What were the conditions that allowed you to develop your empathy?
We recently connected with Abby Pagud and have shared our conversation below.
Abby, so great to have you sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our readers and so let’s jump right into one of our favorite topics – empathy. We think a lack of empathy is at the heart of so many issues the world is struggling with and so our hope is to contribute to an environment that fosters the development of empathy. Along those lines, we’d love to hear your thoughts around where your empathy comes from?
I am a firm believer that every one of us is born with empathic abilities. Our upbringing is extremely influential in whether we allow ourselves the opportunity to utilize those intuitive abilities. For me, my intuition saved my life at a very young age. Allowing myself to rely on my “Spidey” sense is what helps steer my life into the wonderous journey that it has become in my career, as a wife, mother, caregiver, and all life experiences. As a child, I would follow the “Jimmin cricket” that guided me. After noticing that I had answers to things I couldn’t possibly know along with accuracy of numerous incidents, I learned to trust my natural instincts blindly without question. Honoring the “Jimmin cricket” from within paved the way to where I am today. With the massive support of my loving husband, I have been able to enhance and expand on my empathic abilities with unquestionable support. Many a times, he has learned to just go along with it and not question. He has whole heartedly put his trust and support into me and that has truly allowed me to evolve into the women I am today. That loving support has also led me to amazing friends that are open and aware of their abilities like mine, and I am still learning more about myself every day. It truly is an amazing journey when you can surrender and trust your intuition.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
In 2014, I started my company with the intent to provide my clients with In home fitness and nutrition services to accommodate their busy schedules and to prevent them from sacrificing from their daily lives. Self-care is such a necessity in our functionality! Time and time again, individuals sacrifice their self-care practices first when life gets busy leaving them struggling to catch up. This creates a pattern of falling into stress overload that is created from juggling life responsibilities. I wanted to eliminate the stress one puts on them self when trying to take care of their body, mind, and soul. And so Kapitol Health was born. What I didn’t realize about the company when I started it was how much animosity I had for the health industry. The health industry is designed for 25% of the population that is well regimented and fits with the constantly fluctuating health trends. But what about the other 75% that is desperate to seek change but gets met with diets that don’t work, workouts that break your body, or the gimmicks of products that results in unnecessary spending. People need a place to get the answers they need about their body without feeling like they are being sold! I believe that everyone should have the knowledge and understanding of what is going on with their bodies. Especially since we are all unique and not a single person is the same. How one individual reacts to exercise is different from the person next to them. The same goes for food and everything else we experience. We need to find what resonates with our clients and create a program that works for them.
With all this in mind, I have not only created services to target every need and every price point…but I started 2 podcasts to keep people well informed on all thing’s life. ‘The Kapitol Life’ focuses on health and wellness education, while ‘Embracing the wild’ is more geared towards harnessing our inner power to lead with higher self and not ego.
I’m excited to announce the development of the Kapitol Health app set to launch in the upcoming months. The Kapitol health app is like having a trainer/nutritionist/spiritual guide in your pocket. It is free for all to download, and everyone will be able to be assess themselves to get the answers to help them achieve YOUR ideal health. The app provides free nutrition and exercise tips, food tracking, functional movement assessment to identify a need for rehabilitative guidance along with sample workouts to guide you in the right direction to address any combination issues and work with the individual at their level. Users are able to receive unlimited customized workouts designed to their particular needs along with accountability for 19.99 a month. In addition to receiving customized nutrition and accountability for an additional 9.99. This app will provide people with the knowledge they need to not only follow good health practices, but also guide them with good self-care practices.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Ever since I was a young adult, many people have referred to me as being overly ambitious. Ambition can be a great quality; however, if you jump too far outside your reach it can be difficult to get anything off the ground. I’ve always considered myself as being determined to see great ideas come to fruition. Regardless of if it was my dream or someone else’s. Embracing the amazement of the dream and connecting others to the people or skills to make it happen. Sometimes creative inspiration is all that is needed to get people motivated to start their dream. Since I have had to overcome a lot of obstacles in my personal life, I have learned to harness my enate ability to persevere. That doesn’t mean that all great things require struggle, it just means that life is unexpected and throws a lot of unexpected turns. If we can take a minute to breathe, accept that everything happens for a reason, and know that there is a better way. We can make logical decisions going forward to reduce hiccups in the plan. You have everything you need in this life to be successful. Accepting your skills, knowledge, and inner power provides trust that great things can be accomplished when you put your mind to it. Looking back, I believe the biggest crushing moment of my journey was that it takes time for the dream to blossom. One must be patient and not get down on oneself, that it doesn’t just happen with the snap of your fingers. Enjoy the ups and downs of the journey and always reflect backward on how far you have come. There is nothing greater than an ego boost of looking of where you are in the present to where you were. It’s times of struggle, I like to think back to the person I was 5 years ago. My mindset, my knowledge, my understanding of life…. Then I think of where I am today, and I become so proud of the growth I have accomplished. But it doesn’t just stop there. I then envision the future version of myself 5 years from now and it motivates me to push through the struggle cause an even better version of myself is just around the corner accomplishing some cool things!
We need to harness our strengths and hand off our weakness to others and not get butt hurt about it. You are exactly how you need to be in this place and time, at this exact moment. Accept that and the world is your oyster.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
During most growth spurts, there comes some tension before expansion. Every business feels the pressure, the tedious planning, and the anxiousness of what is to come. With that comes stress and sometimes panic of uncertainty. If I am in the midst of trying to complete a task and it becomes almost entirely impossible to complete. I have learned not to waste time fighting the problem and you can’t throw in the towel. Sometimes it means that it’s the universes way to take a step back and get some space between you and the project. If it was supposed to be done at that exact time, there wouldn’t be a glitch. Same thing goes for creative inspiration or writer’s block. Take a step back, do something that brings you joy. Usually within a short time of resetting yourself, either you have come up with a better solution or the resistance has dissipated, and you can continue on your course.
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