Influencer Irene Da Silva Lobo

Interview January 2023

Could you share with us some information about your family life?
I was born in Curaçao. My parents, who came from Portugal, are very well-hearted and very supportive of us. I have one other sister, my brother passed away 7 years ago. My parents are true believers and I am also a true believer as I was influenced by them. I am a divorced mother of 4 children, three daughters, and one son. All of them have finished their studies and one daughter has continued studying. I am very proud of them, as all of them stand on their own feet and have their own lives.

Could you share something about your educational background and your experience?
I have been very deliberate in what I have studied over the years. I studied Child care & management for children between 0 and 12 years. During these critical years, the personality of a child is formed. I have always loved children and I have the talent for it. Later on, I went to study family life counseling with an international group, the Council of Churches, after attending an important workshop. I am using this in my work. I liked this counseling very much as I can help families and their children.

I also studied natural medicine, taught by a physician of Cuban descent for 5 years, because of its international level. It is an integrated health program, where the approach entails that three different dimensions are analyzed at the same time. Our health consists of the emotional, energetic level and physical levels. And our diet is also important as it is all about our lifestyle.

I advise people on their exercises, stretching, and breathing exercises and keep supporting them so that they can improve their quality of life.

In 2006, I started to practice. I started with having a presentation for 10 people and this ultimately resulted in hundreds of people, with an emphasis on the emotional parts of people as this is the root cause of a lot of physical ailments. When an emotion is not released or integrated this starts to affect your energy levels. Pain in the left toe has most probably nothing to do with the left toe, but through our energy meridians, it is more related to an organ for example. It is important to have the right diagnosis.

After being an integral healer, I started learning more about the “relaxed kids”-program. This is what I offer to schoolchildren these days. I took notice of the course via the internet and applied as there was one slot open for this course. After my certification, I was the first one in Latin America allowed to offer this in this region. It also affects our health. The “relaxed kids” program and the different things we offer, bring the three elements, the emotional, energetic, and physical dimensions, together. Without touching the children, we re-balanced their emotional and energetic levels and this can help their physical level greatly and it affects their way of thinking. We offer the children a present that they can carry around for the rest of their lives.

Could you expand a little more on what it entails?
The program that I offer is called: ‘Tempu ketu’ or ‘Quiet time’. I offer these lessons in Papiamentu to children of Funderend Onderwijs group 1 to group 8. I offer it customized to their age level so that the children experience it adapted to their level, but the theme that I offer is the same for all groups. I observe what is happening in the classroom and based on that I sense what theme should be presented. These classes are so much fun to do as I trigger the Inner Child of these children to show up. I am achieving great results with the older children, but it takes some unfreezing before they open up completely as I teach them to connect with Love, and they are lessons that they carry for the rest of their life.

It consists of four steps.

Step 1

In this step, we stretch and do some movements.This is an important step. I always design something related to the theme and bring it along.

Step 2

I teach them to breathe consciously, by doing a deep breath, I tell them that they are filling their bodies and their brains with oxygen. This will help to memorize and energize.

I teach them that breathing can also help to calm down. Or when a part of your body is aching breathing can help to focus on this until the pain eases. When you have stress, your mind blocks and stops certain signals to reach the higher functions of your brain, while breathing can help you to unstress and open up the use of the higher parts of your brain functions. This improves your ability to study.
So, I teach them this important suggestion: Breathe consciously.

Step 3

I will let them close their eyes so that they can connect with themselves and make them relax from within.Unregulated children don’t learn what they are being taught. When they close their eyes after counting one, two three, and do some conscious breathing before they do their homework, for example, they are more capable of learning.

I tell them to connect with this strong light within if they are capable to do just that, then they have reconnected with their brain and their brain has been regulated and they can start all over again focusing on the task at hand. I teach this until they have mastered it.

Step 4
This is the last stepis about affirmations. Here is where we work on their self-esteem, and self-confidence, love, and empowerment. I teach them some affirmations like: “I love myself and I believe in myself”. Or certain sentences related to the theme that we are discussing. Like: “I am generous and you too are generous”. And this goes around and it uplifts the energy in the whole class. If you see how their faces change when they start doing this and after they have done this.

We also teach the right attitude. I compliment them, especially those children that don’t talk a lot. Telling yourself these sentences empowers them and gives them self-confidence. All of them get their turn to do this. They love to do this. They need to watch each other in the eyes and this works very well. It changes the vibe of the whole class. It works.

We know you to be a therapist and healer. Can you tell us more about how this all started?
I have always loved children and I have deliberately worked towards doing something with children and families, but the healing part just crossed my path as I also was interested in natural medicine. So when a natural doctor of Cuban descent visited Curaçao and offered a plan where I could become an integral therapist and healer, I subscribed and studied for three years and practiced with him for another two years. What I offer is based on Chinese medicine and a customized diet for the client.

What is your BIG WHY or driving motivation to be who you are right now?
My work with children makes me very happy. When I am with children, I can see the results immediately when I express myself appreciatively towards them. As human beings, our brains are wired for happiness and positivism. And Love is everything. Doing this work makes me very happy and is my driving motivation.

What are your plans for the coming years?
I am healthy and happy now. As I plant seeds today by inspiring other people, 5 years from now I am sure that its fruits will manifest themselves, that I am sure of.

