"The Way of the Toddler Hour" with hosts (and sisters) Leta and Lori Hamilton is a show unlike any other parenting program you have ever heard. Here we celebrate parenthood as a spiritual path for a journey to inner peace. With thought provoking and spiritually compelling guests, each week we explore an aspect of how our children help us with the lessons we came here to learn, adding deeper meaning to our lives and relationships while giving you valuable gems to add to your unique parenting tool-kit.

Zen: enlightenment by means of direct, intuitive insights.

The Way: a spiritual path

Leta Hamilton is a mom to three boys, wife, author, speaker and radio show host. She is the daughter of a Navy Chaplain and moved 8 times before graduating from high school. With travel embedded in her genes, she went on to live in Italy, Scotland, Japan and England. Married to an Englishman with the same last name, she lived in London for 9 years before returning to the Northwest to be nearer her family. It was her own shift from being a full-time working mom to a full-time stay at home mom that led her to seek answers to the big question of what brings meaning to one's life. In the end, she found that her children were her best teachers. With laptop set up on the kitchen counter top and half of her first book The Way of the Toddler written while breastfeeding, Leta sets out to document the craziness of modern motherhood and all the ways in which our children show us what it is to live truly meaningful lives. Today she fits in her radio show, writing and speaking engagements around her boys who at the time of writing are 1, 3 and 6. Leta's mission and passion is to share the message of motherhood as a spiritual path for personal growth. With great humor and honesty, Leta demonstrates to readers, listeners and audiences how inner peace is possible even when surrounded by poopy diapers and piles of laundry.

Lori Hamilton is a mom, wife, workshop facilitator, writer, intuitive dream interpreter and practitioner of BIT/s (a combination of Reiki, Theta, and Brain Integration Technique/s).  Since giving up her daughter for adoption at the age of seventeen, Lori has actively embarked on a journey of growth and healing with the goal of becoming someone her children would be proud to know.  Obsessed with being a good mom when given the chance again, Lori read, took workshops, journaled, and practiced using tools for twenty years in preparation for becoming a stepmom to two elementary aged girls.  These efforts and Lori's natural skills of listening to and empowering people lead her to teach and help others.  Lori taught elementary school for 10 years and now works one-on-one with people of all ages so that they can have a healthy brain and whole heart once again.  Lori enables people to achieve their dreams by adjusting stressed circuits in the brain and removing obstacles from the learning process and other stressful circumstances.  Lori's passion is to facilitate healing of the effects of adoption for adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents.  With approachability, grace, and insight, Lori loves to share and hear ideas about how to balance a healthy marriage, healthy children, and a healthy self while staying true to your life purpose.

For weekly guests and more information, please visit the website www.thewayofthetoddler.com.  

What choice or choices did you face when it came to the question of whether or not to return to work after motherhood? Today on "The Way of the Toddler Hour" we will be interviewing Diane Lang (www.dlcounseling.com) about her two books: Creating Balance & Finding Happiness and Baby Steps: The Path from Motherhood to Career. She has interviewed hundreds of mothers and employers about the realities women and employers face when it comes to balancing careers with family.

In my own book The Way of the Toddler I called one of my chapters "I had a REAL job once!" I frankly discuss many of the issues we face when making the choice to return to work. Many of us do not even feel it is a choice if we are single moms or if our mortgage cannot take a single income. However, our hearts have a say in the matter too and they are ignored at a cost. For me personally, I just did not love or like my career enough to make the sacrifice of turning my children over to daycare every day so I could return to work. Financially, my salary would only have covered child care, which was another reason it just didn't seem worth it.

What were your choices? Are you happy with them or do you harbor regrets? This is our chance to speak openly and honestly about all that we face or faced when and while we are balancing family with careers. Please email me your story at thewayofthetoddler@gmail.com so I can share your perspective with our guest Diane Lang and we can include you in the conversation.

Abducted and gang raped at the age of 16, Sally Anderson survived a woman's worst nightmare, and a mother's worst fear for her daughter. Her new book Freefall recounts her journey to forgiveness, reconcilliation and self-love. Today, she is a corporate leadership trainer who travels the globe speaking to companies and government agencies on effective leadership and sustainable transformation within an organization.

She credits her past for her present success and is an example to us all that we are not defined by what has happened to us, but by what we do with our experiences. It is our choices that turn us into perpetual victims or champions of our lives. Today on "The Way of the Toddler Hour" Sally Anderson will be sharing with us her message of hope and the very real opportunity for turning our past pain into our present joy. She will take us through her story of destruction and eventual fulfillment.

Personally, Sally's story reminds me that there is nothing so awful it cannot be overcome. To meet her is to experience the very epitomy of peace and happiness. She exudes a love of life that is hard to describe. It is clear that she is living the life of her dreams and her enthusiasm for all that is good and true can hardly be held within her body.

