What is the Mind Body Revolution, and how is it changing the game by promoting mental health and physical activity? Joining us today is Terha Watterson, the creator and author of the Mind Body Revolution: 28 Days to Activate. Terha created this program when she discovered how even simple movement for just 25 minutes a day changed her after just four days. She shares with host Michelle Seiler Tucker the story behind her journey to wellness after going through a major slump that caused weight gain and a deep depression. Now, she’s sharing her tool for recovery and better health. With Kids Revolution, Terha is now also extending and introducing these simple and healthy lifestyle practices to positively impact the younger generation and build a stronger foundation for a happier and healthier future. Learn all about how she’s changing the game for fitness and mental health by tuning in to this episode.

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Mind Body Revolution: How Body Movement Is Impacting Brain Health With Terha Watterson

On this episode of the show, we have my good friend, Terha Watterson. Terha Watterson is an author, speaker, TV host, CEO of Kids Revolution Worldwide, and Global Ambassador for American Prep, the first online K-12 school providing mental health for kids. She has been in the health and wellness industry for over a decade.

Terha is an award-winning interior designer and a certified fitness trainer. She is passionate about mental health for adults and children globally. She has dedicated her life to improving the lives of others, both mentally and physically. She’s traveled all over the world. She has won several awards and has been featured in various talk shows and radio shows. Terha’s greatest passion is utilizing the latest technologies and scalable systems, which I always talk about in my book, Exit Rich,which will make a huge impact on the lives of women and children globally, living a life of adventure and empowering others to do the same.

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Terha, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

I’m so happy to finally have you on. I like to get to know my guest. I like my audience to get to know our guests. I always say every great entrepreneur has a good backstory. What is your backstory? What were you like as a little girl?

It’s a joke in my family. I was the forerunner, the oldest of four amazing boys. From the time I was little, there was always something that I had to go ahead and figure things out. I had this extreme desire, even from the time that I was little to show that we could have a better life. It didn’t have to always be what we were taught and told. We didn’t have to repeat the same patterns or live the same lifestyle that our families did before us. That led me to travel at a young age and take my brothers and friends with me to show them the world without realizing that wasn’t quite the normal thing to do when you’re younger.

You got so much to talk about when it comes to Kids Revolution. You’re probably one of the most passionate people I know. You’re always smiling. Before we jump into Kids Revolution and your true passion, I want to jump into business entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are so busy. We’re attending to our business. We’re attending to our homes, our family life, our children, their homework, and any social issues that our kids have.

Every day, my daughter comes home with some type of, “This girl did this to me. That happened and this happened.” Parents have so much to deal with. We’re trying to balance and juggle everything. What company mechanisms do you have for entrepreneurs? We’ll be talking about entrepreneurs dealing with children later, but what type of coping mechanisms do you have for business owners to help them go through the entrepreneurial obstacle course? Every day, every minute, there are fires that we’re putting out and hoops we’re jumping through. We’re trying to stay afloat and grow our business.

For those mega entrepreneurs, busy moms, and busy parents, there is one secret superpower that I have found that changes everything. I’d like to ask this first. Have you ever woke up and started your day where you had a plan or an agenda, and then the majority of it didn’t get done or you felt knocked off course? By the end of the day, you’re like, “I didn’t get half of what I wanted to be done.” Have you ever been there?

Of course, but I’m disciplined. I get up at 4:00 AM or 4:15 AM and I work out for 1 hour, 1 hour and a half, or 1 hour and 15 minutes. I do the climber. I do that for 45 minutes, and then I do weights. I set aside so much time to read, and then I get ready and get my daughter ready. I get her to school and spend two hours in the car before I even make it to the office. I’ve already done probably half of the day of activities before 8:00 AM.

For all of you reading, that is the gold medal prize. For a lot of the ones that I work with that are finding things get off course, it’s not having the power of a morning routine. There is a lot of stuff that can look like. That’s also one of the myths, too. Many people think, “I need to spend all this time working out and all this time on my mental health.” We like to teach the power in as little as 25 minutes in the morning. You’re giving yourself that time to start with yourself. That’s when everything starts to fall into place. In your scenario, you’re crushing it, doing a lot of different things. I haven’t seen anyone without a morning routine truly be able to do all the things that we’re meant to do.

My morning routine works well, and then I get in the office, and then all hell breaks loose. That’s why I always set aside one day, usually Friday, to work on the business, not in it. What are coping mechanisms for business owners on ways to improve efficiency, reduce stress, and be able to not burn out so quickly? I know business owners that are like, “It’s half a day,” and they’re already burned out and can’t focus on the rest of the day.

We’ll talk about how the Kids Revolution truly came to be. It started with me working with busy entrepreneurs who didn’t have the time and didn’t know where to start. I was giving a simple, mapped-out 25-minute challenge to get to experience what you can do in the morning to start feeling great.

How did you get started with Kids Revolution? You’re an interior decorator and a fitness trainer.

