Latest / Inspiring Stories / Susan Gold Teaches How To Turn Childhood Trauma Into A Wonderful Life
Transcript
- 0:05Thank you for listening to Depictures Media Radio. You happy bit. We've all
- 0:40had to overcome our fair share of childhood trauma, things that we probably just
- 0:46wish hadn't happened in our childhood, things that we don't remember. Finally,
- 0:53and someone was more so than others, but our next guy, Susan Gold.
- 1:02She has written the book Toxic Family, Transforming Childhood Trauma into Adult Freedom.
- 1:11Susan turns the standard paradigm on its head, courageously leading others through their
- 1:21own journey of abuse, addiction, and surviving narcissism, all while creating a
- 1:30distinctly empowering personal and professional life. We need to people like Susan Gold to
- 1:40let us know that, hey, just because it happened in our childhood doesn't
- 1:44mean we have to dwell on it, and we don't have to keep reliving
- 1:48it and re traumatizing ourselves. We can get around, get over it,
- 1:56and leave it in our childhood as nothing more than a memory. So why
- 2:05don't we welcome Susan two the show as she Maybe we'll get her to describe
- 2:13a little bit about some of the dynamics of what happened to her while she
- 2:20was growing up Okay, welcome to the show, Susan, and I know
- 2:30you had this really wonder well, we can't say wonderful story about your childhood,
- 2:37because we're talking about turning our childhood trauma into our fantastic life and how
- 2:43we can actually like there's lessons and how we can actually move forward past those
- 2:50lessons. Right. So, there were a lot of bright and fun spots
- 2:54though lace throughout my childhood. That was one of the confusing things about it,
- 3:00Michael. It was such a juxtaposition. My mother could be incredibly loving
- 3:05and then just flip on a dime and be beating you out of seemingly nowhere.
- 3:09And my father was a fun drunk. He was a genius astro astro
- 3:14physicist, but he was also an alcoholic. He had an issue with womanizing
- 3:20and was a bit of a narcissist. But it was always an adventure.
- 3:24Yeah. Well, you know, with that being said, my dad would
- 3:30when when you actually got to hang out with him, he was pretty cool.
- 3:35We used to watch baseball and remember a watergate, I sure do worded
- 3:44it. Yeah, I actually sat and watched the the hearings with my dad
- 3:51on his lap. As as a child. He was like here's son,
- 3:55you need to watch this and learn and it actually colored some of what I
- 4:01do today. Right, So then that's that's the cool stuff. But the
- 4:06not so cool stuff was the alcoholism in the addiction. Right. So so
- 4:14how do we how well, how did you first learn to to to like
- 4:21really warmly invite the good parts in and filter out some of the other stuff
- 4:28and learn from it. So growing up, I knew there was trauma.
- 4:32I have memories going way way back, Michael. But when I really realized
- 4:39the depth I was in my early twenties. So I was an adult.
- 4:44I was living on my own in New York City, and some of the
- 4:47same red flags were coming up that I saw demonstrated in my home, you
- 4:51know, horribly abusive relationships, arguments, I was lying when it was just
- 4:58as easy to tell the truth. I was starting to lose my value system.
- 5:01I was losing focus on my goals. And I had been incredibly driven
- 5:06up to that point. I mean, I left that home the morning after
- 5:10I graduated high school the court of eight in the morning, and I didn't
- 5:15often go back. I was nineteen, living in Greenwich Village for the first
- 5:18time in New York City on an internship from college, and I was working
- 5:24in the entertainment industry quite young and successfully. So that's really when I realized
- 5:32the remnants and what traumatic childhood left you with as an adult. I had
- 5:41very low self esteem, self worth, I had porous boundaries. I was
- 5:46a chameleon. I would become who I thought you may want me to be
- 5:51in order to garner your approval. And yeah, I was easily influenced.
- 5:59Yeah. Well, as I remember, in the entertainment industry, you had
- 6:03some pretty cool influencers. Did you actually got to work with though? Right?
- 6:11Well, when I was in my home growing up, one of the
- 6:14things that kept me going was dreaming of going to New York City. I
- 6:17used to watch Barbara Walters on my beam bike chair in my valley in the
- 6:20basement. And I worked for a large global talent agency once I got out
- 6:25of college, but it wasn't quite enough to make ends meet, so I
- 6:29started personal training on the side, and Barbara Walters actually became a client of
- 6:34mine, which was really interesting, and she also volunteered to come to work
- 6:40with me one day after she learned I had been sexually abused in the workplace.
