The Power Transformation Podcast
The Power Transformation Podcast with Alethea Felton is where unstoppable resilience meets life-changing success. This Top 5% ranked show dives deep into the extraordinary journeys of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and visionaries who have shattered obstacles, conquered adversity, and redefined success on their own terms.
Hosted by resilience expert Alethea Felton who has thrived with autoimmune disease since birth, overcome severe stuttering, and turned setbacks into stepping stones, this podcast delivers raw, inspiring conversations packed with actionable strategies for personal and professional growth.
Whether you're an ambitious leader, a high-achiever seeking motivation, or someone ready to transform challenges into breakthroughs, this podcast is your blueprint for success.
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The Power Transformation Podcast
133. Behind the Smile: Silent Struggles, Hidden Strength with Lisa Greenberg
What if the person helping everyone else was silently unraveling inside? In this powerful episode, Lisa Greenberg opens up about her path through deep personal struggles, unexpected loss, and the quiet strength it takes to keep going. Her story is one of grit, grace, and the daily practices that helped her reclaim her life. Tune in for a conversation that will move you, challenge you, and leave you reflecting on your own resilience.
Connect with Lisa:
Episode 133's Affirmation:
I embrace the journey of life and trust that everything happens for a reason.
I invite you to leave a positive message with your insights, feedback, or uplifting message.
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Life may be unpredictable, but we never know where we will end up if we don't keep going. And today's guest chose to move forward in spite of the obstacles that were in her way. And she also chose to cultivate, nourish and enrich her mental health so that she could be a light and a joy to others, as she has been now for many years. And that is why it is my honor to have Lisa Greenberg as our guest on the Power Transformation Podcast, who certainly has a story to tell. And, with that being said, welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast, who certainly has a story to tell. And, with that being said, welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast.
Alethea Felton:I am your host, alethea Felton. It is my honor to have you here with me today, and if you're new to this podcast, welcome. Go ahead and follow and subscribe like, leave a five-star rating and write a review. It is because of you that this podcast continues to rank in the top 5% of shows globally and continues to move higher with each passing day. I thank you for your support, and we're also on YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. I am building that channel gradually so you won't see all episodes from every single season, but you are going to be seeing most up there as I continue to build the YouTube channel along with my assistant, and so, with that being said, we're gonna dive right into this interview. We're gonna start first with our affirmation. I'll say the affirmation once and then you repeat it, and then we'll jump right into this interview with Lisa Greenberg. I embrace the journey of life and trust that everything happens for a reason. Lisa, welcome to the Power Transformation Podcast.
Lisa Greenberg:Thank you, alethea. I'm so happy to be here with you and I'm so grateful that you feel that I have something I can share. I do believe we all do, and I thank you so much for giving me the time.
Alethea Felton:Oh, you're so welcome. Yes, you're so welcome, and you all. She is so humble and just modest because she's saying that I think she has a story. Listen when you all hear her journey, when I talk about the power transformation that people make in their lives. Lisa hands down, has that down pat, and I hope that one day, perhaps if she's led to it's no pressure on my part, but if she's led to, I already told her she needs to write a memoir of her life or something, because it's incredible. But I want to start first with just something lighthearted. I always like a little fun icebreaker question, and so this is my question for you, lisa, and if you didn't have one, then I'll modify the question but who was either your childhood or adult celebrity crush? I know it right away.
Lisa Greenberg:No question, david Cassidy.
Alethea Felton:Oh, I know exactly who that is. Tell us more. What was it? Oh my gosh.
Lisa Greenberg:Well, listen, I'm 59. And I think any woman my age, around my age, would probably say that he was a heartthrob. He was adorable, his music was lovely, he was in a show called the Partridge Family and he was just amazing. You know you have a crush on him, you know if you're, if you're a little girl back then. And the funny thing is, oh my gosh, my walls in my room, from top to bottom, were David Cassidy's faces from all the Tiger Beat magazines and all of that. Now I lived in an apartment and I just remember one particular day I wanted to hang up some more pictures of him and I ran out of tape and I used toothpaste out of tape and I used toothpaste.