We talked about the secret superpower. I love and appreciate the compliments about me smiling, but I have to say part of the backstory is that I wasn’t always that way. I went through two years of extreme depression, not wanting to get out of bed. I was 50 pounds heavier. I know some people have these stories too, but I didn’t even want to exist anymore. I was missing events with my son. Like so many of us, I had something traumatic happen. I almost gave up on my life. I remember saying, “God, take me or use me,” and something started to happen.

This is when I truly stepped into what we call the 28 Days to Activate. It is that power of that morning routine where I combined that twelve years of personal development experience coupled with what I saw not working at the gym. My husband laughs at me sometimes when I say this, but the gym isn’t for everyone. If you can’t make it to the gym every day and you can’t have that consistency, what could you do? Having gone through poor health, my body couldn’t handle hour-long workouts. That’s what led me into the 28 Days to Activate, combining the mind, body, and spiritual health in the morning that changed everything.

How did you find these 28 days? When you’re in that deep depression, when you come to the realization of, “God take me now,” it’s hard for people to get unstuck from that. Tony Robbins says it’s easy to snap out of it and change your state of mind. How did you develop that, and how did you snap yourself out of it?

For everyone reading, if you are in that hard spot, it is consistency over intensity. When I first started, it was a voice the next morning that said, “Get up and move.” Every day, after that, I started slowly walking. I started recording my voice. Some people talked about spiritual downloads. I started recording thought concepts and then doing different body movements. At the time, that was all I was capable of.

Something happened after four days and all of a sudden, the light was back in my eyes. Within 3 weeks or 28 days, I had lost 15 pounds, but I wasn’t punishing myself. I wasn’t working out hard. It was a 25-minute-a-day thing. After I got better, I remember walking into my own health club. I heard the voice say, “Do you think you’re the only person who’s ever gone through something like this?” At the time, I did. You feel so isolated and alone when you go through something traumatic, but the reality is that so many of us have.

When you talk about being passionate, I became full force into creating something that people could do at home to get them back mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. That’s what catapulted the 28 Days to Activate, which was digital. Years ago, if you asked me about some of that business advice earlier, I did not know what a digital product was. I had no clue.

I knew that people needed something that they could do on their own time. If they couldn’t schedule all of these time slots and add things to their busy lives, I had to provide them with something that they could do anytime, anywhere. That was truly the transformation piece that I didn’t even know I was doing at the time that led to it going global within the first four months.

We don’t want to get into what led you there unless you want to, but how long were you stuck in that state? Was it a year? Was it six months?

Two years.

You heard a voice that said, “Start walking.”

After that, I said, “This is it.” I had been blessed to live a life of purpose before, doing things that I love. I was born to help uplift people. That’s something that I’ve known from a young age. I stepped out of that through this depression. I was having seizures. There were a few times that my husband came home and I was on the floor. I remember opening up my eyes to him calling my name. I was in and out of the doctors. I was missing events with my son. I didn’t want to do it anymore. It was two years of ups and downs and poor health. Enough was enough.

Mind Body Revolution: When we combine thinking with body movements to get rid of stress and communicate with another person who’s already been there, it’s magical.

That was an effect of PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Let’s get into your 28 days and then we’ll transition to Kids Revolution. Let’s talk about your 28 days and how we can help. There are so many people reading that are depressed. They seem fine on the outside. They’re not necessarily bedridden and not always 50 pounds overweight, but they’re depressed. They have a hard time functioning at work and in their business. Let’s talk about that 28 days and how to help moms, men, business owners, employees, etc. We’ll then dive into Kids Revolution.

Brooke Gibbs was one of my first amazing clients. She was a trauma nurse. She was working 12-hour days, 4 days a week. What she expressed to me later was that she was going home and sleeping. If you are out there and you’re finding that you can put your face on enough or show up when you have to, but then, the minute everyone’s gone, you’re finding yourself shut down, that, to me, is one of the most common things that are out there. There truly is a solution to it and for it.

When Brooke came to me, I said, “I challenge you. Do it four days in a row. Give it a try.” She also had an injury. If anybody has injuries and you used to work out or used to be healthy but that injury stopped you, this is one of the greatest things you can do to get back on the horse. After four days, she called me and seemed upset. It was fascinating. She said, “I can’t tell you. I thought that you were full of it when you told me I was going to feel better.”

Three weeks later, she’s calling me and telling me she has never had to sleep again. She wasn’t depressed anymore. She then ended up quitting her job and starting a nonprofit and helping teenagers. This is something that isn’t rocket science. When we do take care of our mental and physical health, it can change everything.

Before I found the 28 Days to Activate, it was like, “Here you are. You go see a therapist over here.” Even that is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you got to schedule your time. For all you entrepreneurs out there, it’s not exciting to add one more thing to your schedule, especially if you don’t see it producing income. You have your personal trainer, so you have to go over here. You then got to see a nutritionist. You want some community. For me, everything was all over and way too complicated.

That’s a full-time job in itself.

