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Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Welcome back to the Reverse Autoimmune Disease Summit Series everybody. Of course, you’re joining me for the fourth of the series, the Auto-Immune Detox. And I’m delighted to bring to you Debra Poneman who is an award winning speaker. Best-selling author sought after seminar and leader, talk show host and an in demand media guest. As a speaker, Debra delivers high energy content, rich deeply impactful presentations that stay with audience members long after she leaves the stage. She began her speaking career in 1980 while she was working as an account executive for an LA investment firm. She attended a seminar called Money Magic. And although she thought she was going to a financial tutorial to help her career the seminary leader shared radical ideas about how prosperity is really created. Ideas that had nothing to do with investing wisely but rather using energetic tools and the power of the mind to create your ideal life. And early 1981, she founded Yes to Success Seminars, company dedicated to teaching enlightened timeless principles of success and prosperity coupled with new solutions in contemporary language. She’s also a certified meditation teacher through both the Art of Living Foundation and the Transcendental Meditation Organization. And has taught meditation to thousands of individuals and in companies throughout the world. Welcome to this series, Debra
Debra Poneman
Thank you so much. I love that introduction. I haven’t heard it in years. I forgot I did all those things.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
I know. Sometimes later my bio being read by someone else I go, that sounds like a really interesting person.
Debra Poneman
Right, I remember that I became a meditation teacher in the early seventies and it’s part of my journey. But anyway, I had forgotten some of those other things. So thank you for reminding me.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Well, I’m going to remind you of another thing. And that is, I think a lot of times when people are pulled to a spiritual path, then it seems to go with near death experiences. I’ve had three of those. And so I know that you had a near death experience and if you want to kind of describe what that experience was for you.
Debra Poneman
Yes, because when you were talking about, you said that you would like me to talk about detoxing something. I thought, well, I’m not a health expert although I do detoxes often. I will talk about that sometime that my daughter and I go to Optimum Health Institute together at least twice a year. And we detox lots of regressed juice. But what I do teach people how to do is to detox habits that are keeping success away from them. And one of the things that I taught since 1980 when I founded my Yes to Success company so that was over 40 years ago, is the power of our thoughts to create a reality. And then of course the secret made that kind of into a household concept. And even though I taught it for decades, it wasn’t until I had the near death experience that I realized, Oh my goodness, it’s true what I’m teaching because what happened was, I mean, I knew it from my own life that I could speak things into existence.
And I could tell you a million stories of instead of complaining that I was driving a beat up old Chevy Bellaire that my aunt had given me, I went and got a picture of a Mercedes when I was broke and I put it up on my bulletin board and I would look at it and say, that’s for me. And I would visualize myself in it. Literally within three years somebody gave me that exact Mercedes true, true, true, gave me that exact Mercedes when he called and he said, would you like a Mercedes? I said, well, what color is it? I wanted the Navy blue one. But what happened was about six years ago, usually when I get sick, I feel a little sore throat coming on, whatever. I don’t even like to name it.
I just take some mechanations, some golden seal, load up on electrolytes and it never really takes hold. I’m such an incredibly healthy person. And this time I did all of those things and it didn’t go away. As a matter of fact, the first time I had this little tickle in my throat was on a Monday. And I remember on a Saturday lying in bed and I was sicker than I had ever been in my life. And I remember thinking I could die here ’cause I was living alone at the time. And my husband and I were separated. And I thought I better do something because people might not find me for several days. So I did what any intelligent person would do.
I called my favorite healer, and my favorite healer said, I will help you, but you have to promise that you’ll do exactly what I tell you to do. So I said, yes to anything. ‘Cause I really thought I was going to die but was more like, yes. And he said, “Call 911 immediately. Well, I was so fading at that point. I said, “You do it.” So he called 911 and the paramedics came they had to break in, because I couldn’t even get up out of the bed. And they said, “What hospital do you want to go to?” I said, “Evanston.” And they commiserated and realized they didn’t have 11 minutes to get me to Evanston. So they took me to a little hospital around the corner. When I got into the ER, they started hooking me up to every tube and machine imaginable trying to save my life.
