November 6, 2024 • 24 mins
In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Susanna Calvert, founder and executive director of the Foundation for Family and Community Healing and Sanctuary of Earth. She explains the themes of healing, authenticity, and spirituality that her foundations focus on. She explores the significance of teaching self-regulation and emotional processing skills to children, to help them avoid the long-term effects of mental rigidity. She also emphasizes the need for mindfulness and the development of essential skills for processing adversity and nurturing joy – e.g., being more open as a way to change beliefs; accepting what we can’t change and addressing what we can; listening at a deep level; and developing the relationship between ourselves, the Earth and the Divine. Following a 26-year career in higher education, Dr. Susanna (Sanna) Wu-Pong Calvert, MAPP, PhD is the Founder and Executive Director of two 501(c)3 nonprofits, the Foundation for Family and Community Healing (www.HealingEdu.org) which fosters resilience and wellbeing skill development, and Sanctuary of Earth (www.SanctuaryOfEarth.org), whose mission is to actualize human spiritual potential. She is a consultant, reiki master/energy healer, soul medium, tarot reader, and intuitive coach (www.SusannaCalvert.com).
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Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, and welcome to Back in Control Radio with Doctor
David Hanscombe.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Back in
Control Radio with Doctor David Hanscomb. I'm your host Tom Masters,
and our guest today is doctor Susannah Calvert. She's the
founder and executive director of two nonprofits, the Foundation for
Family and Community Healing, which fosters resilience and well being
(00:35):
skill development, and Sanctuary of Earth, whose mission is to
actualize human spiritual potential. She's also a consultant Reka Master,
energy healer and intuitive coach.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Welcome, Thank you, Tom, Saana, welcome back to the show.
I like to reintroduce She's on a Calvert. She goes
by Sauna and she has quite a history. Introduce her.
She had a twenty six year career in higher education
and in the first podcast she told us some of
her experiences of getting tenure, getting burned out, quitting tenure
(01:10):
which is a big deal, and went on her personal
journey and she is become the founder and executive director
of two nonprofits. One is the Foundation for Family and
Community Healing, which fosters resilience and well being skilled development,
and the other one is Sanctuary of the Earth whose
mission is actualized human spiritual potential. She's published almost one
(01:31):
hundred journal articles, books, books, chapters and abstracts. She's written
hundreds of blocks, including for psychology. Today, she's chair of
the Rotary Club's District seventy six hundred Mental Health Task Force.
Former radio show host, TV personality, a consultant, wreiki master,
energy healer, sole medium, taro reader, and intuitive coach. So
(01:53):
she is a busy woman and we just had a
nice podcast just given her background, and you're just hearing
a fraction what she actually does. But when in one
contry at this time, is you know what she's doing now,
but also the deeper philosophy behind the approach and why
she's doing it. So, Sonon, welcome back to the show.
I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Thank you. I'm so thrilled to be back, and such
a pleasure to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I appreciate it and I'm excited about your work. And
you know, you and I have come to similar places
with different styles. And we talked in the first podcast
about connecting to who you are so you can connect
to people around you. And we tend to be really
busy and accomplish oriented which sort of disconnects us from
people around us in ourselves, and it's a bit of
(02:38):
a journey back into, you know, getting connected to who
you are. So what I like to focus on, based
on our conversation just before the podcast, is that my hypothesis,
which I'm not sure is correct, I think you totally
agree with it, that do you think you have to
go through a lot of trauma actually connect to who
you are? Or can you teach things to kids to
(02:59):
help them become more skilled at life skills early on?
And you know I both talked about is that the
empisode is on the skills to achieve a certain state
of mind, not the state of mind, I mean the
state of money emerges. So I like to just, you know,
we explore that conversation a bit about the skill sets
(03:19):
you can develop and what the goals are of these
skill sets.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Okay, wonderful, What a lovely place to begin. So my
belief is that we are born with everything we need
to know to become the best and highest version of ourselves,
and what we do with kids is that we teach
them not to do that. But trauma is also inevitable,
So I think we actually agree on this, David. But
(03:47):
the way I would phrase it this time around is
to say that I believe that I have not tried
to do this, but I believe that we could teach
our youth how to process trauma in such a way
that they won't have to go through the deep dives
that somebody the age of you and me has to do.
