Today we’d like to introduce you to Immanual Joseph.
Immanual, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am currently a high school science teacher in Frisco ISD. I did my Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Tulane School of Medicine at New Orleans. After my Ph.D., I worked as a cancer drug discovery scientist in the California Bay Area. At an inflection point in my science career, I started an in-home care agency with a dream of providing exceptional care for the disabled, the seniors, and people at end-of-life situations. This venture addressed a critical need for quality care in the community and became a BBB A-rated company within 3 years. However, watching people suffer and die at such close quarters created a deep dissonance in me, which led to me becoming clinically depressed. Fortunately, I attended a compassion cultivation training at Stanford University around this time, which helped me understand that what I was experiencing was empathic distress and that I could address my depression by learning compassion skills. This led me to researching compassion, and through the advice of my mentor, I started focusing on creating a framework to bring compassion to the workplace setting. That is how the 9-pillars of workplace compassion framework was created. Eventually, I taught these principles of compassion in companies including Facebook, Amazon, Salesforce, etc. and I wrote a book called the Fifth revolution on the topic. During Covid, we moved as a family to McKinney, where I became a science teacher at Frisco ISD. I continue to teach the principles of human centric workplaces in my spare time, and I write books as a passion. This year I gave three TEDx talks on compassion and completed my dream book called The Road to Kedarnath, centered around finding inner peace and self-forgiveness, and also a Tamil book titled Valaigal (Webs). In all, I have written 8 books in two languages spanning the fiction and non-fiction genres so far. I recently started a micro-podcast series (episodes of 4 minutes or less) on wisdom-centric living called The Tea Seller’s Tales. I am currently consulting for an exceptional virtual reality program that focuses on bringing joy through VR programming and am also creating a program on compassionate stress management as an academic collaboration.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I cannot claim that this has been a smooth road for me. I left a successful science track to pursue my passion of caring for seniors, not considering my own emotional preparedness for handling this task. Watching my patients progress through stages of Alzheimer’s or slowly deteriorate and pass away was for me a cause of deep inner suffering. When I sold my in-home care business and started teaching compassion in workplaces, I was totally unprepared for the financial implications of freelancing in the training space. It took the unwavering support of my family, my learnings and reflections on compassion, and my deep love of writing to sustain me through the difficult times of my life.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My biggest passion over the past several years has been to promote the idea that we can improve the quality of our lives and that of others through the practice of compassion. Compassion is a way of perceiving and reacting to our own challenges and the challenges that we encounter. This is a skill that can be learned. It involves rewiring our brain circuits through consistent micro-shifts in our habits, a practice that I call microcompassion. This is the core theme of my three TEDx talks and also my workplace training programs. As compassion manifests and our worldview changes, we become more at ease inwardly and become part of the healing that the world needs. Being a certified life coach, I use this as a the foundational principle of my coaching practice which aims to help people flourish inside out. My happiest moments are when I come to learn that what I have written or taught has touched somebody deeply and created deep inner transformation. Because in those moments, I feel that I have been a successful conduit of the Universe.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
It would be impossible for me to claim that anything that has been accomplished is through individual striving. I am a storyteller because my mother was a brilliant storyteller. Every time I tell a story, I am reminded of the quiet afternoons so long ago in India, when I would lay my head down on her lap and listen spellbound to her tales of errant kings and underdog heroes, and how love and hope always triumph in the end. I am also incredibly grateful to my wife. She is the biggest supporter and the strongest critic of my creations. More importantly she provides the mental space which allows me to create and build beautiful things. I am very lucky and blessed to collaborate with Jack Abbot, Emiliana AtentaMente, and the Made for Joy team for believing that my compassion work can blossom in the Virtual Reality space. And while I have had many mentors, I am particularly grateful for Dr. James Doty MD, the founder of CCARE at Stanford University, a great friend, mentor, and collaborator who believes in my work and has opened many doors for my expression. I am also grateful for Ferose VR, an SVP at SAP and the founder of India Inclusion Summit- he stands as an inspiration for how one man’s passion for ableism can create a nationwide movement. Rajesh Setty, an incredible friend, mentor, and collaborator has believed in my work and me, even in the days I could not. To all my incredible family and friends without whom I will never be complete, I am indebted.
Contact Info:
- Website: Professional: compassionleaders.com Personal: https://iniyanjose.wixsite.com/immanual
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/immanualjoseph/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/immanual.joseph.7/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BCfTUuX5Pk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw2csDBLd6g (Two TEDx talks)
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BH3T18P2