It doesn’t have to be. I’m excited for anybody reading this. With the 28 Days to Activate, the concept simple. You walk, listen to audio, have body movements, and then connect and communicate with the coach via voice memos. When we combine new thought thinking with body movements to get rid of stress and communicate with another person who’s already been there, it’s magical. The biggest piece was that it was 25 minutes a day. That’s it. It doesn’t have to be these long hours. If you work yourself into that, that’s fine, but there’s magic in the consistency over the intensity.

What do they do in those 25 minutes? Specifically, what did that nurse do in four days to realize that she had more energy and wasn’t depressed? She was sleeping better, quit her job, and started a nonprofit. What did she do in those four days to make those types of decisions?

Lay your clothes out the night before you wake up. Before you look at your cell phone, at any emails, or at anything going on in your business life, it’s important to check in with yourself. A lot of us, if we haven’t had this routine, we need to be guided. Remember, I shared in the beginning that I got these divine thought concepts about self. You wake up, put your headphones on, and walk.

I had another client who was big in HR. She was traveling all the time. She said, “I can’t do this because I’m always traveling,” but then, she could wake up and walk anywhere, even in her room if she had to. I’ve had people snowed in. You can get up, walk, and listen to audio. This is where we get these new thoughts, new neuro-pathways, and new thought frequency that starts changing our day. You do a 10-minute walk with audio.

Let’s be specific. What type of audio?

They’re self-discovery audios. This is where we ask you questions about yourself. One of my favorite concepts is from Dr. Maxwell Maltz who discovered the power of self-image. He won the Nobel Peace prize for it. We have you start checking in with how you see yourself. That’s the beginning. Each week is an adventure, and it adds to it. They’re self-reflection. It’s not Terha telling you what to think about you. That’s one of the biggest problems.

People get so confused. There are too many outside sources telling you who you are and what you need to be. That’s the problem with the kids and social media that causes internal struggle, strife, stress, anxiety, and all of it. You start with audio that’s asking you about yourself, but the power is the combination of both.

The second step is these activating body movements. What I didn’t realize in the beginning is that there are body movements you can do to help activate your brain. They make you smarter, and faster, and increase your memory. The simplest one that might surprise you. When we do neurodevelopment with the youth, it catches people off-guard. When was the last time we even stretched our arms above our heads?

I do it every morning for 45 minutes on the stair climber.

You’re in that unique place. The majority of people are walking, sitting, or typing.

That’s why they get shoulder lock. It’s called shoulder freeze.

They could also get brain fog. I call the activators the body movements that you do not normally do in a day. Anything outside of the norm starts to wake up that brain activity. This is why Brooke started feeling better. This is why she was waking up her brain and not staying numb, stuck, and cloudy-minded. A lot of people get that tired afternoon fog. It’s all that’s happening chemically in the brain.

They can sit at their desk and move their shoulders?

Yes. I have incredible desk ones. There’s a science behind combining the two, and you’re done within 25 minutes. The third step is the voice connection with another human being. It’s one way that we can cement new thought concepts. Have you ever heard that when people go to an event, they forget everything in 72 hours?

Mind Body Revolution: There are actually body movements you can do to help activate your brain, make you smarter and faster, and increase your memory.

It’s usually six hours. It’s much quicker than 24 hours.

When you voice memo a live person daily, this is what cements in the long-term growth and the long-term change. This is why we started seeing miracles. It’s the power of simplicity. You walk, listen to audio, do your activators, and voice memo your coach with consistency.

Do you need to have a coach to voice memo with? Is that what you’re saying?

Yes. We have guides. We call them guides that you’re voice memo-ing each day. You’re connected to another person, and not in the state of what everybody went through the last few years of feeling isolated and alone.

Is the voice memo talking back or is it a one-on-one?

Yes.

What else?

Next is the final step, the power of simplicity. Those three steps every day are done in 25 minutes. Consistency over intensity is truly what helps us be chemically balanced. You’re starting to feel better. You’re not as cloudy-minded. Your memories increase your focus, attention, and overall well-being. This is why I smile a lot. It’s a practice to turn on the activators. Antidepressants, for example, have serotonin built into them, but your body’s ability with these special movements to produce serotonin naturally far surpasses any pharmaceutical or chemical drug in what it’s trying to do up here.

We repeat those three steps. How much time should we spend on each step?

Picture yourself waking up, walking in the morning, and listening to audio. You’re getting new thought thinking.

How much time?

10 to 15 minutes. That’s it. You then follow it with activators. Activators are body movements you do not do in a day. We have to wake up our brains because we have gotten so numbed out from so many things. These are typically cross-body movements that are not painful and wake you up chemically. I could talk about that forever. The third part is voice memoing your coach.

Are you doing the body movements and activators while walking, are those two separate things?

It’s tight after you’re done walking.

You don’t do it at the same time?

No. That’s 10 to 15 minutes. You’re done in 25 minutes. That’s it. You then voice memo your coach. When we leave our bodies wanting more, something happens. It’s not the no pain, no gain. The whole thing that if you’re not tired and suffering, you didn’t do enough is why consistency doesn’t stay. I like to put it like this. If you’ve ever been at the gym, you go, “I can do one more rep and one more set.” What if you didn’t? What if you stopped and left your body wanting more? Do you know where all that energy goes into? It goes into your mind, energy, and focus throughout the rest of the day instead of body exhaustion. This is how the energy increases. It seems illogical, but it’s how we were designed.