(04:07):
So that's my belief. It's a hypothesis. I have not
tested it. I do not have the tools for little
kids or their parents to do that. But I feel
like with our inner work, our shadow work, we do
whatever age we are, eighteen and above or maybe even
sixteen and above type thing, we do have to go
in and to do that inner work and recover that
(04:29):
lost piece of ourself if we have not been given
the skills or we have not had the role models
and support to do that. But I do feel, I
do feel our natural state is one that is of
great joy and ecstasy even and connection to everything and everybody,
(04:55):
not only our higher purpose, but with each other and
with Earth and the universe or God or however you
want to call that. And and when we get to
the point where we understand that this is an opportunity
to recover our most natural versions of ourselfs. Then it
just becomes a beautiful journey. And what becomes possible is
(05:19):
I think unimaginable because when we when we really remove
our self limiting beliefs about ourselves, that we understand that
we are well, I don't want to get too spiritual here,
but we are divine beings. We're all part of creation,
we're all part of Source, and the only thing that
separates us from that is our belief that we're separate
(05:41):
from it. Then we can tap into unimaginable beauty and power,
strength and support.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, you just said something that caught my attention. So
I'm a spin Shordan, So I'm considered mechanic and you know,
very objective and scientific, and so the word spiritual sort
of goes into funny spot that shouldn't be there. Well,
it turns out actually that the spiritual perspective slash play,
good food, good wine, good friends. In other words, putting
your brain into a higher perspective is actually the definitive
(06:12):
solution for chronic pain, mental and physical. So and the
science behind it, this is not some sort of distraction.
You know, people talk about the spiritual bypass. But I
just like to double down in that comment because I
think you and I believe the same thing is that
spirituality is actually the essence of being alive. And so
(06:35):
that's how I think spirituality can be defined in a
different set of ways. We both know ridgid belief systems
are the opposite spirituality, and so I think that's a
different conversation. We won't come into too much a day,
but I just would double down. Is that I get
a lot of a grief from my spine surgery world
about this word spirituality. It is one of the definitive
(06:55):
answers because it represents a profound shift in your body's chemistry,
and so it's not some sort of abstract idea. But
you know, I so, okay, we do really agree on
something that my hypothesis is the same. So I didn't
really wake up again. Our age similarities are different as
far as our waking up. But I wasn't until I
(07:18):
was fifty years old that all of a sudden woke up.
That's you know, so I'm not very happy. I'm going
through the first fifty years of my life being sort
of asleep. And you mentioned about you know, we over
achieved accomplishments. We have all these things you're supposed to do,
but you get sort of attested to your identity of
this person you created as opposed to who you actually are.
(07:41):
And so you've mentioned several times with kids, so I
don't think I needed to go through that. So you know,
I do have the same belief system that if you
have the skills early on starting clearing grade school, I
realized that you work with a little bit more with
teenagers and stuff. But and I don't know the right
answer of how to do this, but my hypothe this
is also if you give kids skills early enough that
(08:04):
they don't have to be programmed out of their state
of being. And also, like what you said is that
our natural state of being is open, curious, playful. What
happened to all that?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Right? Well, you know, it depends on the skills. So
I mean, I feel like our understanding of what it
means to recover our authentic self and then what it
means to retain our authentic and most natural self, like
that's going to evolve because you know, as conscious as
I try to be, like, I still have these huge
SATs of ignorance and programmed thinking and rigid thinking. So
(08:42):
so I agree with you like in theory. I absolutely
agree with that, and I feel like even within our
what's left of our lifetimes, David, that we will see
great movement on that, and I feel like people like
you and me will be part of that conversation and
finding the solutions and tools. So I do have great
hope for future generations, and so much of what I
(09:04):
do motivates that, not only in terms of finding our
own souls again, but also that part of us that
is here, that is part of Earth, and that more
and more of us will remember that we can't exist
without Earth. We're here because of Earth, and that relationship
(09:26):
also absolutely needs to be restored, because our natural selves
are in right relationship with everything in everybody, and it's
not just with our own spirits, but it's with everything.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I also like what you said because everybody's like looking
for a solution for their pain, mental or physical, and
it's already in there. Yes, And we started out, we
started out in a pain free existence. We don't have
to find it, it's already in there, and so it's
a skill set to uncover what's already there. Correct.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yes, I agree, and I really like what you said
about about about that ability to be flexible is so important.
And you know, as we're as we are raised, we
are taught the rules, the rules, this is how things work,
and this is what you do, and that's drummed into us.
And the successful young person follows the rules and so
(10:19):
but that creates rigidity, right, and then that can cause
pain and inability to adapt to reality, whether it's physical, mental, emotional, financial, whatever,
and and then we are in disharmony and that can
boil down to even beneath the physical, to the energetic,
and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So so yeah, so it's ironic is that rigidity is
a very common trait and aegidity is sort of the
antithesis of awareness, and awareness is that the essence of
human relationships that are successful. So we do end up
developing rigidity for lots of different reasons. And the key
to life being enjoyable and full and open is awareness.