- 6:46Oh wow, that must have been Okay, okay, I'm gonna I'm
- 6:51gonna have my starstruck moment for a second here. These things only last a
- 6:56couple of seconds, trust me. Because Barb Walters was a hero that I'd
- 7:03never met and that some of my journalism I tried to like, well,
- 7:10how would she have done this? Because I just love I just love watching
- 7:15her interviews on television. So what was it like having uh, Barbara,
- 7:20Barbara Walters go to work with you to advocate for you because you because of
- 7:31sexual abuse or harassment? What? Ultimately? I said, no, that's
- 7:36okay, but I'll handle it. But she was quite supportive, and she
- 7:40was engaged to a gentleman who was running a film distribution company at the time,
- 7:46and she said, you know what, he's looking for an assistant.
- 7:48You could easily slip in there. But I said, yeah, no,
- 7:51I'll be okay. And I did confront my boss that day and he said,
- 7:56do you have everything you need? And I said, of course.
- 7:58He said, great, you're fired. So I think I had two and
- 8:01a half months of income in the bank. I was newly sober. I
- 8:07understood I was having issues because I was using alcohol as a crutch and I
- 8:13had learned well from my father. I had extricated myself from the abuse of
- 8:18toxic relationship and I didn't want to go back into that relationship. So I
- 8:26ended up being introduced to Donnie Deutsch, who's a bit of a cultural icon.
- 8:28He's an entrepreneur and a television host, but back then he was running
- 8:31his dad's ad agency and he wanted Andy Warholt to endorse Pontiac And he said,
- 8:39do you think you can get him? And I'm like, I don't
- 8:41know, I'll try. So I couldn't get anybody to pick up the phone,
- 8:43and I took the train down to the factory and knocked on the door
- 8:46and read answered Andy's manager, and I told him I was there, and
- 8:52he said, come back to my own I'll let you talk to Andy.
- 8:54So I did. And the next day I was sitting in the foyer sweating
- 8:58bullets Michael when the double doors into Andy's studio flew open and it was super
- 9:03dark in there, and Fred peered out and he said, okay, Andy,
- 9:07we'll see you now, and I'm like, okay, So and I
- 9:09went and it was really dark, but there was a pin spotlight coming down
- 9:16on this table and Platinum hair going seventeen different directions, and a lot of
- 9:22scribbling with colored pencils. But what really caught my attention and also caught Andy's
- 9:28attention, were the three pugs that were running around the studio at little dogs
- 9:33with the smushed faces. And he loved these three little dogs. They would
- 9:37tug at his pants leg and he'd picked them up like they were little kittens.
- 9:41So he didn't make eye contact with me as I was pitching him for
- 9:46this project, and finally like he looked up. He looked at me and
- 9:50he said, now, really, why should I do this? And it
- 9:54just fell silent for a moment, and then I said, because you can
- 10:00have the pugs and the shot with you, and he said, okay,
- 10:05I'll do it. And that's really the deal that launched my career, and
- 10:11I thank my upbringing. One of the tools that I utilized and had naturally,
- 10:16and I believe we all have it was a strong sense of intuition.
- 10:20I was also highly empathic, so I could sense your emotions, and I
- 10:26was also telepathic at that point. But adults didn't really like little eight year
- 10:31old nine year old girl telling them things that were actual truth. But I
- 10:37couldn'to it in that room, and that's what caused me a pause. I
- 10:41knew he loved those dogs more than life itself, and I didn't know if
- 10:45that was okay with Donnie or not and the Pontiac dealers. But I took
- 10:48a risk. Well I'll risk it paid off, right, Yeah. I
- 10:54became known from acting celebrities with brands and had a very wonderful career doing that.
- 11:00ID me into television and producing for TV and for film. Yeah.
- 11:03Well, did you know at the time about how courageous you were. Well,
- 11:13I didn't really feel like I'd had much of a choice. I mean,
- 11:18I was brave. I always knew that I wanted to work in the
- 11:20entertainment industry beyond the business side of it. I felt more comfortable with those
- 11:26that were back then described as celebrities and influencers because I knew they were human
- 11:33beings and I could sense their emotion and they were doing it publicly when you
- 11:39know, pants leg at a time, in front of all of us.
- 11:41So I had great understanding and compassion and I think that really helped me in
- 11:48my career, and it's also what kept me safe in my family of origin.
