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June 28, 2024 • 17 mins

Talk to us, Shero! Talk to us!

Can practicing gratitude genuinely transform your mental wellness? Join us at Shero Cafe as we celebrate Sharon Wallen, an exceptional National Board-Certified Teacher with over three decades of experience in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Sharon, who ranks among the top 3% of America's educators, takes us on a journey filled with personal stories and insights into the significance of her NBCT certification. She passionately explains her motivation behind creating the "Grateful Reflections Journal," a tool that aims to foster mental wellness by encouraging positive routines over 21-day cycles, especially in the wake of the pandemic's impact on mental health.

In our conversation with Sharon Rose Wallen, we uncover the transformative power of gratitude and reflection. Sharon shares her wisdom on nurturing mental wellness through disciplined self-care and mindful practices. Her anecdotes vividly illustrate how daily habits can combat negative thoughts and behaviors, offering every listener a pathway to mental resilience. Don't miss out on learning how you, too, can benefit from these practices. Check out Sharon's Grateful Reflections Journal on Amazon and remember to always nurture the "Shero" within you.

Thank you so much for the likes, love, and comments you leave. Not only does it mean the world to us, it helps other women who need to hear it be able to find it.

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---CONNECT with Shero Cafe---
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---CONNECT with Deborah Edwards---
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Self Care Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/624202641785785
Website: https://gratefulom.life/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahedwards-selfcarecoach/

---CONNECT with Debbie Pearson---
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Facebook Group (Creative Self-Discovery Lab): https://www.facebook.com/groups/creativeselfdiscoverylab
Website: https://www.debbiepearson.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiepearsoncoach/

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Shiro Cafe.
I'm Debbie Pearson and I'm herewith my co-host, deborah
Edwards, and we are the co-hostof the Shiro Cafe podcast, where
we celebrate the Shiro in you.
Today we're going to be talkingto Sharon Wallen.
Hi, sharon, and welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good afternoon Debbie , deborah, and it's my pleasure
to be with you.
I love the concept of yourShiro Cafe and the work you're
doing in our community.
Just that bounty and that feastbetween self-care and wellness.
Congratulations and thanks foryour service.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you, thank you, right back at you.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Thank you.
So, sharon, tell us about thesefour initials behind your name.
What is an NBCT?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Great question National Board Certified Teacher
and it's been a joy of mycareer 32 years in miami-dade
county public schools elementaryschool and majority of those
years was as a national boardcertified teacher and the

(01:20):
difference of that it just uh,only 3% of America's teachers
are national board certified.
Wow, the process started in1999.
And just two years later I hada great mentor who said Sharon,
I think you should go at it.
And in 2001, I did and wassuccessful and have renewed ever

(01:44):
since because it's that worthy.
And even in 2019, when Iretired from work, I renewed
that certification because it'sthat valuable.
And National Board teachers inMiami they do invite me to still
mentor and help incomingteachers and new beginning

(02:06):
teachers and work like that.
Wow, that's really what it isNice.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Good for you.
That is your Shiro's journey,isn't it?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
It is Absolutely.
Yeah, it really means you can.
I can go in any state inAmerica and for the age group
I'm certified.
I have the strategies andability to be able to help a
child in any elementary school.
That's amazing, yeah, and it is.

(02:37):
So.
I do have to have my Floridalicense and I will probably have
to get a license in whicheverstate I am.
But the national certificationmeans that you can work and be
successful with children at theage group.

(02:57):
You're certified in any statein America.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
That's amazing.
That is awesome.
So I am going to turn aroundthis conversation a little bit.
And the book I read.
What was the book that you readthat you included in the book?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yes, it's one that I created just post the pandemic
Grateful Reflections Journal,written by Sharon Rose Wallet,
and it came out of part of mywork in school.
I worked with advancedacademics gifted and talented

(03:37):
but I've always had an interestin the brain and strategies for
thinking and wellness andcritical thinking, problem
solving, creativity and thingslike that.
So during the pandemic and whenI kept hearing about mental
illness and increase in suiciderate, and especially the young,

(03:58):
20 to 24 year olds and the armedforces, and all of that was
draining on me because I knewthat there were some habits,
that if folks had some habits ofjust wellness and hope what I
call hope in my hands, then theywould be able to probably not

(04:22):
be so distressed all the time.
So that's how, oh, this can'tbe the show.
I'll put it next to you.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Put it in front of your face.
Sorry, but if you put it infront of you, oh, it's not
working.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Go down below, put it down right here.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Grateful Reflections Journal.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
And that, and it's loaded with strategies or habits
.
And it's loaded with strategiesor habits, daily habits of
wellness, and built on DrCarolyn Leaf's work that in the
brain, if we go through traumaor negative memories, we can

(05:02):
break them in the cycle of 21days, and it might take series
of 21 days.
So the book has five sets of 21days in it.
And at the end of each 21 day isa reflection.
What have I noticed?

