Verimour Speaks

Despite his family's three decades in the gun manufacturing business, Michael bills himself and the most ungun gun guy. Listen in as we cover everything from guns to social media. Mission Statement Reduce incidents of suicide by firearms, gun negligence through  education and proactive programs that identify risks, raise awareness,  and provide solutions to those who choose to own firearms responsibly  and the public at large. Goals Our goal is to raise awareness and create a change in the  misunderstandings regarding mental illness and firearms by bringing  together industry leaders to reduce gun violence, negligence, suicide  and the trauma created by these events. Develop programs for suicide  prevention, firearms negligence, trauma mitigation, and child safety. Vision For The Future Eradicating the prejudice that both the firearms and mental  health industries face while reducing the number of tragedies and deaths  that have occurred over the years since the US has had a decline in  mental health funding and education (*).  Creating an organization that  is solely focused on making change and is made up of experts from  different fields and all walks of life that is not corrupted by  politics, the media, or personal prejudices.  We will seek out input  opportunities to further enhance communication, compassion, calls to  action, and education. President Walk the Talk America (501-C-3) Avidity Arms LLC  WalktheTalkAmerica.org IG:   @walkthetalkus FB:  @walkthetalkus Avidity Arms LLC IG:  @avidityarms FB: @avidityPD10 MichaelSodini.com IG:  @michael_sodini FB: @michaeldsodini --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Despite his family's three decades in the gun manufacturing business, Michael bills himself and the most ungun gun guy. Listen in as we cover everything from guns to social media. Mission Statement Reduce incidents of suicide by firearms, gun negligence through  education and proactive programs that identify risks, raise awareness,  and provide solutions to those who choose to own firearms responsibly  and the public at large. Goals Our goal is to raise awareness and create a change in the  misunderstandings regarding mental illness and firearms by bringing  together industry leaders to reduce gun violence, negligence, suicide  and the trauma created by these events. Develop programs for suicide  prevention, firearms negligence, trauma mitigation, and child safety. Vision For The Future Eradicating the prejudice that both the firearms and mental  health industries face while reducing the number of tragedies and deaths  that have occurred over the years since the US has had a decline in  mental health funding and education (*).  Creating an organization that  is solely focused on making change and is made up of experts from  different fields and all walks of life that is not corrupted by  politics, the media, or personal prejudices.  We will seek out input  opportunities to further enhance communication, compassion, calls to  action, and education. President Walk the Talk America (501-C-3) Avidity Arms LLC WalktheTalkAmerica.org IG:   @walkthetalkus FB:  @walkthetalkus Avidity Arms LLC IG:  @avidityarms FB: @avidityPD10 MichaelSodini.com IG:  @michael_sodini FB: @michaeldsodini --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed content from the relationship segment of the Honestly Dawn podcast. Ahmed and I talk about the trend I was seeing in angst ridden individuals who were posting questions on Reddit and Quora about how to get their exs back. We consider the question from both personal experience as well as practicality. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

https://medium.com/@verimour/how-to-see-yourself-as-sexy-21ec1c66957a For as long as I can remember I’ve had what a friend once referred to as “White Woman’s Syndrome”. It’s that inability to step outside our heads and see ourselves in the senuous and sexy way others do. Because of that we are not comfortable in our bodies, so we don’t swing our hips or flaunt our gorgeous selves in the way of the women we idolize as beautiful. Part of the reason is our culture and “learning” early on in life that sex is bad, therefore being sexy is bad. “Good girls don’t act like that and the more heinous and insidious, even if unspoken, “she was asking for it”. Part of it comes from not being taught how to handle the attention that arises from being confident, owning our bodies and our sexuality. Additionally, we build up insecurities over the years through repeating to ourselves perceived slights from others or unfair and biased self-criticisms. When I got divorced 2.5 years ago I was like a caged animal unleashed. I had felt captive for so long I didn’t know who I was (sexually speaking), what I liked, and what I was or wasn’t willing to do. I knew that many people, men and women alike had referred to me as beautiful or sexy, but since I didn’t really see myself that way, I had to figure out what sexy was. One of the first things I did was make a friend take me to a real live strip club. Now, without a doubt there are highend places that feature the amazing creatures television teaches us is the norm. However, this was not one of those. The women there each had their own form of beauty with or without perfect bodies. But what they all had in spades was the ability to make the most of their assets and be unapologetic about flaunting them. The freedom with which they moved their bodies to the music was otherworldly. While they were certainly cognizant of the men at the edge of the stage looking to hand them money, most of them seemed lost in the music and enjoyment of their movement. It was mesmerizing. The closest I’d ever come to that was mentally tapping into a great workout (which for me meant very heavy weight and total limb trembling exhaustion). But what I was seeing was foreign to me and I wanted to know more... --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

A lot has changed in the 23 years since I wrote the paper highlighted in this episode. While I still have challenges, their nature and degree are very different.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

