It is time to get solar powered. We welcome you to the solar powered podcast. My name is Ryan Hall from loyal hearts coaching, loyal hearts coaching dot com, life and relationship coaching for kings. Now one of the one of my big goals in this program, in this podcast, is to feature stories of, from people from everyday life who have in who have overcome circumstances, who have overcome circumstances to live a bold, powerful, soul centered life.
And thanks to a previous guest on our program, the lovely doctor De'VIA Shepard, I was connected with this guest. Now I want you to imagine something. I want you to imagine something. Over the course of many, many years, you're slowly going blind. You, you know, you have good vision up until, you know, up until a certain age, but you're starting to go slow you're going slowly blind. And the condition that our guest has, only 200 worldwide have it.
And she's really turned it she's really taken her circumstances and turned it into a really powerful story. Her name is Amla Mehta. She's a she's an author. She's a motivational speaker, and she's got an energy that just really needs to be shared with this world. And it is my privilege to welcome, if I can just get her off mute. There we go. I'm LaMetta. Welcome to the solar powered podcast. Hello. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you.
No. My pleasure. My pleasure. You know, the first question that I always ask first time guest is who is Amla Mehta? Not so really. That's a very profound question. Where do I go with this? I know. Look. I start I start big. I start big. What can I say? So who am I, basically? So my name is Amla Mehta. I was born and raised in Connecticut. I am a motivational speaker, teacher, and author based, as Ryan said, I am slowly losing my vision.
And, I was diagnosed back in 1990, 30 years ago, when I was a teenager, and so I'm in my forties now. And, along the course of losing my vision, I found my gift. Basically, by losing sight, I gained tremendous insight. So there's my message and as far as helping people who are challenged, and we all are, whether it's a big mountain, small mountain, short, tall. It doesn't matter how big your mountain is to climb. It's each person's mountain as I like to call it.
And, so I'm there to help people and motivate them that they're not alone. I'm living proof of it because I walk by talk. So they're right. Beautiful. Beautiful. Very well said. I know it it it it it kinda throws some people off when I ask them that one, but you you handle that one beautifully. Now I know let's let's just kinda go back to the early days of Amwell. You know, how was your childhood?
You know, was it I know there's no such thing as a normal childhood, but, you know, how, you know, how were you as a little girl? Oh, that's Before the diagnosis? Sure. I actually talk about that in the the book that I wrote. I'll just touch base on the title. It's called Eye on Purpose, like the body part, e y e with a view. They're 12 stories, and it's the hybrid of a memoir slash self help book.
So getting back to your question, I do have one childhood story in there, and it's called coloring outside the lines. I won't go into it, but it's pretty self explanatory kind of sort of. But, yeah, I was always the odd little girl out. I was diagnosed, like I said, with this gyrate atrophy, which is the name of my eye condition, when I was 16. So even before that, I was always the weird one. I don't know people out there.
You know, it's in my book too as far as, like, I was, like, the Ali Sheedy of Breakfast Club. I was just the weird odd one, you know, the Sally, Jesse, Raphael glasses. The last kid picked in gym class. You know? So it it's interesting looking back, and I always kind of had a challenging childhood, teenage years, college years, so on. Yeah. But I embrace it now.
Sure. Sure. Sure. Now, because you were you know, I mean, we were speaking before the, before we rolled the, before we rolled the podcast here. Yeah. This is, you know, your your your condition called gyrate atrophy, and we'll certainly go into a little bit more detail about just exactly what it is, but it's a genetic condition. You were relatively late in getting diagnosed with something like this. Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's complicated because when I was diagnosed think about that.
Well, did I say how old I was? I don't think so, but I was 16. That's the driving age. You're all excited to get your license, and this thing, this big cloud, ominous cloud might I add, is over your head and it's hanging over you. Like, what is going on? And so, yeah, it's it's it's a true it it it's a tremendous shock, of course. And being a teenager on top of that, where's my life gonna go? Where you know? What am I gonna do without vision? Am I gonna go to college even? You know?
I I didn't even know, like, okay. Is this happening in my twenties? What's going on? Even though the doctor said the prognosis is for majority of my vision is between 4560 to lose it, I still was like even, you know, being 16, 20 was, like, far away, and I'm like, oh my god. Am I gonna be able to be admitted to college and go and have a normal college, experience and and go on to work and and, you know, with corporate America and so on and so forth.