(11:05):
But their opposite traits. So from your perspective, with your again,
I'm embarrassed, I don't remember the full name of your foundation.
The first one, the nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Foundation for Family and Community Healing. It's a mouthful Healingedu
dot org uses.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Okay, so I'm just curious. So we both agree that
skills are important. So what are the general lavor of
the skills that you present in the course of as
you roll your nonprofit out into the world and want
to spread the word. What are some of the basic
skill sets that you're looking to teach people.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well, we're really looking at the places where our schools
and workplaces have fallen short in terms of our ability
to be successful citizens of humanity and Earth. And that's
a pretty vast territory because our schools and workplaces teach
us to be successful to the metrics grades, income, whatever
(11:59):
which it's made. And so so we are really looking
at that gap, and we are looking to populate skill
development content as much as possible in that gap, which
I view as also a spectrum between sort of mental
illness or physical illness adjacent types of content all the
(12:20):
way through flourishing. So it's a vast it's a vastly
ambitious project, but I feel as exactly what humanity needs
and for the foundation, it's about our relationship with ourselves,
each other, Earth and the loving force that connects us
and with sanctuary of Earth. It's about that our relationship
(12:43):
with the divine and our and our spiritual potential. So
you know, all of it boils down to I think
what you and I were talking about, David is two
for us to learn to be more open, to get
out of our rigid belief systems and practices. Because everything
(13:04):
we do, pretty much everything we do, is a habit,
and what we do affects our environment, which affects how
we feel and affects how we view the world. And
so when we realize that it's a habit, then we
can change our belief about something like, oh, my spouse
(13:27):
is terrible, my job is terrible, or whatever. And I
could say my spouse is not bad or my spouse
is really great in these ways, and when I have
those beliefs, then it changes how I feel, and then
it changes what I do, which affects my environment. So
that's not to say you shouldn't always rely on the
status quo, because some of the changes could be I
(13:49):
can't change this too, Oh I can change this part
of this. So we have so much power in creating
our world and how we feel about it, and so
everything that we're doing in both organizations is to help
people get out of that rigidity get into openness with curiosity,
(14:11):
but also acceptance for what we cannot change, and to
focus on the things we can change. What do I believe?
Therefore what do I feel? And therefore what do I do?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So there's a little bit of a catch twenty two
that I've actually struggled with for twenty years, and that's
why I'm excited to work with you and try to
figure this out. Is that there's a paper out that
shows that they do scales and they've looked at the
research MRI scans and people with mental rigidity, and there's
parts of the brain that define your relationship to yourself
(14:42):
and then another part of the brain defines your relationship
to the outside world. In a mental rigidity, those interactions
get broken. They just they're broken. They don't function correctly,
so the interactions are off. And what breaks up that
rigidity is mindfulness, just simply connecting with what's in front
of you. It's just one simple time amongst others. But
the problem is they also taught mindfulnans in the skill
(15:04):
systems and they found out that it didn't make that
much difference. And also the kids that were having emotional
problems get way worse. So the question is, you know,
why is your rigidity there in the first place, And
it's there because people don't feel free to let go
and just speak who they are. So the answer is
mindfled does break up the rigidity. But you also have
(15:24):
to have a place to land as people have to
feel safe letting go. So again go into a conversation
on skill sets. You can't just let go of rigidity.
You have to find a place to actually learn the
skills to actually, you know, feel free. And so, like
you said before, it's very scary to quote let go.
And so once you have the tools that allows you
(15:44):
to let go, then you don't need their rigidity. So
that you know, when you have talked about this is
that it's the skill sets and we're not taught to
skill sets. And I asked my group yesterday about how
many how many of you were taught skills at any
point in your life school parents, otherwise to actually process adversity,
(16:07):
and also how many of you are taught the skills
to actually nurture joy. Nobody that's not the way we're raised.
So I that's what I'm excited about your vision because
you're actually have a philosophy, but also ways to actually
get there, and so I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Well, well that's wonderful, and thank you David. I do
feel like our work is so complimentary and I'll just
go one step foote further because I think mindfulness is
way underrated. And I also feel like it only goes
halfway right because because right it helps us clear our mind,
(16:48):
but there's something between clearing our mind and moving into behavior.
And for me, what is missing is that piece of
listening to our other forms of intelligence. Because I think
the way mindfulness is being taught it says, okay, have
your mind be a blank slate and then make decisions.