   For many years I was like the rest of the world rushing my life from weekend to weekend always trying to savor those precious final Sunday night or holiday hours and dreading the sound of the alarm that signaled a new work week. Even then I remember commenting on the irony of it and how unfortunate it all was given how delicate our existence can be. And when I found myself out of work it got even worse instead of better. I suddenly began to hate every day instead of just Mondays. I saw myself as without purpose and lacking value or worth. For a long time I did everything I could think of to mold myself into something the corporate world wanted. I got certified in PowerPoint, studied change and project management. I changed my resume with every submission in an attempt to highlight whatever skill that particular company was looking for. It didn’t work. I became so desperate to show I could do it all I would oversell myself. Each rejection just drove me further into despair. I began to envy every minimum wage job earner I came across simply because they were drawing a check. Then one day I began looking inward at my heart. I asked myself “What are your true gifts and what is it that you are passionate about?” Not only was the answer easy, it was one that others had been saying to me for years. I am a people pleaser. Yes, definitely in all the negative connotation ways that has of sometimes being easily taken advantage of, but also in the amazing ways of making total strangers smile with compliments and giving random hugs and getting the response “you don’t know how I needed that”. Yes dear, actually I do because I needed it too. But it was more than that. I love to hear people’s stories and I am inspired all the time by the resilience of human nature and encouraged by the strength I see in those who don’t even recognize it. My heart is also too often crushed by those I meet who have so much to offer, but have been beaten down by life and don’t know how to fight back. So I began with getting my personal trainer certification and then lent myself to the path as it appeared and soon thereafter got my life coach certification as well as many others. Soon Mind and Body Coaching was born. Now every Monday is a gift because it means the rest of the world is back at work and I can again go out there and interact with them and have the opportunity to change lives. Every Monday is sort of like a New Years day in that it feels like a new beginning and a fresh start. So holidays excepted I get 52 fresh starts a year. It’s natural that we all experience sort of a reverse bell curve effect with any goal. However, if you start the week miserable where can you go from there? Maybe it’s time to look at your life differently. Don’t wait for a catastrophic event like a job loss, divorce or death to open your eyes to the possibilities. Start figuring out your path, heart and true bliss right now before you have rushed weekend to weekend your entire life away. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed content from the Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn podcasts. Dr. Wang tells of growing up in communist China where no one was allowed to move from one city to another without the governments permission and how his mind and world view shifted completely upon coming to the US. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed content from the Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn podcasts. Hear Boris tell of his second near death experience where he wakes from a coma to learn he wasn't even supposed to live, much less walk again. And hear what seem like a surprising revelation about his attitude regarding the entire experience. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed content from the Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn podcasts. Boris is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. Having survived not one, but two cataclysmic life events, he now uses what he learned to change lives himself.  In this first part, hear him tell of tripping over dead bodies at the age of 6 after being separated from his family while fleeing to safety. And of spending years in refugee camps where his young mind continued to be faced with the stark realities of that life.   --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Today's episode is me hoping to help you through my own raw honesty about the challenges of being an overachieving work in progress and the stupid shit we do that doesn't have to be the end of the world.  The apology is mostly in the confession, that he'll never hear, as I don't ever actually say I'm sorry.  But if it's the thought that counts then he should have been feeling a warm glow all day, because my heart is almost always in the right place. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

This interview was recorded Christmas Day 2015 in Austin, Texas. When I say the meaning of Christmas here, I'm referring to the most basic human traits of love, compassion and pain both physical and emotional.  I know that many people still experience a great deal of anger toward the Muslim community. My aim isn't to comment or pass judgment on either side of that equation. What you will hear in this discussion is the story of a young man, through no fault of his own, forced to leave the only home he'd ever known. For the safety of his family, he found it necessary to seek refuge in a country that is very often unwelcoming and even hostile.  What I hope is that you listen to this interview not through the lens of religion or politics but instead through a lens of humanity. Allow yourself to hear all the ways this young man is just like you and me. He loves, he hurts, he questions and he grows from learning. Hear how he has come to embrace and love his new home despite the sometimes hurtful and confusing way he experiences it. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed content from the Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn podcasts. Kerry is a prolific writer and speaks very candidly about her addictions to sex and alcohol. She has written several other books including: Lush: A Memoir Dirty Little Secrets The Truth of Memoir Easy --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

It's an age old cliche the shake our heads moments when we look at the opposite sex and wonder how we can both be the same species. Could it be simpler than we let ourselves believe? A repurposed interview from Honestly Dawn, Ahmed and Dawn explore the possibility that maybe it doesn't have to be so difficult. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Imagine your two teenage daughters living on the streets where you can't find them and can only imagine their fate. In this repurposed interview from the Honestly Dawn podcast, author Debra Gwartney talks about the mixed bag of fear, guilt, anger and hurt.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed content from Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn, I wasn't sure what to say when Ahmed asked me to talk about this subject, but you can believe I came up with something. Enlightening conversation as always. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed content from Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn, my friend Thomas talks about growing up in a very dysfunctional home where drugs and alcohol were the norm and what it took to go from drug addict and dealer to respected businessman. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Repurposed from Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn, Hector and I share our similar but somewhat different views on the difference between "just do it" and "of course, what else would I do?". --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

More repurposed content from the Honestly Speaking/Honestly Dawn podcast days. Venn-Brown talks very candidly about growing up gay in an ultra religious Australian family and the inordinate lengths he went to trying to get God to "fix" him, before tragedy helped him find a place of acceptance with his life and his church. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

As women are we doing all we can to ensure our wants and needs are met in the bedroom? Do we have any culpability at all in our dissatisfaction or should our partners come to the game fully informed and prepared?  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support

Anyone who knows me well can tell you I have a very dim view of our current social media environment.  And my distaste for it has grown exponentially since this episode was recorded in 2016. That year alone, nearly 45,000 Americans took their own lives and there is more than enough anecdotal if not outright causal examples of the role the social media played in those deaths. While this in an interesting conversation, look forward to an updated version in the near future.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/verimourspeaks/support