The same thing happens to me when I work out in the morning. I’m not talking about a stair climb where you move your feet a little bit. You move your entire body. I’ll do some weights afterward each day, and it does leave me wanting more. It makes me excited about working out the next day. If I don’t work out, I feel terrible. I feel bad about it. I always say the hardest step is starting. There have been times when I’ve quit. There have been times when I’m on a speaking circuit and I can’t get that workout in. The hardest thing is starting. How do you encourage people to get started?

I love what you said, too, when we don’t get it in. That was a huge problem in that a lot of people were reliant on a machine or a location. Veronica, for example, who was head of HR was used to a gym. Every time she’d travel and didn’t have one, she was suffering. The 28 Days to Activate is all bodyweight only. The key is starting small if you haven’t worked out in a while. We’re taught and told, “Go get a personal trainer and do an hour-long session.” If you hurt yourself or injure yourself that first time, the body will subconsciously say, “I don’t want to do that again.” If you do 25 minutes and then stop, the momentum builds.

It’s easy. I’m in a lot of hotel rooms, so I’ll do squats. I’ll do 100 squats with different hand movements. I’ll do pushups. It is easy to take it anywhere. I have a lot of friends. I know a lot of people suffering not just from depression, but also from pain. I have some close friends that are in pain 24/7. What do you suggest for those individuals?

I have been so fortunate to work with hundreds of women who had fibromyalgia and extreme inflammation. I can’t say it enough when I’m using the word activator. These are body movements you don’t normally do in a day. I’ve had people with extreme inflammation be able to do these body movements. If you need something lighter, I have the chair ones. You can still walk a little bit and then do these body movements in a chair. The unfortunate reality is that it takes that movement to alleviate the pain. Going to a gym for an hour-long session is not where I could start. These activator movements are kind to the body. They’re nice on the body.

Mind Body Revolution: With these special movements, your body’s ability to produce serotonin naturally far surpasses any pharmaceutical or chemical drug in what it’s trying to do up here.

I’ve been saying for decades that it’s good to use both sides of your body, the left brain, and right brain. We’re all used to brushing our teeth with our right hand, if we’re right-handed, and doing things with our right hand. It’s important to become ambidextrous and use both the right hand and the left hand. You become ambidextrous, too, when you’re doing these activator moments.

Studies have shown that people who do that right are smarter, have a better memory, and have better quality and view of life. I have so many people that have so many questions. The biggest problem was that so many people who were in pain were used to being told to do these hard workouts. That’s when I started. I didn’t know what a digital product was.

On the business side, when I discovered that you could create a video that someone could watch and do on their own, it changed everything for me. That was why I became so passionate about creating this six-part activator series. It was so someone didn’t have to think about it. You just follow along with these simple six-body movements. I’ve had people within a few days that the pain alleviated. It’s less pain and less stress. They were always surprised because it didn’t have to be the hard workouts.

What’s imperative and so crucial is what I see in my businesses and with my clients. It seems like everybody’s walking around in a fog. When you’re in the middle of the fog, it’s foggy. It seems like everybody is walking around in a fog. They’re not awake, conscious, or thinking clearly. That could be a multitude of things. It could be stress, antidepressants, or a number of different things. It could also be a lack of coping abilities.

It’s so important to incorporate these exercises into your business environment because they don’t take long at all. You could be sitting at your desk and doing things with your legs. There are so many different things that you could do that are imperative to incorporate. I see in my own businesses where people are walking around the fog. I’m like, “Wake up. What’s going on?”

A lot of us aren’t aware. I didn’t realize what was happening when I first started this. I like the analogy of a fish tank. If you have ever gotten a beautiful fish, you have that clear bowl. You put that fish in there and he’s swimming around. He is happy and the water is clear. In time, that fish has waste. Before you know it, that fish bowl is cloudy and funky. What happens to the fish? All of a sudden, he’s not moving quickly. This is the best analogy. If you do not change the water, the fish pretty much dies. This is exactly what’s happening with our brains and the chemical state of our minds, especially with a lack of movement.

If you can picture that fish tank, when you feel yourself getting tired, cloudy, numb, and you’re not caring as much, that’s the chemical state of the brain. By body movements, and the activators are specifically for that, you’re flushing the chemical, cortisol, stress, fear, fight or flight from the brain, and increasing the natural chemicals that leave you feeling fresh and alert. There’s a huge problem with lack of movement, and many people have missed it because it is so simple.

Not only that but drinking water. It is so important to drink water because people drink anything all day long. When I drink, half my body weight is water, I’ve got so much energy that I can’t contain myself.

If you’re stressed, it is movement and hydration. When you’re talking about the left and the right hemisphere of the brain, you’re waking your brain up. I asked Google, “What is the most vital organ we have in our body?” It’s our brain, but how often do we exercise it? Not many people know how to do that. The biggest solution is these cross-body movements. These are movements we don’t do in the day that get our brain in a state where it’s able to grow. It flushes out the chemicals that are making us foggy and depressed. It can happen when you’re consistent. It’s consistency over intensity.

