Dancing Through Life with Cristina Pujol

SPEAKER_00: So many people think that my story is inspiring.

How I became blind at just 17 years of age.

They always want to know how I've done it and how I've kept smiling all along the way.

Well, I've just chosen to focus my attention on seeing the positive side.

And here on the podcast, that's what I want to do for you.

Because no matter what you may be going through tonight, I hope to inspire you to focus on the positive.

And you know what?

I hope that I can also be a source of inspiration for you to just keep on smile.

If there's anything starting in this life, it's that each one of us are going to face challenges.

And I believe these challenges are what shape us into better, stronger, more resilient human beings.

Thankfully, none of us are measured by the challenges we endure, but rather by the way in which we react to those challenges.

I like to say we each have the chance to either sit it out or dance.

And for Christina Pujol, she chose to dance.

Hey, my name is Kevin Lowe, the host of The Lowdown with Kevin Lowe, and you are listening to episode 52.

In today's episode, I find myself lost in conversation with Christina Pujol, coming to us all the way from the south of Spain.

As I talked with Christina, I realized she's a woman rich in wisdom and enlightening in spirit.

Christina has been gifted with the opportunity to do and try many things in her life, but she has also had to endure the challenges that life tends to present.

What's beautiful about Christina is that even when life presented the most difficult of challenges, she never stopped dancing.

So what do you say?

Should we go ahead and dance with Christina?

Pujo.

SPEAKER_01: I used to dance as a child.

Like where I grew up in Spain, we have some folkloric dances, let's put it that way, some you know, regional dances.

So we have dancing, you know, in our school and that type of thing.

So there was always some type of dancing.

And as a kid, I was my parents signed me up for uh ballet.

So I did a few years of ballet here in the conservatory in Malaga.

And so I had some dancing.

Then I switched to playing piano.

I was a very curious kid, you know, whatever I could learn, I wanted to learn, I wanted to learn guitar, I played the guitar, I played the piano.

But when I moved to study my engineering career, then I had to quit it all.

And by the third year in my career, I was overwhelmed with studying, and I thought I need something outside of my university and my studying and my engineering.

And so I looked at playing piano.

And since I was studying computer science, I thought going from one keyboard to another keyboard, maybe it's not such a great idea.

So I'm like, maybe something with motion would be a little bit more clever, you know, thing to do.

And so between sports and dancing, I will always choose dancing.

So I signed up for some classes, you know, in like kind of ballroom, but really informal type of ballroom for university kids, you know.

And I had a blast.

So then I signed up for a little bit more serious ballroom competition thing, but it was too strict for me.

I loved like cha-cha-cha and more Latino things, and I love more the freedom.

So that's when I started kind of getting a little bit hooked into the Latino dancing.

But there wasn't that much, you know.

Spain might be a Latino country in Europe.

No, we don't have, well, now we do, but we didn't used to have salsa and all those things.

So when I moved to the US for other reasons, and and there I said, okay, if I move to the US, any Latino person that I know that knows how to dance, I'm gonna just get, you know, stuck to them and has them, you know, teach me anything, whatever.

But I happened to meet a woman, a wonderful woman from Guatemala, and uh, and I don't know how she started asking me, you know, where are you from in the south and blah, blah, blah.

And she knew a little bit about the dances that we do here, and one of them is Sevillanas.

And uh, and I talked to her, and and she, I don't know, there's a blank in my life, but somehow she convinced me to start teaching that.

And I at the time I was an engineer, so my identity was completely of engineering.

So I was not a dancer, you know.

It never crossed my mind to teach dancing.

And so I don't know how, but I rented a space and I started teaching while working as an engineer.

So I enjoyed so much that I every time I got more and more involved, you know, I started teaching kids and I made an uh, you know, a performance group for adults, a performance group for kids, and and at the same time learning more Latino dancing with this other group and performing with them while doing my engineering.

And so that's when I my world started to cross, the engineering and the dancing, because I started teaching, you know, and this was all in in Colorado, in the US.

So that's how I started teaching dancing and getting more into dancing until finally I decided, okay, let me let me jump into this thing and and kind of quit.