- 11:54Okay, because so many times, like people they they tell his stories
- 12:01in there, it's like, well and their esteem was still was still low
- 12:05at the time, but they but they were they were doing things that were
- 12:09that were extremely courageous, you know. So you just want people to know
- 12:15that hate there, there is that inside of you, and you just have
- 12:22to have to constantly keep tapping into it, right, So, yeah,
- 12:26I think so. I think it was really I really recognized it when I
- 12:31decided, Okay, I'm going to write a book, because I had been
- 12:35encouraged to write a book about my life story for a while, but I
- 12:37really didn't think it was that interesting or that unique. And then when I
- 12:43put it all down on paper. I think it was right before Yeah,
- 12:48I was right before the Final Galley and I read a chapter and I was
- 12:50like, oh my gosh, that woman is strong, and oh that's you.
- 12:56Hello. Yeah, what was your first was that your first realization that
- 13:05you are as strong as you are. People would tell me all the time
- 13:09that I was independent, that I was really accomplished, but I didn't feel
- 13:13it. I was very codependent and I had to have male attention since like
- 13:20second grade and Billy Fritz on the playground and I had such a fear of
- 13:26abandonment, Michael and neglect. It was just such a trigger and still is.
- 13:31I still have to work with it. But I was so dependent that
- 13:35I would get myself in relationships that maybe weren't, you know, the best
- 13:41for me just to hold on to something that I felt would be stationary,
- 13:48and it cost me greatly. This may sound like a weird question. Were
- 13:54you more married to the fact that you were that you were attached to somebody
- 14:01or were you more attached to the persons as a person. Well, it
- 14:13was both. But a relationship that's built on codependency, I believe is destined
- 14:20to fail ultimately or perhaps not flourish. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
- 14:26I agree on that one because it is a trend of of also a trend
- 14:35of children who of addicts and codependence. Right, yeah, definitely, it's
- 14:43one of the tributes left over, still working threat, but doing a lot
- 14:48better. I think I'm going to say this because I believe that I'm still
- 14:54a work in progress, and we all, as human beings, are a
- 14:56work in progress, and until we're done, well, we're not going to
- 15:03talk about the done part yet. What did you know? What? I
- 15:13know? You still have some struggles. Are what are some of your biggest
- 15:16struggles now? Well, I still have that echoing of, you know,
- 15:24the lack of self worth. I'm much stronger on my two feet. I
- 15:28think I've had a miraculous experience. I had lived in New York and was
- 15:35very successful and was invited to Los Angeles for what I thought was a great
- 15:39career move, Michael. But I think now in hindsight, it was to
- 15:43meet one of my greatest gurus, and that was the man who would become
- 15:48my ex husband. And I say he was a great teacher because he helped
- 15:52me step up and into my authentic power. He helped me step into authentic
- 15:58compassion and for who I am and that little being, that little beacon of
- 16:04light that's inside me that I kicked around and belittled and betrayed repeatedly. But
- 16:12I met my husband and thought he was everything that I had ever wanted.
- 16:18He seemed like he was right out of a golden age of Hollywood film and
- 16:22he was. He had a horrendous childhood himself and had constructed a false persona
- 16:30and as one that I believe was a narcissist. So experiencing that really helped
- 16:37me as a human being evolved And how did you evolve? Well, it
- 16:45was about thirteen years into the partnership and we were married and had a child,
- 16:51when I really felt drained and I didn't quite know why my life was
- 16:53getting smaller. I was really feeling like I couldn't continue this walk, like
- 17:03I was dragging a two hundred and fifty pound dead weight forward. And I
- 17:10kept pointing a finger out and three would come back at me, that old
- 17:15spiritual axiom, so I would find blame within. But what ultimately happened was
- 17:19I tried to make my husband accountable fiscally, and we went into mediation to
- 17:26create what I thought would be a post nuptial agreement, and we came to
- 17:30the last term and I thought, oh my gosh, my marriage is saved,
- 17:34even though I knew it was way past its expiration date. I didn't
- 17:38want my marriage to fail. And he folded his arms and his eyes went
- 17:45in those cold lizard like slits, and he said, I'm hiring an attorney
- 17:49and I'm filing for divorce. And that intuitive voice that's been with me this
- 17:55whole time, Michael was never more clear and resonated so thoroughly that it stayed
- 18:02with me for the following year, and thank god it did. But it
- 18:06said, this is the universe doing for you what you cannot do for yourself.
