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Find Your Vitality with Diana Roberge · Rare Medium with Deb Snyder

• Deb Snyder: I leaned against the rock and I looked down I could see about two thousand feet below my feet the place we were staying at in the valley. and then there was another section where it was a tightrope that you have to walk across the tightrope. And when we got back and we had GoPros on and when we got back we looked at the footage, we heard this thumping noise, and my husband's camera was on his chest and it was actually his heartbeat as he was walking across the tightrope over the waterfall. Deb: Rare Medium with Deb Snyder, celebrating life's rarities, the people, places, and experiences that just might be a little bit weird. This podcast explores all facets of our energetic connections to each other and beyond. We'll dive into the depths of mediumship, psychic ability, intuition, near death experiences, afterlife research, healing modalities, and more. Our focus is to bring you relevant and moving accounts with guests who share their authentic selves and their treks into the spiritual and energetic realms. We'll learn how those experiences shifted their perspective on life itself. Join us to be inspired by everyday people on their extraordinary journeys into the rare medium of the mystical world. Topics discussed on Rare Medium by the host and guests are presented for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional, legal, or medical advice. Deb Snyder: Hello and welcome to Rare Medium. I'm your host, Deb Snyder. I've got a fun show for you today because I brought one of my dearest friends of all time, Diana Roberge on, to speak with me today. We're going to be talking about vitality. And when I'm talking about vitality, I'm talking about zest for life, the energy that we have in getting through life, not just in physical, but mental, emotional, spiritual. I asked Diana on because of all the people I know. all across the world, she naturally embodies that particular characteristic in navigating her life. And I thought she'd be a really cool person for you to meet. Diana, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Now Diana and I go way back, you guys. we were college roommates. instead of living in the dorms or anything together, we went we had gone to high school together. She was a year ahead of me in school. And we decided to rent an apartment together when I was starting college. we lived and commuted to school, we were having a blast because we both had jobs. Yeah. And everything went to school full time, work full time. Mm-hmm. we actually met our husbands at the same time. we were going through a lot of that stuff together and we were married what, a month apart? A month apart. A month apart. Diana and I we've known each other forever. We've both been married forever. Continued our friendship all these years. And this is the lady that I go away with for the girls' trips if you ever hear me talking about the girls and I, this is it. This is one of the girls that we go away with. So now Diana, I wanted to talk about vitality and zest for life because one of the things that I've always admired about you you sort of jump into things full bore. Tell us why you're like that. I think it's just because my life was getting kinda boring and stuck and I really wanted to do this crazy hike called Angel's Landing in Utah. And a coworker had done it, he was half my age, and I'm like, huh, could I do it? And I'm like, Well, I have to make sure I don't have a fear of heights. And I have to make sure that I can climb I think it's two and a half miles up. my daughter was a gymnast. I'm like, while she's in the gym, there's a gym for adults right nearby. Why don't I go to the gym while my daughter's doing her gymnastics classes and train? So I trained and we went out there and I actually summited Angel's Landing on Mother's Day, probably about 15, 16 years ago. And it hit me that like I passed people who gave up. And I'm like, you didn't give up. All that training, all that work, all that preparation allowed you to go ahead and do something you didn't think was possible. And it was it was spiritual. I got to the top and I just cried. And I like to do it on Mother's Day and just feel in the moment at being at the top of that mountain was insane. It was and it changed my life. to this day anything good or bad that's happened to me, I just say to myself, you can do it. You you hiked Angel's Landing. good for you. you were probably late thirties, early forties when you were doing this. so the for the first time, you were like I'm gonna challenge myself with this and go for it. Cause you didn't grow up hiking. you were seeing yourself in a new light. Yeah. And it's it's helped. I mean I Turned around and said, I want to be an athlete. I want to be a triathlete, but I don't swim and that's a whole nother story. I am gonna work on swimming. I'm gonna take some swimming lessons soon for an upcoming trip. I don't know why, but I really wanted to be an athlete. I gave up track two days when I tried track in high school. I was like, no, not doing this. So I really wanted to do this. And I said, Well, you did hike Angel's Landing. what do you need to do to be an athlete? And I heard about a duathlon, which is run, bike, run. in this particular one, it was run two miles on the beach, bike fifteen point two miles, and then run a five K on the road. Wow. And I said, Okay, well, the bike path for this particular Duathlon went right in front of my house. I said, Well, no excuse. Buy a bike and you can ride the exact route and train on the exact route. You're not too far from the ocean. You can run on the beach at low tide, and you can run anywhere on the road. I started training. I laid out a plan, started training, and never ran a 5k, never did any other type of sporting event. And I completed the Maniac Duathlon. All right. The second year I actually stood on the top of the podium. Good for you. And I think that the most important point of doing that is you set the goal, you broke it down into components, and you did it. And you weren't pigeonholing yourself into I'm not an athlete. You're like, well, let's see if I can be one. What are the possibilities? That's right. And that can apply to any aspect of our lives, whether it's sports, whether it's a creative endeavor. I have a friend right now. she's about our age, and she just formed a band. her husband was more of a musician and she back in the day sang and stuff like that, but in the choir and everything. And she is out there just doing it every weekend. They they lead karaoke and they sing in a band and they do all this stuff. So it's never too late. And it's never too late to embrace the vibrancy of things. Now, Diana, I like to look at stuff from like a Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. we're