Jennifer Hill On Overcoming Fear And Finding Peace

A very insightful conversation with Awake TV show host Jennifer K Hill. This is part of the Peace Projects where I ask people about their path to peace. Jennifer shares lovely insights on how to embrace fear to overcome it

Transcript

Aloha,

This is the Peace Projects.

I'm Cindy Palos and I have such a beautiful lady.

I'm so excited to have Jennifer Cahill with me this morning,

Or it could be anytime,

But you know what?

You're just such an inspiration.

You're so talented.

You've given people so much information and love and peace with your beautiful career.

And we'll talk some about that today.

You started with a successful legal staffing agency.

Jennifer Hill Staffing Services.

And then you wrote your first book,

"'Stop Hoping',

Start hunting and job seekers guide to finding a dream job.

" And you've helped tens of thousands of people and their ideal jobs.

And then you wrote 101 spiritual tools for uncertain times.

And you were able to achieve what I've only dreamed of achieving.

You were on Good Day,

LA,

KTLA.

You were on CBS,

NBC,

ABC,

Fox,

BBC News.

And you have since gotten involved in a wonderful project working with a group that I love,

Awake TV.

And you now do and host three shows a week.

You're also,

As you mentioned me,

Is becoming a very much of a Zoom expert.

So welcome to the Peace Projects.

And I would love to talk to you today about your career and how you went from this very high powered Los Angeles area job and all of these great media outlets and all of those opportunities to where you are now in Europe.

Right now,

When we're talking,

You're right there in Portugal.

And you kind of transformed your life so beautifully,

Jennifer,

So welcome.

And so the first question would be how did you make that transition from where you are then to where you are right now?

Cindy,

Well,

Thank you so much.

And congratulations on your Peace Project Award with UNESCO.

I mean,

That's so incredible that this is kind of your passion and your dream is to bring peace to the world.

So I think it's important to pause for a moment and acknowledge you for that.

And I'm so happy to be here with you.

It's been so much fun getting to have you join me for the Coalition for Global Unity Meditation and on my awake show,

And then to join you for all of your travel shows.

And it's the only way I can describe it,

Cindy,

Is divine intervention.

It was probably early 2019.

And you know how you do something and it's your calling and you feel every morning like you wake up and you're meant to be doing it.

And when I started off recruiting in my early 20s,

It very much felt like that for me.

I felt like I was helping people.

I was fulfilling my purpose.

I was helping others fulfill their purpose.

And then fast forward,

I wound up selling my first company in 2018 and was meant to stay on running the company for several more years.

And through an amazing happening,

I got introduced to a dream coach named Goli.

And I was out to dinner with this famous actor in New York and he lived in the building.

And he said,

You know,

I work with this fabulous dream coach she's my guru,

She helps me with things.

And my ears perked up because I was like,

Gosh,

No,

I feel like I'm kind of at a crossroads in my life right now.

And I said,

Would you mind if you introduced me to her?

He said,

Oh,

Absolutely.

And as soon as he connected Goli and I,

We were just kind of soul sisters,

We hit it off.

I remember our first meeting at a hotel in Beverly Hills in Los Angeles and she gave me my first dream assignment.

And at that moment,

Cindy,

The furthest thing from my mind was being a television host.

And so that night I went to bed and I did this specific exercise that Goli gave me to write in my journal.

And in the middle of the night,

You're supposed to write any dreams that come up as you wake up and remember them.

And in my dream,

I dreamt of a male newscaster.

Why he was male?

I have no idea,

But he was a very polished gentleman in front of a camera.

And there were several other things I dreamed.

So the next morning I call Goli and I share this with her.

And this was around March or April of last year.

And she says,

Jen,

You're gonna be a newscaster,

You're gonna be on television.

It's like,

Goli,

I haven't done,

Because a lot of the interviews I did were on the other side of the camera where I was being interviewed back in my late 20s and early 30s.

And I giggled,

I was like,

Goli,

I'm running a company.

I'm not being in television.

And she said,

Oh,

My dear,

You will be.