(17:11):
Go forth. But I feel like there's another step that
we should listen. We should ask a question and listen
or just yeah, put an intention, and whether it's listening
to our heart, whether it's listening to our soul, whether
it's listening to our guidance, whether it's listening to to
(17:32):
the others in our lives, important others, whether it's our
employer who's trying to communicate, or our family members or
loved ones. Listen to earth, what's nature trying to tell me?
What is Gaya trying to tell me we are surrounded
in consciousness. We are consciousness. And when we put that
(17:54):
listening step in between the clear mind and the action,
we can access a whole world of intelligence that's beyond
our ability to think, think about it, to imagine, and
to me, that's where the real beauty lies. And this
(18:14):
is where we can find a path in complexity, because
our minds are not even the most brilliant mind on
Earth cannot process that our world's problems because they are
so infinitely complex. So we have to let go of
thinking that we can solve the problems with our mind
(18:34):
and we move into that vast realm of the unknown
with our question and our intention, our desire to serve
in the way that is uniquely us what we're uniquely
here to do, and to be guided in the path.
And I mean just a little anecdote. You know, I
consider myself pretty smart. You know, I've developed my intellectual
(18:57):
accomplishments for thirty six years, says I was telling you
prior to giving up tenure. But and when I started
the foundation six years ago, so I was fifty four,
I wrote a pretty good business plan. But what has
evolved when I was open to following the guidance and
what is possible for us. It means that the beauty,
(19:21):
the beauty and the impact and the potential success of
the foundation has gone up exponentially in ways that I
would never have been able to figure out on my own.
And I'm not just saying that to be humble, It's
absolutely true. So you know, we we as individual or
(19:42):
collective at humans, can solve anything. We can do anything.
We just have to get out of our minds, which
are very fear based and judgy, and get into a
greater intelligence all of it. All of our intelligence, whether
it's somatic or emotional, or kinesthetic or naturalistic or existential,
(20:05):
whatever you want to call it, we can solve anything,
in everything. And part of the solution might simply to
believe that there isn't a problem. I mean, there's always improvement.
But but but what if everything is going exactly as
it's meant to go, and that humanity is going through
the dark night of the soul and we're just working
(20:27):
through it. We're just working through it. That's what I believe.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Well, it's an interesting comment because you know, in the
course of billions of years of evolution, the language only
evolved maybe two hundred thousand years ago, and I'm not
sure the human race has learned how to negotiate language
in these concepts very well. And I think we are
going through that phase where we are you know, mentally
(20:51):
in physical pain are the same thing, and so we
have not really learned how to negotiate our mental landscape
in order to thrive. And so I I do think
there's an evolution process that is that will open up
as we go. Now, I do think you're I think
you're right. You have to believe there's a solution, because
I think there is. Also, you know, you quit your tenure,
(21:12):
actually quit my practice to do this, and those are
both big steps for each one of us because we
actually do believe there's solutions and we see it in
people's healing ins individually. And I think both of our
vision is to get this out into the world is
in a big way as much as we can. So anyway,
so on, So you have two foundations, Can you tell
us how to access your work on these foundations?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So our social emotional resilient skills for the Foundation for
Family and Community healing can be found at HEALINGDDU dot org.
And we have a growing library of skill development courses
you can do on your own with a mentor or
a loved one, or in a group with a facilitator.
(21:56):
And Sanctuary of Earth is for virtual skill development and
our learning platform is not up yet, but we are
offering courses on a variety of topics, especially about how
to once you're listening, what what do you listen to?
Who do you listen to? How do you do it?
So are our most popular courses right now are on
(22:22):
you know, clear listening, which is called Clare audience, clairvuoyance,
clear seeing, Claire Empathy, which is feeling clearly, and we
also have that extends into Clare sentience, which is sensing clearly.
And my own personal practice is there to support and
coach people to shed the rigidity and the programming to
(22:47):
find their deepest, most authentic self and move into their
soul's purpose and to help them find their gifts and
their tools to do so, because the world needs all
of us to be in our soul's purpose. We are
all here for a reason at this point in time.