Lisa Greenberg:Oh my goodness, that is hilarious. And then also, I went to a concert and my stepfather was with me and my mom, and at the end of a concert sometimes I don't know if they still do this, but performers will throw out things. So he threw out his sweat rag and he threw out his water cup and my stepfather called the water cup and I saved it forever. And then I'll just add one other little thing. So then he had a brother named Sean Cassidy, who came out and became popular later on and I liked him as well, not as much as David. You see, I'm on a first name basis with David. Yes, you are, but it's funny because I went to a Sean Cassidy concert I was a little older and I came home and couldn't go to school the next day because I was so in love with Sean. I couldn't go to school the next day, my poor mom. Love with Sean. I couldn't go to school the next day, my poor mom. So anyway, yeah, that was an easy question, alisa.
Alethea Felton:Oh that's fun. That is such a fun way to start, and I'm so glad that I asked that. I was just curious, just anything. You never know what I'm going to ask, but it's going to be fun and lighthearted. That's really, really cool. So, lisa, what I like to do now is just, in your own words, I'm going to switch up. Usually, I'll ask a guest who is so-and-so, but this is what I'm going to ask you instead. What do you, lisa Greenberg? What do you like the most about yourself? You, lisa?
Lisa Greenberg:Greenberg, what do you like the most about yourself? Okay, I, I love my kind heart. Oh, I love my kind heart, yes, and I love that I want, I have a desire every single day to be the best version of myself that I can be. And I tell myself, as long as I come from love in everything I do today and I say that each day as I pray in the morning, then I know that all will be well. And so I love that about myself just my kind heart, my desire to really want to be the best human I can be, coming from love, coming from a place of love.
Alethea Felton:What a perfect answer, and I can say that I have been a recipient of that kind heart, and so that is absolutely true, and that kind heart to say that from a woman like you who has experienced so much in your life. Some of your experiences could have caused you to become stonehearted and bitter and resentful, but yet that didn't happen. So let's, in a sense, go back to some of the origin stories of you and so growing up. Well, you spoke about going to concerts, things of that nature, but you share with me that you had young parents and things of that nature. So just take us back on a journey where I'd like you to just tell us what was your early understanding of life at a young age and how did those experiences almost shape the path or the trajectory of your entire life story?
Lisa Greenberg:Okay, you know, I think as a young child I don't know if we have an understanding then of what is going on. I mean, I certainly don't think I did then, although as I became a teenager, what I knew and I'll go back in a minute but as a teenager I really was aware that everybody around me was a mess and had a lot of mental health issues. So, going backwards I did. I had young parents and I think back in the day people got married younger. My parents had me in their early 20s and they divorced by the time I was two, their early twenties, and they divorced by the time I was two, and so I would spend time with my father on weekends. Eventually not at first, I know at first there was a lot of arguing between my mom and dad and a lot of arguing about child support. I vaguely remember those fights and whatnot. So I spent most of my time at first with my mom. It was this young I guess she was, I would say 22, young, single mom.
Lisa Greenberg:But, in time I spent Saturdays with my dad and I loved him. My dad was a hippie it was the time, the 70s and he there were things that were not okay that happened while I was with my dad. No doubt, hands down, they were not okay. For example, my dad smoked pot a lot and when we would be together we would be driving, we would be in the car, he would be smoking and I remember looking out the window. As a little girl I knew I guess he had told me to not tell anyone. I somehow I knew that it wasn't legal and I didn't want to be afraid and think that the police were going to pull us over and in time he would take me.
Lisa Greenberg:I didn't know this at the time, but now I know he was also dealing drugs and so I would be a little girl going with my father on drug deals and I remember I remember us pulling over on the side of a road and I remember him getting out of the car while I waited and a big guy with a cowboy hat I still remember up to him and there was a drug deal. Or I remember being with my dad and seeing this stuff. That was like long and it was tie, stick, tie, weed, and I just remember that. But it was all like normal to him. You know all the drugs, all that was normal. Um, so much so that I remember him asking me if I wanted to try it. He didn't think anything was wrong with that. I remember I don't know if I asked him or if he said to me do you want to learn how to roll a joint? It's crazy to think about.