And through a remarkable series of events,

As of November 1st of last year,

I moved into a consulting role with the company I sold,

Was offered a TV hosting gig with Awake TV,

Never having hosted a TV show in my life.

And at the same time was offered the opportunity to co-moderate a panel with Deepak Chopra and Don Hoffman at UCI,

And then went on to host a 10-part series with Deepak.

And actually we're getting ready to do another special episode coming up soon.

So it's been divine intervention,

Cindy.

I can't explain it any other way.

It is an amazing story.

But also since this is also about peace,

You had to find something in yourself that trusted enough to make that huge change from being there in LA,

To moving to Europe,

To being open to learning everything you had to learn.

And it shows to me this amazing trust and confidence you had.

Did that bring you peace,

Having this confidence in this goal that you were able to achieve through spirit?

Yes,

I think peace comes from inner knowing and trust.

In the moments where we have doubts,

We have fears,

And we have worries,

Which are all human experiences.

I wanna be very clear.

There is nothing wrong with any of those emotions.

They're natural things.

One thing that we could do is instead of pushing away the fear is to say,

Oh,

I'm choosing to be afraid.

Was I scared?

Last November,

I gave up my apartment in Santa Monica.

I had a lovely apartment and I went to go build my second school in Africa.

And by the time I got back from building my second school,

I had given up my home.

I had no home at that point.

And I began meandering around the globe and around the world.

And even right now where I'm at in Portugal,

Speaking of peace,

It's funny.

I chose to live in Portugal right now during this time,

Because Portugal is the third most peaceful country in the world behind Iceland and New Zealand.

And I chose to be here in Portugal.

And with everything happening in the world at this exact moment,

I meditate and reflect and pray every day.

And I say,

Universe,

Where would you like me to be in a month?

And the funny thing is it talk about perfect certainty,

Even though I have no idea where I'm gonna be,

I just trust the universe that I get a message that says,

Wait,

I've gotten a message multiple times in the last several weeks saying,

Wait,

And that there's a certain time that it's gonna be revealed to me where I should be and when I should be there.

And I just get to surrender and let go.

And it's really,

Thank God for meditation,

Because meditation and prayer and reflection all allows me to be peaceful.

And still to have moments where I'm afraid,

To be very clear,

There are still moments where I'm like,

Oh my gosh,

Wow.

But then I get to embrace it and love it and let it go and find peace within again.

You know,

This is a very good point about embracing that fear,

But also embracing sometimes that fears from some shadow we may have had.

And when most people have gone through this last year,

What we've gone through with COVID-19,

That brought up huge,

Huge clouds of fear.

In fact,

Most people I know are afraid to travel at all.

And yet you've traveled and moved like four times or five times.

And we're able with this trust that you have to be able to do what you needed to do to be.

And I had no idea by the way,

That Portugal was considered the third most peaceful country.

Now,

Thank you for that.

I had no idea.

It's great to know.

It makes me curious about where America stands with that.

I'll check that out.

But in meditation,

How,

When you embraced these fears,

How did you encounter it and embrace it and own it and,

You know,

Because this is some of the biggest points that people go through.

I remember reading Carlos Castañada years ago and how he kind of faced his own shadow and had to face what came up.

And this for everyone on the spiritual path is a huge thing that I think we can learn from.

And if we can face our fear and that may include some shadows and embrace it and allow it to be,

Then we have to go through this huge catharsis.

And I think it does include peace,

But it's quite a journey.

What was that like when you embraced your fear?

The better question,

Cindy,

Is what is it like?

It's an ongoing process.

And I was actually inspired about two or three weeks ago,

One of my teachers and mentors,

David Guillaume,

Host a podcast called the weekly energy boost on Mondays.

And on his show,

He did a whole show on fear.

And I've actually put into practice just in the last three weeks one of the techniques he recommends in that episode,

Which I highly recommend checking out the whole thing.

And he says,

You know,

Each one of our fears is hiding the light within it.

And so one of our spiritual practices could be to wake up every day and to either write down our fears or mentally think of our fears and to thank each one with gratitude for the light that is going to be revealed on the other side of that fear.

