We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Deborah Charnes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Deborah below.

Deborah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share an anecdote or story from your schooling/training that you feel illustrates what the overall experience was like?

I studied in the US, Mexico, and South America. My degree was in cultural anthropology and linguistics. However, I always was interested in journalism and worked in print, radio, and TV during my college days, and until I entered the marketing communications world.

1) When I went to Mexico as an exchange student at age 16 I was told, “expect the unexpected.” I think I’ve always bounced back and been very flexible in life. Now, as a yogi, I interpret those words of advice as “go with the flow.”

2) Once, working in Miami, I was managing a public “sing in the shower” contest that was outdoors at a major venue on the shoreline. Everything was perfect. I’d lined up a handful of celebrity judges and we had great participants and attendees. We had a large old-fashioned bathtub with a shower as our “stage.” But that day, there were very high speed winds that looked as if they wanted to take my bathtub into the water. All was well, but my boss never let me forget that saying we had to be prepared for (and anticipate) everything. In other words, we have to take responsibility for everything. Even the unpredictable or uncontrollable. Years later I ended up working in crisis’ communications and crisis preparedness where we would brainstorm every imaginable potential crisis related to our brand or industry and then plot out and create guidelines to respond to each crisis.

3) As I mention in the epilogue of my book, From the Boxing Ring to the Ashram, my best teacher was my mother. She was a freelance journalist and travel writer (as am I now) and aside from grammatical rules, she taught me, by example, to be tenacious, and thick-skinned, and passionate about what you believe in.

Deborah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Riddled with chronic low back pain and digestive disorders since childhood, Deborah Charnes spent 50 years exploring the world, uncovering secrets to health and happiness.

For two decades, she managed hundreds of news conferences, editorial board meetings, press briefings, and one-on-one interviews. She worked with security, communications, and advance teams for John McCain, Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, Bernie Sanders, megastar Jennifer Lopez, and the Vice President of El Salvador.

To balance the chaotic scales directing major league campaigns, it was essential for her to soothe the stress and 24/7 schedule with body, mind, and soul lifesavers.

In 2011, Deborah left the high-pressure demands as an international corporate marketing communications strategist. Moving forward, she dedicated that same energy to positive transformation—of herself and others. She vowed to never stop learning—or sharing.

Already a certified yoga teacher, she added training in Ayurvedic massage therapy, nutrition, and cooking. She received certification in multiple holistic modalities and after an additional 800 hours of specialized training became one of the first bilingual (English/Spanish) certified yoga therapists in Texas.

Coaching people of all ages, and with many physical or emotional challenges, she seeks to boost the body, mind, and spirit through simple techniques that can be practiced anywhere and anytime. To that end, she has created a dozen signature therapeutic workshops. Among them are Dem Bones, Gutsy Yoga, Chill Out, Breath of Life, Chant and Be Happy, First Love Yourself, and Sugar Drop. All are offered in English and Spanish, and some are available on-demand anywhere, anytime.

Deborah has lived, worked, and studied in the U.S. and Latin America. A travel blogger since the early WordPress days, she has published 500 mind/body and lifestyle articles. Her deep commitment to helping others achieve maximum well-being led her to write “From the Boxing Ring to the Ashram.”

Her book is a transformative award-winning self-help title that inspires readers to become their healthiest and happiest in as little as ten minutes a day. Filled with practical, adaptable tips for boosting overall well-being, this book offers a diverse range of advice from twelve of the author’s mentors.

Given the busy lifestyle most of us ascribe to, the author spotlights easy-to-implement tips for PTSD, anxiety, stress, depression, chronic pain, digestive disorders, and more. From the Boxing Ring to the Ashram is the ultimate guide to finding balance, peace and purpose. The approach is adapting and adopting comfortable habits to instill higher-quality physical, emotional, or spiritual health.

Each chapter personalizes a guru via storytelling and validates their advice with scientific studies, pointers, and prompts to encourage the reader to try out the simple, inexpensive or free pathways to ease pain or suffering from not only the body, but the brain and spirit.

Her teachers are like the sun’s boundless rays of light illuminating many pathways. These wise men and women live in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Each has glimmers of light, and shares an abundance of spirituality, regardless of who or what they call their higher source.

Twelve life lessons. Twelve experts. Twelve unconventional life paths spotted with challenges along the way. But far more than a dozen lessons to address leading causes of physical and emotional pain

Have you ever had to pivot?

For several decades, I worked 24/7 in the chaotic corporate marketing communications world, My turf was pretty much the entire western hemisphere, so there was a lot of travel. But it was normal for me to leave home at 4 a.m. to catch a plane and return home at midnight. There was no sightseeing, just high-pressured meetings, presentations, and event management.

But I had to survive. Right? I told myself I’d never leave my job as I needed the paycheck and health insurance.

I was already a certified yoga instructor, teaching on weekends, only when I was not traveling for work. Around 2010, at one of the ashrams where I taught yoga, my classes were followed by lectures from traveling monks, or spiritual masters. One day, there was a talk by a guest lecturer. My interpretation of the content was that my work was feeding the greed of services and products that were not in sync with my values. The very next week, our primary local lecturer spoke about a different topic. Yet, my takeaway was the same. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I must have subconsciously been battling the ethics of promoting clients I didn’t believe in. Of course, I had been dealing with those doubts for decades. But there must have been some seeds in the two consecutive spiritual talks that gave me the strength to say, “basta ya.”

I had already planned a month-long trip to India to study Ayurveda. Before I left, I went to a lawyer to create an LLC and business entity, The Write Counsel and The Namaste Counsel. When I returned, I told my employer of 15 years that I was leaving. I opened up my consultancy “dedicated to positive transformation.”

The Write Counsel was created as a marketing. communications boutique that worked on behalf of many non-profits to help create positive transformation in the community. The Namaste Counsel was created as a holistic health/yoga business to create positive transformation of oneself. Ultimately, my book, published in 2023, has the same goals.

Can you tell us about (ANY OTHER) time you’ve had to pivot? 

Around February 2020, I was working seven days a week, juggling my communications clients, yoga therapy clients and yoga classes, freelance writing, and job as an Airbnb Superhost at my mini-retreat center. I loved everything I did, but recognized I needed more downtime. So, I relinquished one of my non-profit clients that I had been associated with for many years. A few weeks later, the pandemic hit. All of a sudden, rather than working seven days a week, I had zero work.

I spent several hours a day in introspection. It was a beautiful time in my life. I decided I needed to recraft my personal and professional life. Then, I chose to guide myself in a solo three-day silent retreat at my property. Around day two, the idea of my book arose. Not only the thought of writing a book. But, the entire outline, message points, and even the marketing plan all became crystal clear. As part of my self-guided silent retreat, I had limited myself to only one small sheet of paper and one writing utensil, as many silent retreats prohibit any writing. In my own shorthand, I was able to cram the entire vision for the book onto that one sheet of paper.

For the next two years I focused my time and energy on writing and editing my book, along with pitching from the Boxing Ring to the Ashram to publishers. My book launch was June 2023 and it was an Amazon bestseller in several categories and has won an award as a health and wellness non-fiction title.

Contact Info:

• Website: deborahcharnes.com
• Instagram: deborahcharnes
• Facebook: thenamastecounsel and thewritecounsel
• Linkedin: deborahcharnes
• Twitter: deborahcharnes
• Youtube: deborahcharnes
• Other: TikTok: deborahcharnes

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