Lisa Greenberg:I was probably at that point, nine or 10. And I knew enough not to go home to my mom and share it with her. And I loved him. You know we would. He had young girlfriends. That wasn't appropriate, and you know we would be together and I'd be sitting on the side of the bed while they were in bed or, you know, they would go skinny dipping and I would sit on the side of the the, the pond. And then there were many days that he would call and I'd be waiting by the door excited to have him pick me up. And he'd call and he'd say, lise, I'm sorry I can't come today. Now, at the time he would say he was sick. I know now he probably had partied too hard or didn't want to get out of bed with his girlfriend, but so I think, as a little girl, that does something to you. You know being let down and not being the priority. And yet he loved me.
Alethea Felton:And let me jump in here too and thank you for that vulnerability and transparency. But one of the things you said when you first started talking about him was you loved your dad, and it's so amazing to me how, in spite of his flaws and challenges that he had, at the end of the day he was daddy. You knew that he loved you and you loved him. And so how do you reconcile that at that age? Or is it something that you thought about older? That here my father was putting me in potentially risky situations, yet I love him so much. Is it more of a he only did what he thought was best or he was doing the best he could? How do you reconcile that within yourself?
Lisa Greenberg:So are you asking how I reconcile that now? Or even yeah, yes, because as a child as a child.
Alethea Felton:No, we aren't thinking about that as kids.
Lisa Greenberg:But look, I'm clear, I'm pretty clear. I know that his own parents did not have their acts together. His father, my grandfather, pulled a gun. I learned that my grandfather, his father, was a pimp. He owned a bar. He was in just a whole not a very positive atmosphere his whole life as a little boy, you know, with his father being that, and so I know that my gosh, my dad didn't have good role models, healthy role models. He saw that and so I know, without a shadow of a doubt, he did the best. He knew how he loved his little girl and he told me as, when I was getting ready to go to college, he said Lisa, I don't just love you, I like the person you are. And you know, I know people might hear my story and think how awful, what a terrible. I don't think that way. He was my dad. No, he never read me stories. No, I don't remember him, you know, helping me with homework. We never had any of that remember him you know, helping me with homework.
Lisa Greenberg:We never had any of that.
Alethea Felton:any of that, I mean years later, and I don't know if you want me to share that now or later. Yeah. So, yeah, I'll get to that part, but but no, thank you for saying that, because just because he had this aspect of his life and again, I'm not condoning what he did, but it doesn't make him a bad person, and I think that's what's important to know is that we all have our challenges, we all have our struggles. We all have something that we have that may not be ideal to the next person, whether we talk about it or not. It might not even be in our present life, but something in our life that we've done or could still be doing.
Alethea Felton:The fact remains is that it doesn't necessarily have a reflection on a person's character, and so I do understand that your father did the best he could to keep you safe. You knew that he loved you. He still spent quality time with you, even if it wasn't going to the zoo or to the park, he still had you with him, and I think that's very important. And when you became a teenager, you actually moved in with your father. So tell me about moving in with your father and then also talk to us about when your father did ultimately pass away. And how did that crossing the threshold moment affect you emotionally and shape the way that you dealt with adversity at such a young?
Lisa Greenberg:age a child. My brother and I lived with my stepfather and my mom and my brother for many years, like I said, seeing my dad on weekends. My mom and my stepdad started to talk about divorce and it became very. It wasn't good in the house. It was. I had to get out. I knew that I couldn't stay there. There were things happening that were were really difficult, and so I moved in with my dad for the first time at 16 years old, which meant that I was also going to be going to a new school because I was going into a different County. I didn't know what I was moving into. I didn't know, and my father had remarried as well and I didn't know that now I was moving into a crack house and what that looked like was I would go to sleep at night before school and there would be my dad and his wife and other women and men in the living room freebasing smoking cocaine and I would see that and go to bed.