Well, the story is not exactly like that, but that's how I jumped into dancing.

SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, you're too fun.

I'm like, Christina just kind of does everything.

Oh my goodness so now no, I am curious, as far as an engineer, what type of engineer were you?

SPEAKER_01: I was a software engineer.

I was awesome.

Yeah, I I work, I study in Barcelona in the Universidad Politecnica de Barcelona in the Catalunya, which is the Polytechnic University of Catalunya in Spain.

And I actually stayed there.

I taught at the university and I did some um research there.

So I stayed for three years, and then I moved to the US, and so there I decided I was offered to do a PhD, but I really wanted to get out of the bubble of the university.

So I went on to uh an amazing company, Qualcomm, in the US, and I was really lucky to land that company because the people were amazing and the work they were doing was fun.

And so I was there for another three years, and then I moved to Boston and continued with my engineering for a little while, and then I eventually I decided, okay, let me try this dancing only.

And I went back and forth because then I went back to engineering and I work a little bit at MIT at a project in in Massachusetts.

So I had a you know a few years of very amazing experience in engineering, and then I decided to just stay with dancing.

So yeah, the life is too short.

There's too many things to try.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

No, and and and I can't help but think about your story about a conversation that I had with with a previous guest on the podcast, and we we were talking a lot about like the whole thing of like people having a side hustle.

You know, they they got they got their main job, and then they got this other, you know, passion project that they're you know is their side hustle.

And and I remember when I was talking with him, I finally, you know, through what he was saying, I finally was like, I'm like, so basically, most of the time, people's side hustle is probably what they should truly be doing with their life because it's actually something that they really enjoy and have this amazing passion for.

And I almost look at that with you as even though engineering was amazing and stuff, you had this deep underlying passion for dance and and teaching it.

And so I I I kind of feel like that maybe that's kind of like a situation for yourself.

SPEAKER_01: I think well, for me is that I I love too many things, I think.

But it's a progression.

I and I think the side hassle, it it will be different for everybody.

There is a book that I really love, Finding Your Elements.

I don't know if you heard about this book where Sir Kevin, oh god, I forgot his last name.

I'm gonna die.

But he talks about finding your essence, your that thing that you're really good at, that thing that is your passion.

And sometimes it doesn't have to be your profession.

You know, I think not every time you can make a passion a profession for various reasons.

One, it may be not a financially feasible thing at the situation that you're at the moment, maybe because you have responsibilities, but sometimes because it's hard to make a living out of it, and then you're gonna hate it.

So sometimes having a side hustle, a passion, or a hobby, even that you don't earn anything, but that you love and that inspires you is good enough.

It's it's amazingly enough, you know, and it doesn't have to always be your profession because sometimes it might not be the best option.

So I think it it varies and depends on the situation of everybody.

If you are 20, maybe you have more options of trying crazy things out.

If you are 40 and you have five kids, maybe it has to be your side hustle, but you can make it such an amazing side hustle that it it sparks all over the rest of your life, you know.

So that's that's my two words on that.

SPEAKER_00: Well, all I'm sitting here thinking is my goodness, Christina has some wisdom inside of her because I think the way that you just talked about that whole subject of side hustle, I have never heard somebody talk about it in the way that you just did.

And I absolutely loved it because everything that you were just talking about with it of of you know, it just because it you don't have to make money at it.

It doesn't, you can just have something that you enjoy, you know, and and and that brings you joy, and yet you still have your your career that you know that that you're you're doing that brings in money and you know and whatnot.

And I don't know, I just think I thought the whole way that you just summed that whole thing up is a way that I've not heard it talked about before, but all I kept sitting there thinking was, my goodness, this woman is good.

That was awesome.

Yeah, so so now at some point though, in in your journey, I know you ended up in and it seems huge to me with dance being so big for you, is at some point you ended up experiencing hearing loss in one of your ears, correct?

SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, my left ear, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what happened?

SPEAKER_01: I was at the time still working as an engineer and teaching dancing, and one afternoon, it was a Friday, I went home and and we had actually in the kitchen a training equipment, you know.

