Harvesting Happiness Podcasts

This week we explore the depth and width of resilience of the human condition. We will discover how to overcome adversity and stress, and live the happy life we were meant to. Tune in as we learn how deep an individual can reach into their soul and find happiness after a tragic accident or misfortune? Are there limitations of the human spirit and condition, and how far it can it be stretched to create the quality of life one longs for? Our guest this week discusses his journey from being on top of the skiing world, to a heart breaking accident, to arriving high above the world, once again.

Charley Johnson: An entrepreneur and former Owner/Executive V.P. of a Manufacturing company with over 250 employees has a deep passion for Pay it Forward. Believing in Pay it Forward so much so he left his company, career & millions behind to change the world and how people view humanity. He has been a Board member of the Pay it Forward Foundation for the past 4 years and will become President January 1st, 2012. He is the creator of the Pay it Forward Bracelet, a physical reminder to do good that has been sent to over 1 million people in 108 countries.

Kenneth Cloke is Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution and a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, coach, consultant, and trainer, specializing in communication, negotiation, and resolving complex multi-party conflicts, as well as designing preventative conflict resolution systems for organizations.

Rudy Wietfeldt has personally faced and overcome incredible tragedies: at 18 he was pallbearer for his father, who died suddenly in his 40s; at 25, Rudy had also served as pallbearer for his mother. By the age of 33, Rudy had buried three sons and a daughter. And Rudy has also suffered with what Wikipedia has called "the most painful condition known to medical science," the Cluster Headache. Through all the pain and suffering, the book "The Core of Happiness" was penned by Rudy in the hope that his surviving children and others would ultimately derive benefit from his philosophy of hope that has guided his life. "The Core of Happiness" is the first in a series of books with "a ‘novel' approach to self help." Rudy is currently co-authoring a chronic pain management book with Dr. Barry Mitchell; look for this to be released in 2012.

Drs. Ron and Mary Hulnick are founders of the University of Santa Monica, a small, private graduate school offering master's degree programs in Spiritual Psychology. Most recently, Ron and Mary have released their newest book, Loyalty to Your Soul - The Heart of Spiritual Psychology. Loyalty to your Soul means learning to live life from within the spiritual context of who you are. Which means the YOU that is the spiritual essence of your very being as opposed to who you think you are, which is really all about your ego or personality. The idea is that "We are not human beings who have a Soul, we are Souls having a human experience."

Chrissy Carew is a Hall-of-Fame Master Certified personal and business coach, mentor and trainer as well as the author of Insightful Player: Football Pros Lead a Bold Movement of Hope, published in October of 2011 by Morgan James Publishing.

Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks and gratitude. When we give thanks, we are expressing our love and happiness towards others. This week , as we usher in the Holiday Season, I give my thanks to you, through music. I am very grateful and thankful to the guest musicians this week as they share with us their expressions, creativity and talent, through their love of music.

WAYNE HANKIN is a period instrument specialist and has played 400 different instruments over a 30 year career. Specializing in medieval, renaissance and baroque periods, Wayne has mastered instruments played only by a small handful of people in the world including various bagpipes, hornpipes, flutes, whistles, gemshorns, trumps, bone flutes, double reeds and others. There are also instruments made exclusively for his talents of which he is the sole performer.

As an architectural designer, cookies and baking were a side note in Tami Cromar’s life. When she wanted a little extra spending money, she’d bake. When she wanted to help her daughters raise funds, she’d bake. When she wanted a quality, memorable gift for her clients, she’d bake. Over the course of 15 years, it was an accumulation of these incidences, coupled with her disillusionment with the design industry, that brought Cromar to a realization: It was time for cookies to move from the sidelines to the forefront of her life. So she quit her former career.With a vote of confidence from her family, and a $10,00 IRA, she began the process of opening the local bakery, RubySnap.

Dr. Bill Cloke has recently finished a book about relationships and intimacy. The book titled HAPPY TOGETHER: Creating a Lifetime of Connection, Commitment and Intimacy addresses how our inner life affects our ability to connect emotionally with others and creates or soothes conflict, healing and redemption. His interest is devoted to the ultimate challenge of easing pain and helping people to develop better and more satisfying relationships.

Dr. Alan Gettis believes wholeheartedly in the power of stories. his therapeutic approach to helping others heal and thrive as a result of his studies of world cultures in general and Zen in particular. Dr. Gettis spent two years as a Vietnam era army psychologist in the late 1960’s. In the 1970’s, he worked for seven years at a large mental health center as the Chief Psychologist. He is a clinical psychologist and has been in private practice since 1974.