Lisa Greenberg:I'd wake up for school. They'd still be there with big eyes. You know the result of smoking cocaine all night. I'd go to school, didn't know anyone. New school, trying to find my way, and I lived there for a while and I even remember this brown wooden canister in the kitchen and it was filled with quaaludes and not sugar. Oh, the turning point was I came home one day from school.
Alethea Felton:Lisa, I'm sorry, just in case a listener or viewer doesn't know. I know, but can you explain what that is. Doesn't know, I know, but can you explain?
Lisa Greenberg:what that is. Quaaludes. From what I understand and I don't know if people still use them today or not but back during those years now at this point it was the 80s. Yeah, it was right around 1980. I just remember there was something called Qualudes and people would take them and I believe it would make them very promiscuous and I don't know.
Alethea Felton:It's a type of narcotic. Yeah, it's a type of narcotic.
Lisa Greenberg:Okay, thank you so on this one particular day I came home and my stepmom was in the dining room and on the dining room floor we had a carpet or a rug that was like furry, really furry, funky furry.
Alethea Felton:Shag type of rug.
Lisa Greenberg:Yes, popular, yeah, more furry than shag yes, yes, exactly.
Alethea Felton:shag type of rugs popular. Yeah, been more furry than shag. Yes, yes, exactly.
Lisa Greenberg:you can get there, but you can't and she was standing there with a cigarette like moving and you could. She was really stoned and the cigarette dropped and I'm standing there with her. Just walked in my backpacks on my back and she had no idea that it dropped.
Alethea Felton:Oh.
Lisa Greenberg:And of course I picked it up. I knew in that moment I couldn't stay there anymore. I knew that if I hadn't been there would the house have gone up in flames. So at that point I moved up, navigating my way and getting to college, despite the fact. Despite the fact that I didn't even know what an SAT test was, because one weekend my best friend, who I'd made now in in high school, said that she was taking the SATs that weekend and I said what is that? So I caught up pretty quickly and found out and, you know, took them and got into college and all the while I still had a relationship with my mom and she was again single.
Lisa Greenberg:And I remember thinking now let me just back up and say that everywhere I looked at that point in my life, everyone was I don't know what word to use messed up mental health issues. And what do I mean? Well, my father's my father you knew what was going on with him my father's brother, my uncle Freddie, had schizophrenia and I would, you know, be in his presence sometimes and see what that was, and that was hard to watch. My mother was, you know, a single mom. Again. She had some of her own anxiety. She loved me. She was very dear to me. I adore my mom but she you know she was also, I think at the time wanting to start dating again was raising my brother around. You know he's nine years younger than I am, so he was still younger.
Lisa Greenberg:Um my mom's two siblings her sister was schizophrenic and her brother, my uncle, had a lot of issues depression, body dysmorphic disorder, he was on methadone maintenance and so whenever I would visit my grandmother, my mom's mom and their mom, their mom I would be around some of that mental health stuff. I would see my Aunt Carol coming and and talking about bizarre stuff. I would hear my uncle going through all of his rants and raves and body dysmorphic. He would see things on his hand that you didn't see. It's just the mental health. And then my grandfather. I know now my grandfather had OCD, there's no question. I didn't know at the time, I just thought he was really odd. But he would go in and out, check his car in and out, in and out, in and out. But he would go in and out, check his car in and out, in and out, in and out.
Lisa Greenberg:I know now what it is because I have OCD, but my point being there, was not one really together person in my life, and so going to college I finally felt like, ah, now I get to have maybe some normalcy.
Alethea Felton:Interesting. Ooh, that is so profound, lisa, that that, wow, it's almost as if, although you love your family, it's almost a relief off of your shoulders, in a sense. That a call, if I'm not mistaken, and just tell me if I'm right chronologically, but you end up getting a call about your father, correct?
Lisa Greenberg:Well, I actually Did that come later.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, it came later, okay, so let me jump here. Let's go to your twenties, okay, and your twenties is when you got married, correct? If I'm not, my father died before that, prior that, yes, so that's where I'm getting to. You had some major close um circumstances happen to you, and I want to shift now into your finding your way in college, and then you end up getting married. You well, as you're married. My point is that you end up ultimately, as you stated, being diagnosed with OCD, and let's talk about that is talk about those challenges that could really be seen as ordeals on your life journey. How did you confront such trauma, dealing with your father and then something also with your husband that you'll share, and how, in the world, lisa, did you keep going?