Every person is important and we're all needed to contribute,
(23:10):
and it's a beautiful time for people to awaken and
I think all this challenge will be the stimulus for
many of us to do so so, so as horrible
as the challenges, I'm also grateful because, like in my life,
it's causing a lot of people to step up. And
you can find me in Susannahcalvert dot com if you're
(23:32):
interested in that one on one work.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Okay, well, that's a very inspiring vision. I mean right now,
you know, the world's a bit of a dark place
just in general for lots of different reasons, and so no,
I think keeping that vision out there is really really
important right now. So I'm excited and inspired by your
work and your vision, and thank you very very much
for being on the show.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Thank you for having me, David, it's a pleasure and
to share our mutual inspiration with each other.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I'd like to thank our guest, doctor Susanna Calvert for
being on the show today and discussing the resilience and
wellbeing skills development her foundation's work to foster. I'm your host,
Tom Masters, reminding you to be back next week for
another episode of Back in Control Radio with Doctor David Hanscombe,
and in the meantime, be sure to visit the website
(24:21):
at www dot back incontrol dot com.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Thanks for listening today and join us next week for
Back in Control Radium
Hello, and welcome to Back in Control Radio with Doctor
David Hanscombe.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Back in
Control Radio with Doctor David Hanscomb. I'm your host Tom Masters,
and our guest today is doctor Susannah Calvert. She's the
founder and executive director of two nonprofits, the Foundation for
Family and Community Healing, which fosters resilience and well being
(00:35):
skill development, and Sanctuary of Earth, whose mission is to
actualize human spiritual potential. She's also a consultant Reka Master,
energy healer and intuitive coach.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Welcome, Thank you, Tom, Saana, welcome back to the show.
I like to reintroduce She's on a Calvert. She goes
by Sauna and she has quite a history. Introduce her.
She had a twenty six year career in higher education
and in the first podcast she told us some of
her experiences of getting tenure, getting burned out, quitting tenure
(01:10):
which is a big deal, and went on her personal
journey and she is become the founder and executive director
of two nonprofits. One is the Foundation for Family and
Community Healing, which fosters resilience and well being skilled development,
and the other one is Sanctuary of the Earth whose
mission is actualized human spiritual potential. She's published almost one
(01:31):
hundred journal articles, books, books, chapters and abstracts. She's written
hundreds of blocks, including for psychology. Today, she's chair of
the Rotary Club's District seventy six hundred Mental Health Task Force.
Former radio show host, TV personality, a consultant, wreiki master,
energy healer, sole medium, taro reader, and intuitive coach. So
(01:53):
she is a busy woman and we just had a
nice podcast just given her background, and you're just hearing
a fraction what she actually does. But when in one
contry at this time, is you know what she's doing now,
but also the deeper philosophy behind the approach and why
she's doing it. So, Sonon, welcome back to the show.
I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Thank you. I'm so thrilled to be back, and such
a pleasure to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I appreciate it and I'm excited about your work. And
you know, you and I have come to similar places
with different styles. And we talked in the first podcast
about connecting to who you are so you can connect
to people around you. And we tend to be really
busy and accomplish oriented which sort of disconnects us from
people around us in ourselves, and it's a bit of
(02:38):
a journey back into, you know, getting connected to who
you are. So what I like to focus on, based
on our conversation just before the podcast, is that my hypothesis,
which I'm not sure is correct, I think you totally
agree with it, that do you think you have to
go through a lot of trauma actually connect to who
you are? Or can you teach things to kids to
(02:59):
help them become more skilled at life skills early on?
And you know I both talked about is that the
empisode is on the skills to achieve a certain state
of mind, not the state of mind, I mean the
state of money emerges. So I like to just, you know,
we explore that conversation a bit about the skill sets
(03:19):
you can develop and what the goals are of these
skill sets.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Okay, wonderful, What a lovely place to begin. So my
belief is that we are born with everything we need
to know to become the best and highest version of ourselves,
and what we do with kids is that we teach
them not to do that. But trauma is also inevitable,
So I think we actually agree on this, David. But
(03:47):
the way I would phrase it this time around is
to say that I believe that I have not tried
to do this, but I believe that we could teach
our youth how to process trauma in such a way
that they won't have to go through the deep dives
that somebody the age of you and me has to do.
(04:07):
So that's my belief. It's a hypothesis. I have not
tested it. I do not have the tools for little
kids or their parents to do that. But I feel
like with our inner work, our shadow work, we do
whatever age we are, eighteen and above or maybe even
sixteen and above type thing, we do have to go
in and to do that inner work and recover that
(04:29):
lost piece of ourself if we have not been given
the skills or we have not had the role models
and support to do that. But I do feel, I
do feel our natural state is one that is of
great joy and ecstasy even and connection to everything and everybody,
(04:55):
not only our higher purpose, but with each other and
with Earth and the universe or God or however you
want to call that. And and when we get to
the point where we understand that this is an opportunity
to recover our most natural versions of ourselfs. Then it
just becomes a beautiful journey. And what becomes possible is
(05:19):
I think unimaginable because when we when we really remove
our self limiting beliefs about ourselves, that we understand that
we are well, I don't want to get too spiritual here,
but we are divine beings. We're all part of creation,
we're all part of Source, and the only thing that
separates us from that is our belief that we're separate
(05:41):
from it. Then we can tap into unimaginable beauty and power,
strength and support.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, you just said something that caught my attention. So
I'm a spin Shordan, So I'm considered mechanic and you know,
very objective and scientific, and so the word spiritual sort
of goes into funny spot that shouldn't be there. Well,
it turns out actually that the spiritual perspective slash play,
good food, good wine, good friends. In other words, putting
your brain into a higher perspective is actually the definitive
(06:12):
solution for chronic pain, mental and physical. So and the
science behind it, this is not some sort of distraction.
