Relationships, Anger & Giving Families w/ Beth Nowak - episode #23

Beth Nowak is a believer, dreamer, wife and mother, former teacher, successful entrepreneur, TEDx presenter, inspirational speaker, and mental health activist. After enduring a series of traumatic events as a child, she attempted to fill her emotional voids in a variety of unhealthy ways, including drugs and alcohol, binging and purging, cutting and other self-harming behaviors, ultimately leading to severe depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts as a teen and young adult. Hiding behind academic achievements, she earned her Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education and a Masters Degree in Montessori Education before teaching Kindergarten for 12 years in one of the highest-achieving school districts in the country. Desperately searching for ways to help young children find purpose and passion to help increase their self-esteem, she resigned from teaching in 2012 to create Giving Families and its Good Mail Challenges. She now shares her story with people of all ages, inspiring them to overcome their past so they can live in the present and enjoy the future. In this episode, I talk with Beth about her childhood and how that has influenced her mothering, what she’s learned about anger and forgiveness, and how she raises her children to be givers.