Dream in a Suitcase from Domnica Radulescu is a fast-paced, true story of survival, resilience and the power of love, told from the perspective of a female Romanian-American survivor of the worst communist dictatorship behind the former Iron Curtain.

The story opens against the backdrop of 1983 Bucharest. The food lines are interminable, the secret police are omnipresent, and college student Domnica Radulescu is reluctantly preparing for a daring journey that will take her first to Rome, and eventually, the United States.

Domnica traces the defining moments in her life, beginning with her traumatic escape to Italy in 1983; back to several pivotal events in the her early childhood and adolescence in her native Romania; her arrival and first years as a fresh political refugee trying to adjust and survive in Chicago; and the saga of her resettlement in a small Southern town as a single working mother. 

With uncompromising irony, self-deprecating humor and unapologetic feminist rebelliousness that calls to mind Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Dream in a Suitcase is a powerful memoir that immerses readers in the mind of a woman who makes the bold but heartbreaking decision to leave behind her family and country to pursue the illusory American Dream. 

More than 140,000 children in the United States have experienced the death of a parent or grandparent from COVID-19.

Many families have also lost jobs and had vital supports, such as school, health care services, and other community programs, interrupted and put on hold, putting a mental strain on children, whether or not they realize it.

According to research, 71% of parents said the pandemic had taken a toll on their child's mental health and 69% said the pandemic was the worst thing to happen to their child.

A national survey of 3,300 high schoolers conducted in spring 2020 found close to a third of students felt unhappy and depressed much more than usual.

Even after the pandemic subsides, its mental health effects on children will be around for much longer.

Stephanie Bolster McCannon is an author, teacher, self-development expert, and creator of the BolsterUP Method. She lives a life dedicated to helping people improve their productivity and happiness. 

Stephanie shares:

The reasons why children's mental health is suffering.

How to tell if your kid is suffering.

How to foster a social setting for your child, even as we feel more disconnected than ever.

Childhood abuse and trauma powered an alcoholism that would nearly defeat Jewels.

Yet Jewels assures us that even when we lose those things that give shape to our soul, such as belonging, the need for touch, and safety in our own home, we can go on to devise a new way of being that surpasses our childhood haunts.

Jewels was seven years old when her father attempted a family suicide, so her mother whisked her away to the arms and family of another man.

Ruled by her mother's delusional survival aspirations and the ignored evidence of her suffering at the hands of her new relatives, survival became a daily struggle for Jewels.

But when the truth could no longer be hidden, the family split, leaving Jewels to navigate a new world, not of her making.

Deciding to use her earlier trauma to enter recovery, sexually liberate herself, and enter the competitive world of professional bodybuilding, Jewels created a life that inspires others to push forward no matter the details.

In this uncommon ode to survival, Jewels creates a quite unexpected career from her truth-underscored by her complicated relationship with the allure of sexuality.

Through a tangle of forgiveness and understanding emerges an elevated journey of the mechanisms for survival, of pain and joy, and of discovering that family is what you make of it.

Motherhood is such a blessing. But it can come with pain and loss. The loss of a child is a pain no person should have to endure, especially the mother carrying that baby. 

But it happens, and we persevere. 

Charity Majors was called to create the "Meant For More" movement after going through the journey of losing a child...after journeying through the dark night of the soul and finding true healing.

Her mission is to impart that each of us are divine miracles, that we are each here on purpose for a purpose. 

Being a caregiver is tumultuous. There are many highs and lows. But being a caregiver for someone with Alzheimer's or dementia takes that to an entirely new level. And when that person is your mother, well there is nothing more rewarding and painful at the same time as being able to care for the woman who cared for you as a child. 

But along with that comes trauma. And so much of it. Watching someone you love turn into someone you don't know, and who doesn't know you is heartbreaking. 

Lisa Zawrotny's story —and the reason she does what she does now — started when she was a caregiver for her mom who had Alzheimer’s.

She moved her mom into her home when she was pregnant with her son and then had also had her daughter all while still caring for her mother.

What Lisa went through to keep her mom children safe (including her children safe from her) was something she didn’t label as trauma for years, but realizes now that's exactly what it was.

