Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskaia on ”YungMash Collective: A Peer-to Peer Mentoring Community Based on Cutting-Edge Neuroscience”

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper." W.B. Yeats

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/-hQVyUdiBmk

On the episode we will explore:

✔ Why Kate launched a Peer-to Peer Mentoring and Empowering Global Community for young adults, ages 18-30.

✔ Who is Masha, who inspired Yung Mash Collective?

✔ Why Kate felt a sense of urgency to launch this Foundation a few months after losing her daughter, Masha, to a rare form of Cancer.

✔ What neuroscience cannot explain--the spiritual side of losing someone in the physical world.

✔ Lessons Bob Proctor taught in his seminars about the beauty of death, dying and the spiritual realm.

✔ Why some people "feel" things. Are they real?

✔ Kate's vision for YungMash Collective as place for young people to find answers to their problems, from trained Certified Neurocoaches.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use for immediate results.

I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is to our everyday life and results--whether we are a teacher in the classroom, a student, or in the modern workplace.

On today’s episode #235, we are featuring return guest, Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskaia who joined us last June, for our very first LIVE event[i] that we recorded from Hawaii. For today’s episode, we welcome Kate back where she will share how she has turned an absolutely heart breaking loss into something life-changing for others with the launch of YungMashCollective, a new peer-to-peer global mentoring and empowering community based on cutting edge neuroscience, after losing her daughter, Masha, to a rare form of Cancer this past March.

Kate, who I met over 10 years ago in a community for those looking to learn how to apply the basics of neuroscience to our daily life, remained in close contact with me over the years, and she later joined Mark Waldman’s Neurocoaching Certification Program where we worked together to be sure we were both on track, completing the assignments. While it took me over two years to complete the course, Kate came into the program with a force to be reckoned with, motivating me to complete the lessons, so we could make use of the knowledge and certification program, to help others, with a sense of urgency. Kate completed her certification that first year, just before her daughter’s health began to decline.

I’ll let Kate tell her story, and how she is using her Neuroscience Certification to help others with this new foundation that she launched, YungMash Collective, to honor her daughter, Masha, and her gift to help others with problems they were struggling with. Let’s welcome my dear friend Kate, from the UK, and hear how she has turned her heartbreaking personal journey around, with her understanding of the brain, and this new Foundation to help others.

Welcome Kate. It’s always incredible to see you, especially face to face.

INTRO Q: To begin, I just don’t have the words. Your story breaks my heart, as it would for any parent listening but especially for someone who saw everything happen first hand. Can you share what happened to your daughter, Masha, and orient our listeners to the why behind the YungMashCollective[ii]?

Q1: I know as a parent, we want our children to excel out in the world with whatever it is they are doing, especially when it comes to helping others along the way. While I’m sure you knew of Masha’s many talents, were there some things you didn’t know until you met with her friends at the vigil that night? What did you learn from gathering Masha’s friends together and the power that she had to help solve other people’s challenges?

Q1B: Knowing that anxiety and depression have reached an all-time high globally, besides the need for this age group that you are focused on with YungMash Collective. What else beside the statistics we see everywhere about where things are in the world today, gave you a sense of urgency to launch this Foundation?

Q2: What services do you provide with YungMash Collective and how are you incorporating what we learned from Mark Waldman in our Neuroscience Certification program?

Q3: Now we are going to cross into the side of this that science is still exploring, but we can’t ignore the things that we “think and feel” when someone we love passes on from where we are in the physical plane, and moves to the non-physical or spiritual side. Can you share some of the mind-boggling things that you and Masha’s friends were talking about on your most recent podcast episode on Yungmash Radio, “Signs from Masha?”[iii] that prove without a doubt that she is still around with you?

Q4: Remember when my dear mentor Bob Proctor moved to the other side, just a month before Masha, and I shared something that he said with a voice recording, reminding us of how are “all spiritual beings, living in a physical body” and that he stopped being afraid of death when he began to look at how beautiful it was on this “other side.” I know we can’t prove it with science, but what do you think about what he said, with the fact that “energy is neither created nor destroyed” and that when we move on, that we are still here energetically? He said “spirit is everywhere. What we see in the physical world and what you cannot see in the spiritual world are all connected, like the colors of the rainbow.”