So there are a bunch of questions talking about uncertainty, that I had at a very young age. So it it was a lot on my plate, but as I'm very spiritual. I wouldn't call myself religious. But one thing has always been with me even at the age of 16, God or whatever you wanna call it, spirit universe works with you and and really gives you things in your life for you to grow and for you to persevere and to be resilient with the with the things that you've got, not what's not. So Got it. Got it.
Yeah. No. That's a very beautiful that's a very beautiful way to state it because, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm kind of in that same boat when it comes to my own spiritual beliefs. Not really a not really a religious guy, but I definitely believe that there's something out there. Yes. And I really, you know, I, like, I truly believe that you're not gonna give, you know, you're not going to get a circumstance put in your life Yeah. If God doesn't think you can't handle it. Exactly. Exactly.
And yeah. And, obviously, he thought very highly of you to be a because this is a pretty, you know, a pretty significant circumstance. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and just in a nutshell, it's just that I really believe go like, I have to say that it's interesting. I really believe that all of us, 7,000,000,000 people, signed a contract with God. I'm gonna meet Ryan at at this time. I'm going to meet these people. My whole course of life is predestined. We're just living it out.
And I know I was meant to do this, and I was meant to do this to be boosting my vision to really see see inside out, and I do. I see souls. I don't see people, and it's it's and it's interesting because it's gradual. It's just like aging. It's in my that's what I one of my lines in my book too is that you don't all of a sudden become 85. You grow into it. Right? I didn't all of a sudden see through fog. I kinda grew into it. I started seeing through fog last year, like, 2019.
So who would have thought that, you know, losing my vision is scary. I would be lying to say, oh, yeah. I'm good. No. Not really. I don't know the day how it's going to be not being able to physically read. That day is going to be devastating. Going backwards a little bit, the day that I started seeing through fog, that was devastating. I had to mourn the death of my vision, and that's what I teach people. It's not about skipping over the fire, going around the fire, going under the fire.
You gotta be friends with that fear, and my fear is going blind. That I mean, I'm in the process of losing it and that you know, the biggest one so far was me seeing through fog and having to go through the motions of that. Not only that, but one of my lines is you gotta feel it, and then you heal it, and then you persevere, and and and there's that bouncing back and resilience that comes forth. Oh, totally. Totally.
Because when when you get I mean, when you get a a diagnosis like that in your life, it it really, I would say, uncovers who you really are. Like, you know, one of my one of my personal heroes I'm a huge music fan. And one of my personal heroes is Ray Charles. Oh. And one of just a a really beautiful quote that he that he that he said kind of in relation to his own vision loss was, I was born with music inside me.
Music was one of my parts, like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart, like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me like food or water. And do you I mean, did you find that you kinda went along in your own kind of in your own journey of kinda understanding what was going on with you, kind of, as you, you know, as you said, grieving grieving the loss of your vision or the, you know, the gradual loss of your vision?
Did you find that it was just, like, uncovering your truth, like, who you are and why you're here? Exactly. You got that right on, Ryan. You straight up you said it wonderfully. You know? It's just amazing how much I've uncovered by seeing I by by knowing now. I'm actually actually touching my heart because I always do that when I'm passionate and I'm talking about something. It it really is I feel like I am a beacon of light, and I'm meant to shine anyway. It's like mother Teresa said this too.
I think I'm not quoting her well, but you'll understand. You know, like, people will do whatever with you. Shine anyway. People will do this with you. You you shine anyway. It's it was one of her I think she wrote a poem or something like that. And it's true. It's always in my head. It's, like, with the ignorance that I've faced, with all these things that people just, you know, basically treating me like a pebble on the road. I'm not gonna I'm not going to downplay that.
I used to, but they have and they and I know, you know, people are people they will. But the point is I have to my gift, go back to who you are, which is who you are is love. Who you are is unconditional love. There's nothing to see. There's nothing to hear. There you feel love. You don't see it. You don't taste it. You feel it. And that's what we're all here to do, is to feel it and embrace it. We know the air exists. Right?
