTSD. 

With these numbers in mind, let’s explore the Hero’s Journey and consider how we can better honor our veterans on this significant day…

Barbara Iuliano’s reason for joining the SWIHA community may sound surreal to some, and yet to other SWIHA students, graduates, and staff, it is actually the norm! Why might some find it strange? Because Barbara claims that her own intuition and the guidance of the Universe brought her through our doors. “I was at a point in my life where everything was shifting... relationships, jobs, careers, dreams etc... I wanted to do something more, something of value, of service. SWIHA was one of those serendipitous blessings that fell into my lap.”

As a graduate of our Mind Body Transformational Psychology AOS, Barbara has taken her acquired knowledge and integrated it magically with her innate gifts and interests in healing and service to launch her own successful practice. Although when she first started her program, she had no intention of becoming a coach, she has since surrendered to the obvious and grander plans that the Universe was conjuring for her behind the scenes. “Life coaching has been one of the most transformational and valuable practices that I have learned in my life. I couldn’t thank SWIHA enough for introducing me to this area in a holistic and professional manner. Coaching was love at first sight for me. Beyond life coaching, I also found my business classes of immense value as they encouraged me to set up my business ‘before I felt ready.'"

A couple of weekends ago, Elizabeth Gilbert, the bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, spoke at the International Women’s Summit with the message that what we need is more “relaxed” women in the world. While I was prepared for the re-packaged dogma of “work hard to get ahead,” it took me by complete surprised when the opening night’s keynote question was: “How much more would you accomplish if you chose to be a relaxed woman?”

This message has been swirling around in my head, especially as I have been ‘on assignment’ as Granny Nanny to my two granddaughters, ages 3 and 7, while my son (who just graduated from medical school) and his bride of ten years are vacationing in Europe for a little well-deserved rest and relaxation.  

Inga Tara once felt that she had it all—a beautiful family, financial security, the freedom to spend her time traveling abroad. And yet there was still something undeniably missing. “I was feeling dissatisfaction in my career, disconnect inside me, and a lack of inner peace,” she remembers. After participating in a full-body detox program in 2009, Inga finally found something that resonated powerfully with her: a love of nutrition. This shift is what Inga considers a major point of self-mastery and a significant first step in the journey to her divine purpose.

Years later in 2014, with an empty nest and a husband at work, Inga knew it was the perfect time to pursue her interests more actively. “I felt that that was a good time to go back to spiritual practices that I used to do for years (and made me feel happy and complete) and work on my creativity, self-actualization, and giving back to people.” Still, reconnecting to self through spiritual practice was not filling the void that Inga felt within her. She yearned to formalize her knowledge of holistic healing to bring happiness and well-being to others. She began to seek out schools and programs and decided to enroll at SWIHA soon after discovering it on an online search.

A few weeks ago, I was asked if I wanted to do a 5K Run. I could have easily said, “Oh, I’d like to, BUT I haven’t run in over 30 years.” Instead I said, “Yes, sign me up!”

Staying stuck in a rut, and 'yeah butting' myself has never been my style. My saying YES immediately produced incredible results: I ended up placing 5^th in my age group despite all those years of not running. Once I became committed to removing the ‘but’ from my life, I have gotten farther, faster!

As a long-time Transformational cCoach, I have worked with hundreds of people who have come to me for life coaching, saying they want to fast-forward their lives and leave behind the things that hold them back. One of the most powerful exercises I offer them is the opportunity to make a list of all the things they want to do in their lives, yet have not done. After they create the list, they are invited to take the things on their list and add the word ‘but’ to the end of the sentence. These are typical examples: