Sarah Lipton and Dr. Carlton E. Green welcome you to another episode of GENUINE, the podcast!

We cannot be fully genuine unless there is some measure of trust. So the journey of remembering how to be genuine dovetails with us learning to trust ourselves. Today, Carlton and Sarah introduce a diverse group of people who all think about things deeply and are willing to be open and vulnerable in sharing their stories. They pull back the curtain on the topic of trust and dive into what it means to trust yourself.

The world feels tumultuous right now for many different reasons, and there has been a lot of uncertainty lately. Covid has been a common experience for everyone, and that environment has presented many new questions and provided many new and exciting opportunities. However, when new opportunities arise and we need to pivot, many of us don’t know what we are supposed to do. Some of us might look to others for help in understanding things more clearly or figuring out what the next step is going to be.

Sarah and Carlton encourage you to relax, feel into your body and vulnerabilities, and stay present with this moment. Pause and allow yourself to be. Know that you are safe wherever you are.

Show highlights:

• Dr. David Rivera is our first guest for today. Many things have gone into his journey of learning to trust himself.
• Aaron Lurin feels that trusting himself is the only thing he can do with 100% confidence.
• Amy Lepage’s approach to helping people trust themselves involves deep listening and building awareness.
• Dr. Corey Capers had some difficult family dynamics. He has had to navigate different worlds as a biracial person. Learning to trust himself was a complicated and primal challenge.
• Yvonne De Laine Hawkins experienced sexual harassment and sexual abuse. It disrupted her sense of safety, and healing from it was the key to her learning to trust herself.
• Sarah Galbraith and Sarah Lipton connected around a piece she wrote about caring for the earth. She talks about dealing with our stuff and living into our experience as a way to learn to trust ourselves.
• Tiffany Thomas loves to serve people. The book, A Course in Miracles changed her life. It taught her to use love rather than pain to learn to trust herself.

About our guests:

Dr. David Rivera is a friend Carlton met while at graduate school. He is an Associate Professor of Counselor Education at Queen’s College in New York. He is also a scholar, author, researcher, consultant, and leader in his field.

Aaron Lurin is Sarah’s eighteen-year-old cousin who is currently a student in Austen, Texas. Sarah and Aaron have always had a strong connection.

Amy Lepage is a friend of Sarah’s from Montpelier, Vermont. She is a prenatal yoga instructor and a somatic embodiment teacher.

Dr. Corey Capers is Carlton’s friend and fraternity brother. He is also a father and husband. He is a historian, he studied with Angela Davis, and he served as a professor at the university level. Corey is brilliant and thinks about the world in very complex ways.

Yvonne Hawkins is Carlton’s friend. She was an award-winning newspaper journalist and a media executive. She is currently in Chicago, at the Garrett Theological Seminary, studying how to foster healing for black folks living with racial trauma.

Sarah Galbraith is a mother, writer, and journalist. She and Sarah Lipton connected around a piece she wrote about caring for the earth.

Tiffany Thomas serves as a city councilperson in Houston, Texas. She is an Assistant Professor at Prairie View A&M University, where she serves as a program coordinator in the community development program. She is also a Christian person, a daughter, and a lover of her community.

Links and resources:

Share, rate, and review GENUINE, the podcast: https://sarahlipton.com/blog/podcast/intro/

Learn about GENUINE, the community: https://genuinenetwork.org/

Book mentioned:

A Course in Miracles