Do you use your inner voice to evaluate when dilemmas show up? How does that work for you?
If it feels right and usually it is the first thing that comes up. That is how I am being guided.

How are you trying also to keep up with your knowledge and skill levels?
I study and read. Usually in the evening hours.

What are your strengths?
I am a fighter, I am resilient, and stay my course no matter what. I radiate light and tranquility and I have a calming voice.

Do you have hobbies or interests that you are also passionate about?
Music, dancing, and singing. The moment I am dancing or singing, I release whatever needs to be released. I write and sing my songs, even though I never had any formal music training.

If you as Irene would meet a stranger on the bus (let’s say in New York or Bogota Columbia) and they would ask you to introduce yourself, what would you answer?
I will not talk easily with strangers. It depends on how it feels. When I am doing my work I am a different person.

How would you describe Irene in one word or one sentence?
I am peaceful and I am a strong teacher.

Who are the persons that have inspired you the most in your life and career?
The doctor that trained me, to become a healer. These days, children inspire me a lot. As you connect with them, they will tell you the truth, as they always tell the truth.

What is a trait that is still a work in progress?
There are always things to work on. But what I can say is, that I have become more critical and intolerant towards others, especially those that don’t see the consequences of their acts.

What was a defining moment in your life?
My divorce triggered the way for accelerated personal growth, making me stronger, more independent and more spiritual.

What would you want your Loved Ones, family, friends, and others to say about you let’s say 20 years from now?
My family already talks well about me, and they would still be doing that. That I would have left behind as a legacy, a new path to happiness for people. That is my goal in my work. They will recall back the seeds that I planted that have come to fruition.

What makes you stay optimistic about the future of Curaçao as we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and recession and growing environmental challenges because of the global warming consequences?
Words and thoughts are powerful and of late humanity is becoming more open to teachings that already existed. We are becoming more open to them and some are changing their way of thinking and the way we see things or want to see things. Using more constructive words. The issue is not that we fall, we all fall. The issue is standing up.

If we want to feel more joyous, this depends on ourselves. Imagine all of us looking at the world from this perspective daily. We have the power to create, so we can choose to focus on focusing or reconstructing our thinking, in thoughts of Love. Life will respond to your thinking. In the past, this was considered a fairy tale, but when people are tired of suffering they become more willing to experiment. Let us purify the way we are thinking and use new words.

Anything else?
We need to reach out to adults, the parents, that can help us get closer to the children. These small acts can leverage great results. Like let us become aware of how we talk to children, it is so important, as each word we talk to our children is important.

Instead of using incorrect words, assuming that as an adult we are correcting the child, like using the word “no” or “don’t”, turn it around and tell them “Dushi, korda nos ta kompartá awe.” “Dushi, remember to behave yourself today.”

We as parents are also ignorant as we didn’t know better, as we were also raised like that. This needs to change, that is why we also need to reach out to parents and adults.

One of the 250 Influencers

Irene Da Silva Lobo is a diligent, curious, persistent, lifelong learner, teacher, healer, and mother of four, with a great passion to empower children. Her resilience has made her grow over the years and her tranquility and calming voice are excellent traits to connect with children especially and her other clients. Being deliberate in her choices has led her to study “Child care & management”, study family life counseling, and later on natural medicine. But her passion for children has led her to continue to study and made her the first certified trainer in the “relaxed kids”-program in Latin America. What makes Irene stand out is the way she combines her knowledge and skills to offer children emotional, energetic, and physical dimensions, re-balancing their emotional and energetic levels and this affects their way of thinking at school greatly and later in their life. Irene’s passion for ‘Tempu ketu’ is contagious and it really works to change the vibe in the classroom during her classes. It also is a step in teaching her students a gift that they can carry along with them for the rest of their life. That is why, we consider Irene one of the 250 Influencers of Curaçao, representing the Educational and Health sector. Look at the list of the Influencers we have interviewed or reported on, up to now.

The goal of the core group of Share2Uplift for 2023

The goal of the Share2Uplift movement is to: “Identify 250 leaders from all walks of life to connect, align and create impactful changes in all walks of life, which includes intergenerational collaboration by the end of 2023.” We will use interviewing Influencers, meet-and-greet events, “train-the-trainers”-programs on “Emotional Mastery” and “Intentionality “as national intervention strategies, to reach this goal on top of our goal to scale up the possibilities to connect, align and create impact via a virtual platform. We believe that by collaborating with Miguel Goede on the virtual Vision 2030 platform, we will accelerate the possibilities to connect the diaspora and others elsewhere in the world and on the island willing to constructively create impactful changes in Curaçao, to join.

As Share2Uplift, we are fully trying to align with this thinking of Center for Curriculum Redesign to promote this agenda in our educational systems and workplace. So, in that sense, we fully support any initiative to make our educational system 21st-century proof.

Share2Uplift aligners are those that:
– Create an inspiring vision of the future;
– Motivate and inspire people to engage with that vision;
– Manage the delivery of the vision;
– Coach and build a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision. These criteria are now being polished.

We also consider these 5 values the most important ones for Share2Uplift aligners. They are:

• Peace from within;
• Compassion;
• Respectfulness;
• Integrity;
• Responsibility.

As we will progress towards this goal, we will update you on the progress.