- Coming up on "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

- I turned my head, and I look up the sky, and I saw four bombs.

- And that's really the invitation of life, right?

To be here.

You know, the good, the hard, the difficult, the beautiful, to be in all of it.

- Well, I do think that I've always had this fire burning inside of me to be great.

Like, I knew I wanted to be an Olympic champion when I was nine.

- Support for "The Whitney Reynolds Show" is provided by Together at Peace, a community dedicated to spreading the light that still shines bright, helping foster a connection to those we love and lost, offering suggestions, products, and curated event templates to move forward with their spirits.

We are forever Together at Peace.

K. O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

JoePerillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned luxury vehicles.

JoePerillo.com is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

And by Fair Oaks Farms.

An escape to the country with acres of fun, fresh food, and learning, where you can explore family-owned farms and reconnect with nature, animals, and our planet.

Additional support provided by Kevin Kelly Real Estate Agent, Mid-West Moving & Storage, Brendon Studzinski with State Farm, Bark Busters Chicago, Concierge Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery, and these funders.

(vocalist singing faintly) (inspirational pop music) - We always say on the show, "Your story matters."

But today we're breaking it down and looking at the journey that's forming your story.

That's coming up.

(inspirational pop music) (crowd cheering) (vocalist singing faintly) - We have a woman whose face connected with millions and the journey behind the picture that captured one of her hardest moments.

- I saw the airplane just so fast, very fast, very loud, toward, to us, to me.

Then I turned my head, and I look up the sky, and I saw four bombs.

- She was caught in the middle of the Vietnam War.

Kim Phuc, just nine years old, survived a napalm bomb attack, that not only left a physical impact on her but also a lasting image in her mind and around the world.

- Some soldiers, they heard the information that let them know that the temple was going to be bombed.

So I ran outside, and suddenly the fire was everywhere.

I saw the fire over my arm, and I used my right hand, I wipe it up.

Then that's why I got burned in this too.

The photographers all over there, and I went out of the fire, and he clicked that, my iconic photo.

- The photo, and that day that it captured, ended up taking Kim on a physical and mental journey, one that shaped her life forever.

- The first time I saw that picture, I say, "What?

"Why he took my picture like that?"

I was naked.

I was girl.

And why he print it?

I just asked myself, "Does anyone understand my pain?"

And, of course, I didn't want to see that picture.

I hated it for a long, long time.

I thought, "Commit suicide."

I didn't want to leave anymore because it was so much overload.

My question is, why me?

- Kim began her journey into motherhood, and that led her down a road of healing and true purpose.

- The deep of my heart, I want to seek out looking for the answer.

In that moment, it changed my attitude.

When that picture taken, I have no choice.

But now I have a choice to make.

And my choice is really good, help me to move on, and accepted my picture, and then work for peace.

I have founded the Kim Foundation International, and our focus, our mission to help children who are victims of war or violence.

- And as she navigates the emotional scars, in 2015, she made the decision to undergo laser removal surgery to drastically reduce the appearance of her physical scars.

- All my attitude, my manners, the way I look at my scar is totally different.

I pray for the photographer every single day.

After he took my picture, and then he put down his camera, and he rushed me to the nearest hospital.

And I consider him as part of my family, that's why I thought I could.

And I learned how to love, how to pray for my enemies.

I consider is the wrong place at the wrong time.

And now, I can see I am at the right place and at the right time.

(gentle thoughtful music) - A wedding ring can be a symbolic showing of love.

And this specific ring completed this journey, not just once, but twice.

Diana Hammelstein had recently lost her mother due to a rare form of brain cancer and was given her wedding ring as a keepsake.

She cherished this ring on many levels and was devastated when she accidentally lost the ring.

However, unknown to her, fate was about to step in and the ring was found.

You saw the ring on the ground, you thought, "Oh, there's no way someone would lose "a big diamond ring."

- Yes, it didn't look real, to be honest with you.

It looked like maybe something out of a Cracker Jack box because what would that be doing in a parking lot?

And it was sort of located near these trash bins.

