Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, you guys, I want to welcome you back
to the show. Thank you so much for joining us.
Now for our second segment, you guys know that it's
a part of the show that I thoroughly enjoy. Well,
we get a chance to interview one of our sponsored
guests to talk a little bit more about their journey
and things that they're doing to make the world a
better place. And for that, I like to give you
(00:20):
guys a warm welcome to Healing Horizons founder doctor Marion
Lee Johnson as she joins us on the show. Doctor Johnson,
Welcome to the show. How are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm very well, Joseph, thank you for asking how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm doing fantastic and I appreciate you asking too, and
I'm so excited to talk about what you're doing with
Healing Horizons. Now, for a lot of us out there,
we work so hard Monday through Friday, a lot of
us who are professionals working Saturday and Sunday to put
food on the table, to take care of our families,
and I'm going to be honest, it's extremely taxing. And
(00:59):
for a lot of us out there who are just
emostly and mentally drained, I think something like Healing Horizons
and what you're offering for families and for women particularly
is so absolutely necessary in twenty twenty five and beyond.
So let me stop talking and I'm going to let
you tell our audience about Healing Horizons Foundation and the
(01:21):
global impact you're having and what you're doing there. Tell
us a little about it, doctor Johnson.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So, Healing Horizons has been in my heart for many years.
I feel like I've grown up with her as I
am who I would have loved to have showed up
for me when I was a little girl. So I've
based Healing Horizons not for profit organization, and I'm dedicated
to enhancing the well being of women at all stages
(01:50):
in life.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Now I am starting at young.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Adulthood, to post menopause and beyond. But for right now,
it's the young adulthood and the postmenopausal because I haven't
quite reached the beyond, and I will go back in
time as my story, the Marion Lee Journey, as it unfolds.
So my mission is to empower women worldwide, but I'm
(02:13):
currently focusing on providing innovative wellness opportunities, love and support
for women in Jamaica. The women in Jamaica. As I've
been here for nearly five years, they've held and supported
me as unknown to their community, and how they just
came and supported me and helped me navigate this island.
(02:34):
As I sit at Coral Cove Wellness Resort and I
invite people in, and I do sponsorships, and I make
sure people have what they need, and I know that
six nights and five days at Coral Cove is not
affordable for most Jamaican women. And on top of it,
to take them out into the community to the beach
for lunch, to rivers to waterfalls, providing transportation and food
(02:58):
along the way. That makes my heart really happy. And
for the women that's already sat with me on the beach,
and we've made our own body scrubs and body butters,
we've made our own sunscreen and candles. I just grew
healing horizons out of what I'm already doing at Corol
Cove Wellness Resort.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So from what I'm hearing, it sounds like you who
are helping women in Jamaica not only kind of slowed
down from the fast paced life, but also have an
opportunity to enjoy a moment this retreat that you've created,
and during this retreat you offer some pretty powerful workshops
(03:40):
to help these women to kind of navigate through their
own personal journeys, but also to set up for their
future and success as well. Can you tell us it
about some of the programs that you're fostering during this retreat.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yes, so self growth, personal and professional fulfillment, and holistic wellbeing. Basically,
you can come there and not do anything you may
because we don't.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Because we regardless of.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Your background, your income, your circumstances, your cast I want
to make sure that everybody has the tools and the
support to thrive. If you have a lot of money
and you want to come, shoulders back and your crown
is fixed upon your head and a smile on your face,
and you'll be encouraged to curl up the corners of
your mouth and walk through the gates of coral cove
(04:34):
to just be weighted on, to smell the fresh herbs
in your room, to light the candle that's already presented
to you, and.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And hopefully in hopes.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
That you say, I want to make this candle. I
want to make this herb bundle. Oh, this body butter
smells great. I want to make that you've made this
jackfruit curry. I want to do that and take some
things back to your own community. Can enrich not only
your life and get you to slow down, but help
(05:05):
the community that you're a part of in your own backyard.
And in turn, you can leave a donation, you can
volunteer somebody else to come because you know how it
felt for you to be inside the gates of Coral Cove,
and it's just going to be a revolving door. And
(05:28):
the one thing that sets Healing Horizons apart is weak.
