Tonight’s extended meeting with Joel Cox was very informative to what it takes to become someone who wants to enter the world of media. I appreciate Joel’s realistic mindset and personality towards his experiences of interviewing talent in order to find good people with great values. I was thankful to ask Joel a question regarding the amount of people in the industry that throw journalistic integrity to the side to gain viewership and followers for economic gains. His responses validated my thoughts that going about the business the right way by showing respect and being yourself has even more value than just a salary. How your peers view you is so important as there are enough great people in the industry that will notice how you’ve handled yourself with professionalism and treated people with kindness. There are several ways to climb the ladder and I’d like to thank you Joel for letting me know that if you do things the right way then you can still get to where you want to be without shortcuts. His conversation tonight only has me more intrigued about the industry than ever but most importantly is how can I live my purpose in life and reach the most amount of people through love, truth and kindness in my lifetime.

I just wanted to say that while part of tonight’s discussion was about New Year’s resolutions I heard many good points and ideas by our professional guests in the mental health field. I wanted to speak in depth more about goal setting and making plans for your own personal improvements. I agree than having a goal with a plan in place is the way to go however its the contingency plan that is the insurance policy for if you fail or temporarily lose focus. Here’s my advice. If you decide to broadcast it to the world through social media have one person that you can absolutely count on to kick you in your ass for when you lose your way. You’re going to need them. Pick the person you trust most to tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear. We all have that someone that will keep it real with us. Let’s face it, these resolutions that our now goals with a plan you probably already tried them before right? How did you do? If you have more than one thing on your list you know you have some returning Jeopardy champions that beat you last time don’t you? Damn right you do and you’re not alone. It will be challenging as hell because if it were easy then you wouldn’t have waited until January 1st now would you? Hell no you would’ve of!

So what do we do now? We’ve got our goal, we’ve got our plan, we’ve got our backup motivational ass kicking truth teller ready to help hold you accountable. Now what? Now we ready our mindset. We believe in ourselves. We rid our minds and bodies of all the negativity junk food that is out there in the world and on social media for our ears and eyes to absorb. You surround yourself with good people. Start becoming the person you expect to be not who you want to be. A lot of people want and how does that usually go? Sounds like the path of least resistance where you hope to get lucky to hit your goal. That’s why someone’s response to your want is usually, “good luck with that” followed by an eye roll. I think you see my point. If you want to be difference choose different. If you expect that change then you must make change. If you back down that same road without change you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. that’s not enough. Not this time!

These are my words and my letter to you our community here at The Unsealed. This community is going to grow and one of the main reasons is because us as members are going to grow too as individuals and as a community. If you want special then let’s be special. We going to come in here week after week writing letters or interacting in the meetings and say how you are now better equipped to handles the situations that will be presented to us in 2023 because our mindsets became more positive, more focused so we achieved more goals which led to my increased confidence to overcome the obstacles put in front of me. I did this because I believed. I survived because when i needed it someone else believed in me to because they saw the changes I made in my life. It’s all there for us if we expect it to become our own realities.

Together we can become stronger both physically and mentally. We can and will become a better version of ourselves. The changes you’re going to make can and will become permanent. Lock in the positive mindset have your go to for support and be the amazing person your meant to be and share your talented gifts with the world. Life is short so not only get the most out of it but give to other’s lives as well. That’s what a community is meant to do.

Forget the New Year’s resolutions and create and solidify the New Me resolutions! The New Me doesn’t require a date, time or year. Your commitment to the New Me starts now! Go get it and remember to love and forgive yourself in the process. Share your success.