Alison Lighthall, RN, BSN, MSN, a former Captain in the US Army Nurse Corps, is an expert in posttraumatic stress, combat stress, military suicide, and mental resilience. While serving with the 7302nd Medical Training Support Battalion, she provided psychosocial training throughout the Midwest to units preparing to deploy and debriefing sessions upon their return. Alison served as the Lead Clinician of Fort Carson's Urgent Psychiatric Care Response Team, providing emergency psychiatric care to their most emotionally wounded. Currently, as a trainer and consultant, she assists with reintegration programs for military and police organizations.

Fuzzy Manning is the Founder & CEO of PTS Treatment. He is a recognized international alternative clinician, therapist, and speaker who mends the hearts of female/male military veterans, National Guard, Coast Guard, reservists, and their families who are dealing with the invisible wounds of Post Traumatic Stress (PTS). During the alternative therapy process, it’s impossible to separate Chronic Disease, Chronic Pain and Musculoskeletal Damage, Combat Stress, Military Sexual Trauma (MST), Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Suicidal Thoughts, and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) from PTS during treatment. You can’t treat one without treating the other. Fuzzy offers a safe and secure environment for people to tell their story and receive the necessary treatment and therapy despite their gender, age, language, or ethnicity. He believes in treating veterans, military personnel, and their family as one-unit. Visit http://ptstreatment.com

Barry Fixler has aided numerous wounded Marines and soldiers, to whom his loyalties are obvious, but has also helped people who have had no connections to the military. Barry has pledged to raise a million dollars for combat-wounded veterans from the proceeds from his book Semper Cool: One Marine’s Fond Memories of Vietnam. Barry is donating all of his royalties from Semper Cool to combat veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can learn more about Barry’s foundation and monitor the progress of his million dollar goal on his web site: SemperCool.com.

Chaney Weiner is a sought after authority on human potential and personal development. He is the founder of the Chaney Institute of Human Potential, an organization dedicated to empowering people worldwide in all seven areas of life (Financial, physical, family, mental, spiritual, vocational, and social) by helping them discover their hidden brilliance and uniqueness based on what is most important to them. Chaney is also a facilitator of the Demartini Method which was developed by Dr. John Demartini.

Deva and Miten's music transcends all the usual musical boundaries, with fans including rock icon Cher, who featured one of Deva’s most popular chants, the Gayatri Mantra, on her Farewell Concert Tour; world renowned author and motivational coach Tony Robbins, and even His Holiness The Dalai Lama who, after hearing Deva & Miten sing for a private audience, exclaimed, “Beautiful music, beautiful…!”

As both the CEO of MilitaryConnection.com and the founder of the Veteran and Military Business Owners Association (VAMBOA), Debbie Gregory covers all the bases when it comes to serving the needs of Military and Veteran Communities. MilitaryConnection.com, one of the most popular websites on the Internet for active military, veterans and their families, is referred to as The Go To Site for jobs, benefits, news, and information regarding education benefits. The web site is one of the most comprehensive online directories of military and veteran resources with thousands of pages and something for everyone. Visit www.militaryconnection.com for more info.

Raquel Reyna is an emotional eating specialist and weight loss expert. She has been in the business of weight loss for the last 10 years and has helped hundreds of women find their ideal body weight. She helped launch one of the most successful weight loss franchises in the US. Today sees through her years of experience and personal battles with eating disorders and binge eating as well as severe yo yo dieting that weight loss and health has far less to do with what you eat and more to do with how you think.

Every woman, whether she realizes it or not, has a Real Cougar just waiting to be unleashed. Living your life as a smart, sexy, independent woman is the best gift you can give yourself. So get over listening to what other people think you should do and start living the life you deserve. After leaving a powerful Wall Street career, Linda Franklin made the conscious decision to take back her life. She embarked on a quest to find the answers that would help her relationships, maintain a healthy body, looking fabulous, starting a new career and filling her spiritual reservoir. That journey, as tough as it was, turned out to be a blessing. It re-ignited her passion and allowed her to get excited about "act two" of her life.

Chitoka Webb's life and business motto is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" pulling herself up by the bootstraps these humble beginnings brought more success. After developing two health care agencies and a new state-of-the-art barbershop Webb developed Chitoka L.Webb Holdings, Inc. which oversees her professional ventures, and the early development stages of a Foundation which supports her community service projects