So I started training, doing some, you know, push-ups and things like that.

And suddenly I started feeling sick and dizzy and with weird noises in my head, and I didn't feel well.

But that day we had to perform at the uh consulate of Switzerland in in Boston, and then we also had to teach that night at an event that we were every Friday, that was a Friday.

And then I had to, you know, the night we teach one hour and then we stay until like 1 or 2 a.m.

dancing.

And I wasn't feeling well, I was dizzy and I couldn't hear well.

So I told my partner, you know, if if I don't follow the music, you have to really hold me tight because I'm not feeling well at all.

And when we got to this consulate, I remember that the noise was baffled, like everything was really hard, and of course I had a huge headache.

And so we did the performance, and then we went to this uh uh this event that we had to teach.

We thought for an hour, and then I thought, I cannot do anything, you know, I have to go to the emergency room.

So I told him, you know, I'm going to the emergency room.

This is too much.

So we went there, they diagnosed like by 4 a.m.

It took a long time.

Actually, uh ear infection, but they told me to go to a specialist because you have to see a specialist.

So Monday I called, of course, you know, during the weekend nobody attends anything.

So on Monday I called and I called one uh specialist, and he told me, you know, you gotta come right away.

So they didn't have appointments until like Thursday or so.

So by the time I got there, the doctor was kind of really cold.

You know, I sat on the chair and I, you know, he did this inspection on one ear and then on the other ear.

And then really, without saying any other word, he said, You don't have an ear infection.

And so I was like, Oh great, you know, what do I have?

Is this you lost your ear, you know, your hearing completely.

And I'm like, What?

You know, and so I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Uh, and and because I don't, you know, English is not my first language, I just said to him, like, uh, excuse me for a second, but maybe I didn't understand well.

Did you just say that I will never hear again on my left ear?

And he's like, Yep.

And I was in shock, like, really, like, no, no, no, no, no.

You know, you want to rewind your life and and and go back.

Like, that cannot happen.

And so I I then I asked him, you know, because then right away that the next thought is like, what's gonna happen to my other ear?

Because if they don't know what's happening to this ear, how are they gonna know what's happening to the other ear?

So I asked him, so what's gonna happen to the right ear?

And he's like, Oh, don't worry, because nothing is gonna happen.

And I'm thinking, What?

How do you know?

You don't know what happened to my left ear.

How do you, you know, how can you know what's gonna happen to my right ear?

Because they just told me it's a virus.

And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, viruses when you don't know what's happening, you know.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I I after he told me that, and and that's basically all he said, he was quite, you know, uh short words.

Uh, he he took me to this earring test where they put you inside a machine, you know, inside not a machine, like uh like a room that has no noise or anything, and then they start beeping all these noises.

And I wanted to pass that test so badly, like I was listening to every little fly, nothing, you know, everything that I could hear, and I failed miserably that test, and so I basically had like 100% loss.

All I could hear was a jet engine, and that was it.

And on top of that, I got tinnitus.

So that was the noise that I was hearing all the time.

And so my brain had to adjust to that, to the fact that it was not hearing anything and was hearing noise now all the time.

And so at the beginning, it was, it was, it was hard, it was scary, it was, you know, I I was I was crying many days and I couldn't sleep.

And and then when I heard that some people, you know, commit suicide because of the tinnitus, because it's unbearable, then I really make a commitment, okay, I need to control this, I need to, I need to figure out how to live with this, you know, how to, of course, how to heal it, you know.

And so I went and of course they gave me this medication that I had a huge reaction.

And I tried all these Chinese acupuncture, like everything that I could get a hold of.

But also I I had to keep living, I had to keep teaching, and I had to keep working.

So I had to figure out how to be in meetings, how to, you know, how to cross the street, how to all do all these things.

And and I think fortunately I had where I was working as an engineer, I remember there was this office uh space where there was a lot of offices, so they had to go up and down six elevators.

So I remember standing in front of the elevators and closing my eyes because when one elevator came, it would make a sound like a bing, you know.

So I will try to guess where was that coming from so that I could train myself and I will also practice.

I was I I will just make in my mind that if my left ear were kept hearing noises, it will come back.