Lisa Greenberg:hmm, alicia yeah I mean, I don't know. Sometimes I don't know if I have an exact answer about how I kept going.
Alethea Felton:I don't know, that's okay, that okay to say, girl, yes, that's okay and and I like that authenticity because people are, people are going through real stuff every day and that's why I like to bring people on this show who are going to be real In this era and day and time. 2024, 2025, we're doing this in 2024, but it might not air until early 2025. 2024, but it might not air until early 2025.
Alethea Felton:My point is, we see so many people now on these social platforms and media, and I'm not saying people have to tell everything about their life, but then again I'm like why not? We hide the challenges, we hide the scars. We try as a society, we as a society. There is this emphasis on being perfect and, at the end of the day, people need real people who have gone through raw things and could still be going through those challenges, yet put one foot in front of the other. So let me rephrase the question and just to share, to speed it up, some on my part. Your father passes, you're diagnosed with OCD, you get married, something happens to your husband, share with us what happened to your husband and then that journey from there. How in the world did you handle the deaths of both your father and husband in such tragic ways?
Lisa Greenberg:Okay, I'm going to tell you that, but I am going to say one thing yeah, go ahead. While I know that I don't know that I have an answer to your other question, I do want to add one important thing. I had a therapist from the age of 16 into my 40s. Her name was Merle and I do believe and know that she played a very huge part, and I do want to add that my father did get a big part of his life together. He did come to me and say I don't want to deal drugs anymore.
Alethea Felton:My friends are getting locked up, I'm afraid, and he did stop, and so when he died, which was a car accident, he had gotten a good bit of his life together oh, thank you for sharing that, lisa, because I know offline, when we had our pre pre-screening, I did not know that, and so I'm so happy to hear it because with all of my guests, just so that the audience knows, ok, I like conversation, and so with my guests, when I prescreen them, it's more of getting a little bit of their story but not them sharing it all, because I want to be authentic and listening and really having the excitement, just like you all, and so I am so glad to hear that he had his own transformation.
Lisa Greenberg:Yes, yes, and so I wanted that said because, thank you, that's important and that's what also made listen, death is never, never, ever, something that we feel good about ever. But what made it even more bittersweet for me was that he had made some shifts and he had bought taxi cabs and became incorporated and ran a little taxi cab business and I remember him saying to me Lisa, this is so hard. I would be dealing drugs, he would say, and make major money within a second. Now I'm doing what's legal and I'm hardly making anything and I'm working many more hours. So I remember we had real talks like that so anyway yeah, that's beautiful to hear.
Alethea Felton:That's wonderful. Thank you for that.
Lisa Greenberg:And so it was after he died that, all of a sudden, I started to have those symptoms, which I didn't know what it was, and I learned later it was OCD. And that was a very, very difficult part of my life and it took years, years with a doctor to find the right medication, and I don't know how I got through that time.
Alethea Felton:To be honest, Do doctors know if it was something that triggered it? Or you mentioned one of your grandfathers, right so, I think right so. Is it a genetic link perhaps, right so?
Lisa Greenberg:mental health issues are genetic and so you know, and I knew, my mom had anxiety. So without a doubt I come by it very honestly. But my psychiatrist at the time did say that oftentimes when we're predisposed for mental health issues like this and something happens that is, you know, just abrupt, like learning about my father's death I was awoken in the middle of the night, learned that he was killed in an accident, and so my doctor said that probably brought it on sooner. So, yeah, I it was a. That was a real journey. I mean, thank God there's medication, so. But so your real question was so my husband, in terms of your husband you get married and then something happens to your husband.
Alethea Felton:So how did you handle that chapter of your life?
Lisa Greenberg:Right. So we got married. I knew that he had used some drugs in college, but he wasn't anymore. At least I thought I learned that he had been using drugs. He lied to me. I found out, I followed him, saw him go into a dealer's house, let him know that if he didn't get help that this marriage was going to be over.
