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Maria Menounos Says This Test Saved Her Life · I Choose Me with Jennie Garth

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to a brand new season of I Choose Me,
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  Speaker 2: the podcast about chasing joy, finding purpose, and embracing reinvention.
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  Speaker 2: Maria Menunos, Welcome, Hi, Hi. This is so fun to
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  Speaker 2: have you.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you same. I've been a fan forever and I'm
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  Speaker 1: reading your book literally as i'm you.
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  Speaker 2: Know, thank you. You're researching me while I'm talking and
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  Speaker 2: researching you. I love that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's funny because the book came in the mail
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  Speaker 1: yesterday and I had a little downtime so I started reading,
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  Speaker 1: and yeah, I was really captivated very quickly obviously.
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  Speaker 2: So that's nice. What's going on in your world?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'm choosing me too, how so it's so funny.
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  Speaker 1: It's just when I saw the title, I'm like, oh
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  Speaker 1: my gosh, Like I think that's been the last ten years,
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  Speaker 1: which I can't wait to dig into this book because
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  Speaker 1: I feel like we all kind of have these journeys. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and ultimately you're gonna sink or swim, and you're gonna
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  Speaker 1: either follow the breadcrumbs or not or stay in some
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  Speaker 1: kind of story. And it sounds like you have worked
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  Speaker 1: your way through all of those those moments to the
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  Speaker 1: re remembering of who you really were, rather focusing on reinvention,
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  Speaker 1: which is ironically the core of this next event that
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  Speaker 1: I'm putting together, which we can talk about later. But
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  Speaker 1: it's just so funny. There's so many cross parallels.
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  Speaker 2: I love that. So you're by coastal right?
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  Speaker 1: Yes?
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  Speaker 2: Which coast do you like best?
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  Speaker 1: East?
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  Speaker 3: Really?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? Tell me why. I I grew up an East
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  Speaker 1: Coast girl. I grew up in Boston, and I swore
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  Speaker 1: I would never see a winter again. I was like,
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  Speaker 1: heck no, this is so freaking cold. And when I
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  Speaker 1: got to La, my nervous system calmed down. I was like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: this is the life. And it was amazing for all
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  Speaker 1: of those years and all the work that I did,
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  Speaker 1: all the work that you did, I'm sure you feel
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  Speaker 1: the same way. And then I remember it was after
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  Speaker 1: brain surgery. It was like twenty seventeen, and I just
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  Speaker 1: was like done, and I wanted to move. I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to change everything. You had this life changing experience and
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  Speaker 1: you just you want to make big, sweeping changes. And
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  Speaker 1: my husband was like, I'm worried you might regret some
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  Speaker 1: in the house and leaving, and I'm like I want
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  Speaker 1: to live in a hut. I want to simplify everything.
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  Speaker 1: Life is too complicated. I want no stress. And so
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  Speaker 1: it took a little bit of time to get there,
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  Speaker 1: but I started spending more time in the East Coast
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  Speaker 1: and I fell back in love. Now when people were
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  Speaker 1: like before, people were like, oh my god, I love
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  Speaker 1: the four seasons, I'm like four seasons, it's like scorching
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  Speaker 1: hot or it's winter. I was so negative about it,
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  Speaker 1: and now I'm like, oh my god, I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to trouble anywhere. I want to be here all the time.
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  Speaker 1: I almost seem go to Greece this summer because I
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  Speaker 1: love it here so much.
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  Speaker 2: You love traveling too. I love that about you. A venture,
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  Speaker 2: changing it up, making things change is it's hard for people.
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  Speaker 2: I actually have a caller today who is struggling with
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  Speaker 2: a big change that's happening in her life, and I
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  Speaker 2: would love to help her, and I would love your
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  Speaker 2: help helping her. So let's listen to our beautiful listener's
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  Speaker 2: voice message that she left and let's see what we
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  Speaker 2: can do.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. Hi, my name is Alison and I'm from North Carolina.