You know, people talk about the spiritual bypass. But I
just like to double down in that comment because I
think you and I believe the same thing is that
spirituality is actually the essence of being alive. And so
(06:35):
that's how I think spirituality can be defined in a
different set of ways. We both know ridgid belief systems
are the opposite spirituality, and so I think that's a
different conversation. We won't come into too much a day,
but I just would double down. Is that I get
a lot of a grief from my spine surgery world
about this word spirituality. It is one of the definitive
(06:55):
answers because it represents a profound shift in your body's chemistry,
and so it's not some sort of abstract idea. But
you know, I so, okay, we do really agree on
something that my hypothesis is the same. So I didn't
really wake up again. Our age similarities are different as
far as our waking up. But I wasn't until I
(07:18):
was fifty years old that all of a sudden woke up.
That's you know, so I'm not very happy. I'm going
through the first fifty years of my life being sort
of asleep. And you mentioned about you know, we over
achieved accomplishments. We have all these things you're supposed to do,
but you get sort of attested to your identity of
this person you created as opposed to who you actually are.
(07:41):
And so you've mentioned several times with kids, so I
don't think I needed to go through that. So you know,
I do have the same belief system that if you
have the skills early on starting clearing grade school, I
realized that you work with a little bit more with
teenagers and stuff. But and I don't know the right
answer of how to do this, but my hypothe this
is also if you give kids skills early enough that
(08:04):
they don't have to be programmed out of their state
of being. And also, like what you said is that
our natural state of being is open, curious, playful. What
happened to all that?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Right? Well, you know, it depends on the skills. So
I mean, I feel like our understanding of what it
means to recover our authentic self and then what it
means to retain our authentic and most natural self, like
that's going to evolve because you know, as conscious as
I try to be, like, I still have these huge
SATs of ignorance and programmed thinking and rigid thinking. So
(08:42):
so I agree with you like in theory. I absolutely
agree with that, and I feel like even within our
what's left of our lifetimes, David, that we will see
great movement on that, and I feel like people like
you and me will be part of that conversation and
finding the solutions and tools. So I do have great
hope for future generations, and so much of what I
(09:04):
do motivates that, not only in terms of finding our
own souls again, but also that part of us that
is here, that is part of Earth, and that more
and more of us will remember that we can't exist
without Earth. We're here because of Earth, and that relationship
(09:26):
also absolutely needs to be restored, because our natural selves
are in right relationship with everything in everybody, and it's
not just with our own spirits, but it's with everything.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I also like what you said because everybody's like looking
for a solution for their pain, mental or physical, and
it's already in there. Yes, And we started out, we
started out in a pain free existence. We don't have
to find it, it's already in there, and so it's
a skill set to uncover what's already there. Correct.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yes, I agree, and I really like what you said
about about about that ability to be flexible is so important.
And you know, as we're as we are raised, we
are taught the rules, the rules, this is how things work,
and this is what you do, and that's drummed into us.
And the successful young person follows the rules and so
(10:19):
but that creates rigidity, right, and then that can cause
pain and inability to adapt to reality, whether it's physical, mental, emotional, financial, whatever,
and and then we are in disharmony and that can
boil down to even beneath the physical, to the energetic,
and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So so yeah, so it's ironic is that rigidity is
a very common trait and aegidity is sort of the
antithesis of awareness, and awareness is that the essence of
human relationships that are successful. So we do end up
developing rigidity for lots of different reasons. And the key
to life being enjoyable and full and open is awareness.
(11:05):
But their opposite traits. So from your perspective, with your again,
I'm embarrassed, I don't remember the full name of your foundation.
