Episode 237: Bang Head Here: Interview with Josh Brazier & Hollie Henderson - Part 2

Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today is Part 2 of Bang Head Here. We’re back with Hollie and Josh, the authors of Bang Head Here, and today we are talking shop. In Part 1 we got their stories, of Hollie’s troubled youth and how it put her on this incredible path, so go back and listen to part 1 to get her full story. 

And we got Josh’s story of being a young man in Morocco and working with refugees from West Africa, watching their abuse and deportment that became so formative for him as he built a life of humanitarian work.

Today we want to move on with our conversation with them so we can glean insight from their wisdom.

Hollie and Josh, welcome back to the show.

Let’s dive right back into our conversation and pick up where we left off…..Last episode we finished up with the challenges teens are having with connection, this episodes let’s go to the next obvious question:

Tune into our conversation about:

1. What keeps parents from connecting with their teens and young adult children?

2. Why are you able to connect with teens when the parents cannot?

3. Let’s talk about developing resilience. In your book you talk about the need of accepting that pain is a part of life. You say, “We realized that we didn’t really know what it meant to look at pain without trying to avoid it. In essence we didn’t know how to be ok with not feeling ok.” Let’s talk about this idea of acceptance of all the emotions of living, but then let’s talk about how this is a part of becoming resilient. 

4. How do we fill our resiliency tanks? How do we lay a foundation of resiliency?

5. Why do young people listen and how do you keep their attention? “In your book you gave some great advice - “Make sure what you say today is living and void of judgement.” “If you can make them feel loved and valued at least once a day, you’ll have a great start.”

6. How do we deal with and avoid pain? What are healthy ways of dealing with pain?

How to contact Hollie and Josh:

WEBSITE: https://www.joshandhollie.com/

EMAIL: info@joshandhollie.com

FACEBOOK: @joshandholliecoaching

INSTAGRAM: @josh_and_hollie

TWITTER: @JoshHollie2

I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about how hard communication is for everyone. When you think about it, we all have different experiences, different triggers, different insecurities, different stories about everything. And with those stories that we are telling ourselves in our own heads, we are creating different realities. In Bang Head Here, Josh and Hollie say, “We know very little about what’s going on her to really know what’s going on. It’s a reminder that we need to keep our initial opinions and perceptions out of the equation until we have had enough time to be curious, ask questions and create different perspectives and possibilities, and to give the benefit of the doubt.”

Your challenge this week is to give someone the benefit of the doubt. When you are hit with frustration or fear in one of your relationships, give them the benefit of the doubt and approach them with that in mind.

So many teens right now seem to struggle so deeply. Suicide rates are so high. Social media doesn’t help. We’re dealing with the first generation being raised on the internet, hitting our heads against that proverbial wall, and finding our way around outcomes we’ve not had to deal with before. Bang Head Here may be a great resource for you. 

We’ll see you in two weeks.