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  Speaker 3: I lost my mom about a year and a half ago,
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  Speaker 3: and I am a single parent with two kids. My
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  Speaker 3: son's twenty one and my daughter's eighteen, and she's getting
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  Speaker 3: ready to leave for college, and I will be an
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  Speaker 3: empty nester. My question is, as I get ready to
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  Speaker 3: become an empty nester, I'm finding that my grief over
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  Speaker 3: my mom's death is resurfacing. I feel like maybe I
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  Speaker 3: just kind of pushed it down to help, you know,
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  Speaker 3: my daughter and my son get through certain things and
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  Speaker 3: you know, milestones without my mom being there. And I
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  Speaker 3: feel like now that I'm getting ready to be alone,
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  Speaker 3: that all of this grief is just resurfacing and maybe
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  Speaker 3: I didn't deal with it before. Do you have ways
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  Speaker 3: that you suggest of how I could navigate that?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, let's bring Alison in. Hello, Hi, welcome to I
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  Speaker 2: choose me.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.
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  Speaker 4: I'm excited to be here.
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  Speaker 2: And bonus. Maria is with us.
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  Speaker 1: Say no, hi, Maria, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: Grace is perfect because some parallels are happening for all
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  Speaker 2: of us. I think, Maria, I know you lost your mom.
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  Speaker 2: I lost my father. My mom is getting you know, older,
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  Speaker 2: and you lost your mom. I did, Allison, And now
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  Speaker 2: your kids are leaving the nest.
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  Speaker 4: That's right, My son is he's twenty one, so he
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  Speaker 4: left already. But my daughter leaves in about a week
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  Speaker 4: and she goes off to college and she'll be six
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  Speaker 4: hours away.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, just me, it's a big change. Yeah, Marie
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  Speaker 2: and I were just talking about change. That's a big
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  Speaker 2: one for you.
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  Speaker 1: It really is. Yeah, exciting.
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  Speaker 4: I'm thrilled for her and I know she'll thrive, but
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  Speaker 4: it will be an adjustment for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Maria. I'm curious when you were grieving the loss of
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  Speaker 2: your mom, were you able to go through it, like
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  Speaker 2: really get through it and kind of come out on
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  Speaker 2: the other side, or did you have a similar story
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  Speaker 2: to Allison where you had to kind of compartmentalize it
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  Speaker 2: and get through things.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't for the first time compartmentalized. Alison. How long
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  Speaker 1: ago did you lose your mom?
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  Speaker 4: It was a year and a half ago.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So when I lost my mom, I remember going
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  Speaker 1: back to LA and I was kind of just a
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  Speaker 1: zombie for a while, and I just kind of sat
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  Speaker 1: in it. I didn't have kids to deal with and
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  Speaker 1: to help, so you just got in. Yeah. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: have an actual job that needed me to be there.
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  Speaker 1: I worked for myself and so I had different circumstances
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  Speaker 1: which allowed me to sit in it and be a
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  Speaker 1: zombie and kind of work through it. And I just
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  Speaker 1: I remember at the time, I was starting to build
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  Speaker 1: my Heel Squad website, so that was kind of like
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  Speaker 1: a little by little love is doing a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of work. But I just remember kind of being very
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  Speaker 1: confused as to my role now in life because I
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  Speaker 1: had spent five years caretaking for my mom, straddling career
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  Speaker 1: and caretaking, and there was a loss of identity, which
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  Speaker 1: you know, we can experience in various ways, but it
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  Speaker 1: was just it was a lot of pain and a
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  Speaker 1: lot of emotions, and I remember that was what May
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  Speaker 1: fifth or you know, May second. And then by September,
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  Speaker 1: Gabby Bernstein, who I'm sure you guys are familiar with,
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  Speaker 1: she messages me and said, hey, my friend Marie, she's
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  Speaker 1: a medium wants to reach out to you. Your mom
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  Speaker 1: is trying to connect with her. I was like, okay,
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  Speaker 1: and she's like, I know this might sound weird. I go, no,
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  Speaker 1: I'm in, I'm in. Let's go.