And so I trained myself to do that and and to be able to function.

And it took me a while to function in a way because then you also discover that your brain is making up many sentences.

So I had these.

If I talk too much, let me know.

Because sometimes I start telling stories.

SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.

No, I'm I'm I'm fascinated with this entire story.

No, keep going.

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: So one time with my boyfriend, we were going with some friends and we were taking a boat, uh, a ferry from uh I don't remember which town, uh, to Martha's Vinger down in Massachusetts.

And I remember him clearly saying to me, Take these tickets, these are the like the going tickets, and I will keep the return tickets.

So you will give the tickets and you know, he didn't say with these words, it was much shorter.

But basically he said, You got the you know, the going tickets and I got the return tickets.

So when we went into the ferry, I just gave the tickets.

And so on the way back, he asked me, So do you have return tickets?

I'm like, no, you have them.

And he's like, No, no, I give them to you.

And so we got into this discussion where I was telling him, No, no, no, no, you said, you know, that you had the return tickets.

And he's like, no, no, no.

And so we start almost like fighting.

And he's like, if you don't hear something, tell me, you know, just tell me, and I will repeat it.

And I got so confused because I was 100% sure I have heard what I have heard, and so then I start thinking, now I understand all people, you know, when they say, I heard this, and you're like, no, grandpa, that was not what I said, you know.

And I'm like, now I know how they feel.

And my brain is making up everything.

When you don't hear something, you know, your brain kind of fills in the blanks.

And if it is your language, you know, it's it's much easier.

If it's a different language, your brain, because it doesn't know the language, it cannot fill in the blanks, so you don't understand.

But when it is your language, the brain literally is filling in the blanks.

But when you don't hear, it kind of makes up the whole sentence.

Oh, that's what I found out.

So then I was like, okay, so how am I going to function?

Because I cannot ask everybody to repeat everything back to me, you know, like pilots do.

They get a command and they repeat back.

I'm like, I cannot be a pilot all the time, it will drive everybody crazy, you know.

So then I thought, okay, I'm gonna make this decision today, that day, which is for the very crucial things, I am going to repeat it back.

For everything else, I'm sorry.

I know I'm gonna sound stupid, and I know sometimes when I'm I'm not like when somebody asks me a question and I didn't hear it right, and I answer something else, I can see it in their face.

Like, oh, that was not the answer they expected.

But that's it.

And if I sound stupid, if I sound like I make no sense, well, that's okay, because that was not life and death, you know.

So I assume a certain amount of stupidity because I don't hear everything, and that's okay.

And also when I am in a in a meeting or in a table with someone on my left side, I tell them.

I tell them, like, if you talk to me and I don't pay attention to you, I'm not ignoring you.

I just cannot hear.

So please just tap on my shoulder.

So I try to make the environment be good to me, you know, instead of assuming that people are gonna know.

Or and I don't usually say I'm deaf because I don't need that.

I don't, I don't take that as part of my identity.

It's just something that, you know, my ear is trying to heal and it still hasn't healed.

And I I've learned to live with it so that it's not dangerous to me.

So when I cross the street, I don't care about the direction, I have to look both sides, you know, that type of thing.

So, so I'm careful, you know, when I drive, I'm careful when I walk, because I know I won't hear a bicycle coming, for example.

So it's just trying to make common sense of.

the things so that I can function 100% normal, whatever that is.

Anyway.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Yeah, no.

And and and that's that's such like this crazy story of in the first place of just like how it happens.

Because I think I think all of us we we want to know like why and how.

SPEAKER_01: And I know I know why.

SPEAKER_00: You know why?

SPEAKER_01: I know.

Yeah because that day I didn't listen to me.

That's that's why it happened literally if people believe that emotions are so strong.

That day I went to my boss to tell him that I wanted to quit to start to just do dancing.

But he's such an amazing person.

I love this guy.

And I really enjoy working with them.

He convinced me to stay because I was really resigning that day.

And I went back home with my job still under me.

So I had not listened to me.

And so I think it was just the result of not listening to myself.

SPEAKER_00: Wow that's pretty powerful.