The first one, the nonprofit.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Foundation for Family and Community Healing. It's a mouthful Healingedu
dot org uses.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Okay, so I'm just curious. So we both agree that
skills are important. So what are the general lavor of
the skills that you present in the course of as
you roll your nonprofit out into the world and want
to spread the word. What are some of the basic
skill sets that you're looking to teach people.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Well, we're really looking at the places where our schools
and workplaces have fallen short in terms of our ability
to be successful citizens of humanity and Earth. And that's
a pretty vast territory because our schools and workplaces teach
us to be successful to the metrics grades, income, whatever
(11:59):
which it's made. And so so we are really looking
at that gap, and we are looking to populate skill
development content as much as possible in that gap, which
I view as also a spectrum between sort of mental
illness or physical illness adjacent types of content all the
(12:20):
way through flourishing. So it's a vast it's a vastly
ambitious project, but I feel as exactly what humanity needs
and for the foundation, it's about our relationship with ourselves,
each other, Earth and the loving force that connects us
and with sanctuary of Earth. It's about that our relationship
(12:43):
with the divine and our and our spiritual potential. So
you know, all of it boils down to I think
what you and I were talking about, David is two
for us to learn to be more open, to get
out of our rigid belief systems and practices. Because everything
(13:04):
we do, pretty much everything we do, is a habit,
and what we do affects our environment, which affects how
we feel and affects how we view the world. And
so when we realize that it's a habit, then we
can change our belief about something like, oh, my spouse
(13:27):
is terrible, my job is terrible, or whatever. And I
could say my spouse is not bad or my spouse
is really great in these ways, and when I have
those beliefs, then it changes how I feel, and then
it changes what I do, which affects my environment. So
that's not to say you shouldn't always rely on the
status quo, because some of the changes could be I
(13:49):
can't change this too, Oh I can change this part
of this. So we have so much power in creating
our world and how we feel about it, and so
everything that we're doing in both organizations is to help
people get out of that rigidity get into openness with curiosity,
(14:11):
but also acceptance for what we cannot change, and to
focus on the things we can change. What do I believe?
Therefore what do I feel? And therefore what do I do?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So there's a little bit of a catch twenty two
that I've actually struggled with for twenty years, and that's
why I'm excited to work with you and try to
figure this out. Is that there's a paper out that
shows that they do scales and they've looked at the
research MRI scans and people with mental rigidity, and there's
parts of the brain that define your relationship to yourself
(14:42):
and then another part of the brain defines your relationship
to the outside world. In a mental rigidity, those interactions
get broken. They just they're broken. They don't function correctly,
so the interactions are off. And what breaks up that
rigidity is mindfulness, just simply connecting with what's in front
of you. It's just one simple time amongst others. But
the problem is they also taught mindfulnans in the skill
(15:04):
systems and they found out that it didn't make that
much difference. And also the kids that were having emotional
problems get way worse. So the question is, you know,
why is your rigidity there in the first place, And
it's there because people don't feel free to let go
and just speak who they are. So the answer is
mindfled does break up the rigidity. But you also have
(15:24):
to have a place to land as people have to
feel safe letting go. So again go into a conversation
on skill sets. You can't just let go of rigidity.
You have to find a place to actually learn the
skills to actually, you know, feel free. And so, like
you said before, it's very scary to quote let go.
And so once you have the tools that allows you
(15:44):
to let go, then you don't need their rigidity. So
that you know, when you have talked about this is
that it's the skill sets and we're not taught to
skill sets. And I asked my group yesterday about how
many how many of you were taught skills at any
point in your life school parents, otherwise to actually process adversity,
(16:07):
and also how many of you are taught the skills
to actually nurture joy. Nobody that's not the way we're raised.
So I that's what I'm excited about your vision because
you're actually have a philosophy, but also ways to actually
get there, and so I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Well, well that's wonderful, and thank you David. I do
feel like our work is so complimentary and I'll just
go one step foote further because I think mindfulness is
way underrated. And I also feel like it only goes
halfway right because because right it helps us clear our mind,
(16:48):
but there's something between clearing our mind and moving into behavior.
And for me, what is missing is that piece of
listening to our other forms of intelligence. Because I think
the way mindfulness is being taught it says, okay, have
your mind be a blank slate and then make decisions.
(17:11):
Go forth. But I feel like there's another step that
we should listen. We should ask a question and listen
or just yeah, put an intention, and whether it's listening
to our heart, whether it's listening to our soul, whether
it's listening to our guidance, whether it's listening to to
(17:32):
the others in our lives, important others, whether it's our
employer who's trying to communicate, or our family members or
loved ones. Listen to earth, what's nature trying to tell me?