So we really didn't know.

- And just like a wedding ring that is in the shape of a circle and has no end, so was Katherine's persistence to find the owner.

Meanwhile, Diana's heartbreak was getting worse.

Ever lost hope in this journey that the ring was gone?

- Well, it's funny you should say that 'cause my mother's name was Hope.

But I mean I was starting to.

It was actually almost seven weeks had gone by.

So I was really devastated, and I really just thought that was it.

- And that's when serendipity struck.

The week of Diana's 40th birthday, she got a call.

- That morning, I had seen a missed call on my phone.

They didn't leave a message, but for some weird reason, I just felt compelled to call the number back.

And her husband had called me.

And he answered, and he said, "Did you miss a ring?"

And I started just...

I mean, I started crying.

- When the two ladies met to exchange the ring, they discovered something shocking.

Remember that rare cancer that took the life of Diana's mother?

It's actually called glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

And to their shocking discovery, Katherine also lost her dad to the exact same diagnosis.

To think in a city of over three million, not only was this ring lost and found, but it also formed a new union, two women together grieving the same type of loss.

And just like this ring witnessed before, its journey helped create a bond that will last forever.

- So, we both have been on this journey.

I mean, watching our loved ones pass away from this terrible aggressive cancer.

And so, obviously, when I found that connection, I felt my dad in every possible way just urging me to do the right thing.

To not give up.

You know, the odds were not good that in city of three million, I would find the owner of this ring.

There was nothing, no identifying information at all on it.

But he was just guiding me to do the right thing and to not give up, and that there was some maybe bigger purpose behind all of this.

- And now we're loading up and going on a journey together.

We're going to the Sunshine State.

The race called life, it's the journey that we're all on, and today, we're doing it together.

It was an early morning, and the energy on-site was exhilarating, surrounded by thousands, all with different journeys, to get to this 5K start line.

They all ran at different paces, yet were on the same path.

And that's similar to life.

We all have different chapters in our story, and we wanted to learn more about some of those on today's course.

- I had open heart surgery when I was 34.

I had a bicuspid aortic valve, so it was causing narrowing of my valve so my heart wasn't functioning properly.

So I went to my cardiologist, and that's when they did testing and found out my issue.

- At just 36 years old, Stephanie Grosso underwent a major health procedure.

One that led her on this journey of perseverance to accomplish her dreams.

And that led her here.

- So my mom did the 5K with me today.

And then I'm doing the rest of the challenge for the weekend, which is a 10.5k marathon.

- Stephanie is not alone in the grit that it takes in life to accomplish your dreams.

Some dreams evolve and inspire new dreams.

Some have been on the same path of chasing their goals right from the start line.

And nobody knows this better than Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross.

- It's so funny because I always feel like when you're asked to kind of come in and inspire people, you don't realize how much they inspire you.

And as I'm looking out and seeing these thousands of people, at four o'clock in the morning, all committed to doing something so great for themselves, I just felt so inspired to be there, and I just couldn't wait to get started, and run with them.

- So you said the people really inspire you.

- Yeah.

- But your journey to get to where you are today, what has been your motivation?

- Well, I do think that I've always had this fire burning inside of me to be great.

Like I knew I wanted to be an Olympic champion when I was nine.

(laughs) - At nine?

- Yep.

At nine years old.

- Did you tell people that?

- Yeah.

And for a class assignment, I wrote I'd be an Olympic champion.

That was the goal at nine.

So I knew at a young age.

But I would say my family support and my family, they were the ones that really inspired me to be great.

My dad told me since I was seven, "You're gonna be an Olympic champion.

"You're gonna be an Olympic champion.

And I think by the time I was 16, I believed him, and then I believed in myself.

And so, you know, I would say my family, they definitely inspired me and motivated me to be the best of the world.

- Both of these ladies are a great reminder, whether it's the race of life or a literal one, like today, you can find inspiration at every mile.

(upbeat pop-rock music) And from a gold medalist now to an NBA player.

Let's find out his journey.

