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This week Bianca interviews Linda Eileen Fearless Birther, amazing doula, homeschooling mom, peer mentor, RV lifestyle and Bebo Mia community member. Linda’s family’s healing journey started with pain. After Linda got injured her household had to be re-structured and her husband found himself in a new role that had him questioning a lot of things about his life. Linda and her husband took an enneagram test that helped guide them into a path of introspection where they realized they had lost themselves in their work and their roles as parents.
Linda was convinced by a friend to attend one of Bebo Mia’s free webinars and there she was awakened to the possibility of turning her passion for birth into a career. She shares with us how her training with Bebo Mia helped her reconnect deeply with herself and how the healing journey she found through birth work and community trickled down to her whole family, allowing them to heal together and eventually, to manifest a new lifestyle of freedom where they get to travel, continue homeschooling, and reclaim spaces that aren’t usually occupied by Latinx or BIPOC families..
Click here for the transcript
This week featuring:
Bianca Sprague feels especially passionate about creating access to quality pre & postnatal care for marginalized communities. She is an advocate for mental wellness for the entire family, and especially for the birthing parent, after suffering from PPD in silence and losing her father to suicide in 2012. She recognizes the barriers put in place for female entrepreneurs and believes that understanding the evolving online space can even the playing field for women in business.
Linda Eileen is a proud Latina, homeschool mom of two who was born and raised in Brooklyn, NYC. She is the owner of “The Fearless Birther” and works as a traveling doula and lactation consultant. With 20 years of support from her husband and two children, Linda decided to pursue her calling as a birthworker in 2020 and became a maternal support practitioner. She and her family now travel, embracing self-love, promoting inner peace and healing, while creating beautiful long lasting memories.
Hot + Brave The Blog-Cast: (healing-journey)
Linda Eileen’s RV Journey
On this week’s episode of the Hot + Brave Podcast, Bianca interviews another amazing bebo mia alumni, Linda Eileen, where they talk about her incredible healing journey. In this case, the journey is not only the road taken to live a more joyful life, but the RV lifestyle she is taking to get there! Thats right, Linda traded in her New York city life, with her husband and two kids for life on the road in her RV, which she aptly named, Journey. Through her story, we are able to see how choosing happiness, even when it can be so hard, is what our bodies need to heal and process all that might trouble us from the past.
Recognizing Truth, Healing Trauma, and Reducing Stress
Our bodies know when we are accepting less than we are worth; or when we keep saying we are okay when we are not. The stress of holding trauma and grief can literally make us sick. Trauma is held in the body and shows up in so many ways. We feel tired, depressed, and uneasy so often because we are not always given the space to deal with the things that really bother us, or worse, that have caused serious trauma. How many times a day do you say “It’s fine”, when you know or feel that it really is not fine. Truth telling and action are key to overcoming this needless cycle. We need to tell the truth to ourselves. This can be so freeing; and while it may be hard, once the truth is told we are one step closer to being free of the things that weigh us down. Just admitting to ourselves that our children are bothering us, that you don’t want to make school lunches but have to anyway, or even that you cannot stand the other moms at your kids gymnastics can be such a release! Truth telling alleviates stress in our bodies and allows us to move on by resolving the things in our lives that we are not always honest about.Reconciliation can only happen with truth and through this we can decrease the stress on our bodies that occurs when unresolved issues or traumas are left to keep bogging us down.
Linda’s healing journey of her trauma is all about taking a chance. Her road to finding joy may not be exactly what you want for yourself, but still her story is similar to so many of ours at its core. Living a life of “what ifs” and uncertainty or feeling like something is missing and wanting more is such a common experience for all of us. Finding the thing that brings you true joy and happiness should always be the goal. For Linda, and her family, telling the truth about wanting more freedom and being tired of waiting is inspiring and reminds us that taking a chance may be scary, but let’s face it – life is already scary, why not take a chance.
Realities of RV life and Camping life
One of the hardest things to confront for Linda was the realities of RV lifestyle and camping life so BIPOC folks. She speaks candidly about the lack of BIPOC representation in the camping/RV lifestyle and the concerns she had for her Latino family traveling across the US. Safety for racialized folks is a significant concern for people of color in mostly white areas such as campsites. For Linda, despite her frustration, she aims to promote the RV lifestyle for the BIPOC community. She wants all people to be safe in a new space, especially when that space is the site of their healing and freedom. Organizations such as “Black Folks Camp Too” work to promote a safe space for all to do what makes them feel happy and free, without racists making the space dangerous and inaccessible.
RV Adventures and change
After packing up all her things into storage and buying an RV, Linda shares that times were not easy and there was not some sort of instant gratification for throwing off the shackles of a more”conventional life”. There were hard times, fears and immense self-doubt. On the other hand, the uncertainty of being open to new experiences also made her feel wildly free and happier in general. Despite the ups and downs of completely changing our lives we can really see the importance of living the life that you want, whatever that may be and taking a risk for your own happiness. To be happy does not mean that everything is “easy” or that you have every single thing that you want. Sometimes we have to take risks and this is incredibly uncomfortable. Growth and change don’t come easy. At the end of the day it is about being content with who you are and the choices you have made. Linda remarks, “ if you are too comfortable it means nothing is changing”. The idea that change is hard is not just a cliche, it involves overcoming self-doubt and that voice inside our heads that says we can’t do it.
The best advice Bianca and Linda share in this week’s episode is to simply tell the truth about what you want and why you want it. We stay put in and in bad situations all the time because change is too scary. There will always be bumps in the road or obstacles, but if you are struggling in your current living situation anyway – the only thing to be scared of is that the bumps look different. You can deal with it, you already are dealing with it. If you can get to a place where you are happier than before, then the growing pains are worth it. In Linda’s story, she had to let a lot go when downsizing to Rv lifestyle. This included material items, and also emotional setbacks. In her journey she learned to break through what was holding her back and realized what her true priorities are. Now, your path doesn’t have to look the same as how Linda did it. But many of us would do well to take her advice and dissect our lives and the areas where we struggle to find joy, and then try to find something that helps us confront our trauma and fear. Once you can let things go (emotional, trauma, ect.) you have the room and the energy to do new things and can fill that spot with something that actually makes you happy. That is what healing is about. We deserve to be joyful, rather than saying “its fine” when it is so far from fine.
What else is going on at bebo mia?
Become a Birth Worker!
The bebo mia inc Maternal Support Practitioner Certification is not just Doula training, it’s community. Together we will change the climate in which we learn about birth, give birth, and raise our babies. We will take up space, use our voice, and live our purpose.
Classes start September, 2023. Click here to register now!
Support a great cause!
The Ember Blueprint is raising funds for tuition for women in trades as well as stipends for students to provide care to under-resourced families. With over one thousand applicants in the last 5 years, it is clear that access to tuition is a barrier for women entering the trades.
Links and resources:
– Linda’s Youtube Channel “Our Healing Journey”
– Sign up for our next webinar “Turn your Love for Babies and Bellies into cash”
– Learn more about our Maternal Support Practitioner Training
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