Meet Heart's Path Explorer Deb Pysno
This interview series kicked off last October, and through each interview I've gained a new insight. This time around, I’m learning to "color outside the lines" I created with my standard interview questions. Meet Deb Pysno, whose twitter description reads: "exuberant proponent of Alfred Adler and Positive Discipline; uninhibited deep thinker; naturally curly hair." I visited with Deb at a local coffee shop, and this is the boiled-down version of our conversation. Images courtesy Deb Pysno.
A happy heart and a life full of meaning and purpose.
Integrating Alfred Adler’s Positive Discipline (PD) into her every day, says Deb Pysno, has led to a life that’s "more gratifying, more rewarding, more fulfilling." Rather than activities, per se, it's the intellectual gratification along with PD's beliefs and values and content that fill her up. And PD is more than parenting, Deb explains: It's a "road map for life"; it's all about relationships. The one main belief of is that all people seek to belong. "All behavior has a purpose and that purpose is to feel belonging."
On discovering her heart's true path.
Deb discovered the PD concept while researching class content online back in about 2008 when she was teaching Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) classes. She attending PD training and began teaching the information, but "it wasn’t until I stepped out of my comfort zone," she admits, and started teaching through role-playing that it clicked for parents. And through the experience, she reflects, "I’ve learned so much about myself."
Getting off track and returning to what's important.
Surrounding herself with people who are committed to the PD values and practices helps Deb keep listening to her own heart's truth. She confesses that sometimes her own advice is difficult to follow. It helps that Deb talks a lot with her teaching partner, Cheryl. Spending time with family and travelling also help keep Deb grounded.
Community. Community. Community.
Along with talking often with her teaching partner, Deb interacts regularly—both online and in person—with members of the Positive Discipline Association. Her students are also an important community of supporters.
Inspiration.
What she observes is "intellectually captivating." To teach the PD process is to help people understand themselves and their relationships—with adults in their lives as well as with their children. It's inspirational for Deb to see people change and to witness the ripple effect of PD teachings.