Have you ever faced a moment so dark that the concept of light seemed unfathomable? This episode of Grit, Grace, & Inspiration not only tackles this question but introduces you to someone who turned the depths of her despair into unyielding strength.

Prepare to immerse yourself in the poignant narrative of Cheryl Hunter, a woman who transcended her own life-altering adversity reflecting the resilience of the human spirit. Discover her transformative journey from a kidnapping survivor to a beacon of hope, as she shares her profound insights on overcoming the struggles that once seemed to define her. This is not just a story of survival, but a treasure trove of strength, forgiveness, and the art of turning life's deepest challenges into victories.

What You will Gain

1. Discover invaluable strategies to navigate and conquer personal adversities, no matter how daunting they may appear.
2. Learn the power of sharing your story to heal and inspire yourself and others toward a free and empowered life.
3. Understand how forgiveness can be your key to unlocking peace and a new sense of grace that transcends your past.

Don’t miss this exclusive chance to transform your darkest hours into your greatest strengths. Dive into Cheryl's compelling story for a surge of inspiration that promises to reshape your perspective on adversity and triumph.

LINKS & RESOURCES

• MyPillow: It's a $25 Extravaganza! Visit MyPillow.com/Kevin and start shopping today! OR call 800-887-0152 to place your order over the phone.
• CLICK to Grab your FREE Personal Development Tracker
• Visit Cheryl Hunter's Website: CherylHunter.com
• ALL Things Cheryl Hunter: Social Media, Free Resources, Etc.

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TODAY'S AWESOME GUEST

CHERYL HUNTER

Meet Cheryl Hunter, the embodiment of resilience in the face of unfathomable challenges. Her life, a vivid story of grace under pressure, is an inspiring testament to the power of the human spirit. An esteemed educator on overcoming adversity, Cheryl's impactful narrative stretches from a serene Colorado ranch to her harrowing abduction in France, to uplifting others with her educational frameworks for resilience. With original TV shows and plays sold to major networks, Cheryl Hunter is not just a survivor; she is a pioneer in inspiring change and a motivational force in the entertainment industry. Join us as she delves into her remarkable journey here on Episode 278 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration!

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© 2024 Grit, Grace, & Inspiration

0:00:27 - (Kevin Lowe): Now, with that feeling, with that memory, I want to paint a picture for you. You're just a child with the boundless freedom of growing up on a horse ranch in the remote part of Colorado. Your biggest canvas, it's the sprawling meadows. Your dreams, they fly as high as the eye can see as you stare up at that crystal blue sky. Cheryl Hunter, she was this girl. She was this girl with a taste of adventure for dreaming of what was out there, who was in those planes flying overhead.

0:01:42 - (Kevin Lowe): I ask you to join me as today's guest, Cheryl Hunter, shares her story. And it's one of resilience. It's one of the human spirits thrive to survive, both mentally and physically. This is a story about finding light in the darkest of places. And it's about emerging not just unbroken, but unbound. My friend, I welcome you to episode 278. What's up, my friend? And welcome to Grit, grace, and inspiration.

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0:04:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Well check out today's show note because I'm going to leave the 1800 number that will automatically apply the promo code Kevin, so you can just give them a call and get your order placed. My friend. Get shopping today with the dollar 25 extravaganza.

0:05:04 - (Cheryl Hunter): He'd be content to just hang out there and just to hang out there in the meadow. And it was wonderful until I got older and I became a young teenager and I thought, good grief, I want to go the places I've read about and seen in movies or heard about. I would love to meet people that I'm not related to by blood. That would be the big dream. Someplace where perhaps they wore anything other than roper boots and bootcut wranglers.

0:05:42 - (Cheryl Hunter): Weren't always covered in dung. You know, I thought, golly, the big city where people dress much more nicely than they do here on the ranch, any place like that. We were truly in the flyover zone. And as I used to lie on my back in the meadows or sitting atop my horse, I would look up at the planes flying by and think, man, I want to be the girl in the plane looking down at the girl lying here on the ground.

0:06:35 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:06:42 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Such the. Such the typical, I believe, kind of situation for so many of us as kids. Like. Like, you feel like you're stuck in that same little small town, and you just want to experience the world, yet you're just a kid, so you can't, and you dream of the day that you can.

0:07:09 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely.

0:07:45 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes, absolutely. Now, did you guys ever do any vacations growing up?

0:08:20 - (Cheryl Hunter): And one day, I played hooky, hopped on my mini bike, and rode to the nearest town that had a store of any kind. And I picked up a glamour magazine because I thought, you know, I'm a teenage girl. And it was like, I thought, they're bound to have some life advice in there and career advice for my lifetime moving forward. It was the best idea I had as a young teen girl. And they talked about models and that the fact that they always need them.