My blood pressure was 52 over 28 at the time which is kind of incompatible with life. And it turned out that I had two I was in advanced acute sepsis. And you know what an acute sepsis is. About 50% of the people don’t survive. It’s bacteria in the blood, I had two. I had just come back from a developing country and I guess I wasn’t that careful. And it could sit in your blood for a while and then it manifests. So anyway, as I was lying there I started dying. And I started that experience of leaving the body. I know you’ve had near death experiences yourself. And while I was in this place between life and death, I saw two things.
I saw that, you know how we say there are no mistakes in the universe? I saw that there were no mistakes on the universe. I saw that there was this beautiful radiant and divine light that was actually orchestrating everything that was going on in the room. That this divine white light was moving the doctors, their hands. And I remember when one of the nurses she fumbled an ID back and dropped it on the gurney. And everybody’s shattered these like glances, like you idiot. But I saw that she moved her head down and she moved it away from a monitor that somebody ran across the room and made an adjustment and saved my life. And it was like the wheels on a fine, what do you call it? A fine too watch, whatever.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
White gaze, yeah.
Debra Poneman
But anyway, so then, so I’m thinking, Oh my gosh, this is crazy. Everything is orchestrated, there are no mistakes. And then my husband showed up because my healer had called him and he sat down and it didn’t look like I was going to live. It looked really bad. And I saw a little tear going down his face. And I saw the nurse, noticed it also. And she went over and she put her hand on his shoulder and she said, “Don’t worry. “She’s going to be fine.” And when she said the word, “She’s going to be fine,” I’m telling you, Keesha I saw the words come out of her mouth. And they were accompanied by this pink light it was kind of like my little pony, rainbow sparkly light, right did it. And words, “She’s going to be fine,” accompanied by the light, went into me spread throughout my body and gave me all my strength back.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Wow.
Debra Poneman
Just the word, “She’s going to be fine.” And I’m thinking, Oh my goodness, “Your word is your wand,” as Catherine ponder would say. Your words do have the power over life and death. And then it got even crazier because the doctor came in looked at my blood pressure and said, and this really kind of gruff voice, “Get that blood pressure up or we’re going to lose her.” And when he said, “We’re going to lose her,” out of his mouth, I saw this brown, gray gunk. It even smelled like a swamp. It was so like disgusting. “We’re going to lose her,” it went out of his mouth into my body and it took my strength away. And I remember making a deal with God at that moment. I said, please let me live and I promise you two things.
One, “I would tell everybody “that your word really can create your reality.” And I also promise I will never say anything again that I want to happen. I will never say, Oh, my son so this, my daughter so this. So this, I mean, I say funny things that I know that they love too. Like when I say my daughter is so crazy she loves being crazy. That’s her identity. But I used to say all these things about my kids that I didn’t want and they didn’t want. And I made the promise that and have I been a hundred percent successful, no. Have I been probably 99% successful? My friends, I annoy them with how positive I am. But I do not want to say anything that I do not want to manifest because I saw the mechanics of creation in that moment between life and death.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
That’s so beautiful. Like I love the articulation of my little pony because when my last near death experience, I went into this grid of light that had geometrical like it’s the flower of life. And the bars that were connecting were lit up. They represented each one of us. And the ones that were lit up really bright were the ones that were doing what you’re talking about. Like really moving in the space of, I accept life. I’m here to make like make all of that happen. And the ones that were dark on the grid, were the ones that were like brown, I can’t, this is terrible. Why me, this shouldn’t be happening to me. I don’t deserve this. And it was actually affecting the strength of our life support system here on the planet. And I got it. I was like, Oh, each one of us is so important. And how we show up in the world, like how much light is actually feeding that grid.
Debra Poneman
How crazy is that, that we both saw it in terms of light. And we both basically saw the same thing that when you say negative things, I can’t, I’ll never, I’ll never be successful, this or that, we’re creating it. And you saw it as those dark bars. And I saw it as at brown gunk. But it was both dark. That is so fantastic.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
That was perfect. And so one of the things that you have found in your life is that women do something differently than men that keeps us in a small place.