As human beings,

You know,

Many of the teachers I've studied with over the years have a similar philosophy that whatever you're most afraid of,

Whatever the greatest obstacle or challenges that you could ever fathom facing on the other side of that awaits the miracles,

Awaits the magic that you've always wanted.

And on a side note,

Of course,

One of our,

Many of our biggest fears as human beings is dying.

And I,

You know,

I read a book many years ago,

Many lives,

Many masters by Brian Weiss.

It's one of my favorite books and helped me to transform my perspective and my fear on dying.

And about two years ago,

It was at a Rosh Hashanah celebration in New York.

There was a teacher by the name of Michael Berg who shared a story.

May I share it with you right now?

I think,

Yeah,

So this is one of my favorite stories that I've ever heard about death and dying and life and peace.

And Michael said,

You know,

There was a man and he's sitting in a restaurant in this old village and three sages walk by the restaurant and they see some light,

A little glimmer of light glowing from outside the restaurant.

So they go in just to see where this light is coming from.

And they see this man sitting alone by himself at a table having dinner.

And they say,

Sir,

Please forgive our interruption,

But we are wise sages and we travel the world and it is our goal to reveal the most light.

And we noticed that your light was actually shining.

We could see it through the window.

Is there something you do?

Is there something special that you have or that we might not be aware of?

And the gentleman kind of looked down at his food,

Looked around and he said,

I'm sorry,

Gentlemen,

I'm sorry to disappoint you,

But I'm just a humble man,

You know,

Of humble means.

I try to be a good person,

But I'm by no means extraordinary.

And so I apologize for disappointing you,

But I wish you well on your way.

And the sages are obviously disappointed.

And they're like,

Yeah,

Maybe we saw something that wasn't really there.

So they have a few more days in the village and the next day they're walking by and around the corner from the restaurant this time,

They can see the light,

It's growing even brighter.

And so they go in and sure enough,

There's that same gentleman at the table.

And they said,

Sir,

You know,

We came up to you yesterday and we just thought we'd check with you again.

This time your light was shining even brighter than before.

Was there something maybe that you didn't think of that you do that the rest of us don't do?

And you know,

He said,

Gosh,

You know,

I try to be a good father to my children.

I try to help people when they're in need of help,

But I wish I could tell you I'm special.

I'm just not special.

And at this point,

The sages are getting frustrated because they're about to leave the village the next day.

And they say,

Sir,

Is there anything?

He says,

No,

I guess I'm just kind of an average gentleman.

And so they go away again.

And now it's the third day and the sages are getting ready to leave the village.

And the whole village is covered in this luminous light from this restaurant.

And they go in and they're pleading now with the gentleman.

They're like,

Sir,

You must tell us where is this light coming from?

You have something that none of the rest of us have.

Is there anything you do that the rest of us don't do?

A special prayer perhaps.

And the man says,

Oh gosh,

I just don't know.

And the sages are about to give up and walk away.

And he says,

Oh,

There's this one thing I do.

I don't know if everybody else does it,

But I'm happy to share it with you if it'll make a difference.

And the sages are standing there wrapped with attention.

Yes,

Please share it.

And he says,

You know,

Every night before I go to bed,

I say,

God,

Universe,

If you know that tomorrow I'm going to wake up and reveal the light that you intend me to reveal,

Please wake me.

However,

If you know that tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm not going to reveal the light that you intend me to reveal,

Please don't wake me.

Wow.

I say,

I shared this story,

Cindy,

Because I've actually,

That's been one of my mantras in my prayers when I feel courageous enough to say that prayer,

I've probably said it maybe a total of 15 times in my life.

But as I'm on this journey and I notice that my fears get the better of me,

I strike up the courage sometimes to say that prayer at night and I really surrender.

And I thank the universe for my life.

I'm like,

Wow,

Thank you for the privilege and honor of whatever it looks like.

And that is why I'm able to travel.

And that is why I'm able to have certainty is because I know if I wake up tomorrow and I'm not going to reveal the light that the universe intended me to reveal,

Then I'm willing to let it go because I'm grateful for the time I've had.

That's a very,

Very powerful story.

And you told it so beautifully.