- 18:12And it was a year of excruciating hell. He remained in our family
- 18:19home, but I couldn't really refer to it at a home as a home.
- 18:23Then he took up residence in the master I by choice, was on
- 18:27a mattress on the floor in a partial conversion in our garage, in a
- 18:33home that I had bought and paid for our family and maintained. And it
- 18:37was a year in that circumstance, and I had learned, as a longtime
- 18:41meditator, how to hold silence, how to keep no contact, including no
- 18:48eye contact, and it was heartbreaking to understand who the man that I had
- 18:56loved and married really was as an individual. And holding eye contact and no
- 19:02contact for that year got me through the period until we could come to terms
- 19:07and I could write on the six figure check and he could move on to
- 19:11his next source of supply. And I believe it really helped me. It
- 19:17was a gift of the universe. I feel like this was the ultimate lesson
- 19:21I came to walk through and now I'm able to share my experience with others
- 19:26because it was everything I learned growing up for survival, Everything I had learned
- 19:33in sobriety and recovery, everything I had learned working through clinical depression, all
- 19:41came to a head in this experience. And I feel there was no accident.
- 19:45And I hold no malice towards my ex husband, more do I hold
- 19:52malice towards my family members. I feel they were all the perfect players in
- 19:57this bulliant movie of life that I've been privileged to walk through. And I
- 20:03feel there was purpose in this life story and there was a beautiful reason that
- 20:11I've moved through it as I have. And it's huge perspective and a huge
- 20:18paradigm shift, because you know, so many of us like eat the rat
- 20:22poison and feel like the perpetrators should die, not us. So I had
- 20:30to really really let go of all that victimhood and say I don't want to
- 20:34be in that self contained prison. I had to take the barbed wires that
- 20:38we're facing in and open up the gate, and I feel I'm free as
- 20:45a result of it. It's a lot of work. It's not the easier,
- 20:49softer way, but it's the only way through for me. And I'm
- 20:55really I have so much gratitude, right you say, what did let's put
- 21:06this way? What did your life purpose look like now? And how are
- 21:08you living in? So? I wrote a book called Toxic Family, Transforming
- 21:14Childhood Trauma into Adult Freedom, And I'll be honest, toxic Family like was
- 21:22not my title. My title was magical illumination because that's what I feel like
- 21:26it's been. But it wasn't always a magical illumination. And toxic Family does
- 21:33describe my lineage. It was hurt and abused children, raising hurt and abused
- 21:40children, and it goes way back. And I'm just grateful to have had
- 21:45the career that I did and to meet the people that are household names and
- 21:52work with them and see their humanity. But this is my purpose. I
- 21:57feel like there's so many pieces of the puzzle that fit together perfectly for me
- 22:03to write such a book about such a taboo topic. I believe we need
- 22:11to have these conversations. I believe a lot of us are carrying around a
- 22:17sack of junk that doesn't even belong to us. I believe there's a lot
- 22:21of shame that we carry as individuals that may not even be in our zip
- 22:27code, and there's no reason we need to carry it anymore. And to
- 22:33come full circle and to a place of profound forgiveness and a real understanding for
- 22:41our humanity has been almost worth the price. Eventry, I think next time
- 22:49I might read the small print in the contract before I come maybe, right,
- 23:04what do you what do you want people to learn that we're all human
- 23:10beings and to understand that there's a team supporting you, that you're here on
- 23:18this earth for purpose, that you have value, that your life has meaning
- 23:23regardless of your current circumstance or something that happened in your past, and that
- 23:30we're all one. That is a very important lesson that I wish. I
- 23:41wish we would learn that globally, that we're all one. Right. I
- 23:45think it's happening. I have faith. I feel like these outdated patriarchal systems
- 23:52that have been set up are starting to chip away at the edges, and
- 23:56some were even seeing crumble. So I'm actually optimistic, then pestiment pessimistic.
- 24:03It's painful, but I think it's happening. Michael. I have hope.