Debra Poneman
Oh my goodness. We do many things that keep us small. So one thing that it talks about detoxing, we have got to detox our powerlessness. This thing, these lies that we were told about us being not as powerful as men, we think that we’re liberated, we think that we’re feminists, but it has been told to us our entire lives, by our mothers who are conditioned and our fathers who are conditioned and our teachers and our clergy, and all of that. And so these lies get embedded in our psyche. And even when we are doing things that are powerful, we still have these tapes running in the background that we are less than powerful. So I just tell people these little things that they can do to detox our powerlessness and decrease their power. And some of them are so simple. Can I give you a few?
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Please.
Debra Poneman
Okay, so about 10 years ago, I read this article in Forbes that I love to refer to ever since. And the article was listed ways that women can stop being so complacent and accommodating and start being more powerful. And the article said that if we did these things it would make a big difference in the way we were perceived in life and in the workplace. And one thing that was suggested was to use more powerful language. And one of the ways they said we can get started is by getting rid of the word, just. And I’m thinking, really, get rid of the word, just? What is that going to do? But it works. So here’s an example. What we usually say is, Oh, I’m just checking in to see or I just wanted you to know, or Oh, I just called because. So they suggested listening to yourself for a week and listen to how many times you say, just. And instead of, I’m just checking in, it’s, I’m checking in. I just wanted you to know, I wanted you to know. Because it’s an energetic thing. Oh, I just called because, I called because. So can you feel the energetic difference?
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Yeah, totally.
Debra Poneman
It’s totally changes your energy field. And I remember I took the one-week challenge. This was 10 years ago. And I was astounded to notice that I hardly spoke a declarative sentence without modifying my power with the word just. And I also found that it was kind of scary for me to eliminate it because it wasn’t as nice. When you soften it with just, then you’re nicer. Okay, here’s another one. Women often let other people take credit for our ideas. It goes like this. You bring up a point in a meeting and nobody hears you ’cause you kind of whisper it. And then later someone else, sometimes not always, but more often than not, it might be a male. And they repeat your thought and people applaud this great idea. And when you stay silent and let others take credit for your ideas, you give your power away. So I say, take the credit back. And here’s one way you can do it. You simply say, “Thank you John “for bringing up that idea that I proposed earlier.” And I have done, ’cause usually I’m just like, whatever. And now I do that.
And there’s sometimes an awkward silence, but again, it’s an energetic thing. And one other, and this is the quintessential way that we give our power away, is when we have the knee-jerk say yes to everything. And again, it’s more of a female thing. But when you say no to something that doesn’t totally feel right for you, you’re not really saying no, you’re actually saying yes. You’re saying yes to yourself and to your needs. And instead of someone else’s needs. And when you take care of your deepest needs in the long run, ultimately everyone else will be taken care of. Well, when we don’t say no, it’s only because we want approval and we want people to like us. And we don’t want to seem like we’re selfish. But the behavior comes at the expense of your own health and happiness.
So I say next time, you’re about to say your spontaneous, yes, remember that you’re allowed to pause. So pause, take a breath, give yourself a few moments before you respond, and ask yourself if it’s really a yes. And remind yourself that time is not a renewable resource. And you can remind yourself that the world in fact will go on, even when you say no and then give your genuine answer. And if you’re not sure, you could always say, “I’m not sure if that will work for me, it’s a lovely idea. “Can I get back to you tomorrow?” I know Warren buffet and my favorite quote. He says, “The difference between successful people “and really successful people “is that really successful people “say no to almost everything.”
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
I’ve heard that before. Been practicing it too.
Debra Poneman
And the more you do it, I always say, when we do something outside our comfort zone if this is where you’ve been playing in your life and you’re afraid to do something outside your comfort zone which is like saying no, we start practicing with somebody who tries to give you some perfume sample. When you’re walking through the department store. I learned this from my friend, Marcy Shylock. If you say, I’m sure it’s lovely, but no, thank you. Like what, I wasn’t that hard. So now your comfort zone is a little bit bigger. And then when the telemarketer calls you could say, “I would love to say yes to you “cause you sound like the nicest person, “but not right now.” That wasn’t so hard. And now your comfort zone is this big. And every time you say no, then your comfort zone gets bigger and bigger.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Beautiful. So you’ve got, I’ve met one of your children that your lovely Deanna is a chiropractor who’s spent over the last two evenings at my house helping adjust my back, which has been so lovely. She has a brother who, she told me the story of last night was kind of rocking it at a young age at 15 I think is what she said, in high school. So tell me the story of his success rules, how he got there.