And as you've journeyed on this journey now,

You've had a chance to meet many teachers,

Any world famous teachers.

And as you see their light and share their light with others,

How do you feel as an instrument that allows that light to come through you so you can express it because you have to be clear and empty enough of,

Of course distractions and things that might block and shatter your mind.

And you have a lot going on to just be in that presence that allows other people to share their light.

You know,

I attribute probably one of the techniques I learned from a dear friend and mentor,

Sister Jenna.

And she had taught me to practice time in silence.

And I think that we can experience our own light or give anybody else the space for their own light to shine unless we practice silence.

And Deepak Chopra was one of my other teachers who taught me this.

He's actually going into his week of silence.

And there are days where I feel off kilter.

I don't know about you or any of your viewers or listeners out there,

But you just feel the noise,

The messiness of life,

Whether it's the news or social media,

Whatever it might be.

And I like to put it into practice at least one or more times a month to do a day of silence.

And I welcome the time where I'm gonna be able to devote a whole week of silence with my phone off.

And even on Saturdays,

I love to have my phone turned off and just not even be in the mix of all that.

And when we practice the silence and the stillness,

Which is funny,

I actually posted about this about six months ago on social media,

The difference between silence and stillness and got some really incredible responses around it because there are two different elements of what seems to be the same thing,

But different.

It's in the silence combined with the stillness that you have the ability to truly listen deeply to yourself and to other people,

No matter who it is,

No matter whether you're sitting with somebody at a bus stop or if you're talking to a world leader,

It's when you bring that capacity and also honor yourself.

I had an important meeting earlier this week and the person I was supposed to meet with,

I woke up that day,

Cindy,

And I wasn't in my highest and best self.

I did all my normal practices,

I meditated,

I hadn't slept well.

And I told the person I was meeting with,

I said,

Listen,

I would love to keep our meeting and I'm happy to do so.

And I want you to know that I'm probably gonna be operating at about 60 to 70%.

And it's your call if you choose to still have the meeting.

And she said,

Thank you so much for honoring yourself.

Because so often we try to push ourselves operating,

Not even at 60%,

But maybe 20 or 50%.

And then that's where we get into friction with ourselves and our loved ones and anybody in our lives.

When you look back now in this transformation that happened in just a few years time,

You were living a pretty high powered business profile life and you still have the ability to talk to some of these powerful people who are quote unquote,

Business leaders.

And you still talk to some of the very spiritual,

Most spiritual people in your TV shows on the way TV.

Do you find elements of one that may not relate to the other?

Do they look at you in a different way from one side to the other?

And how do you bridge this kind of image of what we see as high powered business people versus the spiritual community?

Thank you so much,

Cindy.

I love that question.

That's actually what birthed my new business last year called Metabysics that I co-founded.

And it's the intersection of the metaphysical and the business world.

And I'll never forget sitting down in a high powered meeting with an executive at a law firm and being afraid to show my spiritual side and to talk about spiritual elements.

And the first time I really dipped my proverbial toe in the water of talking something spiritual related at a business meeting,

I was terrified,

But I moved past my fears.

And what I found as time unfolded during all these business meetings is that 90% of my business meetings wound up being about metaphysics and spirituality.

And naturally the business flowed.

And even though,

For example,

My Monday show at 4 p.

M.

Called Get Yourself the Job,

We often interview leading business experts,

CEOs,

World thought leaders on business.

And for whatever reason,

There's just an easy effortless integration of spiritual and business because you create a space for it.

Whatever we're doing,

I was talking to somebody who was struggling with his business partner recently.

And I said,

You know,

The best piece of advice I ever got from one of my teachers who was a business manager,

But also was a spiritual gentleman,

Is he said,

People occur through the filter you see them through.

Years ago,

I had had a team member who was not performing and I was getting ready to terminate.

And at that time,

My business coach said,

What if you are listening to her as a disappointment?

And it had never occurred to me before.

And I was like,

Well,

No,

You know,

This isn't working or that isn't working.

And he said,

The world is occurring for you that way because of the filter that you're seeing the world through.