Yeah that's pretty powerful.

But I think though when I when I listened to to your story though and I can't help but think how amazing you you rather quickly adapted to this new new world that you were thrown into as far as even even the thing like with when you talked about the elevators and and really just understanding and totally like grasping where you were at what's going on and how can I overcome this yeah yeah because I I wanted to function.

SPEAKER_01: I wanted to you know for the second where I thought of my world without hearing anything it was scary.

So I thought I have to make the best use of the one that I have and actually the funny thing is I can hear according to the test about 120 on my right ear.

So that's how much I I sharpened that ear to hear better.

So it was such a desire to not let that stop me that I think that that just drives me in and I think that's probably influenced a lot by my mother because she has that mentality you know there's a problem okay what's the solution was what can we do about this I had a handicapped sister who was born with spina bifida at a time where people didn't really know what that was and and at a time where child children like that were told from day one they're gonna die.

So I think my mother had to figure out ways to solve that and and I think that got instilled into us you know okay there's a problem let's figure out a solution and it's not immediate like it's not you know okay so I lost my hearing boom let's let's move on no you you know I had the days of crying of getting desperate at 2 a.m not being able to sleep and having all this noise in my head and I know when I'm tired because the noise gets louder because my brain doesn't know how to cope

with it.

So you know there is a process you know there is not a switch where you go from I got it it's a process you know but as long as you move forward and you you feel like you're moving forward that you're trying to find a solution and if you cannot do it on your own to try to find help you know I think that that's because other people have probably gone through this or other people have solutions or at least ideas on where to go I think that's important because otherwise you can sink in a

really big hole and then it's harder to get out of there.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely 100% and do you do you feel as though like as time went by that the loss of of the hearing in your one ear almost gave you a greater appreciation for the hearing that you do have and like and even just all of your senses to to realize that all of a sudden just one day it could be gone.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: Like did that has that been something for you?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah I think it didn't start with my hearing I think my family has gone through a few things so I think I learned that you know younger but then as you go through more things your hindsight window and the realization that okay let's let's let's move on it gets shorter and shorter.

So I had to experience like the death of my sister when I was 13 that took me a long time to you know to get out of the victimhood but you know once you start going through a few of these things then I think your let's put it not recovery time but reaction time is quicker.

And not that I desire this for anybody you know I hope we can all learn without going through bad things you know but I think the experience of one person can help others and I think we have so much to be grateful for just the senses you know you know better than anybody that you know just the senses is such a big thing to be grateful for.

So I am very grateful for what I have.

SPEAKER_00: Oh absolutely absolutely and and and I'm sitting here and and it's so hard you know when when I listen to your story and and you talk about the hearing loss is I can't help but but sit there and think how so many people they they can't comprehend what it's like to be blind like me to to not be able to see anything and you know and it's something that you know like it's it's hard for me to even describe to people and and and you know a lot of people well do you see black do you see you know this that and and one day though rather recent

I heard somebody talking and who also is blind and they they said that they finally decided when somebody asks like what do they see they say nothing and I thought to myself that is for myself that is exactly it it's I see nothing now whatever nothing may look like you know your your your mind figures that out but so so what I mean what what my point was is that it's for myself because I have no sight and all of my my world is reliant upon my hearing it's very difficult for me to even

think about you know what you have gone through it is to think of you know everything out of my left ear you know is nothing.

You know it it's I don't know it just it kind of goes back to kind of you know what what I was saying is I feel as though you do you gain this greater appreciation for for the things that we do have.

And you know and and you become so you just cherish those and and you know I feel like it it does it kind of gives you this I don't know almost like greater appreciation for for life in general yeah you know yeah yeah yeah now so I'm curious how has the loss of hearing affected dance and teaching dance has that has that made a big impact?

SPEAKER_01: No actually I can say no because I didn't it didn't affect my balance and music is loud enough usually that I can hear it well.

So it has not affected we've had a few like experiences for example well I can say that at the beginning my students some of them got really pissed because they will call me and I will not pay attention to them.

