Gina Vild on the Power of Love and Resilience
Manage episode 327600820 series 2980544
This week on Phoenix Tales, Yuliana welcomes author, speaker, and former Associate Dean and Chief Communications Officer, Harvard Medical School, Gina Vild to the podcast. Gina talks today about losing her mother, her father’s stroke, and her own subsequent divorce, noting that her parents’ deaths played large roles in her decision to get a divorce. These events revealed to her that life is simply too short to live unhappily, and only after her divorce did she learn the power of meditation, which she says has since totally changed her life.
Gina goes on to remember the moments after her divorce when she felt alone and heartbroken. To assuage the pain, she wrote goodbye and hello letters to herself to immerse herself in her emotions and overcome them. Likewise, she started practicing habits of gratitude that she says changed her psyche immensely. When asked about how her children were impacted by the divorce, she says that she finds it extremely important for them to know they are loved by both parents. To draw this episode to a close, Gina makes a profound statement that resilience comes to those who are fearless and looking to forge new paths.
Episode Highlights:
- Gina’s parents’ deaths
- Her realization that life is short
- Gina’s decision to get a divorce
- The power of mantra meditation
- Moments of loneliness and doubt post-divorce
- Practicing gratitude
- The power of love
- The importance of resilience
Quotes:
“I think the work you're doing is so important because everyone is struggling with resilience. In life, no one escapes adversity, and with the pandemic, it's becoming increasingly important.”
“The trouble is you think you have time.”
“I knew that life was so precious. I did not want to be in a relationship that I felt was not all that it could be, and that had been so disappointing. And so I took a leap - I feel like it was like a freefall without a net.”
“When you are raised in an environment where you have so much love - and I did, as I said - it makes you confident about the world, it makes you believe the world is safe and can be trusted.”
“Make a gift of yourself. It may not be what's right or enough for everyone, but you will find your path. And that was the moment all of that worrying and insecurities for the most part stopped.”
“No one escapes pain and death and loss, you know, and are you going to let that be what directs these few short years you have, or are you going to ground yourself in what's important to you?”
Gina’s song: “Life is Calling” by Beth Hart.
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