We can't see it, ironically enough, but we sure feel it, and we sure can breathe it in. And it does exist just like love does. And it's, you know, the air and the love is is all part of us. That's what we have, you know, in life to to to cherish that. You know? And and losing my vision is it's not been easy. It's still difficult, but that's what keeps me going and shining my light. Say, look at how far you have come, love. And you know, Ryan, I say this with humility.
It's that it's not it's not about look at how look at me or anything like that. It's just the fact that it's just like anything else. I I mentioned the mountain before. When you climb your own mountain or when you've run a huge marathon, right, even if you do a half marathon, it doesn't matter how far it is. You did it for you. And there's the light. There is the beauty of it. You do things for you, and nobody can take that away from you just like earning your degree. Right? You earned it.
You earned it, and gosh darn it. Embrace that. Embrace that and and and enjoy that that moment because for me, it life has not been easy for me on many angles. We won't have to go there. But you could only imagine. Right? You could only imagine where you if you would like, you could definitely read my book. There's I I say it all because it's the the biggest part of me is to open my heart, and that was my way.
Nobody was listening, to be quite honest to me, except, you know, counseling would help, but no one would get it. And you know what I realized? That no one will get me. No one will get you, Ryan. Only you get and understand you. And that's the gift is that you do the work. You prosper by just taking it in moment to moment. You're preaching today. You are absolutely preaching. Thank you.
You know, just just you know, what I got from what you just shared is just it's it's, everybody is on their own journey. Everybody is on their own trip around the world. Yeah. You know, are you going to are you going to just, you know, let the you know, it it's a it's a line from a song, and I'm blanking on the exact line. But are you gonna let the darkness of the world empty your soul, or are you going to, you know, are you just going to face it and keep rising up over and over again?
And that has been, you know, that that has been just the the most powerful part of just my own experience in this world, to say nothing of my own experience over the last 6 months since, you know, since our our good friend COVID hit these shores. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, the other thing is and and you've it it's so relevant on all aspects of our life. You've heard this too. I'm sure of it. You show up in life. You know? Whether you're tired or not or whatever, you show up.
That's half of the journey. That's half of the battle. It's like you know, I yesterday, for example, I wanted to go to yoga class in the morning. I just didn't have it in me, and I didn't. I was so exhausted, emotionally drained. I couldn't go. But, that doesn't define me. Today's a new day. You show up. You go. You know? And that don't talk yourself out of things. You know? It's just like I'm still losing my vision, and I could still the point is I could still see your blue shirt. You know?
I could still see, you know, the and read. What a gift right there. I mean, it's not well physically I could read, but I could read. You know? And it's just like being 5 years old all over again. Like, wow. I actually wrote I actually can read that. Amazing. Right. Yeah. So, you know, there there's there's moments there are trinkets as I like to call it. A little aspect of of just light beaming light. Look. You don't have to look for it. It will just appear. The miracles are there.
I'm living proof of it. I, you know, have been through 4 depressions. My whole thirties, it was terrible. It was awful. I had no friends. Nothing. I just got I mean, for 2 years, I couldn't get up out of bed. I was it it's a it's a chapter in the book. It's it was nuts. It and I what got me out of it? That's the biggest question. Well, I went to a 10 day silent retreat, and it's based on Buddhism, and that's actually in the book too. It's called Vipassana. What's the irony? What does v mean?
What does vipassana mean? V means in. Vipassana means sight. So Vipassana means in sight. Who would have thought? Ladies going blind, I didn't even know what it meant until the guru told me that during the 10 days of silence. Well, did it Holy cow. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about insight to a lady who's going blind. Yeah. Yeah. No. That's, it was destined. It was definitely destined, and I take those teachings along with me and I teach other people in my own way, of accepting what is.
You know, we all it's so easy to walk through life on a sunny day, like California. Well, we won't talk about California. Let's talk about Hawaii. Okay? Let's I don't wanna go to California right now, but, like, Hawaii is nice and sunny. Right? If the day is always pretty much pretty much average even sunny days, you don't know what it is to shovel snow every day. Right? You you wouldn't know. You wouldn't know, but talk to the people in Alaska. Right? So it's it's a matter of perspective.
