The Secret PondCast

Drew's story is not uncommon, and that's exactly why Carmenfelt called to share it.  She knows firsthand that the kids on both sides of the equation have hurting hearts.  By the time Drew reached fourth grade, the challenges hefaced became much more serious. At just nine years old, he began asking a new heartbreaking question: “Mom, what is wrong with me?” Carmen shares how things escalate...

Drawing from her personal and professional experiences,Carmen shares the seven pointers she used to help Drew navigate hurtful behavior with understanding and empathy and one simple action that helped Drew go From Hurt to Helper.

When five-year-old Drew climbed into the car after his firstday of kindergarten, his first question was, “Mom, why are kids so mean?” That heartbreaking moment would eventually inspire amovement. Carmen shares how her experiences as a mom and child advocate shaped her approach to bullying, retaliation, and labeling children and why empathy became the foundation of their outreach, ELF365.

Join Carmen as she walks you through the guided visualization questions behind The Secret Pond Perspective™. Learn how to explore your emotional waters, recognize triggers and repeating patterns, and better understand what you're feeling and WHY. Discover how self-reflection can help you calm your emotional waters and create more space for peace, presence, and joy.

Join Carmen as she introduces Pond Speak , the unique glossary behind The Secret Pond Perspective™. Discover how our emotions behave like water, what creates waves in our inner world, and how self-reflection can help us recognize patterns, process emotions, and find greater peace and clarity. Because life isn't about perfection—it's about presence.

Where Is The Secret Pond? Join Carmen as she shares the heartfelt story behind The Secret Pond, inspired by treasured childhood memories with her Grandad Joe. Discover how his love, wisdom, and peaceful presence inspired The Secret Pond Perspective™—a simple way to better understand our emotions and find the peace, joy, and contentment that already exist within us.

What if the secret to your overwhelming to-do list is not doing more, but seeing it differently? In this honest and uplifting episode, Carmen shares how asking “WHY?” and breaking your list into three simple categories can bring moreclarity, ease, and flow to the way you move through each day.

What if our overwhelm, burnout and emotional shutdown are trying to tell us something?   In this honest and upliftingepisode, Carmen explores how these became the doorway to deeper clarity, self-worth, and freedom from carrying too much.  Through humor, heart, and her “super alter ego” lens, she reveals how performance, control, fear, and scarcity can quietly shape our lives… and how asking “WHY?”...

Carmen here- not asking but telling you (yes, I’m bossy) to TRUST. YOUR. GUT. Life it too short to worry about what Norm thinks…and honestly, does he even really know us anyway? In this post, I share how I wobbled back and forth between trusting myself and questioning myself (and freaking out a little…OK, a lot!) while learning- and living- outside the box, especially as it relates to parenting, w...

Did the New Year train already leave the station—and you didn’t even have a chance to buy a ticket, let alone decide where you wanted to go? It’s okay. That was just the first train—not the last. New Year, SmooYear is for anyone who’s trying to survive exhaustion (and winter!), and could use a little real talk, a reality check (the good kind!), and a laugh. Here's to giving ourselves a little...