I met Sally in New York when we were both at a conference together. While she was there, her book Freefall received a publishing contract. It is due out in September of this year. This interview marks the beginning of her next chapter - that of published author. She speaks of her past with a frankness that is the hallmark of someone who has made peace with the trauma of years gone by. What she has lived through can hardly be imagined and, yet here she is, sharing her story with us with total openness and complete honesty.

We will not only be enriched today by her strategies for effective leadership, which can be translated to our lives at home, but also by her enduring spark. No matter what we have lived through, Sally will show us the way to loving ourselves not just in spite of our pasts, but because of our pasts. I, for one, am looking very forward to that message. Please join us today on "The Way of the Toddler Hour" at 2pm Pacific/4pm Central/5pm Eastern.

How does massage help moms?

This is not about baby massage. This is about you, the mom, receiving a massage.

Massage is about more than relaxation. It is also about releasing what is trapped in our bodies and freeing ourselves to do, be and have more. When we are not holding on to trauma from the past, we have more energy. We will be talking about how to be unblocked in life through body work today on “The Way of the Toddler Hour.”

Our guest, Laura Magpali, began a personal healing quest when she was widowed in her 40's. Now, she is a Reiki master teacher, licensed massage therapist, advanced certified Bowenwork practitioner, CranioSacral therapist and reflexologist. She has also studied Peruvian Shamanism.

Bowenwork is a form of body work consisting of gentle rolling maneuvers at specific points over muscle or connective tissue. She has helped many women unblock years of stored trauma and release it to enjoy newfound health and vitality. We will be talking to Laura about how our bodies can be free of repressed tensions to open our lives up to new possibilities.

I hope you will join us.

Barbara Schmitz-Orendi of OpenButton is a European trained expert on the human energy field, commonly referred to as our "aura." We will learn about who we are as energetic beings and not just as bodies. She brings new insights to us from Europe (she is a native of Germany) that are not so commonly discussed or known here (yet). As a mother, I have always believed that my connection to my children extends far beyond just that of biology. It will be enlightening to learn from Barbara about how we relate to eachother energetically and without us fully be conscious of what signals we are giving or receiving. It is nothing new that body language is considered just as effective as words, and even more so, when it comes to communication. Now, we will have a resource for wrapping our heads around this notion of communicating our emotions through our body's demeanor. Plus, we will learn what exactly the aura is, how far it extends, what its layers are and so on. By learning about ourselves, we open up our hearts to living a more peaceful life. I am excited to be interviewing Barbara Schmitz-Orendi today in this rare U.S. interview. For me and for anyone listening, she will help us to understand another aspect of who we are.

On another note, in our Truly Amazing Woman feature at the top of the hour, we will be playing a short interview with author Janna Cawrse Esarey. She is a mom of two and five year old girls and a full-time writer. She talks about balance and perspective. It's a short interview, but powerful. I have also blogged about Janna on my website www.letahamilton.com.

As I say at the end of every show: Remember, we are all blessings!

On today’s “The Way of the Toddler Hour” co-hosts (and sisters) Leta and Lori Hamilton will be interviewing Shajen Joy Aziz. She is the Executive Producer and Director of Operations for Equilibrium Entertainment, which is releasing the feature length documentary film “Discover the Gift” this summer. Shajen and her brother, award winning film maker Demian Lichtenstein, wrote and produced this film together after more than 10 years of years of not speaking.  Their story of reconciliation frames the larger theme of how each of us can discover within ourselves the gifts that lead us to living creative and fulfilled lives.  

“Discover the Gift” is ultimately about transformation and healing. In the film, they interview such noted educators and spiritual teachers as: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Michael Bernard Beckwith, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Jack Cranfield, Terri Tillman, David Wolfe, Mark Victor Hansen, Janet Bray Attwood, Dr. Sonia Powers, Dr. Sue Morter, Marianne Williamson, Dr. Joe Vitale and many others. For a complete list of those interviewed for this ground breaking film, visit www.discoverthegift.com.

In addition to being a wife, mother and business partner with her brother, Shajen has a master’s degree in education from Norwich University and is completing her PhD in human development and organizational systems. Her passion is improving the lives of children through the education of parents, adults, educators, and communities. In pursuit of this she has used her twenty years of experience in various aspects of education to help create her family company, Equilibrium Entertainment. As Executive Producer and director of operations for Equilibrium Entertainment, Shajen strongly believes in using all forms of media to advance our highest ideals and create a sanctuary for the creative mind. Shajen lives with her family in Los Angeles.

In the interview, Leta and Lori will be asking Shajen to share her journey of reconciliation, healing, transformation and leadership. Through the conversation, they hope listeners will leave with an overwhelming feeling of optimism that more is possible than they may currently believe and that Shajen is an example of that. Fulfillment and motherhood can be exercised in tandem.

Please join Leta and Lori on “The Way of the Toddler Hour” at 2pm pst/5pm est for this once in a lifetime interview with one of America’s most transformational film producers.