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Regenerative education gives teachers a way to shape the systems they work in, and Kirsten Bolton explains how in Part 2 of this Reignite Resilience conversation with hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass. Kirsten, founder of the Grove Educational Council, describes how schools and workplaces get better results when the people closest to the work help guide decisions.

Kirsten starts with why schools need new approaches. Over the past five years, she has watched children’s needs shift before, during, and after COVID. Teachers now teach skills once seen as basic, including social emotional skills and executive functioning such as planning time, organizing work, and finishing a task. She explains regenerative systems, an idea drawn from permaculture, where feedback from inside a structure flows back in to inform what happens next. In a classroom, teachers act as the experts on their students and need systems for sharing feedback and shaping curriculum.

Natalie and Pam connect the model to the workplace, where leaders often feel isolated and left to carry every problem and every solution. Kirsten describes what she saw while researching schools and organizations. The best results came from clear agreements in policy and procedure, flexibility, and warmth between people. Administrators who advocate for their staff create room for risk taking and honest feedback.

Kirsten also explains the difference between a safe space and a brave space. Risk taking and innovation feel vulnerable, so she works to build spaces where people lead with humility, curiosity, and openness to differing views. Nobody holds a brave space for others without doing personal inner work, including noticing triggers and past experiences. Natalie shares a question she now asks when a strong reaction rises: is this me today, or the 10 year old version of me? Kirsten recommends simple habits to make room for reflection, such as a set place for keys, a glass of water each morning, and a walk outside. Fewer small decisions leave more energy for higher value work.

Kirsten also shares what she wants to build next, including a book and a TEDx talk, and how schools and organizations connect with the Grove Educational Council for coaching, mentoring, mindfulness and breath work, and team building. Her goal is to work with people who keep her growing.

In This Episode:

• What regenerative education is and how it applies to schools and workplaces
• Why teachers need systems for giving feedback and shaping curriculum
• The difference between a safe space and a brave space
• How inner work prepares a leader to hold space for a team
• Simple daily habits that free up energy for higher value work

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Resilience after domestic violence grows from daily rhythm, and Kirsten Bolton explains how she built hers. In Part 1 of this Reignite Resilience conversation, hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass talk with Kirsten, an educator, mentor, and coach with more than 20 years of experience working with children, teachers, and school communities. Kirsten shares how she left an unsafe situation with a newborn and rebuilt a stable home for her daughter.

Kirsten tells her story during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. She returned to the United States after living in Ecuador, became pregnant, and found herself in an unsafe situation. When her daughter was two weeks old, Kirsten left under a 24 hour restraining order, which gave her one day to move out of her home. Her family and a few trusted people helped her through the first days, and she made a clear choice about how to spend the months ahead.

Kirsten describes the practices she relied on. She wore her baby, gave herself the first eight months to focus on being a mother, and stayed in a camper at her parents’ house to find a steady pace. She returned to lessons from her grandmothers, starting with getting up each day and doing the dishes. Daily rhythm grew into weekly, monthly, and yearly traditions, which gave her daughter stability and gave Kirsten steady ground. She describes resilience as an organic process built on relationship and care, a view shaped in part by gardening.

Natalie, Pam, and Kirsten talk through how to start from internal needs instead of external to-do lists, how to receive, rest, and then take initiative, and how this approach teaches a child self awareness. Kirsten’s teenage daughter now tells her when she skipped a meal and feels hangry. The three also discuss the masculine and feminine sides everyone carries, the ability to initiate and the ability to receive, and how embracing rest and wisdom with age supports resilience.

Kirsten also introduces her work in education. She chairs the group that develops curriculum and mentors teachers at her school, holds a master’s degree in transdisciplinary studies and healing education and research, and founded the Grove Educational Council. She explains why the expertise of teachers often stays hidden in a culture built on power and hierarchy.

In This Episode:

• How to rebuild stability after leaving domestic violence with a newborn
• Why daily rhythm builds resilience for parents and children
• How daily routines grow into weekly, monthly, and yearly traditions
• How to balance taking initiative with rest and receiving
• How routine helps a child develop self awareness

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Magical Mornings Journal

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...

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Gen X childhood fears shaped a generation of adults who scan every street, study every van, and remember every license plate. In Part 2 of this Reignite Resilience episode, co-hosts Natalie Davis and Pamela Cass unpack the warnings they grew up with and the situational awareness those warnings built.

Pam found a TikTok listing the reasons Gen X needs therapy: the white van, needles in Halloween candy, missing children on milk cartons, stop drop and roll, the War on Drugs, a pop-up clown toy, and the game Operation. Natalie adds quicksand, a fear from TV shows she never expected to face.

Then the fears turned real. Natalie's partner sank to his calf in quicksand while fishing alone with no cell service. He returned weeks later and stepped into the same spot. Natalie's ex-husband bit into a mini candy bar and found a push pin inside. Her oldest daughter almost climbed into an unmarked white van while traveling through Asia. Her now husband stopped her.

Awareness paid off for Pam. From her front porch, she watched a truck roll slowly down her street. Moments later, a woman lay in the road screaming, and the driver pulled her into the truck and drove off. Pam recorded video, photographed the license plate, and gave police a full description. Neighbors who saw the same scene had no details to offer.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The Gen X childhood fears still shaping how adults move through the world
• Real stories behind the white van, quicksand, and candy tampering warnings
• How situational awareness helped Pam report a street incident to police
• Why younger generations with earbuds and phones miss what happens around them
• How Natalie protected a friend on a Chicago street
• Why talking through childhood fears helps you process and move on

The hosts also revisit the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Unsolved Mysteries, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and a prank from Pam's ex-husband's best friend involving a fake car breakdown on a dark country road.

If you grew up between 1965 and 1980, this episode will feel familiar. The hosts' advice: talk through your childhood fears, let them out, and keep moving. And watch for vans, quicksand, and needles in your candy.

Reignite Live 2027 takes place January 22, 2027, in Loveland, Colorado.

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Subscribe to Our Weekly ThinkLetter
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Magical Mornings Journal

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The co-hosts of this podcast are not medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided by the podcast hosts or guests is solely at your own risk.

Pamela Cass is a licensed broker with Kentwood Real Estate
Natalie Davis is a licensed ...