Like, with me, I've had I actually had a lady. She meant well, but she said to me, we're the good parts of your book. The good parts of the book are the insight. You know? It's the gift of the insight. I I didn't have a sunny life per se. It hasn't been sunny, but I made it sunny for me. I made my life shine because of my own perspective. Nobody did it for me. I did it for me, and that's what I teach people. You could do it too if I am a living proof example of resilience.
My I have I have no response to that. That is just a total truth bomb right there. It's it's up to nobody else to create your reality than you. Exactly. You're the only you're the only one who can create your reality. You've got the you know, it's like I like to say, you're writing the story of your life, but are you gonna let somebody else hold your pen? No. You're gonna hold your own pen and write your own story. Absolutely. And everybody has a story. Right?
It's just a matter of what lens you want each person to see and read. It I I was so mindful till the last minute of my book. Seriously, am I being my authentic self? And that's what I teach people, to be your authentic self despite any adversity. And so, you know, I I needed to be that, show that, shine that, and being your authentic self as I I touch based upon like, I touched upon it maybe 5, 10 minutes ago is are the shiny the the not so shiny and the mediocre days. Right? It's everything.
Authenticity doesn't exist because, hey. It's a great, beautiful we had a great day, right, at work or whatever with your family. Authenticity is showing up and being your authentic self unconditionally at all times 247. It is a job in its of itself. But it's I don't well, maybe that was the wrong word. Maybe it's not a job, but it it's it's it it it it work, but it's all how you see it. You know? You deserve love, and you you are love. You came from love. Why not shine it anyway?
Despite what's on the outside, in my case, I'm going blind. Who cares what's on the outside? It doesn't really matter. People are gonna say what they wanna say even if you're physically well. I'm sure you've you've encountered that too. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. I wanna bring up this one, thing Wayne Dyer said. It's actually in my book. I mentioned I I mentioned a couple of people who I love quoting people, that are relative to my story.
And so, basically, he was at an I don't know if you heard of this, Ryan, but, he was at a speaking engagement. This is, Wayne Dyer is a spiritual teacher and author. He wrote a zillion books, and he passed, but he's a beautiful, beautiful soul. And so he had a speaking engagement, and he said, you know, what do you get when you squeeze an orange? And the audience started laughing.
And then there was a little girl in the front row and said she goes, little girl, what what do you get when you squeeze an orange? She started laughing a little bit. And she goes, no. Please answer the question. And she said, that's silly. You get orange juice. He's like, right. That's right. You don't get cranberry. You don't get blueberry. You get orange juice. What do you get when you squeeze Ryan? You don't get umla juice. You get Ryan juice.
Yep. So whatever is being spewed out at you, that's their juice. It's not yours. And that's what keeps me moving, to be quite honest, when I have those deep depressing days of of people just rolling their eyes because I bumped in bumped into them at a at a grocery store because I look normal. I don't look blind. Oh, you don't act blind. All of that. And I've I I I I obviously don't mean it, and I smack into them, but then that's my reminder. That's what I that's why I brought it up.
It's my reminder saying that them This does not define you, Umla. You know. You know. And you do I always tell myself, I do see, just not like everybody else. You do see, but maybe not only with your eyes. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Really powerful. Just, you know, just so our listeners can understand and also maybe, you know, can I can understand, describe a little bit about what this gyrite atrophy is all about?
Because as I said at the start of the podcast, you're one of, you know, only 200 people worldwide who have been diagnosed with this Yeah. With this condition. Talk a little a little bit about just what it's all about. Okay. So gyrid atrophy in a nutshell, it is a condition that causes blindness. I'll start there. We all know that probably by now. But the point is is that you I'm gonna kind of go into the little mechanics of the eye to help you explain. You have an eye. Right?
A fully functional eye needs the retina. So what is the retina? It's in the back of the eye, and it's orange, and it's like a coral beautiful coral color. That's a perfectly healthy retina. So my metaphor is just like a camera. The the camera's in the eighties. Without the film, AKA the retina, there is no picture. So without the retina working properly, you don't get any kind of any kind of projection or reflection or any kind of image that you could see. My retina is deteriorating.