It’s all about consistency. In the 28-day plans, that’s doing the walking activators and the coaching calls once a day, every day, correct?

Yes.

Is there anything else there before we jump into Kids Revolution?

Yes. A great segue is that it was a few years ago that I had a group that was going through it. They all happened to be women in this particular challenge. After the challenge, the 28 days, they messaged me. I had people in Australia, Paris, and the States. They said, “We need to talk to you.” They were upset. I didn’t know what was going on, but I could feel it.

This was in October of 2019. My life changed when these people came to me and said, “If we knew what we discovered through this 28-day challenge when we were kids, our whole life would be different. We wouldn’t be struggling with our weight. We wouldn’t be struggling with bad relationships or exhaustion.” They demanded, “Make a program for our children.”

That’s a great transition. Tell us all about Kids Revolution.

For them, I started working with their kids. I don’t know for any of you out there, but when you get awake to a problem, you can’t look away. If you would’ve told me a few years ago that I’d be working with kids globally for their mental and physical health, I wouldn’t have believed you. The problem was so big. It was so bad. These children had a lack of movement, lack of identity, and lack of confidence. They were worse than any of the adults that I had seen from their movement and understanding of who they are. It’s not the parent’s fault. There are things that these adults weren’t even aware of.

When I started working with them and I saw the problem, I couldn’t look away. We ended up building a facility in our health club, a ninja warrior course for kids, but there was another problem. The best way I can relate to it is let’s say your child gets diagnosed with ADHD or you know that they’re having social anxiety. You’re seeing them compare themselves to all the things on social media and you see them shrink down. A lot of the solution in the past was the same thing with the adults. They were told, “Go get them a psychologist. They need sessions. We want to help them.”

It could also be, “Go put them on ADD or ADHD medication.” That’s strong for kids.

It’s terrible because what that does is stunt their brain growth. Normally, families would do this. A lot of the parents had tried these things. They go get a psychologist. That’s thousands of dollars and hours of drive time as a parent, and it leaves the child feeling like there’s something wrong with them. You then have sports. Sports are great. However, what I discovered was that typical sports are only three months. As a parent, you’re a busy entrepreneur. We’ll do anything for our kids, but at the same time, that’s hours of drive time and hundreds of dollars. After the sports activity, they are sitting on their behinds again.

The other part is nutrition. A lot of people who are in line are aware that it’s what they’re eating, but then, you got thousands of dollars to a nutritionist and hours of drive time. We even tried brain balance. There are different neurodevelopment things. I’m not knocking it, but if you realize that you’re taking them to an event or a place where they’re being hooked up to machines or being viewed behind glass, what is this doing for their identity and telling them who they are? I had to do away with all of that.

Mind Body Revolution: If you’ve ever been at the gym and you go, “I can do one more rep and set,” what if you didn’t? What if you stopped and left your body wanting more? Do you know where all that energy goes? Into your mind, your energy, and your focus throughout the rest of the day instead of body exhaustion.

The Kids Revolution became a daily challenge for children to do that’s disguised as fun. We call them superhero activators. We’re not going, “There’s something wrong with you. You’re struggling in school. Here’s how we’re going to help you.” It’s, “I have something fun. Would you like to try activating your superpowers?” Over three years, I’ve worked with hundreds of kids in person but then discovered that didn’t work for all families. There had to be a solution.

This came down to recorded videos and audio and meeting the children where they are at. It’s something that they could do anytime, anywhere. For example, if they’re going back and forth between two homes, they can still do their superhero activator videos. This is where we combined mindset, body movements, and nutrition. We then connect them socially on live calls with children from around the world. It took me a lot of learning what children won’t do to discover what they will do. That’s the power behind the revolution. It’s tried, true, and proven. We’re getting to expand in a bigger way.

That’s amazing. Is that a 28-day program as well or is that ongoing? How does that work?

We have follow-up continued programs for our adults, but it has to be at least a year long. One of the biggest problems is parents, when you have your kiddos in sports, they’re learning inconsistency. We’re teaching the brain at a young age that you are only active for a season and then you go to doing nothing. This was what I found out why the average gym membership person only uses it for three months. Their brain has been trained at a young age to go for three-month periods, and then they stop and don’t know why.

For the children, it’s a year-long program minimum where they have daily challenges. They get to meet with other kids around the world. That’s how we keep them engaged. Your child gets to become the star. These videos that these kids follow each day are by kids for kids. After three months in the program, they get ownership of their own dance videos and activator videos that go out to kids all over the world. I had to figure out, “How do I keep them engaged for a full year so that they could be learning and getting these habits on a neurodevelopment side from a young age?”

How are you incorporating affirmations into this program? The one thing that my husband and I do with our daughter is, “I am intelligent. I am this. I am that,” and then incorporate God, what she’s thankful for, and what she needs help with. How are you incorporating that into this program?

It’s great that you do that with her. I also discovered that my children would probably listen to their peers sometimes over me.