Lisa Greenberg:Because I had already struggled with my dad's life experience losing him, dealing with my own OCD for five years, the struggle, and now I was like able to breathe, and now this. So I said no, I'm not having a life like this. And so he did go away. He had treatment and he came back and life seemed to be okay. I mean, he was not without his own struggles and issues and family dynamics there and he also had OCD, which was crazy and his sort of surfaced differently than mine and he didn't attack his and focus on his and the way that I was. But you know, life was okay. I mean it was never super easy, but he wasn't using drugs and it was okay and we had children who I'm incredibly grateful for they're they're my life. But in time in time there were some things that became apparent to me, things that I'm not going to choose to talk about here.
Alethea Felton:Of course girl yeah.
Lisa Greenberg:Boundaries.
Alethea Felton:And it's your life, and always own your story, and I do encourage you to do that because this will open up even more opportunities, but always know you always have control. Thank you, you share about you.
Lisa Greenberg:So there were things that made it incredibly imperative for me to separate. And then, during that time, it became apparent that he was using drugs, again separate from the real reason why I started to realize I can't stand this marriage. And ultimately, long story short, I found him. He was living at his parents and he was supposed to spend time with my children that evening, and we couldn't reach him.
Lisa Greenberg:And I asked my neighbor, my good friend, to watch my kids, and I found out from my father-in-law, who was not in town, if he had a key to the house that I just felt something wasn't right. I saw my husband's car there at their house and could I get in, and so I did. And I opened the door and I found my husband laying on the ground. He had been murdered and drug paraphernalia all around him.
Alethea Felton:Wow, lisa, wow, wow, wow Wow.
Lisa Greenberg:And the first thing that I started screaming was my children. My children, my poor babies, because I knew that now they weren't going to have their dad, and so it was. It was horrible. I'm going to ship this so that you can see me better, Okay.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, that's fine.
Lisa Greenberg:But so, anyway, and then my mom, who was my everything, you know. She helped me as much as she could. She helped me as much as she could. She was sick, and during this time it was a really hard time. Alethea, I had two young children. There were things that I couldn't tell them at this point at all. They were too young, but yet there were things they had to know. Money was an issue.
Alethea Felton:I was scared to death and somehow I made it through and had my mom for a while, um until um, she passed away, um a year later and um, a year later, and so, yeah, yeah, and so, even with that, as you're continuing through your life, you still had Merle in your life giving you therapy, and as time moves on, you end up meeting someone else that you described to me as the love of your life. You end up meeting someone else that you described to me as the love of your life and, unfortunately, another tragedy strikes you, and so that actually thrust you into a deep depression, and so this is a shift I want to make is how did you begin to find your way out of that situation, especially when medication resistance became a factor?
Lisa Greenberg:So I was struggling, as you said, with horrible depression. And it's interesting, alethea, because for the first two years after his name was Kenny, for the first two years after Kenny died, I actually still kept it together and I was still functioning well. I think it's because I had a lot of community, lots of pockets of different communities, and I still had children at home, and so I had to keep it together, you know. And I was still working. You know, I'm an educator.
Lisa Greenberg:So everything was still, until I went to Israel one summer on a women's trip and when I came home it was like someone took a light switch and I was moving my daughter to college. So there was a big change happening, but it was like someone took a light switch and turned it and I was now no longer okay at all. I was no longer okay and I was in full depression. And yeah, so doctors, my psychiatrist tried every different kind of medication on top of my OCD medication, combinations of and you know, with those kinds of medications you have to build up and then, if they're not working, you have to wean off. So the time frames it's not like one day you're fine because you take something that's working. You know it's all about this length of time and the process of that while you're suffering.
Alethea Felton:Exactly.
