Start Rising Podcast

Episode 46: Rising Above Our Limitations with Bonnie Sharf Provost

• Caiti Courtier • Season 2 • Episode 46

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What if you could overcome life's harshest trials and come out the other side stronger, shining brighter than ever before? Step into the world of Bonnie Sharf Provost, a transformational healing coach, author, and courageous warrior who conquered a rare autoimmune disease, and learned to harness the power of mindset and personal growth along the way. With guidance from luminaries like Tony Robbins and Dr. Joe Dispenza, Bonnie transformed her pain into a life-altering journey of reinvention, discovery, and healing. This episode is a testament to her incredible resilience and will to keep thriving, offering profound insights for anyone seeking to overcome their own life challenges.

But Bonnie's journey didn't stop at overcoming her personal trials; she went on to empower others to awaken to their true selves and overcome their limiting beliefs. She's crafted an immersive transformational program that equips you with the tools to make drastic changes in your health, finances, and relationships. In fact, Bonnie generously offers a free tool, the Faith Over Fear meditation, as a way to maintain a higher vibration and conquer fear. This episode reveals the science-backed knowledge behind Bonnie's program, reinforcing the potential for change when you tap into your energy and break free from your limitations.

Perhaps you've been dreaming of penning your own story, letting it touch and inspire thousands of lives. Bonnie's unique story of manifestation and her five-week program for aspiring authors might just be the catalyst you need. Imagine sharing your story with an audience of 1150 people, just like Bonnie did with Dr. Joe Dispenza. Bonnie's experience underscores the importance of having a mentor to guide you towards your goals faster and with more success. Her story will inspire you to take the first steps on your journey of transformation, personal growth, and healing. Tune in and let Bonnie's resilience and courage inspire you to start rising.

Contact Bonnie - reinventyourselfwithbonnie@gmail.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/bbcoachbonnie613/
Free mediation faith over fear - link
Wake up to your higher self planner on Amazon
 
She offers 12 week coaching program that is an immersion into this work and is totally transformational. People emerge from this program as a new person than the one that started. It's designed to raise the consciousness/mindset of the Overcomers who join so that they can change who they are being in their life. 

Connect on Instagram @CaitiCourtier

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back to the Start Rising podcast. You are here with Katie Cordier and I have a very special guest here with me today. My guest today is someone who I've had the pleasure of meeting during a program we both talk called Made to Do this. She's a reinvention coach who helps women do just that to reinvent themselves. She walks the walk to prove that, even if labels are given to you, you don't have to accept them as truth. She's a fellow Tony Robbins listener, and connection she made at an event led her to discovering the work and research that ultimately empowered her to defy the medical odds. She's a warrior, the author to the wake up to your higher self daily planner, and if we even take away one ounce of her resilience and strength, then we are better people because we have had the chance to hear her story. Welcome to the podcast, bonnie Schaaf-Provest.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you so much for that beautiful introduction. You brought tears to my eyes.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I'm glad it was accurately represented you and thank you so much for being here. It's so great to connect.

Speaker 2:

What.

Speaker 1:

I want to start with is you've had this incredible journey and I think our listeners to get the best feel for the work you do today. Could you share about what led you to becoming a transformational healing coach and where you are today? I kind of alluded to it, but I wanted to give you the chance to share your story.

Speaker 2:

Sure, well, I was already a health and wellness coach. It was four and a half years ago and this happened. Actually, it was July of 19th, so it was exactly four years ago today that I all of a sudden you know I was already a health coach, so I was the one out there you know promoting fitness and eating well and you know watching your mindset and all of that. And so not in a million years would I have expected this to happen to me. But four years ago I started noticing that my legs were feeling stiff and it was hard to lift them to walk, and I was feeling some other symptoms as well, a little off balance, and I felt like there was definitely something wrong and I went to the doctor and he sent me immediately to the hospital. He said that he believes I had Guillain-Barre syndrome and that it's it could get a lot worse, and so I immediately my husband took me to the hospital and it wound up where I was diagnosed with that and I was hospitalized.

Speaker 2:

Very soon after that, in fact, later that evening, I started losing the ability to stand up by myself. I fell when I was just getting up from going to the bathroom, when I was in the hospital the first day I was admitted and things started progressing very rapidly and it really was like a nightmare because I had no idea what was going on, how this could happen to me. You know, I took such good care of my body and was so mindful about staying fit and all of that, and yet this was happening to me and it was so surreal. So the doctors wound up telling me that after eight first I'm going to like skip ahead after eight weeks of relapsing, because I had had to go through a treatment called Plasma Phoresis, where they took all the blood out of my body and removed the plasma that's where the antibodies were stored that were attacking the nerves in my body and then they replaced it with synthetic plasma and that's a procedure that is over a 14-day period.