Debra Poneman
Well, I love this. Okay, I’ll tell you the whole story. And again, it’s a principle of success and it’s a principle of again detoxing an old habit. And that will absolutely lead to Incredible success in your life. But let me tell you a little story about him how it came about. So Daniel loved basketball from the time he was a baby. Literally the kid was holding on before he could even walk. And he’s shooting hoops in his little Fisher-Price you know that yellow and blue and rebel Fisher price who I bet your boys or girls had to do. Usually just the boys. Now we give it to the girls too. But anyway, and then when he got older when he was a freshman in high school, he got on the A-Team.. The only problem is he was the only white kid and why kids decidedly cannot jump. And yet he had to go to all of the basketball games around Chicago.
He had to go to the freshman games and the junior varsity and the varsity games. And since he was on the bench the whole time he noticed though, when he was watching the other games that he had an eye for talent. That he could actually pick out the people who would not only make it into the best colleges but who would even go into the leagues one day. And he started his own website called Illinois High School Basketball.Com when he was like 15 years old. And he became known as the Go-To Scout for college coaches who were looking for high school talent in Chicago. I mean, I could tell you some crazy stories like this assistant coach from Harvard flying into Chicago and showing up at the game. And we had to drive him there because he was 15. He didn’t have his license and the guy walks and he goes looking for Daniel Poneman and there’s this kids with a mouth full of braces. He goes, I am Daniel Poneman. The look on this guy’s face. But anyway, so what happened was that actually there was a full page article about him in sports illustrated when he was 16, “White College Hoops Coaches “Seek the Advice of a 16 Year Old Scout.” But the part of the story that is the lesson that he taught me, was that he looked around and he realized that the Derrick Roses and the Anthony Davis’s of the world that didn’t really need him. Although he did discover Anthony Davis, you could look on Google, “kid who discovered Anthony Davis” he’s on the Lakers.
And that was my son. But he looked and he has a very, very kind heart. And he realized that the Division 2 kids that nobody was putting on showcases for them. And if they were, they were charging them an arm and a leg. And they couldn’t afford to be in the showcases to be seen by college coaches. So at the age of 16, he decided that he was going to start a nonprofit. And he was going to put on these showcases for Division 2 kids. And his first showcase had about 10 coaches and about 30 kids. And he collected money. He didn’t make the kids pay. It was all free, collected money mostly from my friends.
And then the next year maybe it was like 30 coaches and maybe 60 kids. And it grew and grew. And to date, my son has now raised over $50 million in college scholarship money for the kids on the South and West sides of Chicago. What is the lesson that he taught me? Well, as he was getting more and more kids scholarships and generating literally millions of dollars for these college programs that he would get them top players for, he wasn’t taking a penny for himself. And one day I said to him, Daniel, I love what you’re doing but don’t you think there’s a way that you can pay yourself. And he said to me, “Mom, be patient. “I’m building relationship capital.” And I said, alright. He said, “You just have to watch “you just have to be patient.” I said, okay. So then more months passed maybe a year. And again, I’m like Daniel, I know that you’ve generated like a few more million dollars in this scholarship maybe a little bit for yourself.
He is, “Mom, you just have to trust me.” And of course he said, “And chill.” “Am building relationship capital.” So the end of the story is, as the years went on, everybody wanted to be on team Daniel. He wanted to make a movie on basketball in Chicago a documentary that showed that basketball was the only way out for a lot of these kids. And somebody gave him half a million dollars to make his movie ’cause he had built relationship capital. Somebody else who he had built relationship capital with was an NBA player. So I didn’t have to collect money from my friends anymore. And he gave him $20,000 that the NBA match to put on his showcases. And then big shoe brands and clothing brands because he knew people who he had built relationship capital with started sponsoring his showcases.
And then ultimately he now owns a sports management firm that’s called Beyond.AM, not.com. Beyond.AM. And he is the agent manager and he has 16 people working for him. He’s still in his twenties. He has 16 employees and he is the agent manager for a ton of NBA players and NFL players. And the person who invested in that company who he had built relationship capital, he just who noticed that Daniel was helping all these kids and not taking a penny for himself, noticed Daniel and gave him millions to start his management firm. But here’s the end of the story. So I said to him one day, “Daniel, thank you so much “for teaching me that concept of relationship capital.” And he said, “Mom, what are you talking about?” I said, “You know how you didn’t take money “and you built relationship capital.” He says, “Mom, I learned it from you.” I said, “You did?” And he said, “Yeah, it’s the same thing that you teach.” You teach that if you want true success, you have to treat everybody as the most important person in the world. That’s one of the things I teach in my Yes to Success seminars.