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  Speaker 2: Wait, Allison, how do you feel about mediums and reconnecting
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  Speaker 2: with lost people?
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  Speaker 1: I've never.
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  Speaker 4: You know, it's one of those things where I've questioned it.
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  Speaker 4: But I was raised in a Christian home, and you know,
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  Speaker 4: that's not usually something that they discussed or anything like that,
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  Speaker 4: So I don't you know, I hear people discuss it
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  Speaker 4: and stuff like that, and I'm always interested to hear
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  Speaker 4: their stories. It's just nothing I've ever experienced before.
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  Speaker 1: So I'll just share. And the reason I'm getting there
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  Speaker 1: is because I think it might be helpful, because it
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  Speaker 1: was helpful to me. I'm an orthodox Christian. I know
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  Speaker 1: it's technically not like you know, sanctioned, let's say, but
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  Speaker 1: I got on the phone with her, and I remember
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  Speaker 1: that being a really pivotal moment for me where I
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  Speaker 1: finally was able to get over that hump of sadness.
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  Speaker 1: And yours is like a delayed version, right, So now
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  Speaker 1: you're losing your kids as a mom, you lost your mom,
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  Speaker 1: like all all the mom feelings are happening all at
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  Speaker 1: once for you. So it's another another grief process that
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  Speaker 1: makes total sense. So the reason I loved it was
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  Speaker 1: it helped me get over that kind of paralyzing pain
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  Speaker 1: and move forward. And I think, like, listen, I think
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  Speaker 1: there's a way to do it. Like you might say
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  Speaker 1: a prayer before and a prayer after and just you know,
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  Speaker 1: take over of the grain of salt. But I also
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  Speaker 1: think there are grief doulas. I had a really incredible
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  Speaker 1: grief dula ironically that my friend who's another medium, John Edward,
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  Speaker 1: gave me, and her name was Diane, and she really
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  Speaker 1: helped me so much. She knows pain firsthand. She lost
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  Speaker 1: her son at a very young age, so she's really
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  Speaker 1: worked with a lot of people. So if you wanted
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  Speaker 1: her information, I think gave me her.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is exciting. I mean, because I
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  Speaker 2: believe in people sticking around their energies. I know, after
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  Speaker 2: I lost my dad, I couldn't feel them and that
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  Speaker 2: was so frustrating. And I had three small kids too
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  Speaker 2: that I was responsible for taking care of and you know, raising,
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  Speaker 2: so I did kind of compartmentalize, similar to what you've
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  Speaker 2: had to do with your kids. And I think it's
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  Speaker 2: interesting to talk about, you know, finding your place again
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  Speaker 2: and finding your new identity, especially for someone like you, because,
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  Speaker 2: like Maria mentioned, you are losing. You're not losing, but
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  Speaker 2: your kids are leaving, they're growing up, they're doing what
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  Speaker 2: they're supposed to do. But at the same time. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: it hurts and we have to pivot, we have to
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  Speaker 2: adjust to that. How is that feeling for you?
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  Speaker 4: You know, my daughter and I are very close, so
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  Speaker 4: it's one of those things where, like I said, I'm
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  Speaker 4: very excited for her, and I know she will do
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  Speaker 4: very well, and I'm sure I know when I drop
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  Speaker 4: her off, I'll ball my eyes out and it will
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  Speaker 4: take me a week or two to adjust. And I
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  Speaker 4: kind of live in a smaller area where it's over
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  Speaker 4: a tourist area and so close knit people are hard
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  Speaker 4: to come by here, so I really don't have a
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  Speaker 4: close knit group, so it's really me processing a lot
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  Speaker 4: of this myself. I still have my dad, but he's
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  Speaker 4: about an hour and a half away, and you know,
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  Speaker 4: I really I feel like all of it it's just
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  Speaker 4: going to hit me at one time. And I feel
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  Speaker 4: like little bits of it have been coming in. Like
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  Speaker 4: I've been in the grocery store and had to walk
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  Speaker 4: out because you know, my eyes were filling with tears,
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  Speaker 4: and I'm like, why am I crying? What is happening?
