Empower Your Hearing Journey
Take control of your your life with personalized mentoring & coaching.
Empower Your Hearing Journey
Take control of your your life with personalized mentoring & coaching.
Living Powerfully with Hearing Loss: Mentoring & Coaching
My Story
Hi! My name is Linda Zraik. I’m going to start out by telling you a little bit about myself, my story and how I came about the idea of making a difference with others who are either at the early or later stages of hearing loss. I also mean to talk to those of you who have loved ones or people you talk to on a regular basis who lack hearing – because you also have things to deal with and I imagine you tuned in here because at some level you care or you want to have things work better. I thank you as well.
You may be someone who is just starting to lose your hearing, or maybe you’ve had hearing loss for quite some time – or maybe you just had an injury and are now having to confront what are you going to do if it doesn’t come back? No matter where you are – from just beginning to sense your hearing is going – all the way to you barely have any capacity to hear left – I intend to talk to YOU.
Hearing loss can have a range of consequences. The implications differ from person to person, but most people with hearing impairment suffer some social, psychological and physical problems as a result of their hearing loss.
It is especially untreated hearing loss which can cause problems. The psychological implications of hearing loss may include everything from shame and problems concentrating to depression and low self-esteem. Physical consequences may vary from headaches and tense muscles to stress and increased blood pressure. Furthermore, there are also social consequences which occur as a result of untreated hearing impairment, for example isolation and communication problems.
For 45+ years, I’ve spent my life on the leading edge of human development -- travelling and leading transformational programs for large and small groups of people in many, many countries throughout the world, that totally altered the paradigm in which they viewed themselves, viewed their life and saw their future.
I’ve spoken to, and personally coached, and managed more than 250,000 people during this time. In doing this for so long, I discovered that in my experience, most, if not all people, want more than anything, to live their life to the fullest, or life the best quality of life they can – no matter what.
When my hearing loss became an issue – it was as though I might never have the opportunity again to be the BEST I could be and live my life as I had been, and always wanted it to be. I struggled for several years, talking to large groups of people, not really accurately hearing what they said and therefore, my responses and coaching started to dwindle in my effectiveness with people.
One day, someone in one of my programs who I respected a great deal came up to me privately and said: “Linda – do you realize that you mis-heard a lot of what people were saying to you?” THAT WAS IT. I was devastated. I had even been using special equipment to help being able to hear what people were saying when at the microphones – and still I grossly mis-interpreted people. This was obviously serious and I had to face the reality – that I could no longer do what I’d been passionate about for all those years. NOW WHAT?
This totally CRUSHED me – as I experience myself as someone who genuinely cares about people’s quality of life and I can see possibilities for who people can BE most often far BEYOND what they see for themselves! Now I faced having to really walk the talk and be that kind of person for myself.
So, to deal with this crisis – I took on that what would be best, is if I just got back on the horse again and find some way to contribute what I’ve learned to other people. I resolved that WHO I AM IS NOT MY HEARING – THAT I HAVE THIS LACK OF FUNCTIONING – AND THAT IT DIDN’T NEED TO DEFINE ME OR DEFINE MY FUTURE, OR TELL ME THAT I COULDN’T LIFE A FULL LIFE! I was able to separate the disfunction of my physical body from my sense of my SELF! This is what I trained people to do for 45 years, and so I applied to myself.
So here I am now, with only 13% hearing left in my right ear and about 0% left in my left ear and having had a cochlear implant a few years back so that I could hear enough again to function!
I’m reaching out to YOU to give you some tools to life a full, happy, complete, fulfilled life – NO MATTER what you’re hearing loss condition is.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO GET –
Depending on how badly you’d like to not be stopped by or disempowered by your hearing loss – what’s available is to discover for yourself that you have a CHOICE. That you can CHOOSE to live your life as your circumstances, as your disability, or as a victim of the situation – OR you can choose to be the author of your life, the creator of your life, and someone who lives a full exciting life just the way things are.
For those of you who live with or know people with hearing – what’s available for you to get is more aware and possibly more sensitive to what your friends are dealing with. Compassion and education. And a better ability to relate well and having your relationship be more satisfied.