That the person standing in front of you at any given moment is the most important person in the world and not to judge by the way they wear their hair, their crooked glasses, their out of the day suit. If they’re standing in front of you, whatever they’re saying is the most important thing that you could be hearing right now. And don’t look around the room to see if there is someone more important to talk to. And he said, “Mom, I learned that from you, “and I just gave it a name.” And it’s so interesting because in my own career the reason why I was able to become successful is because when I started my Yes to Success company, you know Marci Shimoff who was the number one female nonfiction author of all times. She sold 16 million “Chicken Soup books” and also “Happy for a reason or Love for No Reason.” She came up to me after one of my seminars, this tiny little thing. And she was a college student. “I want to work for you, I wanna work for you.” “So were you in college?” “I’m going to quit.” And I just listened to her.
I gave her my full attention. And I treated her as the most important person in the world. And she wasn’t brilliant. I mean, the woman is still one of the most brilliant business minds I have ever met in my life. She left college, much to her parents’ dismay, she became my personal assistant. And a lot of my success is because I didn’t dismiss her. ‘Cause she was this bouncy little college student. I listened to every word she had to say. And then when I took my 21 year hiatus to be a full-time mom at home, I left the world of speaking in 1988, came back in 2009. And one of the reasons why I was able to have a million dollar launch out of the gate is because Marci invited me to co-found Your Year of Miracles with her, which is still going strong. And another person who I built relationship capital with Janet Atwood, who was the founder of “The Passion Test” as soon as she knew that I was coming, but actually she’s the one who made me come back and become a speaker.
She actually once said to me, “Debbie, when are you going to stop pretending “that your kids still need you “and get back on the stage?” And you know what I said to her, I said, “You know, Janet “I don’t know if my kids ever really needed me. “There are plenty of wonderful kids “that were raised by nannies and in daycare “and by foster parents and grandparents and aunties. “So I don’t know if they ever really needed me “but I know that I needed them.” And it was really hard for me to give it up. ‘Cause you know, one, ‘I love you mommy’ is worth more than a thousand standing ovation. But she said, “That’s it, they’re 18 years old. “They could read Harry Potter to themselves.” So I got back on the speaking circuit she got me relationship capital ’cause I had put her on my stage, 21 years before she didn’t have any speaking experience, but I liked her that I put her on my stage. 21 years later there were New York Times bestselling authors. Who do you think they immediately put on their stage? Relationship capital. It’s the only capital you really need.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
It’s true. And so you coming from meditation teacher and starting a company, was it only relationship capital or was there something else?
Debra Poneman
Well, it’s interesting that you should say that because I worked for the TM organization for so many years. And so I kind of had a built-in audience all over the world people, because I was a TM teacher, there all these TM teachers teaching success. But again, it’s because I taught TM for years for nothing at tiny, tiny little stipend just because I saw how much it did for people, I didn’t care about the money.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
yeah, years and years and years.
Debra Poneman
So it always comes back to you. But also here’s the other thing. I think the reason why my Yes to Success Seminar is so successful or has been successful from 1980, when I founded the company to 1988 when I gave it up to be home with my kids. And then now again, it’s because I don’t just teach how to have the beautiful house and the Tesla and the driveway, which there is nothing wrong with. But I teach people how to create inner silence. Because if you don’t have that inner silence first, you can walk into that house but it’ll be like walking into a Hollywood movie set. There’s nothing there on the other side. The most beautiful house in the country is not going to take away the emptiness. It’s not going to fill the emptiness. So we have to start filling the emptiness inside with meditation, with practices that increase our silence and our self-love. And then it’s much easier to create success on the outside because you have that. Just like it’s easier to build a building when you have silent, strong foundation. It’s easier to build a building of success when you have a silent, strong foundation of self-love and the silence that meditation brings you.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Well, you’re anchoring to like an Ayurvedic medicine and they talk about the five layers. So we have our physical body that has our DNA and our organs and our tissues and all of those pieces that we feed and water and take for walks. But then the fifth one is that connection to the collective unconscious. That’s our spiritual portal or Anandamaya kosha. If you’re anchored to that one, then you have access to your mental, emotional world, your higher consciousness, your energetic body, your physical body actually is being fed through that. And that doesn’t just, that takes practice. You have to be able to have those practices that allow for that anchoring, otherwise you don’t get that bliss consciousness all the time when you want it on demand, so to speak.