For six months and maybe longer, we'll meet in an
integration circle to talk about what we're doing, what we're learning,
what we do we need more help? Are you doing
your journaling, are you processing your experience? Are you teaching
(05:49):
another person? And then, in hopes you come back as
a paid facilitator one year later to offer services to
the women of Healing Horizons.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
That is absolutely phenomenal. I love the fact that you
are helping the women in Jamaica, you know, find peace
but also find a moment to heal. And I think
especially during this particular month where we are celebrating women
and their accomplishments, it's so important to shine a light
(06:24):
on other women who have dedicated their life to uplifting
other women, and doctor Johnson, that's exactly what you're doing now.
For those of you guys who'd like to see and
learn more about Healing Horizons, you're gonna be able to
see the website as well as a link to their
GoFundMe in the description of the show wherever you happen
to be listening to this show at Before I get
(06:45):
into that i'm doctor Johnson, I know that there has
to be a backstory to why you are the way
you are, and I really want to understand. Like you
mentioned something earlier at the beginning of this interview, and
I want to kind of circle back to that. You
mentioned that you are the person that you need it.
When you were a little girl, can you tell us
(07:07):
at bit about what inspired you on this journey to
kind of give back, give us a little bit about
your backstorm, what made you the woman you are today.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Growing up in a little town in Scotland, we didn't
have a lot of money, but what we did have
a lot of was women or into women and to
making sure that the children had what they needed regardless
of how poor you were or how rich you were.
You couldn't tell a part who was rich and who
was poor and who was working class. And I look
(07:41):
at that, and as I went through and navigated my
own life from a single mother raising two beautiful kings,
the women that continued to network with me and collaborate
with me to see in helping me figure out what
I needed and even when I didn't have anything to give,
(08:01):
to give back to people that needed it, because I
seem to have just a little bit more even though
it wasn't a lot. And as I came through my
degree and worked my way through my professions, I never
forgot about the community that I was raised in as a.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Very as quite a poor child.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But the love, the love never left my heart that
I received, and I just continue to making sure that
my vessel is filled up with a beautiful elixir. It
allows me to keep pouring and pouring and pouring into
other people's while still replenishing myself because it makes me
feel good to do what I do, and it also
(08:47):
makes me feel good to receive what I receive. So
it's it's you pour into me, I pour into you.
It's recipiratory and I love that beautiful, that beautiful earth circle,
the sun, the moon, the infinity of it all, to
just keep going in circles, to keep porn and poorn
(09:08):
into each other.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Well, I love the fact that you've dedicated your career
to being that for other women. Now, I know that
there's a special woman in your life, probably many special
women in your life who upliveded you. One particular person
who was who is very special to you, is that
of your sister. Can you tell us a little about
how your relationship with her helped shape you into the
(09:32):
woman you are to.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yes, my sister, Simone Johnson, Simone Collin Johnson, she's been
with me from day one. We came up through the
ranks together of just lifing and then nursing motherhood, teenagers.
First and foremost is where the bond really began with
my sister. To know that you always have somebody, Do
(10:03):
you always have somebody that's there just for you when
you have a sister.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Thank you for I can tell that she means so
much too, and it's it's so absolutely vital. I think
as we go through and navigate in our lives, that
we that we have someone that we can rely on.
(10:32):
It's always been by our side through through good times
and bad times. That really have been a powerhouse for
our foundation. And I think we all have that one person.
And it's so encouraging to hear exactly what your sister
means to do. And I'm sure that she understands and
it feels that very much. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
We appreciate it absolutely, Thank you absolutely. I don't think
she realizes how strong of impact she hasn't my life.
I mean, she knows, but I sometimes don't know if.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
She knows knows everything I do.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I have her in the forefront of my mind, and
I have her in the back of my mind.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Cheering me on. And she just came off of retreat.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It was actually my fiftieth birthday retreat, so she just
left Amica a couple of weeks ago. She was here
for a week and we did a lot of healing
Horizons activities and all she wanted to do was sit
and drink juice or fresh fruit punch on the side
(11:40):
of the water. She said, this is what I want
to do. She said, the breath take in view. And
then she said to me the other day, you know,
I'm addicted to sound bath. I just want to be
in a sound bath every day. And I said, well,
you will be when you buy your own and we chuckled,
But yes, my sister is the greatest.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Man. That's so, that is so awesome and it's it's
so and I love the fact that not only do
you create this wellness resort retreat opportunity for so many women,
that you partake of it yourself with your family. And
I think that goes and speaks to just the quality
of service that you're providing there with Healing Horizons, is
(12:25):
that it's not something that you just believe in that
you that you do for others, that you invest this
into your own self, into your own family because of
it's it's it's benefits emotionally, mentally as well as even
economically for those posts to you. And I think it's
so important for us to hear that, just as as
listeners listening in on how Healing Horizons has has mapped
(12:51):
out a path of helping women in Jamaica, you know,
truly find healing in their own respective you know, communities.
