In this episode of Cloud 9 Online’s MediMindful Moment Podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Sara Daves, Intuitive Purpose Coach, and Conflict Strategist. Sara talks about how she helps people discover their true purpose in life and how the conflict resolution circle helps in understanding ourselves.
Episode Highlights:
Judith introduces Sara Daves. (00:41)
Sara shares that when she’s talking about purpose, it’s about natural talents, gifts, and abilities that we are all born with. (1:32)
Jeff proceeds with the mindful moment exercise. (3:55)
Sara mentions that she has an online coaching program for women or those who lead with their feminine energy to learn how to manifest, and she’s doing conflict resolution as well. (7:25)
Sara shares that the conflict is a gift and it serves as the bridge between separation and connection. (11:24)
Sara mentions that the tool she offers is called a conflict resolution circle. (12:56)
Sara shares that if you have a conflict that is occurring, there are ways to handle that, and she teaches the process of the unit of the circle to everyone. (13:44)
Sara shares that mindfulness is about being aware of what’s going on around you, and practicing mindfulness with yourself, which means that you are growing your self-awareness. (16:08)
Sara mentions that the more we learn about ourselves, the less we judge ourselves. (17:11)
Sara shares a story about purpose and conflict resolution. (19:27)
Sara mentions that everyone’s different and everyone has their own way of being in service to the world. (21:50)
Sara shares that the more that you’re in a state of joy, the more you will uplift others. (35:47)
Key Quotes:
“I think of this as a big pie, and it’s cut into seven and a half billion pieces. So everyone is like one of those slices of this beautiful, delicious pie. And there is a different perspective for every slice. So we’re never looking at the world in the same way, and we’re never moving through the world in the same way, and we all have something very special to give in service to each other.” – Sara Daves
“My purpose is to anchor the consciousness of oneness here on the planet, or help do that in my very small way because we do need to come into this understanding of our connection, and have that concept. And really getting to know yourself is a perfect way to do that. It’s a perfect way to begin.” – Sara Daves
“You don’t have to wait for something horrible to happen to you, you can choose to get on the front end of that and learn about yourself and decide to do something different. Because the longer we tolerate that, the more of a blow-up it’s going to be, later.” – Sara Daves
Description: What creates success? We all look for some kind of answer that will bring us the satisfaction of prosperity. But, there’s no magic bullet. Accountability, responsibility, creating positive patterns and habits, showing up with more mindfulness each day empowers us and our creativity which brings success. Join Chris Salem and me for an engaging and inspiring discussion on how looking at our limiting beliefs, how getting to the root cause of our problems leads to more sustainable solutions. Chris is an author, speaker, and influencer contributing to the success of many businesses across our country.
About My Guest: Chris Salem is a highly authentic person who for over four years has had a special passion for empowering and serving business leaders, entrepreneurs in various industries, sales executives, coaches, authors, speakers, and others, taking their business and life to another level. For many years, Chris has seen people aspiring to make changes and grow but struggled at different phases of their career and life. He is just like you, a regular person that has faced similar struggles. Chris shares from experience what has worked successfully through hard work and dedication to help in your challenges.
Chris also delivers world-class content to audiences as a speaker that is high-impact which shifts people toward positive action. The focus is on the “root cause” that leads to changes and results, thus moves the audience toward improving their business and personal life. Always coming from the heart and personal experience, the audience is able to draw their own conclusions as to what is required of themselves to come out of their comfort zone and strive toward prosperity. Unlike seminars or programs that scratch the surface, the focus is always on the audience to make changes by addressing the “root cause” that holds back their greatness. Chris is 100% committed to SERVING & TRAINING the audience versus SELLING just products and services.
Description: Can we use the holistic model to grow better men? Yes, we can, with diligent effort, consistent parenting and more. My guest this week, Dan Blanchard, special education and social studies teacher in Connecticut’s largest inner-city high school was chosen by the AFT-CT as the face and voice of educational reform. Together we use the holistic framework for this podcast to go deeper. Dan tells us a story about how his honest approach to his students makes a difference.