Debra Poneman
Yes, and actually one of the things that I teach, I take them through the Five Sheaths.
Debra Poneman
I do a Pancha Kosha meditation, as I’m sure you do too because it’s a very basic meditation beginning meditation doing Panchakosha and taking people through the Five Sheaths or the Five Koshas.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Yeah, and I think people don’t realize that that place that you can get glimpses of that, you can actually have that all the time if you’re not toxic in the other layers, right?
Debra Poneman
Absolutely, and again that’s the thing. People say to me, “What is real success?” And I say, well, “Success is when you feel successful.” But I think that success is loving what is and when you are anchoring in that silent depths of yourself, if you get the best-selling book, great if you don’t get the best-selling book, great. You see the perfection in everything. You don’t even have to tell yourself, Oh, it must be for the good. When you are anchored to the silent depths of yourself then you spontaneously see the perfection in everything. So success is loving what is spontaneously. And success is having the different layers, having the self-love, being able to contribute. And yeah, having the outer success there is nothing wrong with having a beautiful home. My daughter says your home is beautiful by the way. And there’s nothing wrong with it. As long as you don’t think that that’s what’s going to make you happy.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Right, well, and then the other piece around this I think is so important is that also the loving what is, happens in the form of loving your Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or your lymphocytic thyroiditis, or your cancer or your Ms that’s really not yours. When you say mine, is actually just a manifestation of this physicality, giving you information about toxicity on these other layers. And it’s like data. And so if you can love it for showing up and giving you that data, that information, then there’s not this intense contracting around it that says, I have to get rid of it as fast as I can. I have to get out of my suffering. I have to get out of pain. It’s like, Oh, hi, I’m listening.
Debra Poneman
I have to tell you a great story about that. We have time for one more story?
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Debra Poneman
Okay, so I always say to people like you were just saying, to have gratitude for everything.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
All of it.
Debra Poneman
Not this gratitude when you get the parking space right in front of the office, but gratitude when you have to drive around the block five times and then park. I mean, I remember I live in Chicago. And when my husband and I got divorced, I said, you keep the house. We had a beautiful house on the Lake. And I said, I just felt like getting my own little apartment, a little cozy space. But I was so kind of not wanting to live in this Borzois neighborhood that I got a place that didn’t have indoor parking in Chicago where it could be 30 below with the wind chill.
So I remember one time I could not find a parking space and I had two big bags of groceries and it literally was like sleeting. And it was about 20 below the wind chill. And the sleet went into my eyelids and it actually, the tears froze. It was so cold out, and I couldn’t open my eyes because the tears frozen. And they froze, my eyes shut. And I mean, it was like a horror movie. And as I’m carrying the groceries trying to open my eyes, I’m going, “Thank you, God, thank you.” And it was so great because when I went in and I realized I’m leaving there’s no reason for me to live in Chicago. And by the next few months later my daughter and I moved to California. So that’s why I was like “Thank you God, for this miserable, horrible weather,” because it gave me the idea. And then all kinds of opened up in Chicago, I mean in California. But that wasn’t even the story I was going to tell you.
So one time, I belong to this group called The Transformational Leadership Council which Jack Canfield started years ago. And we were having a meeting up at a resort in Napa. And we only get to be the speakers once every few years ’cause there was like over a hundred of us and we’re pretty much all speakers. So this was my TLC that I got to be the speaker. I was so excited. And the first night I was there, I left something in my car and was like urgh. And so I like ran across this lawn instead of taking the sidewalk. And I thought that the lawn went right into the sidewalk but the lawn ended and then there was a drop that connected with the sidewalk. And I tripped and I broke my right foot, sprained my right ankle and badly, badly bruised. It could have been broken my left knee cap. And I remember lying there in the worst pain probably that I had ever had in my life. Can you even imagine? And it was late at night and there was nobody around. And I couldn’t walk because it was my foot, my ankle and my other leg.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Wow.