0:09:21 - (Cheryl Hunter): I talked my best friend, we worked several jobs, got enough, saved enough money to go to Europe, where I figured that's where they must need models. I guess that's where fashion comes from, right? And no sooner did we get to France than a man with this big fancy camera around his neck. It was the day before, days before, cell phone photos, right? But he walked up and said, hey, are you a model? I can make you one. Just come with me and my friend over there, this really big, tall man. Now, I thought, God, that's probably not the smartest idea, but hey, I'm a ranch raised, strong, smart, savvy girl. I know how to wrestle a steer and drive a tractor.

0:10:33 - (Cheryl Hunter): All of this. And then eventually, for Lord only knows what reason, they decided to let me go. And they just dumped me out of the car, pushed me out of the car on this little grassy piece of land, and I laid there pretending to be dead until they drove away. And the whole time that I was there and captive by them, I thought, I only need to get free. That is my one and only one objective. I must get free.

0:11:42 - (Cheryl Hunter): And there I was, Kevin free. And that's when the real captivity began. I couldn't get the thoughts out of my mind of what had happened, of what I'd endured, of the plans and strategies to get back at these men, somehow make them pay for what they had done. I would walk by every person just randomly on the street and think that they were bad and out to get me. I mean, it was. I was captive in a whole new way between my ears, and I finally had a very serious conversation with myself and said, I cannot continue like this. Life was hell.

0:12:38 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes. Wow. So did they use probably something like the date rape drug like that. You were knocked out.

0:13:25 - (Cheryl Hunter): My tongue is out and I'm drooling, and I'm like, uh oh, this. This isn't good. But every time I had a lucid moment, I would ask, when are we going to shoot the photos? Thinking that they were actually going to make me a model. When are we going to shoot the photos? And then, ironically, you know, when he finally did push me out onto the ground, he says, darling, like I'm his girlfriend or some damn thing. And I look back over my shoulder, and he starts shooting the photos of me lying there on the ground just bloody. And he cut my hair off. I mean, like, what a sadistic, horrible person.

0:14:10 - (Cheryl Hunter): There I am, captive, right in my head. And I thought, okay, I am not the first person to go through something bad, something unplanned, something that I didn't choose. There have been people who've gone through way worse. Where do I find these people? How do I learn from them? I didn't want to read a book that seemed too passive for what I needed. The voices in my head, so to speak. That internal dialogue seemed too loud.

0:15:25 - (Cheryl Hunter): And I thought, well, God, the way we seem to discard elderly people in this country, I feel like I've got no future and I'm messed up in the head. They feel like they've got no future and they're messed up in the head. At least people listen to young people. Sometimes they don't listen to old people. And so I went and started volunteering at elder care facilities. And just at first, all I did was just sit and listen. And, boy, they wanted to talk. And it was fantastic.

0:16:23 - (Cheryl Hunter): And I used what they had given me. I turned it into a framework and I used it, and it really was helpful. And I wanted to give it away to other people so that they could overcome adversity.

0:16:48 - (Cheryl Hunter): It was a few days.

0:16:57 - (Cheryl Hunter): I did not. I first went to find my friend, who was understandably infuriated, and started to shout. Now, the ringleader had followed me, so I ran as fast as I could and I went to the hostel where we were staying. She started shouting. I held my hand over her mouth and said, don't make a sound. Grab everything you can and let's go. And we went to the train station and got on the first train. It didn't matter where it was going.

0:17:45 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Wow. The last thing that I just wanted to say that I couldn't help but. But see this, this cruel irony and the fact that as a child, you, you sat watching the airplanes and you wanted to escape. You. You wanted out of there. You felt captive, in a sense, and then you finally got the opportunity and you were immediately held captive again, just in a new way. And I can't help but think, wow, what cruel irony that is.

0:18:57 - (Cheryl Hunter): That's a common phenomenon, I think, which is why it recurred, yes, in France. And I'm not pretending that everybody's kidnapped. But then once I was free, there was another kind of captivity, the captivity of the thoughts occurring in my own head. And then I declared, once I'd come up with this educational framework to overcome adversity, it really worked on me. And then I started giving it away to other survivors, the survivors of violent crime, sexual assault, trafficking. I started there, and it really worked in an extraordinarily powerful way with them as well. And I thought, man, this is my purpose, to help people overcome adversity. Because every time I do, it makes it worth it, what I went through, every time I liberate somebody else.

0:20:31 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes. No, it makes total sense. When you started coming up with this framework and you talked about starting to talk with people and helping people, were you sharing your own story of what happened, of how you came up with this framework, or.

0:21:25 - (Cheryl Hunter): And ultimately, just because I wanted more, I felt so much better when I was in that conversation. And there. And ultimately, I led programs for hundreds of thousands of people. And then simultaneously, one of the things I did initially that felt liberating to me was I started putting my thoughts on paper and then started writing stories and creating all kinds of stories and ideas for shows and plays and tv shows and movies.

0:22:56 - (Cheryl Hunter): And I was leading these personal development programs and seeing God, the power of transformation is remarkable. We really can't overcome anything. And then my own education that I created, I was seeing it happen in these survivors of violent, horrible crime. And I thought, man, if I could get my education out through major media somehow and let the world know that it's possible to overcome any adversity and, in fact, be better for it, man, that would change the world.