- 24:11I hope it's important. Isn't it. You know, Yes, it's very
- 24:17important, and I've had to find it in strange places, but it's certainly
- 24:22kept my feet on the ground and helped me put one in front of the
- 24:26other. I really think we all have exit points. There's certain points where
- 24:30you can choose to, like end the movie if you wished. I know
- 24:33it's it's been true for me. The first time I really thought about that
- 24:38was when I was six. I was six years old and was in the
- 24:42kitchen by myself. I had a cabinet open where they kept all the cutlery,
- 24:47the pants, the cooking pants, and I took one of the knives
- 24:49out of the carving block and I looked at the blade and I thought,
- 24:53if I could just lance this through my little heart, it could all be
- 25:00over. This could all be over. And then my mother like thundered from
- 25:03the hallway, and I shoved that knife in so quickly and shut the doors.
- 25:07But that's the first real thought of suicide that I had, and it
- 25:14came up repeatedly, over and over again. And I have to say anybody
- 25:19that's contemplating that, like, hold on for the miracle, because you may
- 25:26be offering a different person than the being you truly are, and I'm glad
- 25:30I've stayed on for the ride and that I've found hope in different places.
- 25:36Sometimes there was just like watching a bird fly, yeah, or focusing on
- 25:44the color baby pink, or when I was a kid, a lot of
- 25:48it was lying on my back in the backyard looking up into the clouds and
- 25:53talking with the angels asking them to, you know, beat me up.
- 26:00Uh, yeah, that's for that. That right there was very very touching.
- 26:11I kind of kind of get get an idea what you're saying with that,
- 26:15And I think a lot of people, uh get an idea of especially
- 26:19if they've been through certain types of trauma. Right. Do you think if
- 26:29we can see past those exit strategies, especially it's some of the really big
- 26:36exit points that that you talked about, that when we see past them,
- 26:41that something bigger happens next. Yes. Absolutely, that's been my own experience.
- 26:48It hasn't been easy to move through them, but it's always led me
- 26:52to a better place. And I think that once I'm able to really say
- 27:03no to that and continue to walk, certainly as an adult. I mean,
- 27:07the last two months of that divorce process were very difficult and I started
- 27:15to go down that roller coaster hill. I knew that I was tending towards
- 27:21clinical depression, and then the idea of suicide passed through my head, and
- 27:27I knew instantly, I need to set up a friend for every day of
- 27:33the week, a different friend for each day, and I need to call
- 27:37them, and I need to check in. And if I call them to
- 27:42check in and I'm feeling any kind of suicidal impulse or thought, I need
- 27:48to commit that I'm going to call the next person on the list and keep
- 27:52calling until I have a conversation. And I was really grateful for that tool,
- 27:57and it got me through that experience because I would have been taking out
- 28:03the wrong person. I would have left so many people behind that actually needed
- 28:07me. And now that I've been able to craft this book and put it
- 28:12out, I see how my experience is helping others and it's been well worth
- 28:18it. Yeah, I'm absolutely certain that it has been well worth it.
- 28:27What have you been What have you been able to teach your children? I
- 28:33have one son. He's nineteen, trying to work his way through college in
- 28:38three years instead of four. And what I've demonstrated to him is that he
- 28:45is his own individual. He is not an extension of me. He has
- 28:49his own path, he has his own journey, he has his own high
- 28:55points here that he too signed up for. That that I am a parent,
- 29:03I'm not a placebo. He's not my friend, he's my son,
- 29:07and that he is entitled to a stable platform, which I gave him.
- 29:15I did everything I could too, you know, sort of make his childhood
- 29:22surroundings predictable. It was chaos in my home. You never knew what was
- 29:29around a corner. It could be dinner for seven, or it could be
- 29:33something thrown at you, some kind of projectile. And he didn't have that.
- 29:41And I see how he was able to flourish as a result of that.
- 29:48And it's not perfect. Life is not perfect for anyone. You can
- 29:52come from the most incredible of homes and still have your human issues. I
- 29:57think that's why we're here, to have those experiences and to evolve from them,
- 30:03to feel more compassion and expand that compassion and love to our fellows.
- 30:18And are you expanding that love? I think so. I feel like I
- 30:22am. People say that they feel better after a conversation with me. They
- 30:29see a lot of light coming from me. And I think when you've walked
- 30:33through a lot of pain and you do have that compassion, but also,
- 30:38Michael, the key is having it for yourself as well, so you're not
- 30:45drained. Other people can't drain your energy. When you have that kindness and
- 30:52respect for your own being, it's much easier to draw boundaries and to give
- 30:57from a cup that overflows is rather than one that is half full, and
- 31:02then to say, yeah, I'm sorry, I have to excuse myself now
- 31:06when you know you're tiring, or if that's enough. So you have those
- 31:11special boundaries and that's something that I've been learning as I've taken this journey.