So by the time they got my attention like they will tap me on the shoulder they will be pissed so I will turn around and I will hear Christina you know and I'm like okay that's probably the fifth time they've been calling me so I will get pissed off people at me in the classes you know and you know and then I'm like oh they are not listening to me but I didn't want to tell every time you know when I started a course hey people listen to me I cannot hear you da da da no you know

because I wanted to develop my you know my sensitivity of hearing and and catching when someone is talking to me.

So that would not happen if I told everybody.

So I never told anyone unless it was necessary.

So if I walk with someone on the street I try to have them on my right side.

So of course I will switch you know to the other side and and and you know it will be we can a funny thing because they will switch back and I'm like okay stay on this side because I'm deaf on my you know so then I will tell them so I only tell them in certain circumstances.

So in the dance classes I will get some people a little bit pissed once in a while and but you know that was fine because we were also two instructors.

So if if someone you know and my partner was always telling me when people say goodbye because sometimes I will not hear them.

So it's like hey they're saying goodbye to you.

Hey goodbye you know I'm like and and that happened all the time.

So when I'm with someone you know that knows that they will tell me hey they're speaking to you.

So I would probably for some people uh I'm probably very I won't say cold but you know sometimes maybe I'm I'm very arrogant or something for not answering back but that's okay because that's just that's just their thoughts you know that's not who I am so if if people know they they will understand.

And then sometimes I get students like hey I've been calling you for a while are you deaf and then I tell them you know yes and they're like oh oh I'm sorry I'm sorry you know like and I have a laugh you know because yeah I got you I got you yes of course of course and then one time we were performing and there is one move so most of the dips and things that we do it's all improvise.

We can do most of them improvise.

There is a few that we need to know we're gonna do them and one of them you know my my partner and husband he swings me around his hand and then drops me almost like he was gonna drop me on the floor by my head then he lets me go for a second.

So I need to hold myself and then he switched to the foot and then he kind of is it looks like he's kicking me up.

It looks like I'm falling on his foot and then he kicks me up but I need to know the second part is coming because we sometimes we only do the first one and for the first one I don't need to know he can do it and and it's fine because I you know once he gets into it I react and and he is the one bringing me up.

But on the second one I need to know because if I don't hold myself I fall on the floor and the first time we did that of course he whispered in my left ear the move was coming and we were both not used to this thing of my left ear not functioning.

So I didn't hear it.

So I let myself go and bah you know I was gonna fall on the floor so he twisted himself to try to stop me from falling so he twisted his ankle I kicked my head you know so we're like okay we gotta figure out another way to do this.

So then we changed the the protocol and the protocol is he will tell me and if I did not tell him back I got it you know he will not do it.

So we had to kind of change our pilot protocol because that that didn't work.

SPEAKER_00: So so we had to adjust you know and a few things like that but you know once we adjust it then then it worked out so that is so awesome oh my goodness that is just hysterical I think that's what's so awesome is is when you can come to a point you know because because when when anything happens a a loss of any kind you know and especially you know talking about like you know what we are today of of your hearing or my eyesight and stuff, you know, for a long time it's this devastating thing.

But when you can come to a point though when when in certain situations you're able to just laugh at the situation it's so good and such relief, you know and and to find to just you know to find humor.

I I know for myself humor um you know it it makes a lot of things easier.

So I'm curious so what is life like for you today?

Because I know I know that you you you you have your coaching business I know you have a podcast.

So are you still teaching dancing today also?

SPEAKER_01: Yes yes well yeah with the pandemic not really too much but in uh in other times yes and uh we still teach not as much because we are giving more time to the coaching business and and you know and also we do speaking and the thing that with this hearing thing to put it in perspective like I was worried and kind of scared to teach workshops that was not just dancing because in dancing I move and I have to give a few instructions but you don't talk as much but when you teach about

other things where you have to talk and you have to listen back I was worried about not hearing someone so it was kind of funny because in one workshop that we did that lasted for a week when I had to teach the first time I told the the students the the participants you know I don't hear well so if you want to make a question you raise your hand you don't talk you raise your hand yes and I said that before talking you raise your hand because if you start talking I will probably ignore you yes and

then the funny thing is everybody thought I was saying that for fun you know that I wasn't really deaf that it was a joke yeah but it was it was hilarious because I thought okay that sounds great because it means that even saying it that way people people will not treat me like I'm you know that I don't hear you know so it was funny because and I really meant it like I would ignore you because I know I will ignore you and I won't do it on purpose.