You're in college, you're on the height of your career, and then you think you're probably going to go right into the NBA, right?

- It was just a lot of self-perseverance, kind of having the vision of where I wanted to be and just putting my head down and go to work.

- Is that what it was?

Putting your head down?

- Yeah, just staying really focused, really present.

You know, trying to be wherever my feet were, and just work hard and give myself the opportunity.

- You are a person outside of basketball too.

And for anyone at home that is on the journey of life and needing that inspiration, what would you say?

- I would just say, you know, self-belief is everything.

You know, there were days where I had bad days, but I just kept telling myself like, you know, "You're good enough.

You put the work in.

"When the opportunity comes, you're gonna be ready."

And then it did, and I was prepared.

So for me, it's just about staying true to the work and being ready when the opportunity knocks.

- Going back, going back to a place and time in your life to relive old memories and build new beginnings.

This is the concept of Dave Franco's film, "Somebody I Used to Know," starring his wife, Alison Brie.

In the movie, Alison plays Ally, whose journey is changing drastically.

While she's trying to figure out her future, she steps back into her past and discovers her former love is now engaged.

- We were fascinated by these themes of, like, the one that got away.

And this idea of, like, relationship amnesia that people have after a breakup, where the second they get lonely, they sort of pine for that person, even if they know it was maybe not the right person for them.

You know, it's not something that I've experienced in recent years or anything like that.

But, like, a lot of people I know kind of struggle with this on-again, off-again thing.

And I just think we wanted to kind of dig into it.

- This Amazon movie is one of self-discovery, and had me personally asking the question, how can what once was, and now is, coexist?

And the scene that helped me answer this is living in the now moment.

- So we have another poster for the movie where she is streaking.

And on the day that we shot that scene, in between setups, we did a whole photoshoot.

- How freeing was that?

- Freeing?

Oh, great.

It was very freeing.

I have a history with streaking.

I did a lot of streaking in my college years and some in my adult years, and we decided to tap back into that for the movie.

- I just want you to know, I was watching it at home, and have it as I'm like trying to make dinner, and my daughter comes in right at the time you're running naked.

Oh, my goodness!

I'm like, "Marlo, step away, step away."

And how was it for you seeing your wife?

You're like, "There goes my wife just running naked."

- I said, "There goes my wife."

(group laughing) - All laughs aside, the major life shift we see running beside Ally is something that might jog our own memory, with the 2020 COVID pandemic.

And it was Dave Franco's real-life experience that actually helped bring this type of story to life.

- I think during the pandemic, you know, a lot of my friends, they kind of reevaluated their lives in terms of their relationships.

Where they were living, their jobs.

And some of them made drastic changes 'cause they were like, "You know what?

"I wasn't happy with whatever it was "and I'm gonna make a big life shift "'cause it's not too late."

I think we all go down whatever path for a long time, and even if you're successful at it, it doesn't necessarily mean you're happy, but, also, it's not too late to kind of make a pivot.

And even in just such small ways, even if it's just like taking up a hobby of something that you used to love to do.

My dad, he had gone away from painting forever, and he took it up again after 40 years, and I'd never seen him happier.

And so it's like there's these things inside that it's like, "No, no, no.

Listen to that."

- Before we ended our time with this couple, we wanted to know how their someone has evolved.

And even more so, how they've done it side by side.

Y'all are both young, you're married, there's a lot of, like, interesting things that makes you this power couple.

How did y'all get here?

- Slowly, but surely.

- Yeah.

- I think that it really was a process, you know?

Dave wrote and directed "The Rental."

He wrote it with Joe Swanberg and that was sort of like his real first foray into writing and directing a film.

I, while I was working on "GLOW," I wrote a movie called "Horse Girl" with my friend Jeff Baena.

I directed an episode of "GLOW."

So like we were dipping toes into being on the other side of the camera and having such a good time and then shooting "The Rental" together.

I was in it, Davey directed it.

And that was such a great experience that we were sort of just like, "Why don't we just start from the very beginning together?"