From the bottom of my heart

Thank you

I wanted to take some time to share my thoughts on this community. In 2020 Lauren reached out to me and talked about her business and what it represented. I immediately could feel that she’s taking a chance by leaving sportscasting but she’s found her purpose and motivation for a much greater cause. I felt that she was very brave to 1) tell her own very personal story of overcoming adversity but 2) to turn something from an idea into a business that people will buy in on. She went all in. She bet on herself. She puts in countless hours of effort towards making sure that her idea, her creation, her purpose is stainable long term. Why? Because a business needs to be financial successful? Sure. But that’s true for any business to survive and grow. I personally believe in fact I know this and know this for sure and that’s because this community that was once an idea that was hers is now a reality for all of us. I believe the biggest driver of that is because she genuinely cares for people, their lives, and protecting their stories of meaningful life events. We as members put our trust in her by sharing what we’ve experienced and how we’ve adjusted so she can share this with all of you. How great is this opportunity? To help others through what we’ve learned. Is that a new concept, no but what separates Lauren and this Unsealed community is how we go about respecting each other during this experience. It takes a lot for many people to just freely open up about their troubling past, your current challenging situation or what your afraid of about your future. We’re also having these conversations with what started as complete strangers. Maybe that makes it easier for each of us. It is in fact that safe space that’s needed. Non judgmental. Just freely speaking with a reason for positivity to be the result behind the end of every sentence. Whether your writing letters and joining us in the weekly meetings of a writing workshop or with a guest there’s always something to gain that can affect your life in a way where you carry that positivity out into the world. Kindness is a great thing to share, always. I’ve never once left a meeting where I didn’t feel better about what i learned and how i could apply that back into the world. That is purpose. That is value. We should all value our time we spend doing whatever it is that is consuming our attention at that moment. We can’t get it back so we might as well enjoy it.

To all the members that I’ve had the pleasure to get to know through our meetings to writing letters and giving feedback to messaging on other platforms I want to say thank you. I hope that in some way that our interaction has had meaning to you to help you get through this thing called life. We’re all broken people learning from each other to teach each other how we can heal one another and to fix ourselves to become the best version that we want to be. We heard so many great stories from our guests/ members on how they’ve overcame what was put in front of them. Some have to battle each and every day to stay on top of their adversity. That teaches us to never give up. Our bodies our designed to fail but our spirits are not. Even when the energy doesn’t seem to be there we rely on one another to be recharged, to be sparked by the spirit of someone else. That is humanity at its peak. At its finest being there for one another. That’s what this Unsealed community means to me.

For new members during this next calendar I say welcome. You’ve come to an amazing place. We’re glad your here and I believe you’re here for a reason. There’s so much to gain by just coming in and absorbing the knowledge from the letters, the speeches from the guests even if you’re just a spectator that’s ok. That was me when I first signed up. What I learned though in time was that I had too much to offer than to just sit back. I was encouraged to participate and I’m so thankful I did. I had too much love to not be giving back to this group. There’s so many special people in here with a variety of talents that I want them to maximize their gifts to this world. Genuinely caring is my gift. It’s not unique but I’m so glad it’s not because I know others have this gift too. This community and its creator Lauren will help bring that out of you if you let it happen. Thank you for your trust. I look forward to getting to know you and your story.

As we all face our challenges let’s remember to stick together. Support each other. There’s no boos and only cheers. If you have negative thoughts have a short memory of them and move on. Be accountable through self accountability first. It’ll change your life. Most importantly if you need my help, just ask. It’s why I love this community so much. My door will always be open to my Unsealed family because you’ve helped me more than you know.