And I love that more and more law firms and corporations want to embrace this holistic perspective of it's not just business,

It's not just spirituality,

It's actually integration,

Even science and spirituality are agreeing for the first time ever in history.

I have to say,

I was very surprised,

But again,

A door opened because of the UNESCO Peace Award.

And I was reached by a group of medical professionals here on the island and they wanted me to talk to them.

And I really don't have anything to do with doctors and medical professionals and there's gonna be a talk.

And all I could think was,

It's like,

Wow,

I mean,

You're doctors that meet,

You know,

And they usually meet on a site,

But it's gonna be Zoom obviously.

And I'm talking to doctors that I don't usually relate to as understanding peace and spirituality.

Yet they reached out to me,

You know,

And I thought,

Well,

Isn't this interesting?

How would a doctor,

What could they get from the spiritual practice and what could they get from understanding peace?

And I had to say,

I thought,

Wow,

What the doctors have had to go through this year,

What the nurses have had to go through this year.

I got,

You know,

I teach at Insight Timer and I got an email,

Actually a message from one of the people that listened to one of my talks there.

And she says,

I'm so glad I did a talk on fear.

She says,

I just listened to your talk because I have to do a 12 hour shift in the intensive care unit of a hospital that is completely overflowing with COVID-19 patients.

And I just needed to listen to that right now to get the courage to face 12 hours where the COVID-19 cases are out of control and I had to be in that.

I went,

Wow,

Wow,

To be able to have the courage,

We talk about fear and how you face it,

To be able to have that kind of courage that these individuals in the medical community and the first responders are having to face right now is truly amazing.

And the gift of having that ability you talked about to overcome your fear is such a powerful tool to have right now.

And you find that you can embrace that fear and understand it.

And I think if people can learn from your practice of doing this,

It can be a breakthrough.

And just even that story you had about waking up and being able to shine your light,

You know,

And again,

That overcomes that fear we have as well.

And so you're putting yourself on this path that a lot of people would go,

How in the world,

Jennifer,

Are you doing?

I'm sure you must have friends that see you from a couple of years ago and they look at you and going,

How in the world can you be doing what you're doing right now?

And they must find you to be kind of a true inspiration,

But also kind of an enigma,

Right?

What do your old friends think about your life now?

You know,

I don't think I've ever walked the normal quote unquote path.

It was kind of like that Robert Frost poem,

I think it was of taking the path less traveled.

Yeah.

And,

You know,

I'm very lucky that the people I surround myself with are my soul sisters and brothers.

And so though they,

Actually nothing I really do surprises them anymore.

I shaved my head when I turned,

I think it was for my 30th birthday maybe,

Or right,

No 28.

I was 28 and I shaved my head in honor of a little boy fighting cancer who is now healthy and happy and whole.

And there were 400 of us in a radio station and 10 of us shaved our heads.

I think it was around that time.

And most of my friends I've had for 10,

15,

20 years.

So I think my friends are pretty used to me kind of doing whatever the heck I'm gonna do.

And they're just like,

You do you Jen,

You just,

You embrace who you are.

You mentioned something I wasn't aware of and we've never really talked about,

Which is the hospital you started in Africa.

And I would like you just to take a few minutes to talk about how that evolved and happened.

I wish I would love at some point to be able to have the ability to build a hospital.

But right now what I've done is I built two schools.

Well two schools.

And they're an incredible organization.

I would highly recommend for anybody out there who's ever wanted to make a difference,

You can go on track or you could raise money to build your own school.

And the organization is called buildon.

Org.

And what you do is you raise $30,

000.

And for me about,

Gosh,

Probably 15 years ago,

I read a book called Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and his wife.

And he's a Pulitzer prize winning journalist.

And he talks about with his wife,

How women hold the path to the sky and how we need to support them.

And in the book,

He talks about how with $30,

000,

You can build a school.

And at that time I began to ruminate and ask,

How could I build a school?

And I went to Cambodia to try and build a school and was just gonna donate the money directly to a person with a friend of mine who had built a school there.

And I just didn't get the right vibe.

I love the Cambodian people,

But I asked myself,

How do you know that the money is gonna go to the kids?

How do you know the right teacher is gonna be there?

