The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Living Intentionally by Viterose Van Huis

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

Living Intentionally by Viterose Van Huis https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGWFSJMN From an early age, we are influenced by many different voices that constantly suggest how to be more beautiful, healthy, and wealthy, making it challenging for us to set clear intentions for ourselves. Living intentionally means living a life of knowing who we are. We don’t have a life; we are life. All we need to do is trust our intentions and the enabling force that powers our intentions. In an inspiring guide, Elaine Van Huis shares insight into a multitude of life experiences both in Barbados and the United States as she learned the value of setting intentions and maintaining a positive mindset to achieve her goals—even during challenging times. As she reveals how she transformed into a wife, mother, and more, Elaine leads others through her lessons learned on her evolutionary journey as she attempted to stay present, visualize the best possible outcome to every situation, intentionally grow old, and move away from misguided and negative intentions. Living Intentionally shares the personal experiences of a lifelong learner who has navigated the twists and turns of life with purpose, grace, and peace to help others do the same. “This easily digested read is so important since it makes clear how this power we have in our own minds answers our collective human failure to reduce conflict and achieve more harmony in our world today.” —Richard Harrison

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Elaine Van Heist is on the show with us today. We're going to be talking about her books and some of the work that she's doing as well. She is a mother and grandmother who divides her time between her birth country, Barbados, and the United States. She earned an MA in history and an MSC in metaphysics. This is her third book. Welcome to the show. Elaine, how are you? I am wonderful. Happy to be talking to you. Happy to be talking to you as well. We're going to get into your books and all the works that you've been up to. Give us any dot com's websites, wherever you want people to get to know you better. My website, whiterose.com. So give us a 30,000 overview. What's inside this book? What's inside this book? Wow.

What's inside this book is the power of intention. How, when we live intentionally, our lives manifest so beautifully. But. for the most part, many of us don't understand what it means to live intentionally. We lived from a poor place of what others think we should do instead of what our inner selves guide us into doing. And that is living intentionally, living from the inside out. Living from the inside out. And do you find a lot of people, they're not really doing that very, maybe they're not intentional.

No, I'll tell you one of the reasons why we don't live from that place, and I didn't either, is because from the time we are born, we are told by our parents and then by the teachers and by the ministers and by everybody else. And then the TV tells us we are not beautiful, we have to do this and we have to do that. And, you know, there's constantly thoughts on how we how we, how we, how we, are supposed to be. And we learn not to listen to our inner selves. And it's from that inner selves that we live intentionally. It's like the intention is the root of our being. And the more magnificent the root is, the tree is, it is also the root. The root is magnificent also. If the root isn't magnificent, the tree will never be because it is from that root that the tree exists.

So that's what intentions are. Yeah. And so it sounds like it comes from the frame of living life you want instead of just having all these societal things and marketing, these marketers that are always trying to sell you stuff. And they tell a lot of, they tell a lot of fibs about, oh, this is going to give you eternal life and you'll be beautiful or you'll be healthy forever. If you take this certain drug that will eventually have side effects, we'll find out about later. True. True. I love the commercials that you always see on TV for medical stuff and they read off the

disclaimer of the side effects that can happen. And you're like, the side effects sound worse than the ailment. Than the problem itself. So therefore, yeah. And we are so brainwashed that we actually listen to this stuff. Yeah. We actually believe in whatever. My premise in living intentionally is that we only do that when we only do that when we

We understand the power of self. Who is the self? And we talk a lot about we are human beings, but we only dwell upon the human. Who is the being? What is that? I am a human being. I'm a being. That beingness is where my power comes from, because that beingness is what man calls God.

And it is from that power that we become, like I said to people, you ever see the sun rays. You ever seen the power of a sunrise in the morning? You ever see the power? That's your power. That's your power. That's who you are. Yeah. That's who you are. How many of us know that? Yeah. A lot of people, we get lost in the menagerie of all this input and stimuli and and we just kind of feel dragged after a while, I think. It is the truth. Loss, really, really, really. We never really get to. to understand the power of our being this,

and therefore we don't live at that place. And me, for example, I'm writing this book from a place of a very negative childhood, early motherhood, life that wasn't very happy, but a person that was always seeking and searching, I'm finding that even though I didn't understand what it means to have what intention,

I always lived from intention. I was always driven to be intentional about what I was doing to be intentional mother and intentional wife. So I know from experience what it means to live from a place of intention. And I think that I can, and all the other people that I've learned from is in the book. I guide to people can learn for themselves because to me that's the greatest way of learning, learning for yourself, not listening to me and saying, oh, she did it. No, no, no, no.

You can do it yourself. Getting in touch with yourself. also getting learned from the experts because they are experts out there in this field. Yeah. Most definitely. One of the things you have is we don't have a life, we are life. Tell us what that means and where you came up with that and how that applies to what we're talking about in your book.