(05:23):
What's a picture I would drawabout what I worked through or
whatever and I had since I waspublished in early 22,.
And I have worked through fivebooks, five copies of those, and

(05:46):
I noticed I've always struggledWell, not always, but
especially later in my careerwork late nights, early mornings
and the drive-thru were greatfor me or restaurants I didn't
cook at home.
Now I might cook at home sincepost-COVID, but before, no, I
did not.
And so, little by little, wedrive everywhere, my you know
the weight I gained that and Iwould never tell anyone I'm

(06:09):
overweight.
I would never say I'm obese, Iwould never.
Would never because I didn'teven see myself as that.
But came a time, after somespores with cholesterol numbers
and things, and I began to lookat it also.
There was a time when I knew Iwasn't hungry and I just kept

(06:31):
eating and I had to realize,sharon, that's binging.
And I noticed I was coming toterms with certain things and
after a while I noticed thereweren't an issue anymore.
It was after writing thosehabits and the discipline of

(06:53):
what I had in the journal.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
So it's like seeing it in black and white in front
of your face rather than justkind of throwing it in the back
of your head.
Yeah, yeah, I often wonderabout that, because I will do
that myself.
I'm like eating going.
I'm really not hungry.
Why am I like putting this?
And I figured it's because I'mI'm trying to satiate something

(07:16):
inside of me and I'm learningit's more in my heart is what
I'm trying to satiate or fulfill, not so much my belly and so
that's.
But I've not done the processof writing it down and seeing it
.
So I think I'm going to begoing to get me a reflections.

(07:37):
What is it?
Grateful Reflections.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Grateful Reflections Journal and what it was, debbie
and Deborah.
What it was is it starts outbecause it's the messages we
tell ourselves.
Initially, because initially Iwas dealing with the wellness
part of it and also rebuildingwhatever's traumatic or the bad

(08:01):
memories for what I was hearingin the community, but because
it's a good discipline of habitsthat are in there, then my
working it through, then I wasable to also see the growth of
that.
It starts out with one of thereflections and it's daily what
is something positive I heard orreceived this morning?

(08:23):
So it might just be whethersomething I read, or nature,
hearing the birds or, you know,seeing my loved ones.
So you write that down and thenit goes into affirmations.
Our self-talk is critical inthat inner dialogue and there

(08:43):
are three different ways.
And it's a guided journal.
So I have the stems there, I am, I have I, and then the person
completes that.
There's also gratitude iscritical.
There's no way you can be happyand upset in the same minute or
the same second.

(09:04):
So today I'm grateful for, andthen you write out what am I
happy for, and it's important tohave a sense of I'm achieving
something or I'm gettingsomething done, I'm using my
time well.
So there's a statement aboutthe goal I want to achieve today
is.
But what also the researchshows is, if you write the goal

(09:29):
and don't necessarily do it, youstill didn't nothing happen.
Goal and don't necessarily doit, you still didn't nothing
happened.
So in the space where I have mygoal for today is, there's also
a space of steps I'll take toachieve.
Them are nice, so like for me.
I remember going to the gym wassomething new.

(09:50):
Those are new behaviors thatstarted post-COVID for me, and
so then steps I'll take for that.
Okay, I might put out my gymclothes the night before.
I might make sure my sneakersand socks are ready.
I'll set my alarm that I get upin time and I get there.
If I miss it let's say Iusually get there at 8 in the

(10:12):
morning, I will not beat uponmyself, I'll probably get there
at 11 if I prefer to do thatthat day.
And then that's the am, andthen there's a pm little section
where in the evening you canjust reflect on the same day.
Today I was, I was, I'm pleasedthat so and so happened, um,

(10:33):
something I would fix or change,and then you write that out and
sometimes there might benothing.
I might just say I'm pleasedhow today went.
And then thinking is important.
So there's a statement where mysummary word for today is and

(10:53):
then they write that down andamazing, amazing, I noticed that
I wasn't struggling at all.
No, and now I can talk, I canidentify BMI.
So, like in my chapter in ourbook, I share with readers how
to calculate the BMI.
So, like in my chapter in ourbook, I share with you, know,

(11:13):
readers how to calculate the BMIso they can know that body mass
index and then what level ofobesity it might be or not.
And then to also be here, inthe most recent research,
obesity is a disease.
I would never think so.
So you know, it's calling allthese realities and facing them.