Thank you

As we are here at the US Open Finals weekend, I can’t help but see the similarities of the path through the bracket as it pertains to life in general. When you are born into this world where you land isn’t up to you. You could be seeded anywhere in life. Few are placed in top seeded environments while some others do get seeded but they’re somewhere in the middle while the vast majority of us go unseeded but you’re still in the game of life. Where we start in life can predetermine our odds but with that comes no guarantees that success is in your future. Each day can be a match where your expectations and the expectations of others might feel like today should be very successful with limited challenges to face. There are days where everything does work out for you and easy feels like a great day. Your next day may be projected the same way but you’re presented with unexpected roadblocks where you’re just not on point and life feels like you should be in play but your best efforts are landing out of bounds. Yet somehow you made it through even though in your mind you know your day should’ve felt like a walk over. Then as you advance on there’s a very significant test staring you right in your face and you know the night before you must be prepared or you may not win the day. The day is now here and you wake up ready to go full of confidence. I got this. I can do it. I believe in myself and my abilities. I’m going to win. Nothing and no one’s going to stop me from achieving my goal today. My clothes fit just right and look great. My shoe game is on point. My racquet grip is perfectly wrapped. Let’s play! Your start to this match is holding serve like the champion you are. Then you play on only to have your opponent give you that resistance. You planned for it. Here we go except this challenge turns out to bigger, faster and stronger than expected and now you find yourself down 2 sets. You battle back. The match is tied and momentum is behind you. You’ve fought to be points away from winning your game, your set, your match, your championship, your day but so has your opponent. You’re right where you want to be, where you expected to be and you can see the trophy being placed in your hands. Unfortunately, life hits you with an immediate back hand. You’re stunned. It’s now set point for your opposition. How can I recover? Oh, wait they’re ready to serve. I’m not ready and here comes the ball. I swing and…..
How do you want this match to end? An ending that you hit the return on the serve and you won the point? You battled back. YOU WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP!!! What if they hit an ace and now the match is over. They outlasted you best effort. THEY won the championship!

The point of my story is no matter where your seeded in life the journey is ultimately yours. You control the things you can control and let go of the things you can’t. Learn from your lessons that the game of life presents to you every day no matter if the path seems smooth or if the struggle is real. Everybody has a player’s box to looks towards for support through passion, inspiration, and the greatest support of all, Love. Some player’s boxes are bigger than others with all different members representing family, friends, and coaches. They’re behind you win or lose because they see all the work you put in and how much you care for your success, your sport, and for your loved ones but today maybe it wasn’t enough to declare victory on a scoreboard but you won your match in the game of life. Do you know why? Because while your journey started with a player’s box adding people along the way your daily performance has now established a following where your box now fits in a stadium. Within that stadium you now have an extension of your support system called fans. Fans of you because they too see a light within you that they want to be a part of even if it’s from a distance farther away than the ones closest to you. This is the part where I tie in the very platform to where this stadium stands and that’s The Unsealed. This community of fans are sitting in those very seats just outside your player’s box. We’re here in attendance to cheer you on through the ups and downs of your point, your set, your match of life. When you’ve fell to the court whether it be in defeat or in celebration, you’ll feel the energy of positive support here. There are no stories that can’t be told. There are no losers, only champions. Alone doesn’t exist here if you allow acceptance into your heart, mind and spirit. The tournament director, she’s very accommodating. No matter what round of your tournament you’re in there’s an open bracket for you and your seeding doesn’t matter. The tournament invites are unlimited and so is the seating. I feel I can speak for everyone and say that she can serve and volley kindness with anyone.

As champions prepare to get crowned just remember there’s great stories to be told on both sides of the net. One trophy won’t define an entire lifetime but will be one of their most memorable days of their life. Treat people like the champions that they are. Like no scoreboard exists. We all can drop a game or a set but we also can be that fan in the seats giving a standing ovation. Let’s root for each other.

If you need me, I’ll be there to meet you at the net to shake your hand.
Have a great match today everyone!

Your fan,

For anyone that’s visited Niagara Falls for the 1st time I’m sure it left a lasting impression on your life of travel. We use the term awesome often in many daily comments but Niagara Falls has the ultimate hold my beer stance. This was my 4th visit to the Falls ( 2 on the Canadian side, 2 on the New York side) and I can tell you this one was the most meaningful. It was different because this was the 1st trip for my 3 daughters to experience the beauty and the power of the Falls but that’s not what sets this visit apart from the other 3.