My daughter came home and said, “My friend at school said I’m a fake friend.” A part of me wants to say, as a protector, “You tell her that you’re a real friend and you have real friends you’re going to go play with,” but I’m asking her, “You should ask her where that comes from. Maybe somebody is using the word fake in her family. Try to understand where she’s coming from and respond instead of reacting.” That’s where bullying comes from.

There are two things here. One, the I am statements are an integral piece of what we do. On a neurodevelopment side, some of the body movements we have them do are, “I am strong.” We allow the children to have their own ownership of this. They make their own I am statements and incorporate them with their own body movements. We’re syncing this in, not just on a surface level. We’ve all told our kids some things, but do they really feel it, embrace it, or believe it? It takes repetition. Unless they’re doing it daily to some degree, it counts a little less from the parent.

What we do on the live calls is we are not telling or teaching the kids anything. We are allowing them full expression to express what their I am statements are with other peers. This is when I saw the true change. Unfortunately, with your daughter, someone said something not nice. Imagine a space where the children are positively impacting each other. Johnny is telling Bobby he’s awesome. We go more in-depth with more powerful I am’s, but we start with the beginning ones. When Bobby told Susie she’s amazing, Susie owns it.

It’s all neurodevelopment as well. When we connect them with their peers, they’re so affirmed in their own identity. If they go to school and someone says something, they don’t receive it, but it has to be a consistent thing. That’s why we go for a whole year. They’re getting built up so much from their own peers that they don’t get affected by the bullying.

This can help prevent bullying?

1000%. In the second quarter of the program, we talk with kids about how to handle that. We give them the level of understanding that if someone said something not nice, they’re probably hurting themselves.

That’s what I told my daughter. I said, “You need to ask her where this is coming from. Don’t react. Respond.” The natural reaction of a mama is, “Say, ‘Bye.’ You have no friends,” but I told her, “Try to get to know where she’s coming from because hurt people hurt people.”

This isn’t taught in schools. That’s why like I’m so grateful for partnering with American Prep. In the school world, they call it social-emotional learning. Kids Rev is unique because it combines all four. For years, they have been looking for different ways to help the kids. They were on the front lines, seeing the problem, and knowing that these types of coping skills and mental and physical activities are not provided in the school system. That’s where we show up to fill in the gap and truly give them the quality of life that they’re meant to have.

Have you seen children be able to wing off of ADD or ADHD medication, antidepressants, etc.?

100%. We have to say the disclaimer. It’s up to the parent and all of these things. My son, in particular, was when he was seven. Even before I started doing this, the school called. I remember the day. I was cooking dinner and they called. They were like, “Your son has ADHD. We’re recommending that he go get medical help and attention.” I was cooking spaghetti and then I went, “Oh, my God.” You want to drop the phone.

We went the route of paying thousands to a psychologist. This was before I did the program. We were trying to get him into sports and trying thousands to change his nutrition. When I fully got him on the Kids Revolution program, that is when I saw the change. Even Nico, when I first met him, he wasn’t speaking full sentences. After a week of the challenge in the program, he was focused and looking in the eyes. His happiness was there. It all comes down to neurodevelopment, but how do we get our kids to do it? That was the problem. It took forever, in my world, to find what the kids will do.

What about autism? Do you see any success in autistic children?

We’ve had quite a few smaller groups that we’ve worked with that. For that, their happiness level goes up. It’s all about the brain. That’s why I ended up in Venice. I got invited to come to speak there for the Better World Fund on neuroscience. When we can get the brain in a chemical state that’s conducive to growth, flood it with serotonin, and get them feeling better, that is when the quality of life changes, whether it’s someone on the spectrum, a child struggling with ADHD, or our amazing kids that are struggling with comparing themselves to the rest of the world. It is when they have the quality of life that they’re meant to have. It’s just hard to find it in one place.

Mind Body Revolution: When we get their brain in a conducive state for growth, they have the quality of life they’re meant to have.

It’s so important, too, especially with human trafficking being the number two crime in the world. You’re being able to empower little girls and boys not to get on these predator sites and not to become prey. I was watching a TV program while I was doing this. About as low as a sixteen-year-old was on this site because she didn’t feel loved. She didn’t feel like she got any attention. The only thing that was giving her attention were these men that she met on a site.

The problem with that is that we could sum it up as low self-esteem. That coincides with the same thing with getting in trouble or having suicidal thoughts. Depression, anxiety, attempted suicides, and mental health is all off the charts. That falls in line with low self-esteem. I had a judge who had gone through the 28 Days of Activate program. They asked that we would create a program for these teenagers who got in trouble. This all ties into exactly what you brought up.

What I realized with my first twelve kids is that eight of the parents I got to meet seemed good. Four of the parents were struggling, but all of those teenagers got in trouble and into the court system because of one thing. It was one outside influence that told them to do something. It’s the same thing with these girls and boys who are getting hooked on the internet. It’s if they do not have a solid enough identity.

