Have you ever felt like a foreigner in the country you were born and grew up in? I definitely have, many times! And, I still feel that way very often when I’m in Ecuador, my country of origin.

This is a common experience for many expats, immigrants, and people with multicultural family backgrounds and intercultural lives. And it is not an easy one to navigate!

I invited my friend and Embodiment and Empowerment Coach, Monica Stevanovic, to chat with me about what it was like for her to grow up in the United States as the daughter of European immigrants learning Polish instead of English as her first language. 

We also chat about:

• Monica’s mom’s story on how she came to the United States from Poland not knowing English and became a physician in less than one year

• The transformational journey that took her from electrical engineering to embodiment coaching

• What embodiment means and what it might feel like 

• Some of the tools that can help us experience embodiment and let our true essence shine

• Kundalini yoga and ecstatic dance

• Overcoming our own mind blocks to allow our creativity (we all have it in us!) to flow and express itself freely

• Monica’s journey with music and creating her own songs

• Monica’s favorite untranslatable words in Polish :)

Ready? Let’s go! Vamos! C’est parti!

***

Connect with Monica Stevanovic:

Follow and reach out to Monica to find out more about her 1:1 coaching services!

Email: monica.stevanovic@gmail.com 

Instagram: @harmonic.hearts

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Connect with Katerina Salas:

Instagram: @coachkaterinasalas | LinkedIn

Book a FREE Connection Call with coach Katerina

Email: coachkaterinasalas@gmail.com

***

Join & Support the BWBC Community:

Do you have a topic suggestion for an episode? Would you like to give some feedback? Click here!

Are you interested in being one of Katerina’s conversation partners in a guest episode? Click here!

Want to join the Intercultural Wellbeing email community? Click here!

¿Sueñas con ser bilingüe o te interesa vivir en otras culturas pero te da miedo o te parece algo muy difícil de alcanzar? ¿Sientes frustración o desmotivación porque te es difícil aprender y hablar bien inglés o algún otro idioma extranjero?

En nuestro primer episodio en español con una invitada especial, conversamos con Jolie Avant, quien ama los idiomas y las culturas extranjeras, trabaja como Profesora Bilingüe en los Estados Unidos, y es mamá de dos niñas biculturales y bilingües. Jolie nos cuenta sobre las decisiones, las herramientas y el tipo de mentalidad que le permitieron embarcarse en una aventura intercultural en el extranjero, convertirse en una inmigrante colombiana orgullosamente bilingüe y bicultural, y cumplir varios de sus sueños amando y viviendo en dos idiomas y dos culturas diferentes.

Hoy hablaremos sobre:

• El curso de inglés que cambió la trayectoria de su vida y el programa de intercambio intercultural que le abrió la puerta a otro mundo (U.S. Department of State Au Pair Program)
• El choque lingüístico que sintió al llegar a los Estados Unidos y darse cuenta de que a pesar de conocer muy bien el inglés en su cabeza, le costaba entender, hablar y conectarse con la gente local y participar activamente en la comunidad
• Las claves para salir de nuestra zona de confort y superar los desafíos lingüísticos, las dudas, la frustración, el miedo, y la vergüenza que surgen en el camino hacia el bilingüismo 
• Los sueños personales y profesionales que ha logrado cumplir en sus 15 años viviendo en Estados Unidos gracias a su amor por el español y el inglés
• Dos tradiciones culturales únicas de Colombia y Estados Unidos que le ayudan a nutrir su identidad bicultural y transmitirla a su familia

Lista/o para una dosis de inspiración y motivación? Necesitas un empujoncito para tomar ese paso que cambiará tu vida y te ayudará a seguir avanzando en tu propia aventura con el bilingüismo? Vamos! Let’s go! C’est parti!

***

Conéctate con Jolie Avant

Email: Jolieavant@gmail.com

Instagram: Jolie Andrea | Hablando Entre Nosotras

Facebook

Escucha Hablando Entre Nosotras, el podcast de Jolie Avant

YouTube | ⁠Spotify⁠

Aprende más sobre el programa de intercambio en el que participó Jolie Avant aquí: U.S. State Department Au Pair Exchange Program

***

Conéctate con Katerina Salas

Instagram: @coachkaterinasalas | LinkedIn

Email: coachkaterinasalas@gmail.com

Agenda una Llamada de Conexión GRATUITA con coach Katerina

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Se parte de la comunidad de Estar Bien Entre Culturas

¿Quieres compartir ideas de temas para los episodios o dar sugerencias? Haz Clic Aquí!

