Meet Christine Estrada

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christine Estrada. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christine below.

Hi Christine , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I don’t think I had a moment where I “found my purpose” I think each step and decision, each mis- step, detour and fall in my life has allowed me to develop my purpose. I think we often seek the path of comfort to find our purpose. The Wizard of OZ type yellow brick road experience, but the pretty parts, not the scary or dark parts. The road less taken. The reality is that all of the experiences of both the pretty and hard are necessary. When I was a little girl I knew two things I wanted to be a mom and I had a sensitive heart for people. Years later when we found out we couldn’t get pregnant it was beyond a struggle. To be real, it still is. I knew that wasn’t the end to my story, I knew this longing wasn’t put there for a reason but for a purpose. At the time I didn’t know what that would look like. How would the disruption of one thing I wanted so badly be used for good? Over the next 6 years we would grow our family through foster care and adoption. I remember sitting in a conference for adoption before our process began, thinking I could never, but I did. I was able to learning the needs, understand the impact and see role I could play in my world and community. Over the years I heard so many people touted how amazing I am for adopting and I just don’t see it that way. I see it as God paving the way for me to live out my purpose, to live out the very desire that was planted within my heart as a little girl. Throughout my life I continued to have a deep sensitivity towards others, being a foster parent only increased this. Another lesson I learned was 10 years ago I tore my ACL and meniscus. I experienced extreme bone bruising and swelling. This injury was like nothing I had ever experienced. It left me unable to do all activity I did daily, including being a runner and an extremely active person. I wasn’t free to to move as I once did. Despite physical therapy I was still struggling with pain and limitations. At the time my niece owned a Yoga studio and offered me a free membership. She assured me that Yoga would heal me. Reluctantly I began to go to 3 times a week and then 5; I was hooked. Sure enough with each class I regained my strength, within 3 months I was running again. As I watched my body transform, I experienced a mending of not only by body but my heart and soul. As a result I decided to begin teacher training to become a yoga instructor. Not only did I fall deeper in love with the philosophies and ethics of the yoga tradition, but yoga taught me how to listen to myself how to steady my mind and see the world around me differently. I discovered Yoga’s unique ability to bring together this triad of body, mind and heart and heal parts of me I never knew needed healing. The more I taught the more I understood the healing capacity that Yoga possessed. I began to see people through a lens of compassion , knowing that each student came to their mat with a unique story and a unique set of circumstances. My 500 hour trauma informed teacher training further helped me to understand the ways to be more sensitive to trauma, to be more aware of what people have experienced and how to use yoga as a gateway to healing. Out of my passion for people and yoga Purpose Culture was born. I never imagined that I would be a business owner or that Purpose Cultures would transform into service based business. This experience has created confidence and assurance that I am living out my purpose. Purpose Culture is built on a foundation of people over profit. Our dedication is to see peoples needs, guide people in ways to better take care of themselves, discover what their purpose is and how to live that out. Purpose has taken on a new meaning for me. Living out my purpose can feel messy sometimes, confusing, filled with doubt but more often time is filled with innovation, creativity, sensitivity and awareness. As I continue to search and explore all the paths of my purpose, things are become clearer. I notice the comfort within me settling, the knowing becoming more comfortable within me. My purpose makes me feel more like I am home each day.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

We have been working this last year on developing a service based program for youth from elementary to high school ages. Each of our programs has been developed as a school based program. Our passion is to develop a holistic approach to mindfulness that is broad and provides each student with a tool box of skills to take with them in life. We have created our Purposed journals which help to provide youth with a tool box of modalities as they navigate through life. We lead students in understanding themselves through mind body connection, movement, breath coaching, understanding the nervous system and how their brains operate. We talk through how to determine safe people to support them, the importance of their roots and legacy, how to set S.M.A.R.T goals, develop a dream board and begin to develop an understanding of how to discover their purpose. Our programs are 12 weeks courses that are led by an instructor. The course culminates with a contribution project that the students choose together. We continue to work on developing serve based content. We also have a podcast called Living Purposed Podcast where we talk about an array of things, tell stories about people and how they are living out their purpose in the world around them. We are so proud of how we have grown and continue to develop our content to reach a broader range of people.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

If you are experiencing resistance your on the right path
Everything is figureoutable
Play the perfect game

Resistance is inevitable if you are on the right path. There is no smooth road. I learned this early on. Change can be scary, often times we shy away from scary. No one looks down the dark hall and says YES! let’s go down there when to the left is a road paved with sparkly bricks and the sun is warming the air. Who knows what’s on the other side of the dark hall and it may be paradise. The resistance is seen in only what is in front of us not what we can’t see. Resistance helps us to grow and move. Learn to be friends with resistance, be curious when something comes up that looks like a scary dark hall. “Wow, I wonder what that dark hallway wants to teach me.”

Everything is figureoutable
The confidence to realize you are capable to figure anything out. My assistant and I have spent the last 2 years in a constant cycle of technological difficulties. Im not talking one or 2 a month, like everything we do something which is nearly every day. Now after 2 years our streak of difficulties has not gone away but our attitude has shifted. We come to each situation with and expectancy and a welcoming of the challenge. We know from experience that every single time we will figure it out, because everything is figureoutable.

Play the perfect game.
This is a great lesson I learned when I was involved in a master mind group and it has stuck. So much so that anytime we are on vacation we say this phrase often. Playing the perfect game means that you see anything that happens along the way as a game and how we will deal with what comes at us. It’s a fun way to see how you can pivot your thoughts and make the best out of anything. It gives you a new lens to see what you may not have seen if things went “smoothly.” Often new experiences are birthed out of the unexpected. As I have implemented this in my business it has helped me to see things as a game which makes it fun and allot less frustrating. Don’t get me wrong I still get worried and frustrated. The game becomes how can I challenge myself in the process of pivoting my thoughts and attitude towards things that can help me and grow me.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

Right now the obstacle I am currently facing is finding my way into schools and educational places. The red tape seems difficult to cross over. We keep pressing forward finding new ways to provide spaces wether that is outside of the perameters of school hours or through elective programs. We have also began to seek out various after school programs. Pressing forward playing the perfect game.

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Rosalind Veerapong

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