We don't have a life. We are life. We are integral to this amazing universe that we live in. We are not something that is here on our own like we were told. We are wretched and we need to save them. That's far from the truth. We are integral to the existence or whatever you want to call that keeps this in place. We are integral to that.

And therefore, we are life itself. We are empowered from within. So that's what I mean when I says we don't have a life or, in other words, we are this little thing that came here, now we need to depend upon something to guide us. No, no, no, we are life itself. We are empowered. Like, the whole universe is empowered by the same thing.

And we see the majesty of the universe. That's our majesty. Of course, you know what I'm talking about. You wouldn't have done all the things that you have done if you didn't understand this concept. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. It's quite, you've got to be. present in life. And like I say, we get a lot of stimuli. We get a lot of people who are telling us, we know better and you should do this and you should do that and yada, yada, yada. And in reality, we should know what's best for us because everyone's going to pull your attention if you let them. It's the same for a lot of different things. If you let people use your attention and all that stuff, then you're going to have issues. You're going to be going to understand why we're not doing this better or whatever because you're being pulled in five different directions.

And you talk about trusting intentions and enabling force that powers our intentions. Now, how is this different? These are types of intentions you're talking about. I think being present and being mindful of your life and your awareness. But they do say in the Bible, good intentions paved the way to hell. So are these intentions different? or how do you differentiate? Good intentions or bad intentions.

It paved the way to help. There you go. I don't know. It's in the Bible, so I'm just cool. But I do talk about that. We can have negative intentions too, and I'll give you an example of a negative intention. Somebody do something to you, and you can't, you intend that you're going to kill that person. I talk about that in the book.

There was a young man from one of the African countries, and his father. got killed during the war and I will remember the name of the country in a minute and he came to America and he was determined he was because his father meant a lot to him he's going to go back to his country and kill that man but by the time he got back to his country he had a different experience and he didn't want to kill the person anymore but the person was dead by the time he got there and but so that you can have those kind of negative intentions you can intend to do something to somebody harm. So that's the power of the human being. We can have the we can seek to the lowest level, our race of the highest height. So our intentions can be anywhere.

Yes. We can have negative intentions too. And they're fulfilled, just as the good ones are fulfilled. That's the power of the human being. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The power of the human being, as it were. So, you know, in your book, you talk about all these different things. Let's take a look here. So you talk about how you transformed into a wife, mother, and more, and lessons that you learned through your journey. Tell us about some of these lessons that you learned that you espouse in the book. I think that expouse in the book, I learned a lot from my children. My oldest son was problematic. and Leonard Coyne, there's a crack in every wall, and that's how the light gets in. So, yeah, that sun brought light into me.

I had to learn how to truly love unconditionally. And as a result of my childhood and the pain of my childhood, I'm a very compassionate person. And that's because of my experience. And I find that lots of times we tend not to have compassion or, or we can't be able to, especially when we made it, we can't put ourselves in people who we think, oh, they should do better. We see some person in the street begging and we think, when does he go to work? Stuff like that.

So we're not really empathetic, not compassionate, but over the life, my life experience has taught me how to be both of those things. Compassionate and empathetic, yes. What was the inspiration that was the foundational for writing this book? What was that moment where you had an aha moment and said, I'm going to write this book? This is almost like a sequel to Bones and the Alley. Yes and No. Bones in the Alley is your prior book, right? It's my memoir, yes.

Okay. We'll get into that here in a bit then. And this is kind of like a sequel. And there are people that I would notice that, say, for instance, there would be a daughter who has a mother who suffers tremendously from diabetic diseases and wounds and stuff like that. But yet I see this child is following the same footstep. There is no intention, oh, you know what? I'm not going to go down that road. I'm not going to do.

I'm going to do differently. And truthfully, an experience like that is what caused me to write this book. Oh. Yeah. Just seeing the world around me where people don't live intentionally to just follow. They're just, you know, living from the outside in rather than the inside out. But we are taught to live from the outside in, not the inside out. Yes.

Yeah. out or the outside in. Now, what do you hope people come away with when they read this book? The greatest thing that I would like people to come away with is the power that's within. The power that's within. You are everything, everything you need is right there within you. The power that's within. The power to heal yourself. The power, whatever. The power is within you. It's not outside there. It's within you. And that's hard for us to understand, especially when we weren't born with a gold spoon in our mouth. Yeah.

But it depends upon my intention has never, I never wanted a whole lot. I just wanted to be comfortable and I'm comfortable in my life. But it depends upon what makes you comfortable. A million dollars could make me comfortable and a million dollars and six million dollars wouldn't make another person comfortable. So it all depends upon your mindset. It all depends upon where you are and your thinking, your thoughts, your attitude toward life. Your attitude towards life is definitely interesting.

