Take Back Your Outside Mindset
Your Outside Mindset
Pearlette Ramos of the film Three Extraordinary Women
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Pearlette Ramos of the film Three Extraordinary Women

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4:02 Film is called Three Extraordinary Women who experienced extreme trauma in their childhood and how they went on to make meaning of that experience in their lives and each one became a social justice and human rights advocate in the world.
4:43 They tell their story as they climb Mount Kilimanjaro with the idea that we each have a personal Kilimanjaro. And they each have a collective Kilimanjaro - giving voice to children and women globally.

My Personal Connection With Nature

5:23 My personal story and connection with nature. I grew up in poverty and had a TV. I was about 10 years old I saw the legendary film maker Jacques Cousteau. Jacques was a researcher and environmentalist and filmmaker who had visited Antarctica in the 70s. I saw that documentary and it catapulted me out of my child abuse and domestic violence life and allowed for me to hope and believe. I could see myself there. There was a lasting impression.

Reaching Antarctica

7:01 It took me 40 years but I reached Antarctica in 2018 – just shy of my 50th birthday and it was there that the vision of the documentary was born.

7:21 I think there is a profound connection to our own inner story whatever that is - 90% of the people around the whole have experienced one trauma. Many have experienced several forms of trauma. The power is what we make those experiences mean.

7:44 How we do that – and create a form of alchemy in our own lived experience is magic.

A Deeper Level Of Service

8:32 During the 2018 trip I became interested in a deeper level of service. I became a lawyer because I was interested in social justice and passionate about women’s rights issues. I was doing this around the world, but felt a deeper calling in a way.

9:17 Through that trip to Antarctica that I connected more deeply with myself – gave myself some warrior tasks – I jumped in Antarctica ocean.

9:25 Gave myself the challenge to live life more deeply through what my mind and body were trying to tell me. Giving spaciousness to what this chapter in my life might be.

Sharing Our Stories

9:33 And from that yes, the desire to create a film was born. It really wasn’t about the film, it was about telling our stories, sharing our stories through the perspective of the challenges that we have.

9:52 So often people will see where you end up – eg a lawyer – she lives here and does these things – but they don’t know the journey you took and the struggles that you have gone through to get here. So often we just don’t share that.

10:10 In sharing our stories is often where the blessing and the growth comes.

Using The Power of Story

10:23 Sharing stories inspires change – from Terri and Tammy perspective not just mine – goal was to have a great conversation about we can have an honest dialogue with one another, one we can self reflect in meaningful ways so that we can become the conscious narrator in our own story so we can help heal ourselves and help heal one another.

Noticing and Changing

12:11 I like your idea of noticing. I moved to Arizona and I would say that is the beginning on my evolution and relationship with nature. At first I just started hiking for exercise – had my earphones in and listening to music – and over time, it became so much more than that. Now nature is my sanctuary. I no longer listen to music while in nature.. it’s just me and my breath. If I take troubles/stress/ or something that I am contemplating into nature. I take it on my walk and normally by the time I am done my walk, I am complete with the struggle. Because there is something about being out in nature that changes you. The stillness, the vastness, the quiet, and the peace.

Post Traumatic Stress

14:04 I don’t think most people know what post traumatic stress is. We live highly stressful lives that we can desensitize ourselves. Terri, Tammy and I – and I think many others in the world – emotional and stuck in body – always guarded, always alert.

15:04 Post Traumatic Growth is what we centre on in the film. We tell the story of what happened to us and also about what we made it mean. The transformation that happened after the trauma when we began to claim our voices, claim our power, and really live into our purpose. And how we make meaning of things/situations to honor our own lived experience. And how we can consciously narrate that as centring ourselves as hero.

15:43 So you mentioned what happened to you at 60 with your disease diagnosis. And then how did you make meaning of that? Well you created a whole mechanism around that to help encourage and engage others. And we all have the capacity to do some form of that.

Indigenous Cultures and The Interconnection of all Things

16:31 Everything is living, and I believe in the interconnection of all things. That is a part of what nature gives to me. I now hear birds chirping in a much more engaged way. From an energetic standpoint we are all inter related. We are all one consciousness. So when I am in nature I can make this a lived experience and when I come back from my time in nature I can integrate that into my being. I 100% agree with the perspective of indigenous cultures of being tied to the land, plant and animal life.

Purpose

18:54 Film skills not sure. But I really believe in knowing our own life’s journey and bringing that forth in the world. For me that is what purpose means. It is not something I am doing outside of myself, it is of myself – as I increase my consciousness – using that term that you just used.

19:30 I say that because I started out very humbly with very few film skills. I wanted to have stories to connect us and centre women as the heroes of our own stories. That basic desire turned me into a film maker.