Speaker 2:

So I was in the hospital for that long and when I would go home very shortly after that, I would relapse and I would get even worse than I was initially and it was extremely scary.

Speaker 2:

And each time I relapsed I got less and less ability and feeling. My legs wound up becoming paralyzed, and my feet wound up becoming paralyzed. I couldn't move my toes, I couldn't step up on my tippy toes. You know things that we take for granted. I wasn't able to do when I stopped being able to feel my legs and my feet and they wound up changing the diagnosis after eight weeks and they said that it was CIDP, which is chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, and it's a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the nerves in the body, and they told me there was no cure and I was basically going to have to live the rest of my life either using a walker or a wheelchair and being reliant on drugs like steroids, which have really bad side effects, or these treatments that I had been going and getting, and I wound up relapsing six times. I was back and forth in the hospital six times, so that's what I went through.

Speaker 1:

That. Thank you so much for sharing that. I know that, going through that experience, I can only imagine the shock, the whirlwind and just feeling like you're out of body experience to be going through this. So share a little bit about where you're at at the moment, because I know it's feels a little bit like a hero's journey. Like you, she's went through the mud and she's come out to the other side. How did you go about getting through that? Having a diagnosis that seems incurable or only ever manageable?

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, I, as you had mentioned, I was a Tony Robbins advocate. I used to be a crew member of his and I had the training and I knew within myself that everything that happens to us in life is really happening for us. So I knew it was happening for my greater good and, even though it was frightening, I kept telling myself that there's a lesson in this that I'm supposed to learn and that when I learn it, it's going to wind up being my greatest gift and I'm open to receiving that lesson and that's. I'm starting to get emotional because it was a frightening experience and I just kept reminding myself that I knew it was happening for my greater good. And I did wind up.

Speaker 2:

You know, I was open for my lesson that I'm supposed to learn, and as soon as someone from my Tony Robbins community reached out to me and asked me if I ever heard of Dr Joe DispenzaI said no, I never heard of him, and he immediately sent me one or two of his YouTube interviews and as soon as I saw him speak, I knew that that was the reason that this was happening, that I was meant to learn this work. I was meant to take my power back. I was meant to change my state of being, of who I was being throughout my whole life, and that when I did that, I would heal myself, and I proceeded to immerse myself into the work. Nothing else mattered. I spent all of my time doing this work when I didn't have medical professionals in my room or visitors in my hospital room. That's what I was doing and I I taught myself how to change, and I wound up healing myself.

Speaker 1:

That's just so incredible and just you are the definition of such a warrior like to have went through this and to come out on the other side and to, I think, most people. When something is given to us, especially like that white coat syndrome is when someone who's in a white coat gives you a diagnosis and says, hey, this is, this is now only ever manageable. It's, it's very flattening and then to have been able to have that connection, to then make another connection that then ultimately allowed you to work from the inside out, and that mindset piece like I can only imagine what you went through and I just think the example like that you provide to everyone around you is incredible, because it's it's just I don't know how many people would have really done that to be able to overcome those aspects. So that's just so incredible and that overcoming pieces so driven by what this podcast platform is about is knowing that we all have our struggles and some of them are so much more than others and to be able to overcome it, to be able to go you know what this? I'm sure after that experience any kind of fear of, I don't know, going live on Facebook or Instagram or like putting out an offer to the greater world like this audience is mostly entrepreneurs to have that the fear is like tiny little spec. After what you went through Now did you? Did you experience any fears when you got to that point where you reached the level where you were like this I'm taking back this story, I'm taking back my power and I'm going to make this my example for other people and taking that reasoning back yourself.

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, as I had mentioned even before my health challenge, my passion was helping women specifically, but really helping people to overcome their limiting beliefs and become their greatest version of themselves. That's why I already had the reinvent yourself with Bonnie was my business name even before my health challenge, so it's just so in alignment with who I already was that now I know that it happened in order to put me on this even deeper path of helping people to totally transform from the inside out, transforming who they're being, and so I'm sorry. Your question was can you repeat that?

Speaker 1:

Oh, was there any other hurdle that you faced, like little mindset block, in becoming out there?

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you for asking. That really is a beautiful question, because I am glad to have the opportunity to share with you all that just because I overcame my health challenge doesn't mean I still didn't have other hurdles to overcome. I absolutely did and I still do. It's a never ending journey. It really is. It's not like I got to this place and now I'm done. You know, this is I've made it my mission. Now, every day, this is who I am. I am someone who is focusing on becoming, continuing to become my highest version of myself, and now that I have this experience and this knowledge, I am so even more passionate about helping others to experience it for themselves as well, because I know how to lead them down that path.