With your book, what was the key to your change in spiritual thought? The pain of my life. I was married. I got married at 17 and I got a divorce after 28 years. So I was at a benchmark. I was at a place of change. So I started asking a lot of questions because I actually, truthfully, had grasped everything I was taught from childhood with all.

That's the kind of person I am. When I give to something, I give it my all. But when I started seeing, I didn't see, life wasn't adding up. I needed deeper questions. So I started searching. I started asking questions. It was really funny. When you seek, you find.

If you don't seek, you don't find. I think that most of us, I was in a conception. prison. I am not afraid to admit that. But when I was able to look over the wall and start observing different, that there is a different way of being, I found my way. And I know a lot of people would say that I'm crazy and people who think like me are crazy. But let my life speaks for itself and my life has spoken powerfully really. I am 70, I'm in my next birthday. Nobody I meet can believe I'm that old. I think that there's something to live in from the inside out, something to live in from the inside of. Yep. It's all about what goes on the inside.

So many people, they chase things. What was it Emerson? Emerson had a saying something about you can travel the world to try and escape yourself, but everywhere you go, there you are still There you still are. So if you're miserable at home, you'll be miserable on vacation. Exactly. Yeah. No matter where you people are trying to get away from this. If I go to Barbados, maybe on vacation, I can maybe be a different person.

No. You came to Barbados on vacation. Yeah, you get the sun and the sea. And I went to the beach this morning. So beautiful. But anyways, yeah. Yeah. But life is my greatest desire, Chris.

is for humans to get to know who they are. Yeah. But you want us to know who we are? Because when we know who we are, we live powerful. When you know who you are, nobody don't have to tell you don't eat poorly. Yeah. Nobody doesn't have to tell you anything. There's an inside something, thermometer, something in the haemometer, something that guides you.

You know, but you have to get to know who you are. And we haven't been taught who we are. We've been taught everything else except the truth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, knowing who we are is so important. Like I say, the whole world will use you and steal from you if you let it. If you just open up your heart and your wallet on your sleeve. And so you've got to take control of, okay, what's my world about? And a lot of people operate on kind of this, just this lazy cow chewing their cut in the field where they're just like, ah, this is fine, whatever. Yeah. Did your American experience influence some of your life in writing in this book? and you came from Barbados to America. Tell us a little bit about that, if you would. My American experience, let me tell you, my American experience is fantastic.

I was born with a desire to know. I was born curious, wanting to know, wanting to learn. And so having the opportunity to come to America really was, yes, very important in who Elaine developed to be. Finally, yes, because I had, like, in Barbados, my schooling was over. I got pregnant at 15. I was done. When I got to America and I have two master's degrees now,

and I've read many, many, many books. I am an avid reader because I want to learn and I want to know. So, yes, that's how America changed me. America gave me the opportunity to my potentials to be greater. That's kind of what the American dream and experience is supposed to be, or it used to be, that you can live your life to your fullest potential. Now it's a little weird in 2026, so we'll see if it's still an American dream. How does your understanding impact your daily experience?

So how do you manage your day-to-day with some of the stuff that you talk about in your book? My daily experience is a reflection. Anybody that meets me, hold on a minute, I have to get a top. It's very hot here. Oh. Yeah. how I live what I anybody that meets me and get to know me will tell you that I live what I

write about I sincerely am what I write about I serve I'm I'm ready and willing to serve and whatever that's who Elaine is yeah but I think I was like this before I wrote the book just the book the book came out of me yeah so like who I am yes I Yeah, I am positive. I have my hard days. Believe me, I have my days when I can be down too. But I remember who I am and that I'm empowered from within, so I keep going.

But I have my days. I want to cry too. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose we all have those days sometimes, right? Yes, yes, I want to cry sometimes too. Yeah. If it wasn't for the tough days, we wouldn't appreciate the good days, maybe.

Why? Without light, we wouldn't, darkness, we wouldn't appreciate light, would we? True, yeah. Love wouldn't mean anything. If love was common and easy to find, you'd just be like, you know, whatever, it's just love. But some of these things we appreciate life, because they are hard to find. They are hard to discover. Yes, yes. And you can't control other people. You can love all the people you want, but they might not love you back. So I've got to find that one person. Do you have any regrets considering the hardships of your life? But I'm going to answer that a little bit differently because I learned something recently. that really struck me, but I don't have any regrets. All the pains and the suffering and the hurt of my life

helped me to be the centered human that I am right now. But we all have regrets. And my regrets has to do with the times when I didn't say the right thing or I didn't act the right way. I may have hurt someone. It was that the only regrets I have. But in terms of the big experiences of my life, that no, none at all.

I have joy in looking back at them and seeing how far I've come. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way to look at it. You can't change the past. I think you can regret a few things. I regret not going to more concerts and take advantage of them.

