THE MELANIN PEARLS PODCAST

THE MELANIN PEARLS PODCAST

di Yvette Schmitter and Ericka Shoulars

Lavoro Miglioramento personale Società e cultura

Stagione 2

Unlocking Your Potential

Do you know what it means to “unlock your potential?” Better yet, do you even how to do it? In this episode, Yvette and Ericka share tips and actions you can take to unlock your potential by finding your WHY and resources to help you live it. “First, it's essential to determine precisely what you want to achieve. Just wanting to be “successful” is too general.” ― Derric Yuh Ndim

Gratitude

Gratitude. The pandemic forced people to take stock of their life, who and what brings them joy and what/who is important. But it’s also super important to reflect on all that you have to be grateful for and all you have. Expressing gratitude isn’t just left for the 4th Thursday in November, weddings or funerals. It’s an everyday activity. In this episode, Yvette and Ericka share how having gratitude changed their lives. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle

Urban Farms: How Urban Farms Are Helping Communities in Need

Continuing the important topic of food injustice, food deserts and food swamps, in this episode Yvette and Ericka are on location at East New York Farms! located in East New York Brooklyn. The community surrounding Pink Houses refused to wait for help as they watched the systematic reduction of green spaces and the health index of the community steadily decline. While on location, Yvette and Ericka interview the farmer and her team of dedicated volunteers who operate the farm and distribute its bounty to the neighborhood weekly for free. “Help the life of one person and you can help the community.” – Steven Sawalich

The Power of "NO"

There's a lot of talk about the power of Yes. Yes supports risk-taking, courage, and an open-hearted approach to life whose grace cannot be minimized. But No…no is a metal grate that slams shut the window between one's self and the influence of others and is rarely celebrated. It's a hidden power because it is both easily misunderstood and difficult to engage. Many of us are unaware of the surge of strength we draw from No because, in part, it is easily confused with negativity. During this episode Yvette and Ericka talk about gaining perspective on what “no” really means to your life and its power to improving your life. “The power of NO is so much more than the power of saying YES.” – Julianna Margulies

Career Checkpoint: Are You Ready for Mid-Year Reviews?

We are mid-year so it’s time to see where we are with our 2021 professional/career goals and how we can tracking from a progress standpoint in our current positions. This episode is all about assessing where we are, identifying any outstanding gaps, recapping and highlighting our wins to date and prepping for our mid-year review meeting with our people manager. Yvette and Ericka share their process on how they prepare for their mid-year reviews and share tips and tricks on how you can get started and/or enhance your preparation process. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca

Relationships

This episode is all about relationships. Join Yvette and Ericka as they chat about how they learned how to keep healthy relationships with their friends, partners and family. No one is perfect and neither is every relationship but there is a balance between imperfection and unhealthy. During this episode, Yvette and Ericka describe the “definition” of a healthy relationship, what that means to them and how they maintain healthy relationships today. “Your relationships can only be as healthy are you are. – Neil Warren”

Food Deserts

Food deserts, food swamps and food insecurity are ravaging urban and rural areas across the United States. Food insecurity is when you don’t have enough money to buy the healthy foods you need or if you have to skip meals because you don’t have enough money to buy more food. In New York City alone, before COIVID-19, 1.4 million people living in NYC were food insecure. Now, it’s close to 2 million and one in every four is a child. What’s even more concerning, food deserts generally exist in urban areas— predominantly inhabited by nonwhite people— which is why Black people are disproportionately affected by diet related health conditions. During this episode we discuss how food deserts are created, it’s devastating impacts to brown communities and what can we do to help ensure no one goes hungry. “Many kids my age and younger do not know where their next meal is coming from, this is something no one should have to worry about. I know that with your help we can fight to end childhood hunger near us and all around America.” – Jocelyn Quinn (Generation No Kid Hungry – Hunger Hero)

Our Favorite Things

Taking a page from Oprah, we’ve compiled a listing of our favorite things! During this episode we share some fun facts and some of our favorite things…things we didn’t know we needed until we found them. Things that help us dive deeper into our well-being, make us more productive and are just plain awesome. Life isn’t about waiting for the perfect time to do something, use something or go somewhere because tomorrow is never promised. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition” – Steve Jobs

Special Unscheduled Episode on Voter Suppression

This is a special unscheduled episode on voter suppression. Record turnout will always be swiftly followed by a tidal wave of voter suppression efforts. This is a factual trend. Lawmakers in 47 states have introduced bills that would make it harder to vote. Do you that there are about 61 forms of voter suppression. Can you name a few? Ericka and Yvette discuss voter suppression and how WE THE PEOPLE need to make sure democracy remains in tact which means WE THE PEOPLE need to do the work as Americans.

Meditation May: Practical Lessons from a Meditation Teacher

Last episode Yvette shared her meditation journey and Ericka made the commitment to start. This episode Julie Stewart, meditation teacher from Kadampa Meditation Center in New York City is the special guest. Julie shares how society’s definition of success and happiness leads most people to being perpetually unhappy, the basics of meditation, how to start and how integrating mediation into your daily habit can and will change your life. “Meditation is the journey from sound to silence, from movement to stillness from limited identity to unlimited space. – Sri Ravi Shankar

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