What is Gaya trying to tell me we are surrounded
in consciousness. We are consciousness. And when we put that
(17:54):
listening step in between the clear mind and the action,
we can access a whole world of intelligence that's beyond
our ability to think, think about it, to imagine, and
to me, that's where the real beauty lies. And this
(18:14):
is where we can find a path in complexity, because
our minds are not even the most brilliant mind on
Earth cannot process that our world's problems because they are
so infinitely complex. So we have to let go of
thinking that we can solve the problems with our mind
(18:34):
and we move into that vast realm of the unknown
with our question and our intention, our desire to serve
in the way that is uniquely us what we're uniquely
here to do, and to be guided in the path.
And I mean just a little anecdote. You know, I
consider myself pretty smart. You know, I've developed my intellectual
(18:57):
accomplishments for thirty six years, says I was telling you
prior to giving up tenure. But and when I started
the foundation six years ago, so I was fifty four,
I wrote a pretty good business plan. But what has
evolved when I was open to following the guidance and
what is possible for us. It means that the beauty,
(19:21):
the beauty and the impact and the potential success of
the foundation has gone up exponentially in ways that I
would never have been able to figure out on my own.
And I'm not just saying that to be humble, It's
absolutely true. So you know, we we as individual or
(19:42):
collective at humans, can solve anything. We can do anything.
We just have to get out of our minds, which
are very fear based and judgy, and get into a
greater intelligence all of it. All of our intelligence, whether
it's somatic or emotional, or kinesthetic or naturalistic or existential,
(20:05):
whatever you want to call it, we can solve anything,
in everything. And part of the solution might simply to
believe that there isn't a problem. I mean, there's always improvement.
But but but what if everything is going exactly as
it's meant to go, and that humanity is going through
the dark night of the soul and we're just working
(20:27):
through it. We're just working through it. That's what I believe.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Well, it's an interesting comment because you know, in the
course of billions of years of evolution, the language only
evolved maybe two hundred thousand years ago, and I'm not
sure the human race has learned how to negotiate language
in these concepts very well. And I think we are
going through that phase where we are you know, mentally
(20:51):
in physical pain are the same thing, and so we
have not really learned how to negotiate our mental landscape
in order to thrive. And so I I do think
there's an evolution process that is that will open up
as we go. Now, I do think you're I think
you're right. You have to believe there's a solution, because
I think there is. Also, you know, you quit your tenure,
(21:12):
actually quit my practice to do this, and those are
both big steps for each one of us because we
actually do believe there's solutions and we see it in
people's healing ins individually. And I think both of our
vision is to get this out into the world is
in a big way as much as we can. So anyway,
so on, So you have two foundations, Can you tell
us how to access your work on these foundations?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So our social emotional resilient skills for the Foundation for
Family and Community healing can be found at HEALINGDDU dot org.
And we have a growing library of skill development courses
you can do on your own with a mentor or
a loved one, or in a group with a facilitator.
(21:56):
And Sanctuary of Earth is for virtual skill development and
our learning platform is not up yet, but we are
offering courses on a variety of topics, especially about how
to once you're listening, what what do you listen to?
Who do you listen to? How do you do it?
So are our most popular courses right now are on
(22:22):
you know, clear listening, which is called Clare audience, clairvuoyance,
clear seeing, Claire Empathy, which is feeling clearly, and we
also have that extends into Clare sentience, which is sensing clearly.
And my own personal practice is there to support and
coach people to shed the rigidity and the programming to
(22:47):
find their deepest, most authentic self and move into their
soul's purpose and to help them find their gifts and
their tools to do so, because the world needs all
of us to be in our soul's purpose. We are
all here for a reason at this point in time.
Every person is important and we're all needed to contribute,
(23:10):
and it's a beautiful time for people to awaken and
I think all this challenge will be the stimulus for
many of us to do so so, so as horrible
as the challenges, I'm also grateful because, like in my life,
it's causing a lot of people to step up. And
you can find me in Susannahcalvert dot com if you're
(23:32):
interested in that one on one work.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Okay, well, that's a very inspiring vision. I mean right now,
you know, the world's a bit of a dark place
just in general for lots of different reasons, and so no,
I think keeping that vision out there is really really
important right now. So I'm excited and inspired by your
work and your vision, and thank you very very much
for being on the show.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Thank you for having me, David, it's a pleasure and
to share our mutual inspiration with each other.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I'd like to thank our guest, doctor Susanna Calvert for
being on the show today and discussing the resilience and
wellbeing skills development her foundation's work to foster. I'm your host,
Tom Masters, reminding you to be back next week for
another episode of Back in Control Radio with Doctor David Hanscombe,
and in the meantime, be sure to visit the website
(24:21):
at www dot back incontrol dot com.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Thanks for listening today and join us next week for
Back in Control Radium
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