This week Lauren, I know your topic of conversation for your weekly meeting was regarding mental health and your feelings of feeling nervous being out in recent crowds of people. As you were conducting your weekly meeting I was literally in one of those crowds. I’m here to tell you and anyone that reads this that you should have confidence in our society and the joys we all can bring each other. There’s 2 things that stood out to me during our visit.

1) Diversity

It was so special to me to see the amount of different nationalities and language barriers that were interacting and such a positive manner. From taking pictures of each other’s families so everyone can get into the picture to general common courtesy of waiting in lines, elevators or museum stores. I’d say I heard more languages other than English during the length of are visit and even though I didn’t understand it one thing that’s translate to all of us is a simple smile. I’ve been to NYC but that visit didn’t impact me the same way this one did.

2) Police presence

With the amount of tragic events that get covered by the media and recently in near by Buffalo you’d think there’d be a tight security presence in such a popular tourist spot visited by the world at and near the border. I can tell you during our 3 days there when we were reflecting back on the last night we could remember even seeing a police officer. Yes we saw park personnel and security inside the casino but other than that we didn’t notice any police at all.

The social interactions of all the different groups of people from all around the world was such a positive experience for me and I hope the other families felt the same way. Maybe the energy that radiates from the water provides a power of positivity that’s next level. Maybe it was getting baptized by the Falls at the Cave of the Winds or on the Maid of the Mist with hundreds of my new closest friends or what but I just want everyone to know to get out there and have confidence that life is about community. If we were supposed to be alone then we would’ve been born to this planet one life at a time. We were meant to be together. Life is worth its risks and if you focus on its joys instead of its worries then you’re truly living free which is great for your physical and mental health.

All my best to all of yours,

Jamie Ellifritz

Dear America,
The news that the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade deeply saddens me and fills me with guilt. This decision is very personal to me. In 2008 at the age of 25 I got pregnant, while using two forms of birth control. I have never wanted children and I decided to have an abortion. Only problem was that I have so many medical conditions, including a neurological condition called Increased Intracranial Hypertension. I had to have a medical device implanted in me in 2005 to treat the condition by draining the fluid off my brain and depositing it in my abdomen. The condition was caused by the medication used to treat my Bipolar DIsorder. I knew all the consequences of what pregnancy would do to my body, I had been well informed by all my Specialists. I am on disability so I went to my primary care doctor when I found out. She worked at a federally funded clinic that I went to as at that point, I only had Medicaid. When I explained the situation, all my medical history, my wishes for my life, my concerns. I had contacted Planned Parenthood and they said to safely to have the abortion I would need medical clearance, the okay, that I was healthy enough to have the procedure. My doctor refused. She said no one in her office would agree to give me the medical clearance for the abortion, even though I was healthy enough to have. I was devastated. What was I ever going to do? I was on disability for a very severe chronic illness and the pregnancy could kill me, I didn’t want a child. I could not understand why my wishes and concerns were not even being considered. I contacted Planned Parenthood again and they said it could be a clearance from any medical doctor I had seen recently. Luckily I have a really good neurologist I had recently seen and he gave the clearance.
So, now for the reason I feel guilt about the Supreme Court’s decision. When I went to have the abortion the doctor pulled me aside and informed me that she heard of my situation and talked to a friend of hers that was a lawyer, she gave me their number and said that I should contact them because what that federally funded clinic did to me was illegal.
That floored me. I held on to that number for almost a year hoping I would be brave enough to call. I was in such a bad place in my life at that point that I couldn’t imagine the stress of a court case about this. As the years passed I grew stronger and more confident in myself, but I still felt guilty that I hadn’t spoke up. That I gave into fear and shame that I never should have had to experience from having a necessary medical procedure. Hearing that Roe vs. Wade was overturned, the guilt just cascaded over me. I let myself and all the women I love and all the women without the opportunity to use their voice down. It was rough. The only way I know how to combat this guilt is to never let myself be silenced again. To never let fear take over when there is Right to be done. That is why I am writing this. I want every woman to know her voice matters and that I will fight and stand up right along side of her. America, this isn’t over. We must stand up and use our voices, it is the most important thing to do in this country right now.

