Optimistic Realism with Effie Baldwin

Effie Baldwin is a U.S. Army veteran, Positive Discipline Educator, Associate Member of the U.S. Golf Teachers Federation and the founder of Believing in a Better World LLC. After earning her Kemetic Yoga Certification in Egypt, she became an instructor for Veterans Yoga Project then later a board member for the nonprofit. She’s also an End-of-Life Doula and facilitates Emotional Emancipation Circles to promote healing caused by race-based discrimination within communities of African-descent.

Prior to becoming her own boss, Effie spent almost 30 years working in high-level positions with the state and federal government in Senior Policy, Grants Administration, and Program Management—and despite this long list of accolades, she admits that her greatest accomplishment is raising two life-embracing adult children.

In this conversation, Effie explains the similarities between Kemetic Yoga and golf as two activities that people can do “from cradle to grave,” and the virtues and ethics that are necessary for both: patience, honesty, mindfulness, focus, discipline—all with the result of self-regulation and self-responsibility. Effie came to yoga through, running, of all things. That is to say, she literally ran herself into the ground and yoga was prescribed by a nurse practitioner as a way to rebuild her immune system and ease her pattern of intensity throughout life. It changed the trajectory of her life, and for the last six years, she’s added that to her repertoire of service-oriented work.

She’s a self-proclaimed optimistic realist, a way of viewing the world through practicality and positivity, giving people and situations the benefit of the doubt. She also recalls questioning the “rules of engagement” very early and crafting a life of learning, growing and independently investigating the truth—as she calls it—to decide what made sense for her own happiness, not what was projected onto her from society.

We end by highlighting the importance of nurturing the children of our communities and pouring love and energy into youth, whether they are your own kids or not. The next generation need us to show up as positive, responsible and whole-hearted role models just as we need them to carry on the legacy of our families and improve the impact we have on this planet.

Believing in a Better World

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