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

Michelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I have been an educator for over 45 years in a variety of models – public schools and universities, private schools, faith-based schools and universities, and homeschools. I have also served students, parents and educators over a large range of levels – from preschool up through and including graduate level teaching and consulting. One common thread has emerged from this extensive experience in education: a person will struggle in life if they are struggling with their self-identity. As I served as instructor, mentor, consultant and guidance counselor in my field, current educational models fall far short of preparing students to silence the inner critic and embrace their true self in its beautiful wholeness and uniqueness. I have seen this principle proven over and over again. I have even seen it demonstrated in MY life.

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

I can remember as a child lining up my troll dolls and having my Barbie doll “teach” them. Becoming an educator was an easy choice for me, and since I loved the outdoors, teaching the sciences was a great fit. What I have enjoyed most about being an entrepreneur is being about to train and teach in a variety of fields and areas. I teach tai chi to seniors in local city recreational facilities and senior wellness centers. I mentor adult educators and help them achieve their fullest professional potential using DISC assessments and other leadership development tools. Now, as a writer of a book of faith-based affirmations, I teach journaling workshops and help birth the growth of self-awareness and personal transformation as I share my story of my journey from internal darkness to discovery and transformation. I am proud to share my book, “EMPOWERED THINKING, EMPOWERED LIFE: 365 “I AM” DECLARATIONS FOR RESILIENT LIVING” with audiences of all ages, genders and belief systems. It is the essence of a hard won but successful transition from grief to growth.

In early 2021, my second youngest sister Judi was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. Judi was my elderly mom’s caretaker, and as we as a family worked thought the ramifications of her passing, mom expressed the desire to come and live with my husband and I in Virginia. I was agreeable to this, of course, even though it had massive ramifications for our life in general and mine specifically. I turned in my resignation for the position I had worked for my entire life and dearly loved, we began renovating the house to prepare a room for her, and generally moving in our new direction. What I didn’t plan for, however, was after Judi peacefully passed away in her home, my youngest sister Lisa, suddenly passed away five weeks later of a massive bacterial infection. She slipped into a coma before my family could locate her. She passed away in three days. This calamity sent the whole family, myself included, into a deep spiral of grief and anguish. I experienced “lost time”, a period of three months where I know I was functioning on a basic level but have no memory of the actual events of the summer getting ready for mom’s arrival. It was, and to a certain degree still remains, one of the most disturbing and frightening periods of my adult life.

This was the beginning of my crisis of self-belief, of my identity. I had worked with other educators, students and parents for decades in counseling and consulting, but I fell far, far short of helping myself when I experienced this same mental disconnect. I experienced a profound shift in how I viewed myself…who WAS I now? I discovered that all my life I had defined myself by the roles I played, the tasks I did for myself and especially others…how did I miss that insight??? It was at this point in my life I discovered the power of affirmations and journaling, Searching desperately for answers, I embraced the practices of prayer meditations, declarative affirmations, and authentic journaling. What I discovered was that these three tools along with grief support counseling were powerful allies against depression and grief recovery. These practices also were the three tools that I used to realign my self-belief from what I DO to who I AM, my core self and identity. I have experienced such a radical transformation in my own struggle to regain my personhood, my self-belief in myself, my core identity! My purpose shifted to focusing on DOING to BEING! It is incredibly liberating…words cannot hardly express the freedom I now experience.

Over the course of the next three years, I took this life changing experience and authored a powerful book of “I AM” statements, one for each day of the year. Each declaration can stand alone or be used as a journaling prompt and meditation and reflection. My mission is to ensure that those who are lost, who are having a similar crisis of belief, who have experienced profound grief and depression that they are don’t even know who they are anymore, those who unsure of how to reclaim their unique self-identity based on their heart and not their roles…for these life travelers I have written “EMPOWERED THINKING, EMPOWERED LIFE: 365 “I AM” DECLARATIONS FOR RESILIENT LIVING”.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The Bible is the one resource that I have studied the most to learn how to navigate life and its many obstacles: loss, regret, changes in life’s seasons, and finding courage to start over, yet again. I find great comfort, rest and insight within its pages. As an entrepreneur, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles and “Psycho-Cybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz are a powerful trilogy of resources that have defined my career and leadership development. These three incredible books introduced me for the first time to how incredibly powerful my thoughts are and how I am literally creating my future minute by minute by my underlying assumptions about who I am and what I am capable of accomplishing. Recently I have found a sound healer, Mark Romero, who does amazing musical work with the Law of Attraction and how to neutralize trauma and negative energy from the past and invite health and prosperity through music. What a gift!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For context, I am a recovering perfectionist! Second oldest in a family of five children, my role was the “smart one.” That perception from my parents hardened into my image of who I was, defined my place in the world and led me to the pursuit of learning for learning’s sake. At that level of awareness, failure of any type equated with failure as a person. Seeking refuge in titles, degrees and outcomes, it took the life-shaking events of losing two sisters and having my tidy little well-defined and factual world completely upended to liberate me from the chains of such a rigid self-identity. Having had the painful experience of unlearning that WHO I am is completely and totally different from WHAT I do, I have experienced a profound transformation of purpose and passion – painful, but profitable lessons, as it turned out. Now that I have separated my identity from my outcomes, I am free, truly free, for the first time in my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wingsofeaglesed.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561512268102
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-caprio-6346861a/

Image Credits

Melody Sessoms Photography
Black Forest Studios (family portrait)