I'm a pretty, straight shooter, so I'm gonna just say it kind my eye kinda looks like, lung cancer. It's charred. It's like I I just explained, the the regular retina is like orange and pink and it's beautiful in color, and mine is charred at the edges because I'm losing my side vision, which is part of the gyrate atrophy. You slowly lose your side vision, which AKA meaning like a compass, northeast, southwest, all angles. It's like a circle, so it's closing in into the tunnel vision.
So that's why it kinda looks all charred up is because slowly over time, my the edges of my retina have been scarred, basically. And so the middle of the retina is the last 2 in air quotes go and last 2 lose its potency and and and able to function. So that's what gyratory atrophy is. I'm losing my sight first peripheral wise and now because I mean, I'm in it. I'm 46 now. So I started seeing too fog, as I mentioned earlier. Blindness has kicked in. It's kicked in.
And there there there was my problem in the sense of needing to mourn it and and to and to really embrace that this is happening. And it took time. It's not easy. It's not easy to mourn. I'm like, you know, people tell me all the time, like, oh, well, you've done this before. It's just like I've had somebody say, well, you've been through ignorance before. You should be used to it. You're never used to ignorance.
You're never used to a certain thing in your life that happens to pop up, something that's negative. We all have patterns, right, in our lives, and why does this keep on showing up? Why does negativity keep on showing? Why are my boundaries being busted? Why do boundaries get tested? You've been through this before. But you know what? Maybe you're not seeing something that you need to touch upon, your soul needs to touch upon and to to really heal. Right?
So Yep. Yeah. I mean, like, we all have something in our life that we need to heal, and it shows up in mysterious ways. But when it shows up, my whole point is to face it. Don't run around it. Don't run over it. Don't run under it. And, also, you know, there is help out there. You know? I didn't I turned to God or spirituality or universe, whatever you wanna call it, but I also turned to counseling when I didn't think I was being heard.
At least it was a physical person that I could talk to, and it was subjective. There are people out there to help you through any struggle, and that's one of my messages as well. Yeah. And that and and that, you know, that that has really been in the news just especially with the especially with the pandemic going on is that so many people feel like they're just just alone on an island. Yes. I mean, you know, even I have felt this many, many times in my life to say nothing of the past 6 months.
But, you know, we feel like we're just alone on an island when we've got, you know, so many people in this world who would, you know, walk through fire to be able to support you, to be able to help you get through whatever is, you know, whatever is burning you.
And the you know, even, you know, even with a condition as rare as yours, you're finding that there, you know, that there are people who are on your side, who are looking to you know, who who are supporting you, who are cheering you on, and who are sharing your story, and that should absolutely be commended. Yes. And I think with that, I I wanna point out to all everybody out there is that no way's gonna come knocking on your door either. When you feel alone trust me. I've been alone.
I felt isolated, all that stuff. Right? Time and time again. But nobody's gonna come knocking on your door. You gotta ask. You gotta go deep within and and and and forget the ego. The ego's, oh, I got this. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. If you don't got it, look in the mirror and be honest with yourself and say, you know what? I need some help. It's a you you gotta go deep. It's to ask. People refuse to ask all that stuff. I know.
We all have we we wouldn't be human beings if we didn't have ego. Right? I mean, we Right. All be enlightened. So the point is is that it's like when is enough enough? But when that's where, you know, the patterns come in of, like, this is approaching your doorstep to say, hey. Are you there? Are you gonna ask for help? Because there's there's sometimes there's sometimes there's really nowhere else to go. Right? You need somebody to help ask for it. There's nothing wrong with that.
No. There's there's nothing wrong with that. It's almost like that that rock bottom moment that everybody has to find in order in order for them to just wake up and be like, hey. I need help. I don't know what that looks like, but I need help. Exactly. Exactly. And you know what? Even as a blind lady, trust me, I went through those years. I'm like, with friendships, I'm like, how come they don't even understand I don't I I need the help, and they're not helping me. They just think I'm normal.
I didn't ask. It's my responsibility too. I need to ask too. Like, I can't assume that people my friends know that I'm I'm I'm not I have no night vision. None. I'm blind in the dark. So it's like when I'm wheeling around, I'm like, why don't they know anything? Well, you know what? People don't know. They're in their own little world. Welcome to life. Gotta ask. You gotta ask. And this didn't happen overnight.
