Greetings faithful readers of Polite On Society! Today, the site is kicking off a new blog series called Life After 5. The focus of the series are people who have endeavors and interests that they pursue outside of their occupations. The purpose of it is to recognize such individuals and to illustrate that it is very much possible to balance both. We open the series with Tina C. Hines, Life Transformation Specialist. She is the founder of For My Sister Friends, an organization that focuses on emotional and mental health for women.
Polite On Society: What moved you to start For My Sister Friends?
Tina Hines: Throughout my adult life I have consistently facilitated opportunities for women to come together. Whether we were meeting up at one another’s homes, traveling, attending plays, or just spending the day taking in all NYC has to offer, these were times we would enjoy focusing on ourselves instead of other people and things. When I realized the ladies and I enjoyed reading similar books, in 2008 I decided to form a book club. Oddly enough, during our monthly meetings the conversations transitioned from the book to the challenges that we face as women.
Fast forward to 2011, the ladies met at my home. But this time there was a topic – Finding Your Passion – and a full agenda with a flipchart and everything. I shared with the ladies details of a book I had read, “The Power of Mentorship; Finding Your Passion” and my experience after participating in a 21 day meditation led by Deepak Chopra, world-renowned mind-body healing pioneer and the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. The discussion began with a simple question “What is your purpose/what is your dharma?” The dialogue was interesting especially as I went around the room and informed each person of the passion that existed within them. It was almost like experiencing Oprah’s Lifeclass in my living room because all of the women experienced their ‘ah ha’ moment.
When I turned the question on myself my response to the ladies was, “I don’t know what my purpose/passion is.” That is when one of my sister friends exclaimed, your passion is this right here. You are passionate about bringing women together in a positive environment we were can have real discussions that are relatable to the challenges we experience in our life. Little did they know (until I showed them), I had written in the corner of my journal, life coach, motivational speaker for women of some sort. That was the moment that I recognized that this journey I’ve been on was mean to share with women outside of my small group of sister friends. That experience moved me to start For My Sister Friends, LLC.