I wish to goodness it could only come from the parents, but it can’t. They have to have an identity that is solid within themselves. It helps with the parents, but also with their peers. These kids were all getting in trouble, getting hooked online, or getting depressed because of bullying. They don’t have a solid enough identity and the cognitive chemical state of a brain that keeps them feeling good. The solution is the revolution.

Let’s get more to that. We’re getting short here on time, but I can’t let you leave without knowing what the five keys are to raising extraordinary children. I feel like we need not just better parenting, but better education. It needs to be in the school systems. What are the five keys?

I’m glad you asked. For anybody reading, I have free training. It’s a twenty-minute video. You can do that to follow it along. Number one is their thoughts and thinking about themselves. I’m glad you asked because we also build in the education for the parent. I was amazed it’s not understood out there. This is a combination of five things that can change everything for your child. Number one is their thoughts and their thinking about themselves.

One thing I noticed sometimes when I correct my daughter is that she’ll say, “You don’t like me. You don’t love me.” Where is that coming from? I tell her 100 times a day how much I love her and my whole world revolves around her. Where does that come from?

That leads to where our thoughts and our thinking come from. Any thought comes from things that we have seen or heard. Unfortunately, the majority of what is on television or social media falls into those categories. The biggest thing that I’m hearing parents say a lot about their children is they’re saying, “I’m confused.” They wouldn’t be able to think of it if they didn’t see it somewhere else. The way that we combat that is by giving them as much opportunity as possible to have those thoughts and thinking. It can’t come from you. That’s why I got so passionate. It has to come from their other peers.

She’ll say, “I don’t like myself.” I’m like, “Where is that coming from?”

It’s from TV, social media, or TikTok. That’s why we have to be part of the solution to bringing this into that space.

We monitor her TV and social media. We won’t let her get a phone. There’s no reason for her to have a phone at this age. Number one is their thinking and their thoughts.

It’s their thoughts and thinking about themselves. They need repetition. They need to hear it from other peers for it to be highly enforced.

It’s not just the parents. That’s important.

I was like, “Where could I find a place that I could ensure my son was going to have positive friends?” There was nothing because even in sports, they were dealing with the same thing. We had to cultivate an environment of kids that were at the same level and had positive thought thinking concepts. I had to create it for them.

Number two is their body movements. This is for adults and children. Back in the day, we used to play outside. That’s not happening anymore. We’ve been talking in the beginning about these activator movements. They have to be moving on a daily basis in a way that is not what they’re used to. This is the only way we can wake their brain up. The third piece is connections. We touched on this and skipped around a little bit. Connections mean whom they are talking to.

It could also be what they are listening to.

We can also add what they are talking about. Something happens to the brain. This is why when we have guides, they get voice memos. This is why with Kids Revolution, we have to get them on a call where they are speaking with other peers about higher topics. It’s the communication and connection with other humans on a speech level.

The fourth piece is what food they are eating. This is not about weight. This was the biggest a-ha when we went through the five keys of raising an extraordinary child training that most parents were surprised about. It’s not about food for weight. It is about what are they putting in their body that is destroying their brain or making their brain healthier. I could get more into that.

The fifth part is purpose. Like us as an adult, what is our child feeling that they are passionate about? We had to give them a purpose. If they don’t have something that drives them something to be excited about, then that’s the final key that’s missing in a lot of them. This is where depression comes in or them saying, “I’m lost. I’m struggling.”

They don’t have anything that they’re feeling a part of and something that they are proud of. That’s why we built in them getting to create their own videos. I’ve never seen children get so happy and excited as they do when they get to create their very own activator video. They’re a part of a global thing where kids are coming together. The final piece is something that they’re proud of.

They love videos, photography, and technology. My daughter loves creating videos of herself. She’s been a little bit on the fence about gymnastics and thought that she might not move up because they’re only going to move up with certain kids. The coach said, “All you have to do is listen to me, do the work, and focus, and you’ll move up.”

Mind Body Revolution: There are psychological things that we have built into the Kids Revolution worldwide that are making it fun and engaging where we are wiring their brains at a young age to understand consistency, perseverance, how to treat other people, the kind of friends that you want in your life, etc.

When she taught her a new routine, she came home on fire. She was so excited. She was like, “I love gymnastics again.” She had a new purpose. Before, she thought, “I’m stagnant. I’m not going anywhere here.” It’s as important for kids to have a purpose as it is for adults. How do you incorporate grit? I find so many employees and so many people that don’t have the grit. When I go to hire people, to me, grit’s more important than education.

With adults and with children, it’s a little different. This is why I can’t speak volumes enough about American Preparatory that is implementing the Kids Revolution. It’s going to be a required course training for these students because it’s just not being taught in schools. With children, we trick them into it. There are psychological things that we have built into the Kids Revolution Worldwide that are making it fun and engaging.

We are truly wiring their brains at a young age to understand consistency, perseverance, how to treat other people, and the kind of friends that you want in your life. Grit for kids can’t be grit. That’s where a lot of things happen where they feel pushed even though parents might have good intentions. With the kids, you allow it to be a fun experience to continue to grow, be consistent, be kind, and be intentional. We had to build it in a fun way.