- 31:15Yeah, yeah, there was I know in my own life that there was
- 31:22a moment where somebody said, you're you're so empty, and they wanted they
- 31:33wanted to fill me back up again. But they knew knew that that wasn't
- 31:37wasn't what they should do. They knew they knew that they had to teach
- 31:41me how to fill myself. Did you end up, Michael, at that
- 31:47time reaching out for help or did you go within? How How were you
- 31:52able to sort of shift that paradigm for yourself? It became a very very
- 32:00rocky road. I went from one abusive draining spouse to another abusive draining spouse.
- 32:07And it took I would say, another seven years from the from that
- 32:20point to the point where I actually found it was kind of funny. I
- 32:27found. I found the found that this this group of of of ladies who
- 32:32were talking about this life coach who was so fantastic and everything. And I
- 32:40followed them to a free seminar and then I I did. I took took
- 32:49his, uh, his his life coaching thing, and I just learned a
- 32:54whole bunch of stuff of that. It just started to heal me, you
- 32:59know. And along the way, I have met who is now my wife,
- 33:05and we went through it. We went through some of it together,
- 33:09and my other spouses before that wouldn't never have gone through a matter of fact,
- 33:15one of them poked fun at it because one of his things was make
- 33:20a collage of which you want your life to be, this stream board thing,
- 33:24and and my one ex poke fun at it. And she says,
- 33:30oh, yeah, you spent a couple of thousand dollars or somebody to teach
- 33:36you to piece of magazine clippings to a piece of poster board. Oh,
- 33:42Gee, that's wonderful, isn't it? You know, because she was angry
- 33:45that I was actually starting to learn not to be codependent. I was learning
- 33:51not to be to stand on, to stand on my own and and and
- 33:54achieve my power. So yeah, so that's it's what it took, you
- 34:01know, to find that person to help me teach that teach to learn these
- 34:07things. So yeah, and from there came the came the podcast in the
- 34:13hey, and now I have Susan Golden friend of me who's who wrote the
- 34:16book. Is it in your book again? It's called Toxic Family Transforming Childhood
- 34:24Trauma into Adult Freedom. Yeah. So yeah, so it's on and it's
- 34:31on Amazon right, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, everywhere books are sold.
- 34:37And if you really feel drawn about anything you've heard to day, or you
- 34:43feel drawn to to be in touch Susan gold dot us is the place that's
- 34:47right. It is a dot us. What is it the what is the
- 34:54beauty that you're really trying to create with all the work you do? Ease,
- 35:00tranquility, freedom, just shifting out of that matrix, Michael, that
- 35:07I was so hamstrung into that things had to be done a certain way,
- 35:15that you had to follow like an automatime. I mean it's across the board.
- 35:20It's it's almost with every structure, every corporate structure. Right. I
- 35:25never fit into that corporate system though. I think I had a stint at
- 35:30ICM and a stint at Fox, and I was like I was on Mars.
- 35:34I just didn't fit in that construct. And it's breaking out of those
- 35:39and realizing that I'm a human being here with purpose for an education in soul
- 35:46evolution. That's what I truly truly believe. And once I've sort of shifted
- 35:52my perspective and my outlook, it's a lot more pleasant and a lot more
- 35:57hopefulled being here. Yeah, so it's the world looking more beautiful to you.
- 36:05It does well. Plus it doesn't hurt that I hated another intuitive call
- 36:10and I never thought i'd leave sunny southern California. But I moved to rural
- 36:16Montana. And I grew up in a small town and I had a cabin
- 36:22in the woods when I lived in New York City, up in the Cat's
- 36:25Skills. So Montana is a bit like that times ten. So it's it's
- 36:31really hard to be down in the dumps for too long because you just look
- 36:36outside and it's just nature is stunning. Wow. Yeah, nature is stunning.