It impacted her physical and mental health and changed how she viewed the world. Those life lessons make Lisa the coach she is today.

As we settle into 2022, it becomes apparent that we are facing another year of the unknown.

But rather than focusing on what you cannot control, let’s flip the script and begin to discuss how to make 2022 an ethical and fulfilling year by making small simple choices.

Dr. Gilbert discusses:

3 simple, small and effective choices to make in your daily life to feel more fulfilled in 2022

The value of selflessness & how to incorporate tools into your daily routine

Why there is no right way to do the wrong thing – Easy ways to assess if a decision is worthwhile to pursue if you are feeling weary

For those of us who have survived a background filled with trauma, it may seem like becoming a well-adjusted adult seems like we made it out on top.

Come to find out, there's another, deeper layer that needs to be penetrated in order to truly come out on top.

It's not enough just to survive. In order to really thrive, you have to understand the beliefs you derived from the trauma that are informing your life today.

Against all odds, Jenna Banks pivoted from the self-loathing survivor of a traumatic childhood and a nearly fatal suicide, to a fully empowered woman who knows her worth.

Trauma can cause a lifetime of damage to health and wellbeing—for both those suffering from it, and the people around them. Additionally, children growing up in an environment with toxic stress are more likely to have difficulty in their adult relationships. Often, unresolved trauma results in many life challenges such as overworking, anxiety, overeating, difficulty sleeping, and physical pain. And, sadly, unintentionally passing along trauma to others including our children.

Sara Church, author of the new book Mending My Mind and an advocate for mental health, says that this damage can easily be transmitted from one person to the next. And it can lead those affected to hurt others, causing more pain and more trauma.

Then, in a vicious cycle, just like Covid, it spreads…

Sara has experienced this. While suffering unknowingly from C-PTSD, a condition caused by a series of events that occurred repeatedly over an extended period of time, Sara found herself sabotaging relationships that hurt those she loved—including her wife. She writes about this in her book.

Today Sara’s mission is to help stop the spread. Doing so could help heal many of the problems in our world.

The first step, she says, is to talk about it. Share your story about what happened, whether it was abuse, oppression or—as was Sara’s case—poverty and parental addiction and abandonment.

When you are challenged – how do you tap into your moment of joy?

We all have the ability to manifest a day based on joy and understanding by beginning with a transcendent moment.

Author and counselor Susan Lax offers such moments to get your day started in her gorgeous collection of stories, poems and insights, A HEART’S LANDSCAPE: An Invitation to the Garden of Moments

The seeds for Morning Inspiration were planted when Susan Lax learned that one of her closest friends was diagnosed with cancer and she was determined to find a way to bring light back to their bond.

Respecting her friend’s desire to keep her illness confidential, Susan began sending her friend an email each morning at 6 a.m. designed to bring a moment of joy to her day.

This daily tradition continued for five months until one morning Susan awoke with the flu and did not send her morning email.

By 7:30 a.m., she received a phone call from her friend, “Where is my morning blessing? Why didn’t you send it today?”

This would be the only moment in which the two friends discussed the emails aloud.

For the rest of the year, Susan sent a short morning blessing and eventually, her friend regained her health. Although the emails were only spoken about once, Susan understood the support they provided.

Right now, especially with ongoing COVID, Susan and her book offer deep reminders with words and warm visuals - to take a moment – and just pause - get away from the inundation and put the chaos away.

In a culture that does its best to run away from grief whenever possible— even though grief is an inevitable part of life and loss—Edy Nathan provides a practical, sensitive guide to surmounting the pain and regaining your soul.

An experienced psychotherapist and grief expert, Edy is author of  It’s Grief: The Dance of Self-Discovery Through Trauma and Loss. The book unravels the complex world of grief and helps to transform the dark mystery into one of life’s most important teachers.

While other therapists emphasize universal quick fixes to “get over it,” Edy says it doesn’t work that way. Like a fingerprint, everyone’s experience of trauma, abuse, or the loss of a loved one is unique, and in truth, you never really get over the resulting grief but learn to integrate it into your life.

She speaks candidly from her own personal experiences as one who has danced with grief in many forms from a young age. Her ideas are not theoretical!