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  Speaker 4: And then I have all these little thoughts it's not
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: just her, but you know, and honestly, it was probably
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  Speaker 4: yesterday that it hit me about did I ever process
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  Speaker 4: the death of my mom? Because I was navigating how
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  Speaker 4: my dad was dealing with it. They were married fifty
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  Speaker 4: five years. This is really difficult for him, and my
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  Speaker 4: brothers go spy to him, but you know, it's helping
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  Speaker 4: everybody else, and I feel like I didn't do anything
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  Speaker 4: for myself now.
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  Speaker 2: I think for me, I had to allow myself to
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  Speaker 2: be sad. Yeah, like they say, you know, put on
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  Speaker 2: a strong front for them, and I tried. But it's
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  Speaker 2: really important that we let ourselves go through because this
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  Speaker 2: is a form of grief, This is a loss, and
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  Speaker 2: it's a beginning of something incredibly beautiful as well. And
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  Speaker 2: I think also looking at the opportunity, the place of
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  Speaker 2: opportunity that you're sitting in, Yeah, and start to reframe
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  Speaker 2: that in your mind and take your mom with you
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  Speaker 2: on that adventure, you know, And I think like there's
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  Speaker 2: comfort in I don't know about you guys, but after
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  Speaker 2: I lost my dad, I felt closer to him almost
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  Speaker 2: than I had when he was here because I was
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  Speaker 2: hearing him with all the people and he had his life.
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  Speaker 2: But now it's like I carry him with me wherever
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  Speaker 2: I go. I like that, Yeah, so I think it
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  Speaker 2: would be like, I'm just I'm honestly like, I feel
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  Speaker 2: your sadness and I want you to know that that's good.
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  Speaker 2: Feel it like, don't ever try to shut it down
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  Speaker 2: walk out of the store like you did, and just
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  Speaker 2: let your let it flow because you need to get
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  Speaker 2: that out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I've had my moments at home for sure,
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  Speaker 4: and I think it was closer to when she had
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  Speaker 4: just passed. But I think then just as time went on,
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  Speaker 4: it was just a matter of making sure everybody else
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  Speaker 4: was okay. And that's just naturally mom anyway, and that's
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  Speaker 4: just what you do. And you know, I still experienced emotions,
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  Speaker 4: but I feel like I didn't probably process it every
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  Speaker 4: way I needed to do.
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  Speaker 2: Maria, do you have a parting kind of like suggestion,
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  Speaker 2: our tip or maybe like a call to action for Alison.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like you at least are aware that's half
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  Speaker 1: the battle, so you'll be able to start to look
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  Speaker 1: at this in a different way. There's a couple of things.
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  Speaker 1: There's you can do some trauma therapy around the fact
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: that you never dealt with it. There's an incredible AMDR
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: expert that I've worked with on heel squad. That's amazing.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: She just did our event recently, and it's like one session.
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  Speaker 1: Generally I've seen with people that's I'm not advertising for her,
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  Speaker 1: but every time I've sent someone in one session they
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  Speaker 1: have felt better.
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  Speaker 2: Is the MDR with like even this person? Is that
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  Speaker 2: something you can do over zoom or do you have
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  Speaker 2: to be a person? Okay, good, because when I did
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  Speaker 2: a R as well and it really helped me. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's great, that's an idea.