Debra Poneman
And I lie there going, “Thank you God, Thank you God.” So it got to my understanding, “Thank you God, thank you God. “Thank you God.” Because I know that you say thank you. And I know it had to bring me something good. I really do live my teaching. I have to say, I don’t teach anything that I don’t do. So I’m lying there. And there was miracle after miracle. I could see Jean Houston like in her little Villa which was about 50 feet away and I want, and I’m going, “Jean.” I could not like eke out a G, G. I mean, ’cause the wind was so knocked out of me. And I could just tell you miracle after miracle but I’ll tell you one thing. A few minutes later, the triage was in my room helping me. I don’t even know how I got to my room. Nobody knows how I got to my room.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Wow.
Debra Poneman
I might’ve crawled, but I don’t think I crawled ’cause I couldn’t have put pressure on my knee. I couldn’t have walked, but I was in and nobody took it and said that they brought me in and then I’m lying in bed. And they said, “What do you want? I said, “I want Dr. Sue Morter to come and work on me. And I said, “But don’t call her “because it was like 11 o’clock at night. “And I didn’t want to bother her.” And all of a sudden I hear this and I said, “Oh Marci, my Marci, my Marci to come and take care of me but I don’t want to bother her. And then I hear these voices. I said, will you go outside? And who that is? It was Marci and Sue taking a walk at 11 o’clock at night. And this is a huge like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of acres, a resort with little villas all over the place. They happened to be walking past my little Villa at that moment. So again, I mean, I could go on and on. They said they wanted me to get a Scalar Wand. And the only person we knew that had a Scalar Wand was Jennifer McLean. And while we’re saying about, well, should we wake her up? We hear a knock on the adjoining door to my room. It was Jennifer McLean. And the reason I share that with you is because I think when you say thank you, then it’s like all the energies of the universe are like that is so sweet of you to say thank you.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
I know, right?
Debra Poneman
And take care of you. So those are just a few ways I got taken care of by saying thank you, instead of why did this happen to me? And I have to give my lecture and no, I can’t walk. And I am in so much pain and what am I going to do when I go home? Thank you God, thank you God. Because we know that everything is in our favor. That the God of our understanding does not do anything that isn’t in our best interest, but we will see it much more quickly if we say thank you much more quickly.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
I love that story. I got in an accident a couple of Novembers ago and as it was happening, I was saying the same thing, thank you, thank you. And then sitting there like waiting for the impact of other cars on the freeway, which didn’t happen ’cause I could just feel this bubble just went up around me. And then saying, okay so what am I supposed to see that I’m not seeing? And just inviting that, like what do you want me to see? And like that’s a whole another thing. But it was just amazing when I invited that it immediately came up. Oh, here it is. Okay, thank you.
Debra Poneman
I love that. I think we’re twins separated at birth, number one. But number two, what is good about this that I’m not saying, which is I also say that what is right about this that I am not getting. I got that from my Access Consciousness. What is right about this that I’m not getting. But what happened was, you know what I got, at first I was going to cancel my talk ’cause I was going to work on it for a few days, but I was in so much pain. I couldn’t think of thought. So Sunday morning rolled around. I was a Sunday morning speaker and I said to the-
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
You got to channel it.
Debra Poneman
Well, here’s the thing. I said to Donna, who was… I said Donna, I’m still in pain. I don’t know if I could do this. And she said, all right, don’t worry about it. Oh no, that was on Saturday night, I’ll find somebody else. I saw her Sunday morning. I said, so who’s going to take my slot. And she goes, we couldn’t find anybody. I said, you know what, I’ll do it. And you know what I discovered, I had never sat down and done a lecture in my life ’cause I prance around the stage and I have my whole “Dog and Pony Show” the white board and the slides and the PowerPoint. And I just had to sit on a stool and be honest and be authentic with no props to prop me up. And I remember afterwards Jack Canfield saying to me, “That was a textbook example of the perfect presentation.”
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Beautiful.
