Yolanda’s Story

Yolanda is a pediatrician in Washington’s Ward 8 and deals with life and death every day. A difficult childhood filled with trauma, as an adult she turned to Transcendental Meditation to help her cope. It gave her courage to be true to herself and even sparked creativity and success in her career. Like Yolanda, you can use meditation as a way out of a bad circumstance. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stay Calm is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version

(00:22):
of themselves. And now I want to help you do
the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,
and let's begin today's journey. Dr Elanda Lewis Ragland is
a community pediatrician with Children's National Healthcare System in Washington,
d C. A faculty member at George Washington University School

(00:43):
of Medicine, and a mother of three. Although she could
have a lucrative medical practice in the Washington suburbs, she
has chosen instead to live and work where she grew up,
in Washington's Ward eight, which has the highest crime rates,
murder rates, poverty rates, teen pregnancy rates, and death rates

(01:04):
from COVID nineteen anywhere in the city. And she's been
doing all this for eighteen years. Every day she deals
with life and death. She hears stories of grief and
trauma of young children raised by grandparents because their parents
are working long hours or incarcerated, or have died from
drug overdose or violence. Dr Raglan is a woman of

(01:27):
courage who succeeded in life despite a series of adverse
childhood experiences that easily might have derailed her path. Her
father was a Vietnam veteran who turned to alcohol and
became abusive when he returned from combat. Yolanda's mother was
a hard worker employed at Boeing, who raised her and
her three brothers alone in Seattle, where they fled for

(01:51):
their safety's sake. A tight knit family, Yolanda was devastated
when she lost her mother to lupus and a brain aneurism,
and a brother to drug abuse. As brutal as all
this sounds, it's only part of Yolanda's story, and yet
all those traumas drove Yolanda to search for something, for

(02:11):
a way to cope with distress, manage her life be
present for her children. She started researching meditation. Much to
her surprise, Yolanda heard about a course in transcendental meditation
being offered for free at the community center where she worked.
She learned to meditate, and right away she noticed the

(02:32):
technique did what She hoped it built up her resilience
and immunity to her real life dramas. She also noticed
something else. She had a pressing deadline for a new
book on childhood obesity, but she had writer's block and
had made almost no headway in six months. After learning
to meditate, the creativity flowed, and she wrote ten chapters

(02:55):
and sent it to the publisher, all within three months.
Yolanda has has always been an advocate for community health.
Now she saw the benefit of adding meditation to the mix,
bringing it to her patients and their families, as well
as to her fellow doctors and nurses who are treating
patients in the front lines of word eight and beyond.

(03:16):
I met you Loanda for the first time in Washington
a few years ago during a town hall meeting about
using meditation as a violence interrupter. I asked her an
obvious question. With all the things that are needed in
war date, better health care, education, housing, jobs, why is
she advocating for meditation. You need to improve everything. She said,

(03:39):
When you live in a violent community with a lot
of stress and poverty and depression, it's like everything is
already stacked against you. You feel like a victim because
you feel like you don't have any control. But with
transcendental meditation, you do have control. You are empowered. It's
yours for life. You can reduce your anger, you can

(04:00):
increase your energy, and if you're a student, you can
improve your test scores. I believe this can be anyone's
ticket out of any bad situation or circumstance. I thought
long about what my health tip would be after talking
about Dr Ragland, and when I think of her, I
think of courage, Courage to overcome obstacles, to aim high,

(04:21):
courage to be true to herself. And I'm reminded of
a quote by Maya Angelo. Courage is the most important
of all virtues, because without courage, you can't practice any
virtue consistently. So this is my tip wrapped up in
Maya's advice. Take courage to do what you know to

(04:41):
be right. Then all the other virtues will follow. All right,
let's end this time together doing something that I think
should be a feature of our everyday life, and that's
appreciation and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds of quiet,
thirty seconds to take a break, just take a moment.
It turns out when we do that it's good for

(05:03):
our health as well. I'll be right back all right.

(05:35):
Thank you for joining me today. I hope you heard
something that inspires, that uplifts you, and that you can
incorporate into your own life. This is Bob Roth. Stay calm, hey,
all of you out there, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything

(05:56):
else on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me
an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com.
I look forward to hearing from you