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  Speaker 1: It's just like there are some tools, and then there's
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  Speaker 1: also like I'm here, the fact that you don't have
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  Speaker 1: community there and I get that, and that is a real, real,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: like a real thing. Yeah, you just need to connect
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  Speaker 1: with people. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I hope that this helped you. I hope
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  Speaker 2: that you're able to make some positive changes and go
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  Speaker 2: through this grief process at the same time. And I
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  Speaker 2: just hope that you get excited about what's next for
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  Speaker 2: you because you still have the rest of your life
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  Speaker 2: to live and you get to design it.
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  Speaker 4: Yep, I'm excited about that. I'm excited to see what's next.
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  Speaker 1: So I also think there is something very powerful about moms.
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  Speaker 1: On the other side. No disrespect to the dads, but
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  Speaker 1: moms on the other side, they don't stop momming. I
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  Speaker 1: think my mom she comes through in the craziest, most
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  Speaker 1: unbelievable ways, and you might have more time to tune
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  Speaker 1: into her now where you're not going to have all
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: of the distractions in front of you. You might be
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  Speaker 1: able to have these special moments with her. It doesn't
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  Speaker 1: replace them being with us, of course, but but I
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: see it a lot, and I hope you have that too.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: I love that well. Thank you for being our first
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: ever excuse me call in and I loved visiting with you.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you so much. Great to meet you. Both. Cranks out,
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  Speaker 4: Okay bye.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: I get asked all the time where I find my
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: easy pieces that look polished and our comfy guys.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Good news.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: A lot of them are from my own Me by
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  Speaker 2: Jenny Garth collection. My pieces are found exclusively at QBC.
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  Speaker 2: There are tons of versatile staples that you can dress
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: up or down and where again and again I design
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  Speaker 2: every piece with comfort and confidence in mind. You can
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  Speaker 2: shop the collection anytime at QBC dot com or catch
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: me live on air, and I hope you love it
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: as much as I do. Isn't it so wonderful to
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: meet people who are different than you, walking different walks
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: of life, have different circumstances, and yet we're all going
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: through the same things at some point. We're all dealing
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: with the same things in life.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and grieve in so many different categories. Yeah, have
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  Speaker 1: to be the loss of your parent. It could be
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  Speaker 1: the loss of a pet. It could be the loss
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  Speaker 1: of a job, a loss of a relationship, a loss
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  Speaker 1: of a career, whatever, loss of loss.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you have to honor it. I know you.
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  Speaker 2: You said you took care of your mom for five
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  Speaker 2: years while she battled brain cancer. You too have had
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: some crazy health things go on in your life, one
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: of them pancreatic cancer. Hello, how did you survive that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, just God, I got very, very lucky, and
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: we found it early. And I think I think it's
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: like these were all things in the journey that were
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  Speaker 1: meant to come to keep pushing me into this world
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  Speaker 1: and so and also I don't know, I just think
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  Speaker 1: it's all kind of meant to be, and I'm just
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  Speaker 1: grateful that it was meant to be and I'm still
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  Speaker 1: here and I can show people that there's hope. Right,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Like one of my biggest messages with the show, aside
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: from being the CEO of Your Health, is that healing
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  Speaker 1: is possible. And I think that I can be that
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  Speaker 1: example for people that it doesn't matter if it's a
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  Speaker 1: brain tumor or pink rist cancer or whatever, healing is possible.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why I'm so passionate about what I get
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to do these days, because I get to share that,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: and I get to do events where people can come
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: and have life changing experiences that show them that it's possible.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Like people leave and they're like, hope is now in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: my vocabulary, and that not only is it just hope,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: there are actionable, massive shifts in their life, massive physical
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: changes to their health. And so I feel like that's
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: kind of been my purpose in my mission, is to
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: help people find their healing.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: That's so important because I think healing sometimes we race
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: through it, sometimes we forget about it altogether. But you
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: got to give yourself that time and exposure to other
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: people's experiences or how other people have dealt with it.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: It's very important. It's very connective, and I think we
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: forget how much we need connection, especially in those times.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and it's hard because when you're in the spotlight.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: It's hard to be able to share. So I've had
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to hide many of those really painful moments for a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: long time, which did not help. Like when I was
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: telling Alison about community and needing it, it is like
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: very detrimental to your health to not have that community.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: So when you're having to keep a brain tumor private,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and like days before, my husband's like, were you have
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: to tell a few people, And so I called a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: few friends and I was like, hey, it was like
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: so embarrassing and so weird, like, by the way, I
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: have brain tumor, and.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: Wait, why would you be embarrassed by that?