20:03 I read a book on film, I used my lawyer skills to study the technical aspects, and then I asked for help. That was a stretch for me and how I learned and grew. Because like so many people who have experienced trauma I became hyper independent.

To Make a Film You Need Other People

20:32 It is really hard to put a film out in the world by yourself you just need other people. So it stretched me, I needed to collaborate, to share the vision with others, and to work with others to bring it forth in the world. That was also what I felt called to do – as I mentioned in my Antarctica experience – at the moment the vision was born, was the moment I experienced this stretch and asking for help – really centring myself because I had been a kind of behind the scenes lawyer doing work – but this centres me. It wasn’t some thing Pearlette wanted to do, it was something I felt compelled to do.

Gaining Value From the Experience of Story Telling

21:28 When it comes to making the film, I really didn’t know what I was doing – so the humble heart and the willingness to learn helped me.

21:38 In the same way I think that many people have stories that can be impactful. You mentioned Nicole Christina earlier. I met her at the screening of my film at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. And thankfully there were representatives there from around the world who were able to screen the film and gain value from the experience of story telling and how it can be used to help people heal.

22:14 One of the goals and the social impact campaign that we are working on now is that more of us will tell our stories whether we create films or not. That we really seek out the power and growth of sharing our stories so that they can be impactful for others.

Kilimanjaro – The Tallest Point on The African Contenient

23:22 Terri was 64 when she climbed Kilimanjaro. She grew up in Ramala and her experiences of wanting to be pro Palestinian in that environment. Her mom was afraid for her safety so shipped her to the US against her will when she was 14 years old. When she came to the US she was not told by her mom that she would have to quit school and go to work. She did this for the next 10 years. Terri went on to become a human rights advocate.

24:39 Tammy’s mother was followed by a stalker and was murdered in front of Tammy. This was very traumatic and then she and her sisters went to live with her father who was not too happy having to raise 3 daughters by himself. So she endured these challenges. She reflects on this idea of not feeling like she is enough in life and struggles with a sense of not being worthy.

25:14 So we each tell out Kilimanjaro story as we climb the mountain.

25:39 We highlight the mountain as a character. We show the beauty, the rainforest at the bottom and glaciers at the top. To help people connect with the Mountain and its beauty.

26:20 The idea is to show how this experience helps us to connect more deeply with oneself and with nature.

Personal and Collective Kilimanjaro in Manitoba During the Forest Fires

26:38 There is an invitation in the film for the viewer to reflect on their Kilimanjaro. Like you just said “what is my personal Kilimanjaro?”

Because we are so busy, we often don’t take the time.

27:18 (Verla) My personal Kilimanjaro is that I am in Manitoba, Canada today and there are forest fires all around us. So there is loss, pain and heartbreak here. So these days when I go outside, I find a tree, and I remember that this tree is cleaning the air and giving me life. And giving life to others and if it wasn’t for these trees we would not be here.

My collective Kilimanjaro: I recall Diana Beresford-Kroegers work that says if each one of us in the world planted just one tree for 6 years that would solve climate crisis.

I am Going to Plant a Tree

28:44 I love that. You talked about the forest fires in terms of pain and heart break. So how do you transform that? Yes that is happening and we have the capacity to then plant a tree and replenish the earth. And what if we each actually did that? Like I am going to plant a tree!

29:55 I have planted trees but not with the intentionality that you just referenced.

Values in Nature

30:40 Everything I do. 1) Beauty is sacred. It is how we live. Pausing to notice the sunrise, the bird song. Feeling into the space and look for beauty.

31:14 In the beauty is the mindset. 2) Integrity and 3) creativity – the idea that I can breathe life into possibility. Everyday creativity - a book and cites the author as the drive to create the film. Because prior to that I didn’t think I was creative. 4) Adventure – one of core values. Having the courage to explore the unknown in the world and inside of myself. 5) Freedom to feel, speak, to heal, to live fully. Freedom to be my full self in the world – and know that these values are ever evolving.

Really important to know what our core values are.

Cultivate Your Own Intuition

36:41 Invite people to explore their own intuition. I think intuition is at the heart of healing particularly after trauma. It is your inner knowing , your truth beneath the noise – cultivating a relationship with it means learning to truth yourself. I think nature can be one of the most powerful mirrors and guides in that process. For those of us who have experienced trauma, trusting yourself can be a challenge. And at the heart of it intuition can be that quiet knowing that we get to discover our authentic voice, our deeper connection, to self and to purpose.

Develop a Listening Practice

I encourage your listeners to develop a listening practice, building that trust in yourself through the small choices that you make everyday – like listening to life, yourself and your inner voice. Remember that there is always an opportunity to connect with yourself and with nature.

Film is at

https://threeextraordinarywomen.com

38:00 Encourage your listeners to see the film and have meaningful dialogue like we are having now to help people to centre themselves as the heroes of their stories.

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