Ashley Callen believes you have to leave good to get to great, but it wasn’t an easy road. In 2014 she tested positive for the BRCA 1 gene mutation, most commonly known as the breast cancer gene. Directly after choosing to have a preventative double mastectomy, something she calls both the hardest and easiest decision she’s ever made, her husband Dave was severely injured in a helicopter crash which left him with a broken back and a collapsed lung. While the parents of toddlers healed – Ashley preparing for reconstructive surgery and Dave in physical therapy – they also realized they were just surviving, in all ways, and life is too short to settle for “good.”
Ashley and I talk about the emotional fallout of removing her breasts and what she saw as the sign of her femininity, the power of the family she has found within Police Wives of America, and the tough work Dave and Ashley had to face in order to strengthen their marriage after difficulty.
We get deep in relationships and talk about communication, compassion and hard conversations. Ashley also shares the rough spaces she and Dave navigated that then put them in the spotlight as national speakers for Bless the Badge Law Enforcement conferences and became the foundation of the book they are co-writing that drops later this year.
Let’s dig in.
Thank you for joining us today. I love how deep Ashley went with me in talking about the importance of communication and how conflict is many times the door you need to enter to take your relationship from good to great.
Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @ashley_callen
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If you want some help moving toward that intentional life, join me every week on my intention journey. I’m inviting you. Totally free. From my heart to your inbox. Sign up for my #girltribe at jeanetteschneider.com and before you even wake up on Monday mornings there will be a huge dose of motivation waiting for you. Yes, I will wake you up on Monday morning with intention setting prompts and give you some tips as to what is setting my soul on fire. On Fridays I’m going to remind you to let go, recharge, and love yourself up with some self care prompts to get present in your down time. Intentional living is where it’s at, y’all!
Until next time – in the words of my grandma, “Love each other every day.”
In your ears, filling your heart.
Xo,
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