- 36:45And one of my favorite things to do is to look up the stars
- 36:53at night. It's like I go down to the beach and I look up
- 36:55the stars at night, and then I realize how small everything really is in
- 37:01how wonderful everything can be. Right, So have you created that? I
- 37:09would see? I'm going to change this question. I usually ask what if
- 37:13you could create the perfect world for you? Have you created that perfect world
- 37:17for you? It feels like it's come to me. I mean, Montana
- 37:23was not even on my bucket list, Michael, and I definitely was led
- 37:30here, and I just I thought, well, if you come to Montana,
- 37:37you live in the forests, don't you. And I'm living on the
- 37:43prairie. It's very expansive, and I thought, why would I move to
- 37:47Montana to live on the prairie, But just there wasn't much available in this
- 37:52tiny town where I wanted to live on. What was a fit was on
- 37:58the prairie, and so I just took it as a signal and decided,
- 38:02yup, that's it. And now I live in like a natural oil painting
- 38:07where nature is the background and the painting keeps changing, and the sky is
- 38:15expansive, and there's wildflowers and there's green, and I just feel like I
- 38:22love New York City. For the time I was there, and I was
- 38:25happy in Los Angeles, but now I am in rural bliss and I feel
- 38:32like I am living in heaven on earth. Yeah, so I knew before
- 38:40we get started recording. I asked you about the photograph that did your background.
- 38:45You said that that was a photograph of your backyard. Yeah. So,
- 38:52so the photograph behind me is my backyard, and I have several others
- 38:57out different windows. I'd love to shoot into the window and right out into
- 39:01nature, but there's too much backlights. So I always take a photo and
- 39:05just put it behind me. And it's really where I live. If I
- 39:08look out my front window, it looks a little like Tuscany, and down
- 39:13the side it looks like the Napoly Coast and Kaiet and out the back there's
- 39:16the Canadian Rockies and it looks like the Swiss Alps. So I just let
- 39:22go and source delivered. What can I say, It's just magical to be
- 39:30here. Yeah, here you live, you live east of the Rockies,
- 39:36don't you. I do. But the Canadian Rockies are north of me,
- 39:44and I'm four miles from the Canadian border. Yeah, there's something we haven't
- 39:51have in common. I'm about a two mile walk to the US border.
- 39:59Yeah. I was just trying to picture which side of the Rockies are,
- 40:04because because I'm on I'm west of the Rockies and I've seen them from both
- 40:12sides, and the Rockies are just phenomenal. I've actually seen the Rockies as
- 40:16far south as Colorado. So yeah, beautiful, beautiful scenery no matter where
- 40:25do you go along them. So yeah, And how how lucky we are
- 40:30we can appreciate it because for so long my head was down on the pavement,
- 40:37took me a minute to recognize, Oh there's sky here, there's tree
- 40:40leaves fluttering. Yeah. Spiritually, how have you made your perfect world?
- 40:50Well, I'll tell you what. I don't have a discipline meditation practice.
- 40:55I went for years where I had to sit on the cushion in a certain
- 40:59way, practice a certain way. I had to do silent, week long
- 41:02meditation retreats, and every time I would be in the middle of one,
- 41:06I'd be like, I'm paying money to do this, Like I could be
- 41:09on a beach somewhere. But my spiritual practice is not as formal. It's
- 41:15more intuitive, it's more natural. It can be just having my feet in
- 41:20the dirt and connecting and realizing I'm connecting. It can be sitting at my
- 41:25desk realizing I don't I don't even remember when my last breath was, and
- 41:31then taking one in and being cognizant of it. It's much more simple than
- 41:37it was, and I feel it's healthier than some kind of disciplined have to
- 41:45m Yeah, that sounds a true freedom to me. So anyway, the
- 41:52best ways to get a hold of you again is at Susan Gold dot us
- 41:57and if we go to Amazon Toxic Family right box of Family Transforming Childhood Trauma
- 42:04into Adult Freedom. Very long title, but very meaningful. Bulk. Yeah,
- 42:14So thank you for joining us. It's Michael, thank you, thank
- 42:19you for having me. I know that it takes effort, it takes energy,
- 42:22it takes finances, it takes purpose to do what you do with your
- 42:28podcast, and I really appreciate it. I appreciate the content that you're putting
- 42:32out for all of us and all your producing. So thank you, thank
- 42:37you, and thank you that is quite the compliment. All right, thank
- 42:43you for listening, everybody, and please do go and get Susan Gould's book,
- 42:49or if you want a more personal conversation or email with her, go
- 42:54to Susan Gold dot us all to ship Stop, I want You. I
- 43:10just need to know so aways you call that ship start? I want You?
- 43:29Is a dance? Is event to be something you can of us?
- 44:08Two action, sir, I don't know, so I was for action?
- 44:42What f says? Says me? I return to be said me like child.
- 45:08We can't read, so you can't see, she called to. The
- 46:31show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please contact us at depictions dot media
- 46:38for more information