Lisa Greenberg:And so the depression was real heavy. And then the anxiety. I had never experienced anxiety like that, and so for five years I I was able to work, although there was a very small part of the time where I did take off of work, but my kids saw me laying on the sofa not wanting to get in the shower. When my daughter would come home from school, she would see it from college. My friends were trying everything they could do to help me. Nothing was helping and I was scared to death. I was scared to death that this was my life forever. I tried transcranial magnetic stimulation, which are magnetic impulses to your temples every day after work for months. No help. I tried ketamine no help. I looked into and researched psychedelics and you had to get on long waiting lists or there weren't any trials being run. And so I was just so worried, like am I not going to find anything? I started to think about and was reading about brain. What is it called?
Alethea Felton:Electroshock therapy.
Lisa Greenberg:I heard, that could be beneficial and yet that scared me to death. And then my doctor my regular internist by my fourth year of going to her for my well visits and her seeing me not functioning, she gave me a phone number and said when you leave here now I want you to call Mindy. She is a trauma therapist. He knows you're going to call, call her when you leave here. And I know it's with the help of Mindy that I'm where I am today. Oh, it's beautiful and so yeah.
Alethea Felton:Oh, that is beautiful and that is a testament to it, because so many people suffer in silence, many people suffer in silence and so many people wear what I call our clown faces, where they're smiling on the outside and are so broken emotionally. And the fact, lisa, that for five years you went through this way and so, when you have gone through such profound loss and pain and you had to find a way to balance grief with gratitude and continue to just move through your life, what would you say to someone who is seeking to embrace both grief and find joy in their lives? Because just because you have joy doesn't mean that you still don't have some pain. So what would you say to a person who's seeking to find that embracing of grief and joy?
Lisa Greenberg:Well, I'm going to say, though, Alethea, that I did not have any gratitude or joy then, Okay, I, and I wasn't even hiding behind any smile or facade. I couldn't like I was. I felt that I was. I was dead, but my heart was still beating.
Alethea Felton:Yeah, because what I was wondering was since you were still able to work. I guess what I mean and teach is that maybe they always say teachers are the biggest actors, and so what I mean is maybe not that consistent part, maybe not that consistent part, but when I make the clown face reference, what I mean and again, correct me if I'm wrong what I mean is when you're in front of your students teaching, you might have to smile occasionally or put on a happy face, even if you don't want to.
Lisa Greenberg:That's what I meant by that. So at that point I was a school counselor.
Alethea Felton:Interesting.
Lisa Greenberg:So I wasn't, that is ironic that here you are the counselor, I know.
Lisa Greenberg:That is amazing. And so I wasn't necessarily standing in front of a class all day. I did have lessons to teach sometimes, but running small groups and I was, you know, having one-to-one counseling with kids. But I knew I wasn't. I just wasn't who that's when I decided I need to take a little break, and I took a few weeks off and actually went to a day program I so.
Lisa Greenberg:But the the gratitude, the gratitude came in once I started to work through some of this hard stuff in therapy with Mindy and doing the work, the trauma work. So the gratitude has come. The gratitude hasn't had not been there, I want to say. And so I feel like what I want to say to people is this we can't do this life alone. At times, especially and when you're struggling with whatever it may be okay A physical, medical health issue, depression, mental health, whatever it is Sometimes we feel like we want to pull back and isolate.
Lisa Greenberg:That's the worst thing we can do, the worst thing we can do. We need to sometimes rely on others to hear them tell us things that maybe we know that what they're saying doesn't make sense to us and that they may not have any idea of what we're going through, but to still listen, to still connect, to still allow them sometimes to carry us. There are times where I know I was carried, there were times where I would be in the company of people and just didn't talk, I had nothing to say, I was just like breathing but I was like a blob. But to not isolate and to listen to people, because it was because my doctor said to me, take this number. And then I said, okay, you know, take leaps and trust. And because of that I found my way with someone and I'm doing the work, and it's the work.
Lisa Greenberg:We all have work to do in our life. Life bumps us around a bit and so we have work to do, you know. And so what I also have learned through my therapy I've learned so much. I've learned that what we tell ourselves is really significant, it's the most significant thing that impacts our lives our own mindset you know, we're this body walking around all day and our thoughts. You know, thoughts are just bouncing around and oftentimes, when we've lived in depression or any kind of anxiety, we have negative thoughts. We have negative thinking, we lose hope and we do start to create habitual thinking and habitual thinking becomes comfortable for us and then we fall back on that, and so with my therapy I've learned that that's really key to to get hold of our thinking and the messages we tell ourselves that's right yes, and so we tell ourselves that's right, yes, and so that's huge.