¿Te interesa ser mi compañera/o de conversación en un episodio? Haz Clic Aquí!

¿Te gustaría ser parte de Bienestar Intercultural, nuestra comunidad virtual por correo electrónico? Haz Clic Aquí!

Today, we welcome a fellow expatriate and Yoga & Self-Love Coach, Amarins Brandenburgh to talk about what we can do to authentically connect with others and adapt to a new environment without losing ourselves in the process.

We chat about:

• Amarin’s cross-cultural experiences in France, Australia and Spain

• Her native Friesland and its culture

• Feeling more free to be yourself in a foreign country than in your native country

• What self-love is and what it means to be authentic 

• Why practicing self-love and staying connected to our most authentic self is one of the foundations of our wellbeing and of experiencing a genuinely fulfilling life 

• Self-awareness, self-knowledge and self-love as tools to authentically connect with ourselves and others 

• Balancing staying true to who we are and adapting to a new community we want to be a part of

• Off days and how to embrace them and flow through them

• Practical tools to shift our negative self-talk, reconnect with our most authentic self, and overcome the fear of being rejected for being our authentic self

Ready to turn your intercultural life into an experience that feels much more fulfilling and is genuinely aligned with who you are and what really matters to you? Let’s go! Vamos! C’est parti!

***

Connect with Amarins Brandenburgh:

Email: amarinsyogahealthcoach@outlook.com

Instagram: @amarins.brandenburgh

Website: https://amarins.es/

Book a FREE Self-love Call with Amarins Brandenburgh

Subscribe to get her FREE E-book: My top 10 tips to reconnect to your most authentic self!

***

Connect with Katerina Salas:

Instagram: @coachkaterinasalas | LinkedIn

Email: coachkaterinasalas@gmail.com

Book a FREE Connection Call with coach Katerina

***

Join & Support the BWBC Community:

Do you have a topic suggestion for an episode? Would you like to give some feedback? Click here!

Are you interested in being one of Katerina’s conversation partners in a guest episode? Click here!

Want to join the Intercultural Wellbeing email community? Click here!

Today, we welcome fellow interculturalist and certified mindfulness meditation teacher, Rita Wuebbeler, to talk about a powerful tool and practice that can help us experience a calmer, more joyful life, in particular when living across cultures.

We chat about:

• Rita’s cross-cultural journey from Germany to the USA
• Personal anecdotes with the Southern American English (It’s fun stuff, y’all!)
• What an interculturalist does, and how mindfulness and interculturalism are connected
• What mindfulness meditation is and what wisdom and kindness have to do with it
• How practicing mindfulness meditation enables us to become better observers and more competent interculturalists
• Using mindfulness as a tool to navigate life challenges, lead ourselves through upsetting situations, build resilience, and cultivate more joy in our life

This episode is packed with anecdotes, pearls of wisdom, and guidance to nurture and enjoy a better life between cultures, so stick around until the end!

Y’all ready for this?

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Connect with Rita Wuebbeler:

Email: rwuebbeler@gmail.com | LinkedIn

Website: www.interglobeweb.net

To join Midweek Mindfulness Meditation (MMM): Email Rita Wuebbeler

MMM is a FREE weekly 30-minute Wednesday meditation group with participants from around the world.

To subscribe to the quarterly MindTaming blog: Email Rita Wuebbeler

Download and try Insight Timer, Rita’s favorite meditation application. It’s free!

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Connect with Katerina Salas:

Instagram: @coachkaterinasalas

LinkedIn | Email: coachkaterinasalas@gmail.com

Book a FREE Connection Call with coach Katerina

***
Learn more about Rita Wuebbeler:

Rita Wuebbeler is a mindfulness meditation teacher, facilitator, interculturalist and executive coach who teaches Awakening: An Introduction to the Practice of Mindfulness, Intentional Self-Care and other mindfulness & well-being programs in-person and online to a wide range of audiences. Her classes are aimed at helping participants be more intentional in their approach to work and personal life, staying present and calm in stressful situations and responding rather than reacting to the present moment.