Debra Poneman
And then, and I don’t want to like name drop all over but I just want to say, I’ll just have to tell you this. And then John Gray came up and said, I’ve been in TLC for 10 years, I think that was my favorite presentation. ‘Cause I didn’t depend on the “Dog and Pony Show” because I did say thank you God. And because I did say what is great about this one that I’m not getting. And what was right about it was I found a whole new way to give a presentation that also works. And it’s called being calm and being centered and not propping yourself up.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Beautiful, beautiful. All right, is there anything that we have not talked about in detoxing what’s up here that you want to make sure that you say before we end?
Debra Poneman
Well, okay. Gosh, there’s so many things.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
So many things.
Debra Poneman
One last thing. One last thing that I just feel like there’s some people who need to hear this that we need to detox. And that is, it might sound like way out in that field. We have to detox false humility. I really feel that everybody who’s listening, if you’re drawn to something like this with Keesha it’s because you want to move your life ahead. You want high level information. You want to interact with people who are making a difference and who have something to say to contribute to the planet. And if you didn’t have it, like attracts like. You wouldn’t be drawn to this. But you need to stop pretending that you are less than great and powerful.
The people whose lives you’re supposed to change, are not going to wait for you to stop acting like, Oh little old me. I’m the one that’s supposed to change the world. The world is not in great shape right now. And there’s no time to be acting like it that anymore. That false humility is just your ego wanting to protect you in case what you do doesn’t work out. So you go around masquerading as somebody who in great wearing that humility like a Halloween mask. You need to take it off because under that humility mask is wonder woman or Superman. So you have to stop wasting your time with that craziness. I once heard somebody say “You’re not great enough to be that humble.”
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
As you’re talking about false humility-
Debra Poneman
False humility.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
But humility itself that’s authentic is not what she’s pointing to.
Debra Poneman
Right, let’s see, let’s stop act… What I’m saying is stop acting like you don’t know who you are. Give yourself permission to be who you were put on earth to be. Don’t make excuses. I’m too young, I’m too old. I had a horrible childhood. I don’t have any money. I never went to college. My second cousin says I’m a loser. Forget about it. Those are all excuses. And you are too great to be using excuses. And you know what? You can either have success or you can have excuses or you can have that possumility, Oh little me, yeah, little old you. The world is waiting for you. So go ahead and take those steps from which there’s no turning back. Don’t just be talking about what you’re going to do. You can’t steer a parked car. You got to pull that car out of the driveway. If you have to course correct, that’s okay, but you can’t steer a parked car. And you got to get out of the driveway. You got to get going. The idea that you have to change the world was given to you by the creator because the creator needs you to manifest it. God has no hands but yours. So know we each get different ideas and we get the ideas that the creator is asking you to manifest on earth at this time. So don’t pretend, little me.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Which powers are your looking at when you’re little old meeting, that means that your light bar is dim. And that actually drains all of us. So like it’s really important that we show up. That’s what my last near death experience showed. Is how important every single one of us living into our life purpose in our own unique ways are so vital. It’s essential. It’s not even an optional thing. You have to do it.
Debra Poneman
Yep, it’s a piece of the puzzle. Everybody is a piece of the puzzle. Remember, it used to go around the intranet that somebody put a piece of a puzzle together. And it was the world. But if you turned it over, it was you or something like that. But it’s true. Your light is so bright, don’t dim it. And one White House can bring light to a thousand ships. Don’t think, Oh but so many people have written books on happiness. So many people speak on leadership. They’re not you. And there are people waiting to hear your angle on leadership. Their contract in this lifetime is to learn about happiness or success or how to grow organs or be chiropractor from you and the world needs you or you won’t have that idea.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
It’s very true. Thank you so much for your message for the energy that you bring to this world. And all of it, really appreciate you.
Debra Poneman
Likewise, I’m so glad that I was able to do this with you And you are amazing and you rock. And I’m glad you met my daughter. And I’m glad we’re a family now. And I’m glad that you brought me into your extended Keesha Ewer’s family.
Keesha Ewers, PhD, ARNP-FNP-C, AAP, IFM-C
Me too. Everyone’s going to really get so much from what you’re bringing here. All right, everybody, we’ll have different condiments information below this link. And I just really want to encourage you to look into Yes to Success and everything that she’s up to. And until next time, be well.
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