Photo Credit: John Assaraf with Andrea's Neighbors in Toronto, Anita and Rolf Weiland

What have you seen that makes you believe this to be true?

Q5: I’m hoping in the next decade, we will have more answers to the things that science has yet to discover, but many people can access answers to problems they might have, by quietening their mind through meditation or mindfulness. I recently read that cognitive and clinical neuroscientist Athena Demertzi say that “during resting states, the mind still wanders. It goes here, there and everywhere—into the future, into the past” which reminds me of this interconnected world that we live in. If we can quiet our mind, and look for answers, what do you think Kate, these signs that we have both felt, and want to dismiss them as “coincidences” could they be our brain picking up things from the spiritual realm?

Q5B: If we are on this train of thinking, then everything that exists in the world is already here. We just need to tap into it. I can feel you and your energy without us talking. What do you think about that?

Q6: Now we’ve talked about the why behind your Foundation, with some fascinating stories that you and Masha’s friends have shared, how can people learn more about what you are building? When will you be launching?

Q7: Other questions that I have missed?

Kate, I want to thank you for sharing such a personal journey on our podcast. I truly love you and value our friendship and would do anything to send people your way who could benefit from what you are building. Is the best way for people to learn more is to connect via Instagram and Twitter? Other ways?

Final thoughts…

After Kate and I closed out this interview, and said our goodbyes, we both knew something very special had just occurred, and the synchronicities we experienced continued on for a few hours that morning. We both couldn’t deny that there is so much more to our connection that began while we were both beginning our journey with neuroscience with John Assaraf, and then to have him text me unexpectedly last Sunday after I sent Kate her questions was weird, but caught both of our attention reminding us that we are all connected, whether we are in the physical or spiritual world. This got us looking a bit deeper at our connection and friendship. It began over 10 years ago, through John Assaraf, and then we both ended up getting certified through Mark Waldman. That might not sound like a big deal, but knowing most people don’t even finish this course, it’s shocking to us that we not only completed it together, but went on to continue to use the knowledge we learned with our work. This brings me back to the quote I picked to open up this interview. “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

Can you see the magic in your day? Do you feel the connection Kate and I feel with each other with someone in YOUR life? If you do, that’s all you need to do, just notice it, and know that it’s there. This way, you know that you are never alone. You are always surrounded by love and this in itself, is truly magical.

Keep looking for the magic in your day, and spread the word about Yung Mash Collective by staying in touch with Kate’s mission. This is only the beginning…

I’ll see you with our next episode.

FOLLOW KATE AND YUNG MASH COLLECTIVE

Website https://www.yungmash.com/

Get started https://www.yungmash.com/contact-us

Twitter https://twitter.com/yungmashC

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yungmashcollective/?hl=en

YungMash Radio on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/5KvZMDvmffrHkNto7v0wui?si=ZIRfEBVgTcGRrAFtWWTVDg&nd=1

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Website https://www.achieveit360.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samadi/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Achieveit360com

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

Twitter: https://twitter.com/andreasamadi

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreasamadi/

RESOURCES:

The Light Between Us by Laura Lynne Jackson Published July 5, 2016 https://www.amazon.com/Light-Between-Us-Stories-Heaven/dp/0812987926

The Art of Dying by Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick Published August 26, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Art-Dying-Peter-Fenwick/dp/0826499236/ref=sr_1_3?crid=347QPKWXD04DR&keywords=the+art+of+dying&qid=1659468978&s=books&sprefix=the+art+of+dyin%2Cstripbooks%2C150&sr=1-3

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast FIRST LIVECAST EVENT with Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskia. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-neuroscience-qa-livestream-andrea-with-katherine-alexander-dobrovolskaia/

[ii] https://www.yungmash.com/

[iii] YungMash Radio “Signs from Masha” https://open.spotify.com/show/5dzQAnZxXMjcrObXIfKi2t?si=EZv4QoavQMCyxf_mPXmqRQ&dl_branch=1&nd=1