Positive Transformation - Chriselda Barretto

Chriselda Barretto is a multi-genre, prolific author and speaker, with a background in Business Administration and Chemistry/Microbiology lives in Belgium. She also hosts the Podcast – The 3 Pillars and is the creator of ART-IS-IN, The Dig, and her blog “chriselda.blog.”

Having traveled the world extensively, as an Inflight Safety Training Instructor, she has worked in the Aviation industry for nearly two decades.

Always with a touch of artistic creativity along with being an ex-professional modern jazz dancer, she loves music and is passionate about writing! She speaks 5 languages & writes poetry, stories, and quotes. She recently published more than 20 books, from which over 13 belong to her “Colouring Books For Adults” Series! [expander_maker id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]

Her writing covers fiction and non-fiction, with the likes of poetry, horror, thriller, romance, supernatural, children’s illustration, but she enjoys telling a story in narrative poetry the most!

Currently, she has a lot of things going on; airing her podcast, interviewing artists, producing her tutorial series, creating more colouring books, not only for adults but also for children and she is working on her Self- help/Image-Building Book, that she had first started on her blog: ‘chriselda.blog’

Being a qualified Life Coach and Motivational Speaker, she also practices NLP and Mindfulness. Aiming to share her knowledge and experience, she is a speaker on many topics ranging from Creative Writing, Personal Development, Aerotoxic Syndrome to Aviation Safety, and Self-Publishing. She is a certified Holistic Counsellor & an Aura and Chakra Healer.

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Right now at this moment what are 3 things you are grateful for?

My life
My life lessons…they weren’t always easy, but they have helped evolve me to what I am today. And I love the new, ever-changing me!
The anticipation of the future…ever learning with the many new, unknowing days ahead. All unfolding and creating absolutely new lessons and stories.

Who is someone in your life you‘re grateful for, and why? (This question doesn’t require any thought, its the first person that pops into your mind). For example, It could be your barista, an author, or your mom.
Well, it would have to be a person I can’t name but somebody that I loved deeply and who betrayed me. This was one of my biggest life lessons and one of the most amazing self-transformations that I have experienced.

From where I stand today, I am grateful for having been able to partake in that huge, bumpy ride because it made me discover my true life purpose and how strong the human mind, body, and soul truly are! Sometimes the human psyche can withstand the most atrocious situations, and naturally build up the strength, courage, and conviction to succeed and overcome it!

What is your morning routine like?
I awaken quite early in the morning and start with positive affirmations and thoughts to what I would like my day to look like. I reiterate to myself on how thankful I am for getting another day, another take at many more exciting, maybe even stressful opportunities!

I then go on to jot down all the thoughts running in my head, which generally pour out in the form of quotes and poems.

After that I start my day…a cup of coffee, getting ready for work, getting the kids up and ready for school and it goes on from there like the rest of the world, I guess…

PS – If in lockdown like we are now….I still try to organize my day with some work stuff, a lot of writing, idea-jotting, and keeping up with my Zumba-styled home workouts!

What inspired your passion for writing and could you share one of your books that you think would most connect with this community? (I’ll be sure to link it)
My writing has evolved quite recently. Before that, I had additional passions like dancing, teaching, aviation, etc.

What I discovered with writing is that it brings out my calm, peace, and tons of creativity. Since an early age, they called me an “old soul” probably because of my very structured, methodical personality. Writing kind of takes me away from that built up structure and gives me so much more freedom to experiment and express my most innate feelings and sentiment.

That said, “writing” has this incredible capacity of taking not only the writer but also its reader on untold journeys of love, emotion, joy, pain, sorrow, and healing. Therein lays my passion for it!

I could recommend my first book of poems: Dreams and Dew: https://chriselda.blog/dreams-dew/

What inspired your podcast, “The 3 Pillars?” And why did you chose that title?
There is a long story behind the podcast and I will try to explain it simply without trying to bore your audience ☺…

But it boils down to one thing which is that I am very grateful to life for having giving me back my motivation, inspiration, and happiness. And as a way of my giving back, I decided to help, nurture and guide others as much as I could, especially to those who need it the most out of love and caring.

Here’s the actual story behind my podcast “The 3 Pillars”…

I had been in aviation as an Inflight Safety Training Instructor for over 15 years. I left the profession after many years, mainly due to ill-health but mostly because of my instinct telling me that something wasn’t right within my work sphere.

Some years later, quite by chance, I discovered a possible link to why I felt the way I did, which made me aware of the (taboo) sickness of “Aerotoxic Syndrome”

I was convinced that there was more to the story and so I launched the “SHIFT” movement, asking crew members to come forward with their stories and experiences, and I discovered that there were many suffering from it but since it isn’t accepted as an official health disorder, people were most often mal-diagnosed by their GPs.