People are like, oh, well, no. I it's so funny because somebody was talking about my book, and they're like, I could see it like a punky, sassy, you know, type of lady in there. And it's it it is true because it's like, this did not happen overnight. It's like I was really nice up until age 30 and, like, let everybody just do people pleasing and no boundaries and no nothing.
And then I was getting taken taken taken advantage of as a blind lady because I wasn't asking and I wasn't stating and expressing, declaring what I wanted. Right? And and that that that takes work. And so I went deep down inside and said, no. I can't do this anymore. I gotta live for me, and I I don't wanna be treated this way anymore. Right? And it's I'm this is just an example, but it's true is that we create and and and produce our own life or create our own reality.
It's up to you what you wanna do with it. Don't play victim. I could play victim all the time. I could be that bitter blind lady after all that's what got I've been through. But you know what? I choose not to because guess what? Love prevailed over fear, over bitterness, over ugliness, whatever you wanna call it. Love always prevails. It it outshines everything and anything. It will obliterate through all the fear in this universe. It will. I know it because I choose love every time.
But here's my other point. It's not like I owe magically, oh, I'm gonna be shiny today. No. No. No. No. I gotta feel and heal through those emotions. You gotta feel those emotions. You gotta digest it, and only then can you surrender and let go. Surrendering is not skipping, feeling the emotions. Now I'm not saying to drown in your emotions. I'm saying you to feel them like rain. You feel the rain. You're not, you know, engulfed in the and, like, it it you know, consumed by the rain.
You feel it. It's the same thing. You feel your emotions. Don't drown in your emotions. Digest them. Don't analyze them until that you're you're you're blue in the face. You'll know. Just kinda like eating. You consume food. It digests, and then you let it go. There you go. You're not thinking about what you ate yesterday. Exactly the same same point, and I I'm I I, mentioned that in the book.
These are the things that I've learned on my own because, really, nobody else can teach you more than yourself sometimes. Sometimes you just know. You just don't think you know. Very well said. Very well said. It it's, I'm I'm just flashing on a lyric from one of my favorite earth, wind, and fire songs. In your heart lies all the answers to the truth you can't run from Yeah. From their from their song Mighty Mighty. You know, that it just really lands for me.
Yeah. I know you've spoken a lot about your book, but what, you know if somebody were to go on Amazon and buy your book, what would they find? So I have a website. It's called amla speaks, amla, speaks, s p e a k s dot com. You can go on there, and the link is right there. There's a tab that says purchase my book. It's as easy as that. And you could just you could go the link is there. There's it's an ebook. It's a it's not an audiobook. Sorry. There is a physical book.
You can get signed copies from me directly. I have books at my house. Whatever you'd like, I could sign it for you, and I'd be happy to ship it anywhere. And the price that's all on there, it's $20.15 with Connecticut sales tax, everything. So, yeah, I mean, it's 12 stories. It's based on, universal themes like facing loss or the art of acceptance or finding forgiveness.
So they're 12 stories based on themes, and then at the end of each chapter or story, if you would, they're 3 exercises that I offer based on that theme that I have done myself to get through. So it's it's kinda nice that, you know, like, you don't wanna read the story first. You don't have to. Go to the exercises if you want it. Learn about, okay, how do I maintain healthy boundaries? How do I speak my truth? What are exercises I could do to forgive? You know? And there are 3 per story.
It's that simple. I made it simple on purpose so that you're not like, oh my god. It's just like high school again? We have all this homework or whatever it is. No. You know? It it it should be simple. Exercises, you want people to gravitate towards them, and the simpler, the better. So that's that's my my baby. It's it is my baby.
It's it really is something I really am am proud of because, again, as I said at the beginning of this interview, I I persevered and I and I not I didn't just survive. I I thrived, and I'm on the other side. And and that's what I encourage people any walk, any age of of life to to they could do it too. You can do this. You will get through this pandemic. You will get through this uncertainty. You will get through this fear. Because as the saying goes, nothing is permanent.
We aren't permanent as human beings. It's as simple as that. Yep. Absolutely. You know? Has you know, it's like I like I like to say, we human beings, what we are is a soul with a skin suit. Yes. Our soul lasts forever, but the skin suit doesn't. Exactly. Beautiful, Ryan. I love that. That's beautiful. I am a I am a writer after all. I know you are. I know you are. And by the way, great title, Iowa with Adieu. I love that title.