Rita offers a weekly meditation group to participants from around the world and publishes her blog “MindTaming” on a regular basis.

Rita is the founder and president of INTERGLOBE Cross-Cultural Business Services, Inc., a global consulting and training firm based in Atlanta, USA where she has been training and coaching clients in leadership effectiveness, high-performance team development, diversity & inclusion and cultural competency-building for over 30 years.

A native German with a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from Mainz University, Germany, Rita spent the first two and a half decades of her life in Europe before moving to Atlanta. She is a Certified Integral Coach (New Ventures West) and holds a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential from the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is certified in the DISC profile, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and The Leadership Circle 360 Feedback assessment.

Rita has been practicing mindfulness meditation for over 15 years and regularly attends conferences, workshops and retreats to deepen her practice. She recently graduated from a two-year mindfulness meditation teacher certificate program (MMTCP) offered through Sounds True and affiliated with the Greater Good Science Center at the University of Berkeley, California. 

When she is not working with clients or meditating, Rita does long-distance road cycling for charitable causes. 

En este episodio, le damos un vistazo tras bastidores a Being Well Between Cultures (Estar Bien Entre Culturas) y comparto con ustedes algunos anuncios y oportunidades para apoyar a la comunidad.

Aquí escucharás:

• Una invitación especial para TI! Te invito a que seas mi compañera o compañero de conversación en los siguientes episodios.
• Algunas ideas que tengo en mente para los temas de los próximos episodios con invitados
• Por qué el Episodio 3 se publicó sólo en inglés y mi visión para que en el futuro los episodios con invitados estén disponibles en los 3 idiomas de este podcast (inglés, español y francés)
• Cómo puedes ayudarme a convertir esa visión en realidad y apoyar a nuestra comunidad multicultural y multilingüe!

Una de mis misiones como anfitriona de Estar Bien Entre Culturas es asegurarme de que la diversidad cultural de esta comunidad esté representada a través de las historias y voces que escucharemos. Mi intención es crear un espacio en el que TU también puedas contar tu propia historia, compartir tu perspectiva personal, y contribuir tu granito de arena para ayudar a otros.

Muchas gracias de antemano por tu apoyo. ¡Tengo muchas ganas de conocerte y escucharte!

***

Unete y apoya a la comunidad de Estar Bien Entre Culturas:

¿Quieres compartir ideas de temas para los episodios o dar sugerencias? Haz Clic Aquí!

¿Te interesa ser mi compañera/o de conversación en un episodio? Haz Clic Aquí!

¿Te gustaría ser parte de Bienestar Intercultural, nuestra comunidad virtual por correo electrónico? Haz Clic Aquí!

***

Conéctate con Katerina Salas:

Instagram: @coachkaterinasalas | LinkedIn

Email: coachkaterinasalas@gmail.com

Agenda una Llamada de Conexión GRATUITA con coach Katerina

In this episode I take you behind the scenes of the Being Well Between Cultures (BWBC) podcast and share what is coming down the pipeline plus a few fun announcements.

Tune in to hear:

• My call for conversation partners and some of the topics I have in mind for future guest episodes
• Why last week’s guest episode was offered in English only
• My vision to have BWBC guest episodes available in English, Spanish and French
• A few things I need help with to turn that vision into reality and how you can give me a hand!
• How you can get involved and support our growing multicultural, multilingual community

I’m on a mission to ensure that the cultural diversity of this community is represented and that you have a space to tell your story, share your perspective, and have your voice heard. I’d love to connect with you, hear your story, and brainstorm topics for our episode together. English, Spanish and French speakers are welcome!

Thank you so much in advance for your support. I can’t wait to hear from you!

***

Join & support the BWBC community:

Do you have a topic suggestion for an episode? Would you like to give some feedback? Click here!

Are you interested in being one of Katerina’s conversation partners in a guest episode? Click here!

Want to join the Intercultural Wellbeing email community? Click here!

***

Connect with Katerina Salas:

Instagram: @coachkaterinasalas | LinkedIn

Email: coachkaterinasalas@gmail.com

Book a FREE Connection Call with coach Katerina