078: A Dark Night of the Soul Awakening with Sheryl Mays

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Welcome to LEAP, where we sit down with people from all over the world to hear their transformational stories and perspectives on their grief and loss journeys.

In this episode, I'm joined by Sheryl Mays, a Chief Experience Officer, 5x Author, award-winning International Speaker, On-Air Personality and Corporate Trainer.

She shares her experience of marrying the wrong person and how it led to her dark night of the soul awakening. We'll delve into the discovery of her husband's narcissistic tendencies and how it led to her filing for divorce and her subsequent arrest for domestic violence.

Sheryl will take us through her journey of spending three days in jail on false charges, the depression and heavy emotions that set in, and the quote that ultimately sparked her mindset shift and helped her remember who she truly was.

As the President of Rise and Shine Consulting and Coaching Firm, she provides consulting services and training for individuals, teams and organizations on customer experience, customer service and customer support.

She is a contributing writer for Entrepreneur and Customer Think Magazines, Founder of Affirm Your Truth: The Affirmation Movement, Podcast Host, The Customers Tea and founder of Master the SALE Academy, an eLearning customer service training platform.

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, she served as Vice President of Admissions for a nationally accredited career training school where she successfully led teams of marketing professionals across a variety of geographies. She also served as the Director of Development for several national non-profit organizations raising millions of dollars for the organizations.

When not working she enjoys spending time with her family, her church, traveling, running marathons, and taking on the trails with her two four-legged partners.

Join us as we delve into this fascinating story of resilience, perseverance, and the power of the human spirit.

**TRIGGER WARNING** This episode covers sensitive subject matter and is not suitable for all listeners. If this topic could be a trigger for you, listen to this episode with a friend, a sibling, a loved one or a parent so you can talk about any emotions that come up for you. The contents of this episode are not intended to replace therapy and should not be taken as such. If you need immediate help, please call the crisis hotline listed below in our resources.

Listen in as we talk about:

[2:50] Marrying the wrong person, which triggered her dark night of the soul awakening

[4:40] Why we sometimes run away from the signs we receive

[5:30] Discovering her husband had narcissistic tendencies

[8:30] How narcissists can change and adapt to their environments

[14:05] Starting to awaken and realize she was married to a narcissist

[19:30] Choosing to file for divorce and getting arrested for domestic violence

[25:26] Spending three days in jail on false charges, and the events that followed

[35:25] Being bailed out of jail by her friend

[41:40] The humiliating reality of wearing an ankle bracelet in public

[43:40] The depression and heavy emotions that ultimately set in

[45:40] A quote that sparked her mindset shift and remembering who she truly was