But so I you know I thought okay so I found a way to make it funny you know and to make it work for me because I I know that I didn't want to miss any questions or any comments that people will say.

And sometimes people will say funny sentences and I will not get them you know I will not be able to like answer back or participate.

And I have to accept that that's okay.

You know it's okay not to be able to answer the right thing all the time.

It's okay.

And I think we can extrapolate that even if you don't have hearing loss or any loss of any member or anything, you know, because people with all members with everything functioning well have the same fear.

So you know I think we just have to get more compassion to ourselves whatever the situation we're in and just find ways to make it work for us so we we can go forward and give the best of us to the world you know and for me what you're doing is truly amazing.

You know I'm I'm really amazed but your you know your liveliness and your humor and your agoiness and you know it's it's really an honor to be here in your podcast.

SPEAKER_00: Aw well Christina thank you so much and I'll be honest just you know talking with you today and and and the more that our conversation has gone on and stuff and I and I sat there and I was just sitting here thinking as you were talking I thought I could talk with Christina all day because I just love the wisdom.

I keep using the word wisdom because I literally sit there and think I'm like the wisdom that you speak is so true.

It is so it's so relatable to to myself and to I feel like probably anybody listening today.

And I love it.

I absolutely love it.

I I love your like you said your entire outlook on life and how you handle yourself is is very admirable.

SPEAKER_01: Thank you.

Thank you so much likewise yeah yeah well awesome we will just say Christina me and you we're just awesome together how about that is that what yeah yes well awesome well Christina for anybody who who is interested are you on social media or anything like that if they want to follow you or anything like that yeah I you know I'm not a super you know influencer or anything like that um but I am I have my website uh it's in Spanish uh stuy tu mente.com but I am in social media if you look

for C Puyol Yenseng so that's C P U J O L J E N S E N.

Most in most Facebook Instagram things you can find me and um and I have a podcast where you I hope are gonna be my guest actually we're gonna record this week so I'm really excited too yes so yeah so I'm I'm in in the podcast world also.

Yeah well I'm super excited and I just thought when you you talked about your website being in Spanish the podcast isn't in Spanish is it because no it's bilingual I had a huge debate about this so because people tell you no focus and find your niche and all these things and but I grew up in a household where we spoke several languages and I couldn't decide okay do I do everything in Spanish do I do everything in English and then I'm like well I didn't grow up like this and the world isn't

going into one language direction so I'm gonna make it bilingual and so bi bilingual what I did and decided to do is I have one week an episode in Spanish and then the next week is an episode in English and they have nothing to do with each other.

Like the episodes is not a translation or anything like that.

And I'm not translating anything.

So the only you know the people that speak only Spanish they get an episode every 15 days and the people that speak only English they get an episode every 15 days and those who are bilingual they get an episode every week and that's how I decided to do it.

So so I do the episodes full in English and then the other week full in Spanish and that's how I'm I'm doing it for now we'll see where that is I I absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_00: I think it's super cool and I will say that I hope I am coming in on one of the weeks where it's all English because I think my two years of uh Spanish in high school are a little bit rusty at this point.

And so so besides for for telling you like Uno dos trace I I don't know that we'd I'd do very well so we can do English don't worry okay sounds good sounds good well perfect well well listen Christina thank you again so much for for coming on the podcast for getting to to share a little little piece of your your story with my audience and I can say with with absolute certainty that I'm sure anybody listening today will be able to take something away from from what you have said what you have

shared that can relate back to their life.

So thank you Christina and for you who is listening today I truly hope that you did indeed take something away from my conversation with Christina today that can positively impact your life and it just maybe make tomorrow a little bit better than today.

And that's the low down with Kevin Lowe I hope today's episode inspired you motivated you and excited you to get out and enjoy life no matter what obstacles may be standing in the way