We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elizabeth Kemler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for joining us today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

In 2008 I created a student success program called ThinkBuildLive Success, which helps to empower students to reach their full potential through life skills and social emotional development as well as career readiness training. It had been about a year since I introduced TBLS (as it came to be known), to a large career college in Florida, and was at the school doing teacher training when I was introduced to a student who had been through my program.

As most of my work was with administrators and teachers, I rarely had the opportunity to meet any of the students who actually went through the program, so this was a real pleasure for me. This student proceeded to tell me about how she, her mother, and her daughter had been living out of their car for months since being evicted from their apartment. During this time, she began the TBLS course, which is when things started to change for her; she said her confidence grew, along with her sense of hope for the future. Coupled with a newfound set of job search skills, this student found a job, got a new apartment for her family, and was feeling better about life than she had in years.

I will forever be grateful to the team of TBLS teachers who helped to turn things around on such a profound scale for students like the one who generously shared her story with me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

A little about me professionally: I’m a seasoned educator, curriculum designer, writer, advocate, and presentation skills coach with a Master’s degree in Education, and training in Social Emotional Learning and Mental Wellness. Over the past 23 years, I’ve worked in academic, corporate, and non-profit settings, authoring student success, career readiness, and self-empowerment workbooks and online programs, designing and teaching public speaking courses, writing marketing and informational materials, as well as articles and blog posts on mental health.

I also have an extensive background in performance and advocacy, founding both theater companies and comedy groups in NYC, producing shows for public radio, writing for educational and cultural organizations, and volunteering with numerous arts and advocacy organizations.

Inspired by my own struggles, my passion has always been to support people in their quest for greater social-emotional skill and improved mental health. To that end, I am focused pretty squarely on my program ThinkBuildLive Success and my mental health platform Mindfulness for a Messy Life.

ThinkBuildLive Success is a real-world relevant, skill-building program designed to give students the tools needed to develop emotional intelligence, help them improve their school experience, navigate diverse social terrain, identify their strengths and areas for improvement, set realistic goals, effectively manage even difficult relationships, and transition effectively into the next phase of their lives.

Mindfulness for a Messy Life is a dynamic mental health platform designed to support anyone working to heal depression and anxiety. With its’ uber-comprehensive, obsessively researched, tried and tested collection of self-care strategies, anxiety-quelling techniques, and mood-boosting tools and resources, it gives users everything they need to become their own most informed, affirming, empowered mental health ally.

The inspiration behind both TBLS and MfML was my own life-long experience with ADHD and depression. Back when these things were seen more as weaknesses of character than actual, neurological conditions, teachers were ever perplexed and frustrated by my seeming inability to ‘live up to my academic potential’, while my fellow students delighted in antagonizing me. As a result, I came to believe that I simply lacked the skills necessary to succeed in life, a belief that took many years to debunk, and tripped me up mightily along the way.

Over the next 30 years, I embarked on a quest to learn all I could about potential healing methods for my mental health challenges. Doggedly determined to figure out a way to help myself, I poured through books, scoured medical research, read countless articles, signed up for dozens of self-healing workshops, and visited more holistic practitioners than I can count. Some approaches were effective, others not, but what I gained along the way was the material needed to dramatically improve my own quality of life, and create a platform that could help others do the same.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2011 I had a child on my own, while living in the city in a studio apartment, and running a business–complete with office and employees. My son had health issues as a baby and would cry all night, meaning I barely slept. My stress level reached astronomic proportions and started to really worry me. It took me a few months of downward spiraling before I realized that if I were going to continue living as a sane and functioning human, I had to close up shop and leave the city, which is exactly what I did. I moved to Westchester with my then 6 month old son, and went back to school to get my Masters in Education, while running my business on a much reduced scale.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

For so many years I’d been obsessed with figuring out what was “wrong” with me and how to fix it, I’d never really considered that there were things about me that were actually “right.” I had always credited my every accomplishment, my every success, to luck—no matter how hard I’d worked to achieve it. But a new phase in my healing journey demanded that I take a hard look at the good in my life, and how I’d helped to create it.

I started to take stock of what had kept me going through tough times. How I’d kept my head above water when I was certain I would drown. The strengths I had drawn on, the tools and resources I used, to help me build a business, teach public speaking, write books, produce benefit concerts, record an album, have and raise a child on my own—all while contending with mental health challenges and a brain that seemed hellbent on hijacking my every effort to heal.

As I put my accomplishments, triumphs and joys under a microscope, it started to become clear that the “magic formula” was not magic at all—but a combination of determination, painful lessons, and hard work, bolstered by the many powerful healing tools I’d discovered along the way. I can finally say that I am grateful, deeply and truly, for all that I’ve learned and gained from my very messy journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mindfulnessforamessylife.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesustainablehaven/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.kemler.5
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-kemler-7118504/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@minfulnessforamessylife1550
• Other: ElizabethKemler.com TBLSuccess.com