Grief, trauma and loss can strike in a moment, today, or from a long past memory retrieved—and disrupt the norms in every part of your life.

Edy Nathan’s practical insights can help you get your life back—even though the world you live in has forever changed. 

What do you do when your confidence tank is on empty?

How do you feel?

How does it affect your daily life?

Much like letting your car's gas tank run dry, when your confidence tank is empty, nothing moves forward. 

Thankfully filling up your confidence gas tank is much cheaper these days than filling up your car's gas tank!

Graig Robinson is no stranger to lack of confidence. He comes on the show to remind us, "Who better than you?"

When the unthinkable happens, you don't expect it to happen twice, but for Marci Savage, widowed twice by suicide, it did. 

Marci is now coming forward with her story and emerging as a fierce proponent for eliminating the harmful social stigmas attached to mental illness which keep many individuals battling depression and anxiety from seeking help.

On August 13, 2014, Marci found Paul, her beloved husband of thirty-four years, dead by suicide. No warning. No explanation. No final good-bye.

Less than five years later, on March 15, 2019, Michael, Marci's second husband of only eight months, was found dead by suicide as well.

In the grip of unrelenting pain, Marci courageously meets grief head-on and, with dogged determination and sets out to expose the ill-conceived and biased attitudes toward mental illnesses and suicide.

And No One Saw It Coming is full of grit and candid insights and opens the door into a personal story of lost love, betrayal, abandonment, shattered dreams, unanswered questions, judgements, and harmful social stigma.

Can something as simple as a story change the lives of others?

Do you ever wonder if your life — your story — matters?

“Of course, it does,” says international speaker and sought-after story expert, Linda Olson. “Everyone has a story, and your story can bring transformation and impact into the word today.”

In Linda's latest book, Story Matters! Empowering Your Hope When Going Through Tough Times, she provides real-life examples of seven ordinary women who faced major challenges.

These women embraced their stories and learned to rise above nearly insurmountable obstacles.

They did it through strength, courage and their faith in God, and they are sharing their stories to light a path forward for others facing difficult circumstances.

Story Matters! shares seven true, powerful stories from women who each took a long look at her life and decided to change her story. And when she changed her story, she changed her world.

For generations, we have looked at addiction from a black and white perspective. Either someone is okay, or they are at rock bottom; there is no in-between.

In reality, there is a large percentage of Americans who fall into that in-between area and are overusing and highly functional who need resources.

Tara Schiller is the CEO and visionary behind SoberBuddy, a virtual drug and alcohol recovery coach transforming the sobriety industry. She developed SoberBuddy with the vision of creating an approachable, shame-free, easily accessible path to recovery.

Tara's goal is to design a culture that works to erase the shame and embarrassment around addiction via a digital safe space.

Tara has always been an “anti-shame” crusader who's passionate about helping others live in their truth and assisting them find the tools needed to create a better life.

No stranger to deep shame, Tara uses her past experiences to fuel her mission and break down barriers to getting the care we need in highly stigmatized struggles.

Recent reports have shown a steady increase in consumption of alcohol as the pandemic has dragged on specifically affecting mothers of children under the age of 5.

More and more people are curious about exploring a sober lifestyle change without disrupting and uprooting their life. Virtual sobriety resources allow someone to make an informed choice about their lifestyle and choose how and when they want to address it.

Tara provides insight and education around what the various spectrums of addiction look like and why people who fall in that in-between area need resources that cater to their needs.

Tara also provides actionable tips for how to explore your sobriety and how you can support those around you and the importance of having a plan.

Although his talent and technique has brought him to perform with among the greats, jazz legend, Kenny Werner has also struggled internally.

Faced with grief after losing his daughter to a car accident and then he himself survived a separate car incident – he was diagnosed with trauma – and no stranger over his lifetime to anxiety, bouts of depression or even drinking.

He has much to say about the power of music and healing. He didn’t see his diagnosis as trauma but a way to work on himself to move forward.

When we hear music, we often experience how the physical flirts with the spiritual in profound and moving ways.

But what we don’t realize is that this confluence is possible not just in music, but in life, and it’s easier than you think.