About My Guest:Dan Blanchard the Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Speaker, and Educator, as well as, two-time Junior Olympian Wrestler, and two-time Junior Olympian Wrestling Coach grew up as a student-athlete. However, Dan admits that as a youth he was more of an athlete than a student. Dan has now successfully completed fourteen years of college and has earned seven degrees. He teaches Special Education and Social Studies in Connecticut’s largest inner-city high school where he was chosen by the AFT-CT as the face and voice of educational reform and is now on the speaking circuit for them. Dan was with the team that put forth Connecticut’s new Social Studies Frameworks and is also a member of the Special Education Advisory Board to the Connecticut State Department of Education. In addition, Dan is a Teacher Consultant for the University of Connecticut’s Writing Project. Finally, Dan is a double veteran of the Army and the Air Force.
What’s your favorite Italian dish? Eggplant parmesan is one of my favorites, especially with a flavorful tomato sauce. It’s funny though that we think of Italian cuisine with tomatoes when they are thought to originate in the Americas. Settlers, not sure who brought this flavorful plant back to Europe in the 16th century. There are some plants still in the wild of Peru and Ecuador. Thomas Jefferson grew them but it took till the 1800s for tomatoes to find a place back here in the Americas. Today we grow hundreds of thousands of acres of tomatoes. Most of our tomatoes are cultivated and often have trouble resisting pests and diseases.
Tomato is a member of the nightshade family, which may be why early conquerors in central and south America thought it was poisonous as many nightshade plants are poisonous. My podcast guest this week, Craig Floyd, manager at Coogan Farm in Mystic Ct., devoted his interview to growing healthy, vibrant tomato plants with high yield. How? Here’s a recap of his fabulous tips.
Soil: A soil test is a must: tomatoes need four minerals in particular: Magnesium, Iron, Manganese, and Nitrogen. We recommend Logan Labs in Ohio who offer a more comprehensive analysis.
Seed: Choose heirloom or organic seeds. Add an innoculant to your seed bag which can help germination time.
When planting choose the biggest, fattest seed from the lot.
Don’t plant too early. Do transplant when seedlings are 4″ high. Any taller they may not fulfill their potential.
Plant 60″ apart. Place four basil plants around them or another companion plant like carrots.
Drench seedlings with compost tea before transplanting. Then, water every day.
Microbiology is so important. Add mulch material around plants every week. They need a good dose of worm castings, seaweed. Seaweed unlocks nutrients and keeps some bugs away.
Craig keeps three main leaders and removes suckers.
What is the tomato’s potential: try 22′ long yielding 300 lbs of fruit. That’s a wow in my book. When I visited Craig in his Giving Garden recently, he showed us his hoop house with poles high up to capture the growing vines. Can’t wait to visit in the spring and summer and watch their progress from seedling to fruit-producing. The best part is that the food banks in New London reap the benefits. Healthy sustainable food is given to feed the food insecure: inspiring and motivating, I highly recommend you make the Coogan Farm and nearby nature trails a place to visit this summer.
And one more thing: tomatoes have a rich history first as a vegetable then botanically as a fruit. Read Gerard paul’s manyeats.com post here:https://manyeats.com/history-of-the-tomato/
So if you get to visit The Coogan Farm “Giving Garden” or any other “giving garden”, share a pic, tell us about your experience. We’d love to hear from you.
I am deeply honored to have the pleasure of interviewing Gunther Hauk again this week. His wisdom, his experience as a biodynamic farming expert and honeybee expert make him one of our true elders.
I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Spikenard Farm and Honeybee Sanctuary, in Floyd VA, a few years ago. I lived near Culpeper, VA at the time and got up early to make the 5-hour road trip so I could arrive by 9:30 am. After introductions, Gunther, of course, puts all volunteers to work and we got an assignment. We seeded an additional wildflower area for the bees. We harvested weeds for the compost pile, all accomplished in a light misty rain. He hoped for an opportunity for me to experience a swarm, but not that day. We ended the morning with stimulating conversation and lunch.
I felt honored to be a part of their workday. The folks I met deeply cared for and respected the honeybee species in particular but also nature in all its complexity. I recorded my experiences here. Go to my blog post: Beauty and the Bees: https://www.judithdreyer.com/gardens/beauty-and-the-bees/ for more.
Needless to say, I had much to ponder on the ride home. I hoped to capture something of the essence of their efforts through my writing. When the podcast series began I thought of Gunther and I am so grateful for his time and sharing over this past year.