So thank you so much forgiving it and for being
so passionate about the way you give to these women
I guess my next question for you is this, there's
many women out there who are kind of looking for
(13:11):
a way to make a difference, a way to have
their own impact, whether it be in spaces of wellness
and health and business, and and You've done such a
phenomenal job and I know that there's so much more
yet in store for you. Do you have any pieces
of advice for women out there who are kind of
(13:32):
I think maybe struggling to find out what they're what
they feel they can give to others, and how they
can find that any advice for them.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
The advice that I would give would be for the
women is come find me. Because I'm a huge on
community engagement to farm is a woman owned Tricia's handmade.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Jewelry women owned.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I go to events to find women and what I
do is I create gift bags for Healing Horizon women
and myself and friends.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I create these gift bags by.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Supporting the women that are selling their products to make
my own gift bags to make. And so it's a
revolving door. So you should find a not for profit
for women that will purchase your handmade crafts or what
you're selling or what you have to offer and let them,
(14:28):
let them purchase from you, which will build your growth,
which in turn allows you to make more products, to
hire more women and let the cycle continue. And that's
how that's how I've been doing it. That's how I'm
elevating other women around me. There's enough room for all
of us to be successful, as evidence by what I
(14:52):
have in my possession that I've bopped from other women
on the island and then them and there in turn
making more, doing more higher and more building and becoming
more powerful. Help in my not for profit be successful
because it's our not for profit. Because the more donations
(15:12):
I receive, the more that I can purchase from the
women that I've mentioned. I mean, there's so many more women.
Raja's retreat when we do Saturday sound bass and it's
funded completely by me. She lets me use her property,
beautiful property in Jamaica. The same with Tafar Farm. We
walk to the farm, we receive a coconut. I give
(15:35):
her what I can to pay for the lunch of
the women that I've brought, but she also knows I'm
doing it from my own pocket. I support her, she
supports me. She sends her guests down to Coral Cove.
In turn, we're just.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Always helping each other.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So just remembering when you purchase from a woman owned
business of color or not of color, just women in general,
you're helping that business be successful and in turn it
makes them more powerful.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Absolutely, absolutely well said, and I think that's a phenomenal,
phenomenal approach. And for those of you who are wondering
how to get a hold of doctor Johnson, her website
is Healinghorizons dot org. That's Healing Horizons dot org. You'll
get a chance to see a link to that and
the description of the show, as well as a link
(16:30):
to the GoFundMe if you'd like to support the campaign
to help other women in Jamaica take part in this
six day retreat where they can not only learn skills
and wellness tactics that will support them, but also go
back it and reach their own communities. You'll also have
a link to access that as well. Doctor Johnson, your
(16:52):
journey is one of inspiration and I would say one
of hope. It inspires hope for other women out there
who are looking to make a difference. And we want
to thank you so much for everything that you're doing
and for the impact that you're having.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Thank you, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Joseph. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And I'm so excited to see what the future is
going to unfold and what you're gonna do for Healing Horizons.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I'm very excited to see the end finished product. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Well, we're excited as well. And before we let you go,
doctor Johnson, is there anything that you'd like to add
that you'd like to say to the guests before you know,
sign off, goodbye, Thank.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
You to everyone that's listening.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
And if you are interested in not only just donating
and supporting, but to be a part of the sixth Night,
the five night, six day retreat at Coral Co Wellness
Resort here in Little Bay, Jamaica, then contact me. If
you feel that Healing Horizons for you, contact me.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
We can help.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
We can continue to empower women and enrich lives together.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Well said, absolutely well said, and for that you guys,
this is Joseph Bonner with a Joseph Bonner Show. Now
before we let you guys go, we may have some
more guests in the lineup here, but stick around and
listen to a word from our partners.