0:23:38 - (Cheryl Hunter): I was leading these personal development seminars and finally did it there but simultaneously, I was now on this mission of, I'm going to get my message and this work about overcoming adversity out to the world. And I was connected because I worked in tv, but I. I was struggling for years. I couldn't get myself on media, and it didn't make any darn sense. I had something really valuable to offer and I was connected.

0:24:41 - (Cheryl Hunter): And the room was starting to turn. Now, I'd been with these people on and off for years, and for the first time, I was about to lose the room. This man stood up, threw his notebooks down and said, this is B's. And he stormed out of the room. And I thought, not only am I going to lose the room, but they're going to miss this massively valuable insight about forgiveness, that it's not about setting them free, per se, it's about setting yourself free.

0:25:44 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow, wow, wow, wow. Talking about forgiveness, did you come to a point either before this or after this, that you were able to forgive those who did that to you?

0:26:25 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:26:28 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. I can understand exactly what you mean. The fact of my own, my own life, my own story.

0:26:35 - (Kevin Lowe): There was a person who I swore I would never forgive what he did to my family. I swore I would never do it. And everybody kept telling me that I had to forgive him. And I said, no, no, I won't. And one day, it was the middle of the afternoon, I'm in the kitchen cutting up a grapefruit, and my faith is a big part of me and my journey. And all of a sudden, while cutting out that grapefruit, I forgave that person.

0:27:21 - (Cheryl Hunter): Amen to that.

0:27:23 - (Cheryl Hunter): Kevin, that's so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.

0:28:01 - (Cheryl Hunter): Well, I never went back to the horse ranch. I was like, you know what, dad gum it. All this happened with my dream of being in the big city and the idiotic idea I had to be a model. Now, I didn't care about being a model for being a model's sake. I mean, you just basically a human mannequin, you know? But I said, I'm going to do that because that will let me live in the big city and stay here. And so I actually became a model, and I was very successful at it.

0:29:18 - (Cheryl Hunter): That's when I started really leading these personal development programs and staging plays and getting them developed by the different networks. Just had the grace that I did. And that's when I started. I thought, heck, I, you know, I live in Hollywood. Not literally Hollywood but Los Angeles, I've got to be able to get this message out and help people with this, help people overcome. I could see people were struggling in life, and I wanted to.

0:30:07 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:30:08 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow, wow. You spoke earlier about a framework. Can you talk to us about what that framework is?

0:30:50 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:31:25 - (Cheryl Hunter): Okay. Okay. Yes. I say yes to this. There became this holiness to it. I don't know how else to say it then, but. And it's not just anecdotally that I experienced it this way, but what I kept hearing from people as I kept interviewing the survivors of adversity, was that in leaning into what had happened, in not just tolerating it and not just even accepting it, but embracing it. Yes. Yes. This is here, and I embrace it.

0:32:40 - (Cheryl Hunter): We never tell a soul we somehow believe, perhaps, that we are sullied or ruined. Or I also hear a lot and experience for myself that I was somehow culpable in what happened. But regardless of the reason, oftentimes we hold it just to ourselves. And being able to speak on a transparent, candid, raw way, no holds barred, with another person, is the final step in liberating ourselves from that kind of captivity to the adversity and the impact of the adversity.

0:33:56 - (Cheryl Hunter): And finally, after more than a decade of trying, I was blessed to have done just that, gotten my message out in front of an audience of hundreds of millions on major media. And at that point, my mission changed again. I realized, you know what? There's an entire industry dedicated to helping people overcome adversity. I'm going to step back and leave that work to mental health professionals, psychotherapists, psychologists, etcetera.

0:35:04 - (Cheryl Hunter): Somehow this crazy, miraculous, beautiful, even turn of events, as dark and as light as it has been, made me the person that has something to give.

0:35:35 - (Cheryl Hunter): A few things. I hope that you recognize your magnificence. No matter what you've faced. I hope that you recognize that you are bigger than anything you face and that the adversity you faced, the challenges that you've gone through in your life, there is a gift that they hold.

0:36:27 - (Cheryl Hunter): My website is cherylhunter.com, and it's c h e r y l. Most of my social is Hunter. Cheryl. I came late to the party. I guess I had to get my real name. Dad gum it. Oh, boy. But that's where. Okay, perfect.

0:37:19 - (Kevin Lowe): What do you wish you could have said to her?

0:37:36 - (Kevin Lowe): Trust. Such a powerful word. Such a powerful meaning. Cheryl, you're an amazing woman with an incredible story that, honest to goodness, it's an honor to have you on the podcast, to share it with. With me, with my audience. Thank you so much for being here.

0:37:58 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely. For you, my listener. I hope, as always, that today's interview with Cheryl, that didn't just give you something to listen to, but it made you think about stuff. And maybe you're thinking to yourself that, wow, I bet my sister, my friend, whoever, would really love to hear this, too, or that they need to hear it, please share today's episode with them. And with that, I send you out into the world to take on the day, to enjoy the day, to love life, because, goodness gracious, it will go by in a flash.