And I gave up on that dream for many years until July of 2016.

I was in a personal development class in Monterey and a young man sitting next to me,

Probably 10 years my junior,

We were in a program and we were instructed to ask one another,

What really matters to you?

And he turned and he asked that to me.

And I said,

You know what,

Building schools.

And he said,

Great,

What are you doing about it?

And I said,

I gave up on that dream.

How many of us have been there,

Right?

We have this dream and we give up on it for whatever reason.

And he said,

I want you to stand up in front of this room of a hundred people and share that.

And I did,

And a wonderful woman named Linda Burgus who was in the class,

She said,

I have a connection for you.

You're gonna call Skylar at Build On on Monday.

And less than a year later,

We were on our way to building our first school.

So I built the first school in Nepal with my parents and my ex-husband.

And then I built the next school in Senegal last year with my dad and I planned to build the third school in Malawi in 2021.

And do you do a funding online,

Like a GoFundMe kind of situation?

So Build On provides the infrastructure for that.

And what I love that Build On does is for example,

In the first school in Nepal,

They actually even do adult learning.

So you build,

You go out there and you physically build the school and then the children are able to go.

You did?

You went to Nepal?

I went to Nepal,

I physically built the school there.

I was there for about a week and it's hard work,

Man.

In the heat and you're digging,

You're digging,

You're dancing,

You're celebrating.

And what I love is that all the villagers,

Even if they can't read or write,

They put their thumb print on a contract to promise that they will send their boys and girls to the school.

And then you have the celebration ceremony and being in Africa with my dad last November,

It was actually right around this time of year,

Was just,

Words cannot describe,

Cindy,

What it's like to be there with my dad.

It was like 68,

69 years old.

And he's there and we're digging holes in the ground.

And we're communicating with the kids through translators and getting to know the culture and getting to see what it's like.

Cuscus,

By the way,

Anybody who's ever eaten box couscous asked me to send you the video of the women and what it went through to be out in a remote village in Senegal to make couscous.

It took hours of grinding,

But what I loved is while they ground the couscous,

The actual grain,

They danced and it was a celebration and albeit it was a four hour endeavor,

It was just so much,

Such joyful endeavor that the whole family participated in.

What an amazing dream and story that came true.

I mean,

That just boggles my mind and all I can do is go,

Wow,

Thank you for believing you can do it and doing it.

And I've never heard of that organization before and I really didn't know that side of you at all,

Which is just like,

Wow,

I'm very impressed.

Well,

I just love talking with you and communing with you and you just share such beautiful energy.

People can find you on Facebook,

But what are other sites and how can they find out more about you and follow you?

Yeah,

Thank you so much,

Cindy.

And thank you to everybody who's been here with us.

I'm happy to always communicate and respond to people.

If you Google search Jennifer Kayezzen Kite Hill,

H-I-L-L,

That's probably the best way because it'll pull up all of my websites,

Instagram,

LinkedIn,

Otherwise I'm great at communicating with people and responding on LinkedIn and Facebook.

I get a lot of requests on Facebook.

So it helps sometimes if you message me and say,

Oh,

I heard your show with Cindy,

So I can be sure to add you and respond to you.

And you can also find me on Instagram at Jen Hill Speaker or at Metabysics.

Com.

And on Amazon,

You have two books there?

Yes,

I have Stop Hoping,

Start Hunting,

A Job Seekers Guide to Finding Their Dream Job.

And book one in the 10 book series of 101 Spiritual Tools for Uncertain Times is now out.

It's on Amazon.

It's in Kindle version while I'm finding a publisher formally.

And you can just find it on there.

You can also find it in PDF if that's easier on 101spiritualtools.

Com.

Well,

Thank you so much.

I just,

I bow to you and recognize that soul,

Enlighten you and I honor it.

And I thank you for sharing your wisdom,

Your time and your soul with us here,

Soul to soul on the Peace Projects.

God bless you.

And thank you for everything you're doing,

Cindy.

I'm so happy that our souls met and we got connected.

I am too.

We'll talk soon.

Aloha.

Aloha.

Reviews

Very interesting! Thank you!