Look, I listen to you. Yeah. But in recognizing that, now this year I've been going a lot of concerts. Oh, you have. And trying to catch up and see all my heroes. You're supposed to see Zizi Top the other day. You did. And the drummer died the day of the show.

show. Wow. So I'll never get to see the full band. I mean, they lost the guitar years ago, but I was hoping to see most of the band. But yeah, they canceled the show. And there's a lot of them, like I was supposed to go see some of my other favorite bands. And they quit touring because they just got too old, and I didn't take advantage of those times. Yeah. And concerts are such a wonderful thing. You escape and go to a different place and be entertained. And a lot of these were my childhood bands that I loved. I grew up and they were kind of the thing that's to sustain me through some of my darker moments in life. But now I'm recognizing, though, I'm trying to catch up and see as many bands as I can that I loved

and really immersed myself in them because a lot of them are really old. There may not be no tours. But that's funny because that's how I was when I got to America. I realized that I didn't, I wasn't exposed because of my education to the classics. So I did everything I could to read all the classics that I could so that I could be familiar with them. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Let's talk about your other book that we wanted to profile, I believe. The Other One, What was it entitled? Bones in the Alley. Bones in the Alley. Tell us about this book. What is the overview on this? Bones and Yally is a memoir, and it tells, it gives you the full details of my life and my struggles. and living to America and the difficulty of that and having a partner that because of our, we were Christian,

we were 70 Adventists that I should, yeah, I'm not a seven of the admittance anymore, but I was. And Adventism was also a very integral part to who I have become because I learned a lot about how to live from Adventism. In the early days of my life as an Adventist, yeah, and the expectations. I have of a husband who was doing his best and, yeah, created conflict. And that's what Bones and Yali is about. It is about my, and the reason why it is called Bones and Yali is because when I was a little girl, I was so skinny that the children when they see me would say Bones and Yali, 10 for a penny. What is, 10 for a penny?

What is that? It means you could buy them, 10 for bones in Yali, 10 for a penny. Bones and Yali, 10 for a penny. Because you were so skinny. I was so skinny, yes. Yes. Yeah. It's, to me, it's funny that, and interesting that you've, you've taken that.

Maybe it was an insult or maybe it was. It was supposed to be. And you've taken it and empowered it to yourself now, making it yours. Yeah. That's a great way to empower yourself as opposed to being a victim. So what I say, look at me now. Look at the bones in the alley now. Yeah.

So as we round out the show, what do you hope people come away with when they read this book, Bones in the Alley? Just the same thing that I hope they come away with in living intentionally is that an intentional life is a powerful life. And that that intentional life depends upon us, it depends upon you. They're living from the inside out. It's not reaching to nothing outside of yourself. Yeah. Because you're a God being, you're empowered. You come here with all the power you need.

That's a great, that's a great, that's a great saying because so many people, they live a life outside themselves. Oh, I'll be happy when I get a burka back. Oh, and I'll be happy when I get this. So I'll be happy when I get that. I'm chasing this because I can't be happy now because I can't be happy until I get that thing. Yes. And so I've got to be miserable until then.

And the hardest thing for me to learn, life was that life is about the journey, not the destination. And you're going to spend most of your time, anything you would aspire to in life or try to do, you're going to spend most of your time on the journey part and very, very little on the destination. That is so true. You need to take time and be present and intentional like you talk about to turn to see the world around you and the input there and enjoy the journey. Look around. That's why I tell a lot of young people when I talk to, them, I go, remember, life's, it's about the journey, collect stories, look at things, be interested in things, learn, be curious. And it's so easy to speed run life and wake up and you're like,

did I live my life or did I live someone else's life? That is so true. Where was I? Yeah. And I was listening to a great Egyptian, I was interviewed this morning, he talked about how people live fake lives. They have masks on. You know, need to learn to take. To take a little bit. I'm going to take those masks of live in the present moment and just be grateful with who we are. And it's, to me, it's a powerful thing when you come to that understanding. Yeah. Most definitely. It really is because it's life. Most people are trying to get their own in life. So they're not going to spend a lot of time with you trying to be like, oh, we'll, we'll do this or that, whatever. But yeah, it's a big deal. So as we round out the show, give people a final pitch out to

pick up your books, where they can find you on your website, and all that good stuff. The books, of course, are at Amazon. You can find them at Amazon. You can also find them at X Libris Bookstore. That is the publisher. And those are the two places I know for sure. I thought they were Barnes & Noble, but I went looking for them and I didn't find them there. But I know someone that bought one there.

So I should say Barnes & Noble. So maybe you can get them at Barnes & Noble. Yeah. And my website is Baitrose vanheist.vichs.com slash Elaine. Thank you very much, Elaine, for coming the show.

We really appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it was wonderful. Yes. Folks, order up a book where refined books are sold, living intentionally.

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