Today though I want to share something about pollinators. Pollinators are more than honeybees. The Polliantor.org site says this:
“More than 1,000 of all pollinators are vertebrates such as birds, bats, and small mammals. Most (more than 200,000 species) are beneficial insects such as flies, beetles, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths and bees.
In the U.S., pollination produces nearly $20 billion worth of products annually.
Monarch butterflies have declined by 90% in the last 20 years.
25% of bumble bees species are thought to be in serious decline.”
I found this great offer from the pollinator.org site. They have planting guides for all types of ecoregional climates. I happen to be in the Eastern Broadleaf Forest area. The guides are colorful with great tables and resource information. I highly recommend them.
What can we do today?
Donate to your favorite nature organization. Support their work. Pick a local one like a land trust and one national. Spikenard Farm and Honey Bee Sanctuary and Pollinator.org rely on donations to continue the great work they are doing. “The Pollinator Partnership’s mission is to promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research. Signature initiatives include the NAPPC (North American Pollinator Protection Campaign), National Pollinator Week, and theEcoregional Planting Guides.”
Consider replacing lawn with more natural foliage that supports our pollinators. At the Garden’s Gate has a practical chapter on how to do so.
Start a seed saving bank at your local library.
Learn about one new beneficial bug. Learn to properly identify it, its habitat, how it mates, what it needs for food and where it fits in with its local ecosystem. For me, I am going to learn more about praying mantis.
What critter will you choose? Let me know. I enjoy all your comments and stories.
Plant saving, plant preservation for future generations are just two of the goals for United Plant Savers. Those of us in the herbal field rely on their up to date ‘at risk’ and ‘to watch’ plant list. Rosemary Gladstar and other concerned herbalists created an organization that was/is deeply concerned about the depletion of our plant populations. They began twenty -five years ago, in 1994, when herbalism experienced a resurgence. Many wild plants hit the airwaves like St John’s Wort and others creating intense demand. These grass root herbalists took their concerns, created UpS, United Plant Savers, and put those concerns into action.
In Rutland Ohio, the first UpS sponsored botanical sanctuary was born where species like American Ginseng, Goldenseal and others are propagated and replanted all over the country. Today many sanctuaries exist all over our country including personal backyards all the way to well known botanical gardens, all striving to propagate, educate their communities on the importance of respecting and using plants with mindfulness to species needs.
UpS also offers the opportunity to apply for grant money to fund your community project. It worked for me. Two years ago, with the grant money awarded to the Garden Path Garden Club in Tolland CT, we created the Turtle Teaching Circle. With parents help and students, a 20′ diameter circle was placed near the children’s garden with 12 stumps marking the places on a typical native American Wheel. Each place on the wheel has a trail quality sign featuring an ‘at-risk’ or ‘to-watch’ plant native to New England. The project is near a community trail with easy handicap access. Students are taught about gardening and seed saving.
We still see a decrease in plant populations due to popularity. I have been to the sanctuary in Rutland Ohio. Meadows and woodlands, forest and trails highlight the diverse habitats needed to preserve ‘at-risk- plants and more. They offer classes in herbalism with experts guiding foraging experiences that are respectful of habitat, plant-specific needs, and place in complex ecosystems. Sustainable regenerative gardening practices are key to the survival of our plants.
I hope you will go to their website and explore their articles, their resources and maybe get to one of their events. They will be honored and highlighted at this year’s International Herb Symposium in MA. If you use herbal supplements and garden, add another herb to your planting list this year to conserve our plant resources. If you use herbal supplements and don’t garden, please consider a donation to UpS.
I have been a member off and on for these past 25 years. We are activists, environmentalists, herbalists, folks who simply care about this earth and her resources, each in his or her own way. Check them out. This is a fantastic time for the organization, a time of honoring the work done and where and how we need to focus today on our journey, our partnership with the earth.
Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN, Writer, Speaker, and Workshop Presenter, Master Gardener.
Rutland Ohio. Meadows and woodlands, forest and trails highlight the diverse habitats needed to preserve ‘at-risk- plants and more. They offer classes in herbalism with experts guiding foraging experiences that are respectful of habitat, plant-specific needs, and place in complex ecosystems. Sustainable regenerative gardening practices are key to the survival of our plants.