And if people were to come and see you speak, you know, what what what could they expect if they were to come and see you, see you deliver a talk? Oh, you know, it it you know, it's kinda like the, you know, it's kinda like air again. What you see is it's everywhere and it's accessible. So I am I'm I'm my authentic self. My tagline is I am authentic. I am brave, and I am strong. With that, I am enough. And you know why I wrote that?
It's because not only for that I could say it, anybody could say that. It's about believing and trusting in the process. This is all a process of who we are, and I shine that. What can you expect in in in a speaking engagement? Pretty much if it's an hour, 20 minutes of my sharing my story. Then I usually provide a topic so that peep you know, it's it's all within the, the description before people even buy a ticket to come and see me. You know?
So, like, it could be it's speaking your truth or the art of attachment or detachment. You know? They're finding forgiveness, unconditional love, self care, self love, you know, being your authentic self. There's so many topics. So 20 minutes of sharing my story, then 20 minutes of basically engaging with the audience of how they can incorporate that topic within their own life. And then, you know, at the end, I kinda do, like, a little exercise.
You know, what I've I've taught in the book, but I was doing that before I even wrote the book. You know, I sing a little bit, so I do a lot of chanting as well. That's actually in my second book that's coming out October 1st this year. So, yeah, it it's really exciting that I'm, like, you know, I'm on my way of just an extended version of me. And and what you see, what you hear in this last in this interview all in and of itself, there's no difference. I'm like this with my family.
I'm like this with anyone because love doesn't choose where to shine. It shines on everybody. Doesn't pick and choose. Love is love. Amen to that. Amen to that. Yeah. We are just about out of time, but I do wanna ask you one final question. We we kinda touched on it earlier in the program, but what would you say to somebody who, during the through this pandemic, has faced, you know, faced hardship, faced a circumstance beyond their control?
What would you say to them just, you know, in a in a in a few sort in a few lines? What would you say to them to maybe support them in kinda getting through that shock and to Yes. Help them to be able to grow through that Absolutely. Particular circumstance. There's 2 there's 2 lines that really pop up show up for me is and I've I've touched based on it before. You're not alone. I think that's so important to say that during a pandemic, that you're not alone. And not only that, you are loved.
You are supported. You are a beam of light. And I'm these sound like maybe sound like airy fairy words, but it's just a matter of you tapping into you and asking for help, like I said before. And the other thing is to never give up. Never give up. You are a shiny beam of light who came from universe and god, source, creator, divinity, whatever you wanna call it, and you were meant to work through this. You will get through this. It's just a matter of taking time and steps.
And if it's even little itty bitty steps, it's still a step. And being in the present moment is key. You can't worry about tomorrow. You gotta get through today. That's huge during an uncertainty uncertain times and and a pandemic and including my vision loss. You have today. What do you've got on the agenda plan for today? You're not thinking about what you're eating for dinner tomorrow. Pretty probably not. Right? You're thinking about the day and breathing for now, breathing your your now.
It's a gift. Embrace it. Shine it. Be it. Because you are you are everything. It's just a matter of, again, feeling and embracing who you are, which is love. I always go back to that. Why not? Yeah. This is this has been a just a truly inspirational, conversation. Thank you so much for joining us here today. How can people find you online? Oh, sure. So it's amla speaks.com as I said before. I'm also on Facebook. I'd love for you to like my page.
It's amla inspires, a m l a inspi r e s. So that's Facebook. That's my public page. Give me a shout out. Alright. Amla, this has been a real treat. Thank you so much for joining us, and thank you so much for show for for you showing me and for showing my listeners just what it means to take a look, so to speak, at your circumstances and say, is that the best you got? Yes. I love that. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. My pleasure.
And that'll just about do it for this episode here of the solar powered podcast, a presentation of Royal Hearts Coaching. For more information, you can find me on at royalheartscoaching.com. You can connect with me on social media at ryanhallrights on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or you can just shoot me a good old fashioned email. It's [email protected]. But until we meet again, this is Ryan Hall saying thank you so much for listening.
I love you all and go get solar powered right after you wash your hands and put on a mask.