I bring up grit because too many people quit too soon. Too many Millennials, Gen Zs, and children give up too soon because they don’t have grit. They’re told, “It’s okay. You can go try something else.” That’s why, to me, it’s so important to incorporate grit so children are not giving up. I have a friend of mine where their child does this and doesn’t like it. There’s no stickability.

What I discovered is why people give up is brain development. How was their brain developed when they were younger? I had a client who came to me. Someone told her, “You look like a pig,” when she was younger. She had this identity and struggled with poor health her whole life. She also struggled to stay physically consistent. What we’re seeing is that these Millennials’ brains aren’t developed for consistency. It’s small spurts of growth and then sitting doing nothing. It’s not that they don’t have grit. Their brain wasn’t trained from a young age to keep going.

Their parents, probably, a lot of times say, “That’s okay. You can quit.”

The parent probably had the same thing, unless someone will use physical activity, as an example. I studied 100 people at my gym which only lasted for three months. You signed up for a gym membership that New Year’s resolution. You plan on going the whole year and being healthy, but everybody was three months. I started making phone calls and doing deep internal questions. Luckily, people know I was coming from a good place. Most of them were taught three months of sports activities. Instead, they were accidentally self-sabotaging because their brain wasn’t taught consistency from the time they were little and without knowing not to quit.

That’s why I love gymnastics. Gymnastics is not three months. Tennis is not three months. Horseback riding is not three months. It has all the movement. Tell us quickly before we have to leave. What is VPP?

The American Preparatory and Vision People Project are two of the most extraordinary companies that are pioneering reinventing education into the metaverse and also into the blockchain. We need to be ahead of technology. We need to not just meet the children where they are, but be where they are going and where they want to be. The Vision People Project is pioneering Kids Revolution onto the blockchain with NFTs and nodes. If you’re not familiar with this, it’s okay. It’s amazing. We have more information.

Where all the children are going and where they’re learning about blockchain, crypto, and NFTs, we’re meeting the kids there and reinventing education through the Vision People Project. American Preparatory in the metaverse is going to be the first fully accredited online K-12 school that is doing experiential learning in all of their classes as well as the Kids Revolution in a new, global way, which is metaverse and blockchain.

That’s awesome. Do you have any last-minute thoughts for those business owners that are struggling with stress, lack of sleep pain, etc.? What are your last-minute thoughts for us parents trying to raise extraordinary kids? Let’s then talk about how everybody can reach out and get your five key training on how to grow extraordinary children, Kids Revolution and how they can be a part of that, and the 28-day challenge. I know I’m unpacking a lot, but do you have any challenges for our audience?

For those busy entrepreneurs, find a way to get that 25 to 30 minutes in the morning. Try the experiment of consistency with that much time in the morning. If you need that help and that guidance, we’ll have where you can get access to the 28 days. Believe and know that it’s simpler than we think, and that can truly change everything with that 25 to 30 minutes in the morning. For the children, if you’re looking at the five keys to raising extraordinary children, we have that access to that training that can enlighten a lot. We have further education there.

How do we get in contact with you if we want to start the 28-day challenge or the Kids Revolution training? How does everybody find you?

The easiest thing is www.Terha360.com. You can send a private message with either one of the programs that you would like more information on and we can get you set up on your way.

I’m going to put you on the spot really quickly, but you can handle it. Throw out a challenge for my busy entrepreneurs and for us parents that we can do in the next 28 days. It takes 30 days to create a new habit.

It goes back to the same simplicity of saying 25 minutes in the morning of physical activity for you and your children.

Do that reach out to both of us. Let her know how that 28-day challenge changed your life.

Spend 25 minutes in the morning. Give it a shot and watch what can happen. It’s you and your child. For example, if you’re working with morning routines and habits with your kiddos, why not get moving first thing in the morning? It might be easy, and there’s no judgment here, to have to turn on the TV or get them their breakfast. If there can be that fun way to get moving in the morning, your whole life will change. You’re going to have a happier kiddo and you’re going to be a lot happier yourself. It’s extreme. It’s a nine-day difference.

You’re not talking about a lot of time. Do you have any other words of wisdom? You dropped so many golden nuggets. Do you have any other words of wisdom for entrepreneurs and parents?

Give yourself that time in the morning over and over again and watch what happens.

Thank you so much. You dropped so many golden nuggets and so much wisdom. We do need to do a better job of taking care of ourselves because if we don’t get back and take care of ourselves, we’re not going to be much to anybody else. We’re responsible for the future. We need to make sure we’re growing our children to the best of our ability, and that takes help. Kids don’t come with a training manual. I encourage all my readers to follow you.

Thank you to all my readers for joining us on another episode of the show. Make sure you share this with your network. If you’re a Terha fan, make sure you share that with your network as well. Let’s get more kids into the Kids Revolution. Let’s get America moving. Let’s get the world moving. Let’s create better, happier, and healthier kids. Thank you for being an amazing guest. To my audience, make sure you subscribe and share this with your audience. We’ll see you next time for another episode of the show. Thank you.

 Important Links

• Terha Watterson
• Exit Rich

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