Speaker 1:

Oh, absolutely, and even the language that you're using I want to really draw attention to that that she is embodying this and she is using that I am language, that she is becoming the best version of her higher self every day, and I think that's something that's allowed her to continue progressing, and I think some of us have get stuck in the weeds with those aspects. But this is a perfect example of what to do basically to be able to have that momentum forward to getting better and better every day. And I want to lead now into kind of taking that into what she, what she will offer is we actually had a deeper. We connected at the mate to do this program and then we had a chance to work more one on one when she was actually a student of my journal creation workshop. So we were able to work together and craft something that added to her business and ultimately became a additional piece that she can offer the people that take her program and choose to work with her. Would you tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 2:

Sure? Well, first I have to say that I absolutely loved your course. I had been dreaming for so long on creating a journal myself, a journal slash planner because I'm a journaler and a planner and I've been looking for the perfect planner for so many years that really suited me and had everything I wanted, and I just never found it, and so I've always toyed with the idea that I should just create one myself. And then, when I saw your offer, I was like, oh yes, I have to do this, and you were so beautiful in the way that you taught me how to do it. And so, now that I've done it, I'm so excited that I can create a beautiful accompaniment that goes with my coaching program, and not only for people who are in my program, but for anybody who is committed to becoming their higher self and using every day in order to do this work and teach themselves who they're being, who they want to be, and create a new future for themselves.

Speaker 1:

That's incredible and the beauty of the planner that you've made. You've got one of two options You've got do with me, do work alongside within your program and you've also got four people who want to do things solo. You've got that option as well, so she's covering all styles of learners and things like that. So you want to tell us a little bit more about your program that you mentioned?

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely. This is my baby I've created. It's the third version of it and it's just phenomenal. I just launched it in April and I currently only have two spots available, but anybody is always welcome to learn more about it and if there's not a spot available, you can always be on the waitlist. But it's basically a 12 week program.

Speaker 2:

That is an immersion program, and it provides you with all that you need in order to fully awaken to who you're being in your life, to uncover the limiting beliefs that we all have, the conditioning that our subconscious has believed to be true about ourselves and about the world, and discover what those beliefs are, so that we can then change them. And change who we're being and become the greater version of ourselves. That has a different energetic vibration, and when we change the energy of who we are being, which is our state of being, then we can change our entire life. We can change our health, we can change our finances, we can change our relationships, we can up level it all when we change our energy that we are exuding to the universe.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic, and the beauty of this type of work is you can only go so far without a mentor, and this is the best, especially with those limiting beliefs. They're those things that you see every day and you just you don't even classify them as limiting beliefs. So having someone like Bonnie on your team essentially gives. She has that perspective and she can talk the talk and walk the walk with it all. So I highly encourage anyone who would like to join that program. I think the results would be amazing, and even if she's just taken herself as the first guinea pig to take her through that and she's had the chance to develop and refine and just continue to get more and more jam packed information in there for you.

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, I actually had mentioned I had two versions of the program previously and they were really successful to the point where I said you know what I need to incorporate everything that I know, everything that is going to help this person who joins my program to leave this program a new person, totally transformed and having the ability to now be the creator of her life, instead of letting our conditioned beliefs dictate our circumstances of our life.

Speaker 2:

I'll just add one more thing Go ahead, because this, this is the knowing that we know now, because many people don't know this.

Speaker 2:

This is new age knowledge that has been evident, scientifically proven with evidence, that our reality, which is our health, our relationships, our finances, everything about our current life experiences, is all a direct result of our mind, of the thoughts that we're thinking and what we're focusing on in our day and the emotions that it brings up in our body.

Speaker 2:

So, when we're living in a state or fight or flight which many of us are, most of us are, and we don't we think it's normal, we think that's just the way that it's supposed to be, but it really isn't. And when we're living in a state of feeling like a victim, or feeling unworthy, or comparing ourselves to others or having anxiety or depression and all of these low vibration emotions which most of us are living the majority of our day in because we're reacting to the world around us and our own thoughts, then when we're living in that kind of vibration, that low vibration energy, we're creating those kinds of low vibration circumstances in our life, including in our body. So when we teach ourselves to change who we're being and we raise our vibration, then naturally our circumstances in our life change as well. So I just needed to add that explanation.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and this is the such. That's so great about this mindset work is it's continually evolving, learning more, and now that science is actually catching up with all of this stuff, it just goes to show that there's been truth in it the entire time. And I suppose also being able to see by bird's eye view, from that coaching perspective for your participants, that you're seeing where they started to where they finish. I think that being able to see that I don't know that that's the part of me that loves being a teacher is to be able to see those, like little light bulbs, come on over the top of their heads when they get it.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness, that's the best feeling in the world for me. That's what lights me up. I love seeing my overcomers just transform before my eyes. It's just magical.