- And you know, obviously, like for the first one that I directed, it was terrifying.

You know, when you do anything new, especially putting yourself out and making yourself that vulnerable.

But, like, it's such a great time, and I just, I don't know, it felt like, okay, we survived that, and now let's keep pushing it further.

Let's take more risks.

- Sort of felt like we thrive.

- We definitely thrive.

No, we definitely thrived.

- It wasn't like, "We survived that!"

- It's more just my, like, crazy mind of thinking that I'm actually going to die during this process.

- Well, and it's crazy when you think about both of you being under one roof and doing this project.

That can be a really scary leap too, because it's your family putting your name out there together.

- Yeah, for sure.

But I think part of... You know, the story of this movie is partially about kind of taking risks, shaking things up, to get you back to a feeling of joy in your life and like, just feeling passionate about your own existence.

I think that's part of what we've been doing by taking the reins and starting to make our own work.

- And also just having each other throughout this whole process.

It's nice to have someone to lean on.

(upbeat pop-rock music) - Well, we are all on our own journey and the leaders of our own lives.

But what happens when we get distracted?

We might miss what's actually happening big time in our journey.

Well, our next guest is an expert when it comes to being present and remembering all the special moments for each of our milestones.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you, Whitney.

It's so good to be here.

- Well, I am glad you are here because we've been talking about the journey, and we have you in our expert role, and you wrote a book that is really changing the way you think about presence.

And I feel like one thing that is so important on all of our journeys is actually being there in the moments.

- That's right.

That's right.

And I appreciate that you would call me an expert, but I hardly know if I am that.

I just know that I wrote a book that I needed for myself because I think you're right, so many of us struggle with being in the present moment.

You know, most of us we're rehashing the past, we're thinking about all the things that we wanna change that we can't change, or we are rehearsing the future, right?

We're trying to control all the things that we can't actually control and we're missing out on this moment.

We're missing out on the present moment.

And that's really the invitation of life, right?

To be here, to be all the way here, and to experience, even, you know, the good, the hard, the difficult, the beautiful, to be in all of it and experience the gift of life.

- You make it sound easy.

'Cause I am like, "I wanna be very present."

Like, as a mom with growing kids by the second, I don't wanna miss those little moments.

And I think you're so right when you said, "Rehashing the past."

Because when we look at our journey sometimes we're like, "Oh, I would've done that different.

- You know, there are really some consistent ways that we all rehash the past.

Blame is a big one.

You know, we try to direct responsibility to someone or something else when things go wrong.

Shame is another one.

I like to tell people that shame when you spell it out, S-H-A-M-E, it spells self-hatred at my expense.

That's really what shame is, right?

- Interesting.

Yeah.

- Yeah, guilt is another one.

Bitterness, unforgiveness.

That's another one that we struggle with.

And these are some of the consistent ways that we rehash the past.

And then when you think about rehearsing the future, worry is a huge one, right?

- Oh, all the time!

- We worry about all the things that, you know, we don't know if they're gonna happen or not, but we worry about them.

I tell people that worry is living in a not-yet that's worse than you're now.

Also, I have two kids, and, you know, I mean, I feel like my life can be so crazy and busy, and I want to be in this moment with them, right?

I wanna experience all of life with them.

And what I have found is asking the question, what's here now?

You know, the mind is wild because people say that we can think anywhere from 60 to 80,000 thoughts in a day.

And so just pausing and going, "Okay.

"What am I really thinking in my mind?

"Is this true?

Is this helpful?"

And then asking the final question, "What am I sensing in my body?"

You know, the body never lies, Whitney.

It never lies.

And so, really growing that body intelligence to go, "Okay.

What's really occurring here?"

And when we ask ourselves those three questions, "What's here now?

What am I thinking in my thoughts?

"What am I feeling in my heart?

"What am I experiencing in my body?"

It brings us back to the present moment.

- What got you to this point of saying, "I need this book?"

- Well, I like to tell people this book wrote me before I wrote it.

You know, I wrote what I needed because I was struggling.

I was struggling with being in the present moment.