Lisa Greenberg:And I don't know if people realize many people do realize some people don't realize how important that is to nurture ourselves, to take care of ourselves in the most loving way possible. So, um and so I was going to say and so the things that I learned in therapy that I feel are really important for people to put into their lives, mindy called scaffolding, which are positive, healthy daily routines to keep you afloat, to nurture yourself, for an everyday life, but also for when life maybe doesn't go so well, so that if depression visits me again. I now have some scaffolding that I rely on each day. For example, I wake up every morning and I pray. I then sit and I write in a gratitude journal every morning.
Lisa Greenberg:And what's happened with that?
Lisa Greenberg:It's not just in that time that I'm writing, it's what happens the rest of the day.
Lisa Greenberg:Because if I'm writing about and it's not every day that I say I'm grateful for my children, I'm grateful for my home, it's certainly there's that, but there's also I'm so grateful that I can hear, because I'll hear birds today, I'll hear the children's voices at school, and they're just so delicious. Or I'm so grateful that I can walk some people can't, you know. So the the gratitude isn't just the material things that you have in your life, or or that you know you're grateful for your family, which you are, but it goes beyond that too, and so then what happens is, if you're having a bad day, the sad thoughts sort of they're like seven, they go to the bottom and the gratitude and the things, the blessings that you see in your life sort of come up to the top. So I've experienced that from my regular practice of writing in a journal. Also meditation, daily meditation, my yoga practice, my getting outside and being one with nature, and all of that, all of that is keeping me in this good, good headspace.
Alethea Felton:I know, without a doubt, without a doubt, yes, and throughout the interview and people who are listening won't see this, only the people who view it but you've been adjusting yourself occasionally because of how the sun is, but I don't think that's by accident, just the shine on you from the sun's rays. I think it's very. I don't believe in coincidences or anything like that and so my own personal viewpoint is that it was intentional for the sun to glare on you like that, to show that transition from darkness into light, because so much of your life was just spent just being burdened down. Had some had good moments, yes, but in terms of the trauma over the years, so that light shining on you, lisa, I think, is so important, and as we come to our close here, I'm curious as to what is probably the most important lesson that you've learned personally from your journey thus far.
Lisa Greenberg:Okay, I believe that it's you know. You can let your story and the things that have happened to you be your only story, or you can have them be a foundation to build upon, to bring out beauty, beauty into the world, to create good things from those hard times. Whatever has happened to us, it's happened for us. I believe that you know, I truly do, and I think all of what happened to me.
Lisa Greenberg:If anyone ever would have said you'll be grateful for all of that, all of the losses, all of it, I would have thought that's a crazy thought. But man, oh man, alethea, I am grateful for all of it. It's all helped me to become who I am today and I like who I am. I live and love out loud. I live, juicy, oh I, I have a kind heart, a giving heart, and I want to show up now in the world for others, because for so many years people showed up for me, because for so many years people showed up for me. So just not to let what has happened to you if those are the negative things that we're referring to be the story. Let that be a starting point or a foundation to build beautiful new stories from.
Alethea Felton:And you certainly have a story to share, lisa, and I know that this is only the beginning of hearing more from you. There's so much inside of you more that you need to get the world out to hear, because what you have experienced can certainly help others. It's definitely helping me, and I don't even think people have to come from the same direct backgrounds in terms of our life experiences to glean something from this journey. Glean something from this journey. We are all in this together, and it has been such an honor having you on the Power Transformation podcast. I'm so grateful to know you, lisa, and thank you.
Lisa Greenberg:Alethea, thank you so much, so much. I'm grateful to you.
Alethea Felton:Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Power Transformation podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe, leave a five-star rating and write a review. It helps us inspire even more listeners. And don't keep it to yourself. Share it with someone who could use a little power in their transformation. Until next time, keep bouncing back, keep rising and be good to yourself and to others.