Speaker 1:

So you so the participants. You call them overcomers.

Speaker 2:

Yes, they're my overcomers, that's awesome my overcomers are in my heart. I mean, they are my babies. I love my overcomers dearly. I am so invested in their transformation and their healing and overcoming and creating their best life ever.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's so awesome. Now, while I put those information in the show notes, where can people find more about this?

Speaker 2:

Well, first of all, I'd like to share that I just created a freebie.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yes, go ahead.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to share a new meditation that's called Faith Over Fear, and it's for people who are going through a challenge and they are wanting to take back their power and raise their vibration so that their fear about their situation or about their future doesn't keep them in that low vibration place. So it's a tool to help you to choose to be in the state of faith instead of fear. This is one of the biggest attributes to my healing is that's what I did is that every time I started to feel the fear, I did something like listen to a meditation or watch some video that inspired me into the state of faith instead, and so that's why I created this meditation for those to use as a tool to help you to stay in that higher vibration and not let fear run the show, and so you can get this for free. I have a link that I'll share with you that will allow people to just click on the link and get access to that meditation.

Speaker 1:

Yes, please, and those will be in the show notes, so it's easier Click away.

Speaker 2:

Beautiful. And then I also have the Overcome to Become program. That's my baby and I'll be happy to share a link with you where people can find out more information about that as well.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And for people who want to potentially start working with you by doing a planner, where would they find that?

Speaker 2:

Oh, the planner? Yes, that's on Amazon Now. It is a quarterly planner, so it's every three months, which this one that's active now is from July through September. So if you would like and you want to find out more information about how to find then how to attain the next one starting in October, you can reach out. I'll also give you my email address and how to await a contact me and I'll be happy to provide you with that information. If you still would like the one that's for this quarter, then of course, that's available now on Amazon and I'll provide you with that link as well.

Speaker 1:

Excellent. It almost could be like on a VIP list for when the next quarter is getting ready to drop. Yes, and I just want to plug Bonnie as well for her level of determination in making these planners and the level of effort that she put into these, and it's something that most people don't see. When they see a final product, they just see okay, this is the final product. But she's poured so much of her heart, love, care into these planners and has meticulously designed them to be able to meet the needs of the students and to be able to get that transformation, whether you're working directly alongside her or if you're picking the journal up along by itself. So she's put a lot of her heart into these things. So very much a heart centered entrepreneur. So thank you for putting your time into that.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, and I just want to also make mention that not all of my overcomers are going through health challenges. There are many that also want to create abundance in their lives but know that there's something holding them back, that they have these blocks that they're not aware of, that they really want a need to uncover in order to get unstuck and move forward in the life that they want. So it has to do with really any limiting beliefs, any area of your life that you're feeling stuck or unhappy in relationship issues. It's not only health issues.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I suppose anyone who is in a position where they are where they currently are, but they know there's something better for them, that there's another level that they want to reach in their life, but they've just been kind of spinning their wheels in order to get to be like, all right, well, I've tried this, I've tried that, and maybe this is the next piece of the puzzle that you need to take yourself outside of your comfort zone to go ahead and get to that point that you want to. So that's that's wonderful.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you. You verbalize that beautifully, exactly the way it is, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And what I want to kind of do is also kind of take it in a different direction, where I feel like we as entrepreneurs, as women, we tend to downplay our accomplishments and what we've achieved and what we've done. So in every episode that I have a guest, I want to encourage the guests to offer up a humble brag about themselves, because we usually we don't usually brag about ourselves. So I want to open the platform to be able to encourage that humble brag. So what would you love to brag about yourself for?

Speaker 2:

Well, I happen to be an amazing manifester and I love helping other people to manifest their dreams. One example of my one of my greatest manifestations is the fact that I manifested the opportunity to go to a Dr Joe to spend a live event and while I was there, I was invited to get to meet Dr Joe backstage and to get on stage with him and share my story with 1150 people that were at the event, and I was blown away. I never would have imagined that that could have happened, and yet it did, and it was just a dream come true. I got to thank the man who I attributed being my light when I was in that tunnel of fear. You know his work was really what helped me come out of that tunnel and what I was committed to.

