We caught up with the brilliant and insightful LisaMichelle Zega a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi LisaMichelle, 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?
Grieving my marriage of 23 years, the loss of relationship with my boys, and later the death of my fiancé’ all helped me discover my purpose.
Allowing my losses to receive love continues to influence, motivate and shape my calling to reach out in a giant hug to heal both individuals and communities.
One arm extends to individuals 1-1 and in group settings, helping people identify, name, and heal grief.
The other is working with communities and organizations helping people understand, redefine, and heal poverty through connecting as people and recognizing and growing resources individually, institutionally and as communities.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Honoring my history both led me to and readied me to receive my purpose.
I divorced after 23 years of marriage and was alienated from my boys for nearly 5 years. When I left, I had my clothes and an old car. I had worked for the family business, so I left without a job. Thankfully, I was volunteering at a school and an organization that served homeless individuals.
My situation was different from those in the shelter because I had resources like supportive friends, good health, and strong reading, writing, and communication skills. And, though it was a tremendously painful season, I had some hope for the future.
I ended up getting hired with the organization that helped those without homes and soon after became the Employment Director. Later, I began facilitating training to help us honor those we served as problem solvers who figured out difficult challenges every day.
Two years later, I buried a fiancé months before our wedding day.
All these experiences continue to shape me and my business.
Currently, I am partnered with a Foundation to serve the community of Riverside delivering the Anti-Poverty Framework training which helps individuals, institutions, and communities address the causes of poverty in the by empowering the development of 11 essential resources needed to exit cycles of generational poverty.
My big idea is to facilitate training in additional communities that are healing for the individual and the whole organism, starting with where I live in Santa Clarita, California.
I believe that as the understanding of poverty is transformed, communities will recognize all the areas of strength and resources that can be brought together to build on existing spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical, financial and other forms of wealth to end poverty and experience the wholeness of community.
My story is that honoring my grief is what allows me to truly honor the hardships of others. My conviction is that as we heal ourselves we heal one another and our communities.
Reach out to me if you’d like to learn more about my work. I will be starting an online Healing Circle April 11 and currently have openings for 1-1 grief work and organizational training.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Qualities and learning that have helped and continue to support me on my journey are perseverance, personal responsibility, and empathy.
I make it a practice of not offering advise, but what I wish I knew earlier was the power of compassion for myself and others. I’m amazed at how much we humans survive and I’m startled by my lack of consideration for my own struggle. I was so hard on myself with very little empathy for what I’d experienced and how it shaped me. As a result, I was inwardly critical of others.
I truly believe that love is required to heal and that as we learn to receive love we are more freely able to give it.
Understanding more about the nervous system and its development has helped grow my empathy immensely. Learning to regulate it has helped me better support myself and others.
Many of us have been conditioned to ignore our bodies and their innate guidance. Paying attention to my body and the sensations within while releasing judgment and cultivating compassionate curiosity has helped me grow empathy and find safety in the present moment.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
I work with people that love Jesus or once did, but are reassessing their faith because mere religion can’t hold what they are going through. Frequently they are navigating major life changes, like the death of a loved one, divorce or other shifts that make them feel untethered to what they’ve known. Though it feels a bit overwhelming, they often sense the mystery an invitation home to themselves and a new life,
My organizational clients serve under-resourced people and want to create healthy, compassionate, and thriving communities for staff, volunteers, funders, and clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: legityou.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisamichelle.legityou/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisamicamichelle
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-michelle-zega
Image Credits
Image Credits: Riley Reed@Woke Beauty (image in black blazer) Deirdre Marsac (image in pink shirt and with pink flower) I do not have images of my work with communities or with clients on Zoom at this time.