Honestly, I had a difficult time “celebrating” Memorial Day this year. Obviously there is a debate to be had of whether a day of remembrance of the dead deserves celebration; but in this country it has been celebrated, as a day of rest and “freedom”.

This year, it felt kind of pointless to me. Yes those who have served and died, still deserve to be honored of course; but the freedom bit … that felt more bogus than ever.

Spirit brought to my attention this beautiful clip of Marian Anderson singing at the National Mall, over 82 years ago [https://youtu.be/XF9Quk0QhSE ]. It got me thinking…

How much has actually changed?
How much has changed in name only?
What happened to all this “progress”?

Have we not become a country of a gilded age?-Shiny and idealized on some levels, and oh so cheap and broken inside, where it actually counts?

Was it always this way? Was it always so shoddily made; and our hope and constant strive for better just deceived us all out of seeing it?

I watched these people stand in this clip 82 years ago, and could not help but think that not a single one of them was really free. How could we look upon them who fought for, and promised their children better, when we and their great grandchildren would still be facing some of the same issues (or worse) all these years later?

Personally, I am of the school of thought that no government can free you anyway. They should honor and create space for it to stretch its wings of course; but in my experience, Freedom comes from above and inside you.

That being said, I detest that this country (among others), can still proclaim freedom as one of their attributes, while constantly cutting away at it, with an increasingly deteriorating, destructive, and divisive way of being.

I weep to see people wasting time and energy fighting amongst themselves, or waiting with baited breath for someone “in charge” to do something. I don’t know yet what we do from here; but I pray we stop looking cycles of insanity in the face, screaming or crying in their general direction, and then again turning away until the next uproarious event.

Our ancestors, children, and ourselves deserve much better than this.

I hope you are all keeping well and safe, and finding your own ways to explore and elevate Freedom.

Thank you for helping me have an outlet to express my piece 🧩 (until lasting peace is found).

Be Blessed.
With LoveLight & LightCodes…
𓌂©♡~Danielle, #DAMCL ™,
@DsEnlightenedEdits ™®☆🌈𓌂𓎬
𓌂©www.DAMCLDesigns.com ™®𓌂𓍳𓇳𓌂𓋹𓂓𓋴🙏 𓍶 🕯

Dear Unsealers,
The last couple of days have brought so much sadness to our country. Seeing so many young beautiful people lose their life so horrifically is too much to bear. On top of that, I feel so much frustration. Is there not anything we can do to change the trajectory of this awful problem. Is there no common ground to change something to reduce the risk too our children? With all the brain power in Washington, can’t the politicians come up with one initial action that can lead to a change in course. I know there are so many reasons why this gun violence happens. So you would think there would be so many possible ways to mitigate the problem. Instead of arguing about guns lets all try to find perhaps a liitle bit of common ground to make a difference and honor the lives of all those we have lost to our national disgrace.

From the heart with respect for everyone with views that are different then mine,

You probably didn’t expect your lives to end so soon, or be talked about on the news and the internet. You all were learning at school and playing with your classmates. You were sons and daughters to parents, who were excited to see how your young lives would turn in the future. Sadly, your story ended two days ago. You join the numbers of other kids & adults who had their lives cut short because of terrible timing one day. I first heard of the tragic news from my dad, but, I didn’t know what he was speaking about until I found out about the news on Twitter. I’m still in disbelief about the whole situation. Why would the shooter want to kill young children & teachers? I hate to hear these kinds of reports. It would be great if we never had anything like this happen. This tragedy is going to be felt…forever, especially by the families/friends of the children & teachers who were killed. I don’t want to believe that these cruel acts can happen in this world. But, sadly they do. If only there were a remedy for it to never happen again, that would be great.