Speaker 2:

Now I just need to say that, although I was able to do it on my own, most people really do need like you had mentioned, really do need a coach, especially one who has done this work and knows her way across that path of overcoming, and that's why I'm so excited about offering this to people, because I see there's so many people trying to do the work on their own for many years and struggling and not making progress, and I see the amazing transformations that happen within my program and I know that this is everything that people need in order to really make that change and cross that river, so I just wanted to share that with you. But, yeah, that was my, my biggest brag that I'm so grateful for.

Speaker 1:

That amazing. I can only imagine the feeling that was like rushing through your body as you stood next to Dr Joe to spend the life. That's wow. That's a great brag, a master manifestor for sure. That's amazing. And, like Bonnie said, you can. Either you have one of two options, essentially, if you're not where you want to be, you can choose to dedicate time and effort to working solo, but that also takes a longer period of time, or you can basically fast forward your learning by learning from someone who's already put in those yards, to be able to learn directly from them and get the like almost a Cliff Notes version but I know there's a better way to say that but, like you're getting their speed of expertise, you're getting the chance to work with them, and that makes all the difference in order to get where you want to get.

Speaker 2:

So it's something that I highly recommend working with someone to be able to get where you want to go faster, because we've only the one thing that I just need to mention is that, in addition to being guided and supported and held accountable for your own work and doing this work because it's so easy to just fall off when you're doing it by yourself One of the biggest values that's absolutely priceless is the fact that, when you have these subconscious beliefs, that is the only way you're able to see your reality, and it's so important to know what your beliefs are in order to change them.

Speaker 2:

And when you're in it, sometimes it's really impossible for you to see it. You're not just, you're not able to access that. So that's really what I in addition to the support and the guidance and the accountability I provide you with showing you those subconscious, limiting beliefs that are driving your, your energy and driving the way that you're perceiving the world, so that you can then change them. But until you become aware of them and it's very difficult when you're doing it by yourself because you're in it until you become aware of them, you're basically going to continue to see the world the same way and remain, you know, just kind of spinning your wheels, and so that's why it's really, really important to become aware of those beliefs, and that's what I help people to do.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. It's like that adage of the fish in water that doesn't know. It's in water Like it's just that's the way it always is so. There's been no questions, so let's help.

Speaker 2:

Let's help with that metaphor, that's perfect.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Yes, I'm filled with metaphors, I think it's sort of a brain things all the time Wonderful as we go ahead and wrap up. Is there anything you want to leave our participants with as far as like a piece of advice you wish you'd known earlier, or something to that effect, to call it complete?

Speaker 2:

Hmm, there's so much. What I would like to leave them with is that each and every one of us has this ability. It's not just me, it's not just those that you see, it's not special, specific people. All of us have this ability and it's a matter of just opening up your mind to it and reaching out to get support and start doing the inner work in order to allow you to connect to that greater part of you and become the creator of your life.

Speaker 1:

That's some amazing wisdom there be the creator of your own life. That's wonderful.

Speaker 2:

And I have a free community on Facebook called Become the Creator that you're all welcome to join. I'll give you the link for that as well.

Speaker 1:

Yes, please, we're going to have some good links in the show notes, so make sure you check those out, because we've got such goodness that Bonnie's offered and can continue to offer you as well. So that's fantastic. And at the very end of the episode, just to mention that, I'm also after the success of participants who have come through and people like Bonnie, who have done things that they didn't think they could or wanted to do something for quite some time, I'm actually offering a publishing powerhouse program because I like alliteration. So it's a five-week program to help walk you through becoming a, basically taking the idea through to becoming a published author and having that concept come to life, and it's something that previously had offered shorter web like workshops, but there's just so much to jam pack in and I've learned so much. So if that's something that you want to be like Bonnie and create something that you bring to life and become that published author, you can most certainly check out that and I'll pop that in the link below as well.

Speaker 1:

And yeah, I think that wraps us up for this episode. Thank you, bonnie, so much for giving your time today and for making that connection, for offering our listeners all these awesome things that they can go and check out and can learn also to work more with you. So thank you so much for being so vulnerable and sharing such a hard time in your life that you've now flipped it into such a great opportunity, that you manifested the chance to meet with Dr Joe Dispenser, which, if you haven't noticed, I highly encourage, and so does Bonnie. Go listen to his work like we can't speak highly enough about this, this type of work and see for yourself how it can change your life. That's absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me. It has been such an honor and a pleasure and I just love you and all that you do. And thank you, katie, thank you, thank you so much.