(11:39):
And definitely my life istransformed because for me to be
able to name these things,apply them, see a change and be
able to even identify and tellothers new behaviors and new
space and time for me.
And those are just some of thechanges.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Well, I have two questions for you.
I'm really curious.
You were talking about five21-day sessions in the journal,
so is there a different focusfor each one, or does the reader
choose what that focus is?

Speaker 2 (12:17):
They could probably choose that.
For me it's the repetition ofthose 21 cycles of the
discipline, because usually itdoesn't all set in the first 21
days that everything has changed.
I have to repeat becauseusually, if, uh, what is based

(12:40):
on the research of dr carolyn'sleaf work, where she talks about
switching on the brain, andit's that where I saw, where she
shows the synapses that arehappening in our brain and the
growing new neurons and justsome new pathways, right, and

(13:01):
then so that's what these 21days she shows, where you can
break.
But if during, let's say, daysix, I have six, I have you
wouldn't say a relapse, but it'snot as good or on the track as
I wanted, then a new set of 21has to start so the person can

(13:24):
finish that.
But the book has cycles of 21.
So they can just have funlearning about themselves going
through the cycles.
It's going to take a while.
It's going to take a littlewhile, okay.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
That is awesome.
And then my next question,although we are here talking
about the book I read and Ireally am just inspired by the
stories in the book, where canthey get the grateful your
journal, Great Full ReflectionsJournal?

Speaker 2 (13:57):
yeah, yes, amazon.
Amazoncom is a great source forthat.
Covenant Books was the one thatI published it Covenant Books
and also certainly AmazoncomPerfect perfect, perfect, thank
you.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
So, sharon, as we wind this down, we always ask
our guests if you could shareone thing with anyone listening
to this.
What would that be?
What is one thing you wouldlove for people to just know?

Speaker 2 (14:36):
What I would love for folks to know.
My chapter opens up what Iwould love for folks to know.
My chapter opens up and it'scalled Emerge Cheerful.
We can emerge cheerful and itopens up I can achieve anything
I want to achieve today, andthat is true, and that is so for

(14:56):
any Shiro who is listening toyou.
She takes or he, they taketheir own life in their own
hands.
It's going to take discipline,but with the strategies, with
renewed vigor, I face 2024 dailyand that's how my chapter opens

(15:17):
up.
We emerge cheerful because I ambeing my own cheerleader.
Ladies, what I realized is Ihave favorite places, fabulous
restaurants.
I live in Florida, so we're onthe water, so it's fabulous
locations, fabulous.
So it's fabulous locations,fabulous, and I will go there.

(15:40):
And in the past I will eatwhatever and I may gorge myself.
Now I'm able to go to thosesame locations.
I can walk, I can order thingsthat are within control and I'm

(16:02):
in the same community.
So I've now learned that mycommunity was not hurting me,
because now I am bringing in anew set of strategies facing it
differently.
I'm in the same community andhaving empowerment and the life
I want to live, and that is whatanyone who, if they just it's
got it, takes a little work andeffort.
You have to.

(16:23):
If you want good, you have todo.
You know, do do different.
And Stephen Kovitz habit hetalks about those seven habits
of highly effective people.
He talks about some privatehabits and that's what those
journal, what I was writing,those were private things before

(16:43):
I went out in the world and nowI'm living a new renewed in
that area and there will beother areas of growth that will
also open up.
So they can do it.
Every Shiro listening to youcan do it.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
I absolutely love that.
Yeah, and it's true.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Well, sharon, thank you so much for being with us
today.
We really appreciate that, andwe welcome everyone to go to
Amazon and get the GratefulReflections Journal by Sharon
Rose Wallen, w-a-l-l-e-n.
And so thank you very much andwe will see you all next time.

(17:27):
Do you have something you wantto say, deborah?

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Yes, I do.
As always, we invite you tolove and care for the Shiro in
you.
Bye.
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