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: It's so weird, Jenny, Like, I remember being embarrassed, Like
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: it was such a weird thing to drop into people's laps.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Right because it's heavy and you don't want to bring
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: people down. Yes, and everybody's got their own stuff going on.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was really beautiful to see how people responded.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I remember Jennifer Stallone funny enough, she was like,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: what do you need? I will get you on was
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: it QBC or HSN. She's like, we'll get you something,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: We'll make things happen. I will help you. It was
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: like it was just so wonderful and the love that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I got. People get funerals, and I was like, wow,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I already kind of had a couple of funerals in life.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Now I know what people think, I know what they
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: feel because they've had the opportunities to share these things
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: with me. And so whether it was the brain tumor
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the pancer's cancer, the diabetes, all the stuff. Like, I
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: am an eternal like researcher, learner, investigator, So I love
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: figuring things out and I love making it simpler for people.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: So I always like, I'm like, all right, I want
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to get through this. I'm going to share it. Even
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: when I was dealing with toxic work environies, I'm all right,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get through this, and I'm going to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: share how I got through it. That's my goalpost. Because
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: you need something to get you out of the messy waters.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: You need some light posts, some suggestion, some tip, some
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: heck something.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I had to hide stuff because of your like you,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I'm sure have had to keep things quiet.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I kept the first half of my
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: life quiet, just hiding really and eyes down, you know,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: not being fearful of connecting with other people, and that
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: really made me feel alone, and it made me want
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: to sort of, you know, hide away even more. So
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: I saw that happening in myself and I realized, I've
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: got to make a change because those circumstances of why
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to connect or why I was hiding
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: don't exist anymore. And sometimes you got to do that.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: You got to take inventory of things in your life
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: that you're you're just living because you know them, their habitual,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: but they don't serve you anymore. And I think taking
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: stock of those moments is really important because then you
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: can let them go and move on to something else
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: that will actually serve you in the end.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I talk about all the time, like we need
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: to have a life audit at least by forty Like
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: do I love where I live? Do I love what
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I'm doing? Do I love who I'm hanging out with? Like,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: let's do a life audit, because if we don't sit
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and actually deal with the business of me, then who's
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: going to and how are you going to know if
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: there are like flat tires around that are holding you
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: down and not letting you move forward.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: And I love that idea life audit.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: You can also be trapped in an old dream, and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: that was definitely something that I had to do. And
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I know, and I was reading your book that you
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and Shannon on the show both had to deal with
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the responsibilities of taking care of your families, and I
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: had to do the same thing. And so it's a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: burden that you gratefully, humbly and honorably carry. But it's
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a lot when you're young to have to worry about
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: taking care of everybody. So, you know, sometimes I found
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: myself I was trapped in an old dream. But also
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: because I knew everybody relied on me, I couldn't just
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: be like, oh, yeah, this isn't working for me. I'm
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: gonna go here, I'm gonna go buy my selfish and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: al bag No, that doesn't work like that.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Maria, thank you for inspiring us all to take some
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: steps to choosing ourselves. We will continue this conversation soon.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: I hope you all will stay tuned.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I would love to hear from you.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Please drop a comment on Instagram at Jenny Garth or
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: at I Choose Me podcast, or leave me a voicemail.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: You guys, this is new at eight four four five. Jenny,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: that's eight four four five five three six six four three.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: In the meantime, let's all commit to little ways to
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: find ourselves, to choose ourselves. I love you,