Everywhere but here.

You know, it's funny, we've even come up with a phrase for this, right?

The idea of FOMO, that there's the fear of missing out.

That there's a there that's better than our here.

And I think that I was either struggling with FOMO or you know, living in my past, you know, thinking, "Oh, gosh, I need to be somewhere else."

And, well, my husband and I, we started a church 12 years ago, and it was growing, and it was thriving.

And I felt like the invitation that I was offering to so many other people, I wasn't experiencing myself.

I wanna live this life.

I want it to be said of me, "She was all the way here.

"Like, she lived all the way here."

- Besides reading the book, and fully getting into how we do this, what are some easy tips that we can say?

- We don't experience peace unless we practice presence.

And the practice of presence is really just drawing yourself back.

And when we come back to the present moment, oh, it's such a gift.

The people in our lives, they experience it.

And so I would say to any viewer, just start with breathing.

Literally, just start with breathing.

- Well, and we're all doing that.

- That's right.

- And we focus on it, yeah.

- And then you focus on your breath.

And then, you know, for me, I put this question on my phone.

And so every time I opened up my phone, the question popped up, "What's here now?"

And I literally would just pause for 30 seconds, and before I would, you know, answer a text or scroll or, you know, return an email, I would just pause and go, "Okay.

What's here now?"

- Has it helped you with your journey by taking pause and understanding this?

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Because I think that people get this sense like, "Okay.

When she's with me, she's with me."

And helping people learn how to practice the gift of presence really is a gift of experiencing peace.

- I love it.

And, like you said, we could all use more peace.

- Yes, absolutely.

- Thank you so much, Jeannie, for coming on.

- Thank you, Whitney.

- Life is a journey, and all of our guests today showed us the tenacity it takes to keep going.

Remember your story matters.

(inspirational pop music) (vocalist singing faintly) (gentle thoughtful pop music) - Support for "The Whitney Reynolds Show" is provided by Together at Peace, a community dedicated to spreading the light that still shines bright, helping foster a connection to those we love and lost, offering suggestions, products, and curated event templates to move forward with their spirits.

We are forever Together at Peace.

K. O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

JoePerillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned luxury vehicles.

JoePerillo.com is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

And by Fair Oaks Farms.

An escape to the country with acres of fun, fresh food, and learning, where you can explore family-owned farms and reconnect with nature, animals, and our planet.

Additional support provided by Kevin Kelly Real Estate Agent, Mid-West Moving & Storage, Brendon Studzinski with State Farm, Bark Busters Chicago, Concierge Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery, and these funders.

- Whether you want more behind the scenes or the whole interview, make sure not to miss one episode of "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

Here's what's coming up.

- You've got 1,500 juveniles every year getting arrested in a small neighborhood like North Lawndale.

Crime, it is not something that we can arrest our way out of.

- But I started to realize that the world thought I was on top of my game.

I was on Forbes list of the richest self-made women.

I mean, from the outside it was like the star, you know, entrepreneur, billion-dollar brand.

But, on the inside, I was struggling.

- My mother would always tell me, you know, "You're wonderful, you're beautiful," but when I step out them doors, society had other answers for me.

So I would always go back to my mother and ask her, you know, "Are you telling me the truth?"

And as a parent, she always reassured me, and say, "James, you know what?

It is okay."

At the end of the day, people were asking me what happened to my face.

No one ever asked me what was my name and how I felt inside.

Like, my smile was like my first best friend.

My second best friend was the mirror, 'cause then I started just building myself up every single day.

- Growing up in the early 90s, it was a whole different world.

I didn't know anyone else that had two gay dads, especially not two they were biologically related to.

And in doing that, my parents were actually part of a landmark case in California where they could be on the birth certificate as parent and parent.

- For more information on today's program, visit WhitneyReynolds.com.

Or get social with us.

Facebook, Whitney Reynolds Show.

Twitter, Whitney Reynolds.

Or on TikTok and Instagram, Whitney-_Reynolds.

- Our mommy!

(gentle bright piano music)