Find Your Spark

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Nicole Wilson shares her experience of saying goodbye to 30 and hello to 31 with many emotions that followed. She expresses how her birthday started with crying lots of tears while feeling bitter about closing the 30th chapter of her life, to then having a shift of mind and insight about turning 31 and age in general. As she allowed herself to feel a...

In this episode of the Find Your Spark podcast, Chad takes us on his journey of how he managed to tackle his anxiety and find peace throughout his life. He also shares the obstacles he faced during the dark sides of anxiety and how he was able to navigate his true self through awareness, Self-love, and Self-care. Chad also touches on the importance of allowing our thoughts to be processed and the...

In this episode, with Nicole Wilson and Selah Freedom's Assessment Coordinator, Angelea Valenti, they explore the partnership that SPARK and Selah have shared for over 7 years together. Angelea shares the impact of SPARK and her personal story being a Selah graduate and going through the SPARK program years ago when we first started our partnership. Nicole shares some of her experiences leading th...

In this episode, Nicole, Emily and Macy share some upcoming event details about the SPARKING Change Youth Leadership FUNdraiser! Macy and Emily share the importance of this program and what was their biggest take away. Nicole shares why its impactful for our community's young people to have this opportunity to see their SPARK inside and create the change they want to see. Nicole also shares some u...

In this episode of the Find your SPARK podcast, Jena shares about her recent challenges and how she has navigated through them with a new lens. Jena talks about all the changes that have been taking place and how she has been in a stressful state of mind, but when a new challenge arrives, it completely shifts everything! Tune in to hear Jena reflect on tearing her Achilles tendon, how it made her...

In this episode, Nicole Wilson and guest speaker, Jay Spires, speak to the importance of having awareness of the mind and how that alone can create change around suicide. Jay shares his story with suicide and how he was able to overcome the fight with his thoughts. Nicole then shares why being aware of this understanding of how the mind works and seeing your natural resilience is the solution that...

On this episode of the Find Your Spark podcast, Ashley and Jena discuss the many emotions they’ve experienced as their kids have returned to school. This year, both Jena and Ashley had their “babies” start middle school. And as if that wasn’t enough of an emotional milestone, Ashley’s oldest entered high school. Ashley and Jena both share how they have been handling things as fear, anxiety, and sa...

In this episode we welcome our newest team member, Tara Phillips! Tara joins SPARK after 16 years teaching elementary school in Texas, Florida, and Abu Dhabi. Her love for her kids and passion for bringing out the best in them is infectious and what drew us together. Tara shares her perspective on educating the whole child, her reasons for changing careers, why she chose SPARK, and what parents an...

In this episode Brooke and Ashley discuss the first chapters of Michael Singer's New York Times bestseller, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself. Focusing on the way Singer describes the part of our mind that is constantly having its own conversation-with or without the REAL us participating. Brooke found insight because she realized just how easy it is for us to get swept up in the ba...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Nicole and Mari talk about their experiences working with the young child program at the Children’s Board Family Resource Centers and sharing the differences between working with the population of 5-8 year old’s and working with the teens and adults. They both notice how young children are so in tune with their SPARK inside that this comes very natur...

In this episode, Stephanie is fresh off a relaxing vacation and excited to share reflections on a profound book she was given. The Art Spirit, written by Robert Henri in 1923, describes his philosophy on life and art. He beautifully articulates many of the same principles that resonate both personally and professionally with Stephanie and Spark. Among these, is that master works of art are created...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Stephanie and SPARK Intern, Andres Medina, discuss the most impactful parts of recent SPARK facilitator training and reflect on their most meaningful moments. Andres hopes to use his time with the SPARK Initiative to gain experience mentoring individuals through the curriculum and become an influential leader. While sharing their passion for criminal...

This week’s episode of the Find your Spark podcast is more like an open letter to those close to the SPARK family and those who are challenged to do the work of creating a better place for all of humanity. With humility and vulnerability, Brooke opens up about a recent heartbreaking incident involving her daughter that brought her family to their knees and ended up in the national spotlight for a...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Nicole introduces The SPARK Initiative’s 2 new employees, Mari and Chad. Mari is our new Research and Development Coordinator, and Chad is our Executive Assistant. Since their first day, they have been pretty busy learning their roles, completing the Insight to Well-Being curriculum training with Beyond Recovery, and Mari has also done some shadowing...

In this episode, Stephanie opens up about a recent low state of mind she had been in. She recalls the moments that she started to realize her own mental health was just as important as those around her that she helps on a daily basis. She shares how she knew something needed to shift internally and that it meant taking action externally. At the moment of this insight, she didn’t know what action t...

This weeks’ episode of the Find your Spark podcast was very special, as we had our first ever live audience while recording our podcast! Brooke and Ashley were in Palm Springs, Ca last week for the BOOST conference, and during the conference they were given this unique opportunity to go live! Brooke kicked off the podcast by sharing a story of something that happened right before leaving for this...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Stephanie and Jena share their personal stories about taking things personal. But what if everything wasn’t personal? Jena talks about her kids not doing their chores and instead of taking it as a direct attack, they come up with a new solution that is more helpful in their day-to-day life. Stephanie speaks about her recent experience involving her l...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK podcast, Brooke and Ashley talk about how our thoughts can take us for a crazy ride! Brooke shares a story about how her losing her keys led her to thinking intruders were “casing the joint” and going to break into her house. Listen to hear where they really were, and how her imagination got the best of her! Trust us, you will want to listen to how this story...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Nicole, Jena and Zaria come together to share their stories and experiences during the past 5 weeks delivering the Insight to Well-Being program to male Veterans and a group of women at the Falkenburg Jail. They each share some insights and ah hah moments they saw from the participants and the impact this program left on them all. They also share how...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Ashley and Brooke talk about the importance of trusting that others have everything they need inside to make their own decision, even when we may not agree with them. Ashley speaks about how recent events have highlighted this fact for her, and how she was able to find peace over fear by understanding that everyone has a SPARK, and therefore they wil...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, we are honored to introduce the newest member of the SPARK team, Mike Bates. Mike has dedicated the last 37 years of his life to working with education and leadership teams around the world. We are inspired by Mike’s passion to see the potential in all students—especially those in need of intensive academic and behavioral intervention. Tune in to hea...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Brooke and Ashley sit down to talk about the nurturing ability we have to intentionally find space within ourselves, even in the midst of overwhelm. Recently, Brooke moved her family of 7 into a new house that has a lot more space than her pervious town house and it showed her, in real time, how physical space allowed for the release of tension and o...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Jena and Nicole talk about uncomfortable situations and the ability to adapt to change. They also share certain situations they’ve experienced uncomfortable feelings and how they navigated through it with a different perspective of the mind. Trusting your potential and ability is key and the only thing that gets in our way sometimes is our own thinki...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Jena and Ashley sit down to talk about mental health needs for adults, specifically educators. Our youth intern, Carys Mullins, recently wrote a blog titled “ Only Human: Teachers’ Mental Health Matters Too, A Student’s Perspective ” and it had us really think about this topic. Jena shares about a recent event that happened at her own son’s school an...

In this episode of the Find Your SPARK Podcast, Jena shares about her experience of feeling anxious and frustrated over the past week. After doing an activity with skittles in one of her SPARK classes, she realizes exactly what she is doing to herself and questions why she isn’t filling her cup with more yellow skittles! Listen as Jena explains how just realizing what is happening can be helpful a...