I wrote a book on it “Aviation Stories-Dying to Fly,” in the hopes of creating more awareness around it. But I soon realized that one of the symptoms of “Aerotoxic Syndrome” is a loss of concentration, which in many cases makes it really difficult to read/focus. So I decided to go a step ahead and reach the community verbally by means of a podcast. So that’s where my podcast idea originated from. I went on to personalize it some more by incorporating other things that have inspired me…3 in particular, which became “The three Pillars – Aviation, Writing, and Self-help. That’s where the title comes from!

Series 1 of the podcast focused richly on aviation and “Aerotoxic-Syndrome” That experience enriched my love for gaining and sharing information in a very honest, simplistic way. I had originally decided to have 3-4 episodes, but I was blessed because somehow divinely, I had contacts dropping into my lap, like with the Belgian neuro-psychologist: Daniel Dumalin, among other amazing guests that participated on the show.

I am currently recording and airing Series 2 of the podcast which is focused on writing. I received over 100 guest applications and feel tremendously grateful for such a positive response.

And as you probably already guessed, I will follow up later with Series 3 of the podcast featuring advice, experiences and guidance on Self-help.

“The 3 Pillars” podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Blubrry, Stitcher, TuneIn, Castbox, The Podcast App, Listennotes, Podtail, or “my blog”

The APP to “The 3 Pillars” Podcast: https://mobincube.mobi/56ISNI

Allow me to recommend the episode with acclaimed Director-Producer-Writer: Eric Christiansen which is being aired this week: https://chriselda.blog/2020/04/21/pillar-2-writing-episode-7-eric-christiansen/

What is your gratitude story or could you share a moment when it really clicked for you?
There are so many gratitude stories that I could share but the one that I can think of is when I was a Safety Training Instructor, from a couple of years ago. I remember giving a course on First-Aid to a group of students when I noticed that one of them had started crying. I stopped the course and decided to give the rest of the group a little break, while I tried to console her. What she told me brought tears to my eyes and gave me this warm feeling of care that I will never forget.

She went on to explain that she had just delivered her baby girl and was at home on parental leave when she experienced one of her worst nightmares that she wished no parent would have to go through. She recalled that night when she had gone into her daughter’s room to check up on her and was shocked to find her baby non-responsive; cold and not breathing. She remembered panicking like any person would and for fear of losing her daughter tried to calm down and think of ways of saving her. She got her husband to call the Ambulance services while she decided to start with CPR on her baby.

At that point, she burst into tears and gave me a tight hug, while she continued with her story. What she said next was so heartbreaking…she remembered a course that I had given her, a while back explaining how to perform CPR on a baby. Remembering the steps that I had taught her; even the tips to easily remember it, was actually what had helped her save her baby’s life.

I could swear I heard my heart crack open then and we both cried together, out of sheer happiness and love. A big moment of gratitude for me and her, which I will forever carry with me in my heart!

What do you think are some of the roadblocks that stop people from being grateful?
Unfortunately, there are many roadblocks, but I will mention a few here:

1) Ego – This is when people are too self-absorbed, focusing on wrong ideals and misguided perceptions of themselves and others.

2) Pride – This is when you believe that you know it all and have all the answers, which could be so far away from reality.

3) Negativity/Hatred/Pessimism – This is when you block out emotions and let your fears take over, building incorrect boundaries and indulging in self-sabotage.

In closing, what’s one lesson that you could share that could provide hope for people in this time of crisis and how could they use gratitude to bring that into focus.

Coming from a state of being apathetic, depressed, burned-out, to reaching where I stand today, is lesson enough for me to understand and accept that we have a higher state in play for all of us. I appreciate what I consider a second “LIFE” that has been gifted to me by the universe, and it is this hope and faith that all of us need to keep alive, especially in these difficult times we face.

To put things into perspective, I believe that each of us has a life purpose or calling and it is in this life that we must strive to find the path to it.

What we are facing as “ONE” community is the universe giving us a moment of reflection to ponder on our ways, our lifestyle patterns, our behavior towards each other, our compassion towards humanity…to ultimately come out stronger as a people, with a devoted sense of purpose to the young ones and the innocent that are following behind in our footsteps.

The current time is an important lesson to all of us, meaning that the future is what we create and that our present “living” will ultimately reflect on it.

“It is up to our race to decide collectively to create and build through a very much so needed positive outlook with a fair sense of focus and compassion!”

Extras:

Some of my quotes on “Gratitude” from my book – The Ultimate Collection of Millennial QuotesRespect and Gratitude – the two most important values of them all!