Kenny shows us how musicians, artists or even businesspeople can allow their “master creator” within to lift their performance to its highest level, showing us how to be spontaneous, fearless, joyful and disciplined in our work and in our life.

Whatever you are trying to master, Kenny says the key is learning how to slip into The Space, the place beyond the conscious mind that allows us to effortlessly embody whatever we are doing.

As Kenny points out: “Mastery is not perfection, or even virtuosity. It is giving oneself love, forgiving one’s mistakes, and not allowing earthly evidence to diminish one’s view of oneself as a drop in the Ocean of Perfection. And here is the good news: You don’t have to be a musician to have the experience!”

The Take the Pill Approach

Adam Weber's father was an old school doctor who was taught to give patients a pill for everything, and everything would be just fine. That is an old and tired approach to practicing medicine and helping people.

The Meditation Approach

A former corporate warrior with a progressive form of multiple sclerosis, Adam turned to meditation to help reduce his stress levels. Meditation is a natural, drug-free, cost-effective solution to address your stress. It requires just minutes per day. Many practitioners report a deeper sense of inner peace, much less stress when using meditation.

Easy to Meditate

Today Adam helps others learn to deal with their stress through his proprietary form of meditation called, Easy to Meditate.

You dove head-first into a new phase in your life … you’re a stepparent.

Your stepchild keeps you on your toes. It’s thrilling!

You deserve to be happy and proud of the family you’ve built.

You get to watch them grow into their best self, but these positive moments come with multiple obstacles … conflicting opinions and differing emotional needs.

How can you manage everyone’s demands, keep your sanity, and enjoy yourself?

Well, it’s not throwing in the towel and walking away!

And it’s not about strong-arming them to do things your way.

It’s time to gain clarity about your role, define boundaries, and improve communication so that everyone feels heard and understood.

Trigger Warning: Graphic Details

This is a story of one man's fight for survival in a world of trauma. 

David Smith was going to work one day with his brother in Opa-Locka, Florida when they were cut off by an angry driver. 

As they got out of their vehicles to figure out what the problem was, the driver of the other vehicle shot Dave's brother in the head. 

What was just another day going to work, turned out to be one of Dave's worst nightmares. 

"I held my brother in my arms while he fought for his last breath and I felt his last heartbeat."

A year prior, his dad died while Dave was holding his hand. 

As if that wasn't enough, Dave was in a horrible Harley-Davidson accent that broke his jaw in three places and twisted his right leg completely backwards causing him to have to relearn how to walk.

Since his brother's death, Dave has experienced many phases of grieving, survivors' guilt, and feeling as though he was just plain losing his mind.

Dave has survived multiple suicide attempts and now wants to share his story to let others know that despite how horrible life can be, there is always something to be grateful for. 

Dave has learned that it doesn't matter what you've gone through or how much you've gone through, what matters is whether you bounce back or not.

As a young girl, Agota Gabor’s dream of becoming a professional ballerina in Budapest is shattered when she contracts polio.

Through gruesome therapy and iron willpower she learns to walk and dance again, making a living as a dancer in Canada after her home country erupts in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.​​

Agota forges ahead to achieve a successful and dynamic life, working as a chorus girl in Montreal casinos and nightclubs.

But she wants more than just the glitz and glam. After going back to school, Agota becomes a TV journalist and works with her foreign correspondent husband as they live the expat life, travelling across the world from Hong Kong to Jakarta to Cairo and London.

Agota’s rollercoaster life continues as a mother and businesswoman, as she runs a successful communications firm and makes a killing in real estate.

Are you trying to cope with life's struggles?

Are you in need of more support?

Do you want to learn how to use your spirituality to cope with life's stressors?

Dr. Joanne Frederick's new anthology discusses how to deal with grief and loss, being a black man in the world today, disabilities, surviving Covid-19, infidelity, anxiety and fears, trauma, and single parenting.

In this episode we discuss coping with things such as:

Survivor's guilt
Self-reflection
Negative self-talk
Loss and grief
Depression
And so much more

Most importantly, we are reminded that no one is perfect; so, allow yourself room to make mistakes. You are only human!