talking a little bit about the physical. Now, when we were growing up, you were always it's not that you weren't athletic, but you were a dancer. Yes. so you've always been in dance. And Diana is also a musician. she played the flute. Did you play anything other than the flute? Piano and the flute. that's how Diana and I knew each other from young, is we were more into the creative arts. I was a performer and I was a writer, which I still do a lot of that so she was very well involved, but not so much athletic. it's just broadening your horizons a little bit, Now, I know you still dance. Yes, I do. So this is my 17th year dancing as an adult. I've danced more years as an adult than as a child. I started with ballroom, because just watching ballroom on TV, I'm like, that would be fun. So I tried ballroom, and loved it. And then my daughter was in high school and went to a local studio and I knew they had adult classes for tap and jazz and lyrical. So I said, I think I want to do that now. So I stopped ballroom and I started doing tap, jazz and lyrical. and I actually got to do my daughter's senior solo, her senior year of high school with her. We did we did the first and only mother daughter dance together. So that was special. I'm still dancing. And loving it and it's there is you mentioned spiritual. There's something very spiritual about the music. As long as I like the music. Sometimes I dance to music and I'm like, no. most of the time the pieces of music really resonate with me. And just being in the moment, the rest of the world disappears, all my problems disappear, and I can just like I i it sounds weird, but I can like feel the world vibrate. Mm-hmm. And I can feel that I can feel the goodness in that moment. Nice. Now think about what that is vibrationally. that's you in resonance with your own life in your own life path. when we feel uplifted by doing something, I talk to my clients about this all the time. When we're doing something and we feel like it sucks the life out of us, literally. We know what that feels like. When something's not good. Sometimes it's the job we have to have or it's a you know a relationship that's more challenging that sucks the life out of us, literally. we can all relate to those moments, but do we pay attention to the moments that help us feel uplifted? What is that cliche phrase? Do what makes you feel like you come alive, but it is so, so true. this time after you had your daughter, while you're raising your daughter, that's when you started really working. On yourself. Because you were bored with yourself. Yeah. I was bored with myself and I fell into the the trap of trying to go up the corporate ladder, being the perfect mom. You can't be perfect at anything in life. And I finally said, Whoa, wait, I need some time for me. And what does that look like? What's gonna make me happy? What's gonna help me just progress as me? And that's what I came up with. what I enjoy about you in hearing about your adventures is that you're not, just watching other people do it on TV or reading about someone doing it in a book. Yeah, you watch TV, yeah, you read books, but you're inspired to then go, I want to go to that place. I want to do that. And that's kind of the difference that I see in my bestie here from other people is she doesn't set a limitation on it. Now No one's rolling in money. you have to save for it. You plan for it. You often have multiple years and multiple goals, right? To be able to achieve that. So even though something might not seem like it can be done quickly, you're like, no, it's on the list. Yeah. I'll work toward that. Now your husband also enjoys many of these activities with you. That helps a lot. but what I also like to say about Diana and her husband Scott is that they're not afraid to do things separately. as individual people, I know he's gone on a trip right now, which is why Diana is hanging out here with me. We're having fun here. you embrace that about each other, that there are things you enjoy together, but there's also things he enjoys on his own, you enjoy on your own. And that's important. I know for me working with clients, people can sometimes define themselves based upon their relationship. When it's like, no, no, check in with who you are. yourself. Relationships are important, but they're certainly not everything. We need to focus on who we are as individuals. So talking about how you and your husband both like to travel, tell us a little bit about some of the trips that you've been on. probably the next craziest one I did was we were going to Switzerland with friends, and there's this hike called the Murin Via Ferrata, and a Via Ferrata is the Iron Way. That's what Via Ferrata stands for for anyone who doesn't know it because I didn't know it. I don't know it. I was like, what? What's a Via Ferrata? So you get strapped into a harness. you have a rope on each side with a clip. You always have at least one clip on the guide cable. And the reason why is when you step out onto the Via Ferrata, you are sometimes just on the side of the cliff. So there's metal wickets, think of like kind of like the cricket game, but the wicket is in thicker and into the rock, so you can step on it. And get around the rock that way. we'd heard about this Murin via Ferrada, and I was scared to death. And then when we got to Muren, we took the cable car up and they didn't have any more guides that day. And the guy's like, Well, we can rent you the equipment the harness, the helmet, show you how to use it, and you can go out and do the hike yourself. Well Each other? What could go wrong? we didn't realize that like at one point you were literally on the rock and I looked I leaned against the rock and I looked down and I could see about two thousand feet below my feet the place we were staying at in the valley. and then there was another section where it was a tightrope that you have to walk across the tightrope. we had GoPros on and when we got back we looked at the footage, we heard this thumping noise, and my husband's camera was on his chest and it was actually his heartbeat as he was walking across the tightrope over the waterfall. That would be my heart for sure. it was crazy. that was a beautiful hike. and come to find out the Murin is considered one of the scariest hikes. So I'm proud that I did it on my own. I survived it. and really enjoyed every minute of it, even when it got a little tough, like walking on the guide wire across the cavern there. but I also went on and did the Via Ferrata in Banff on Mount Norquay a couple of years ago. And that was that was really cool to your pictures there totally blew me away. Now I've heard amazing things about that location. Tell people a little bit about the how picturesque it is and it was just stunning. where you have to take a chairlift at a ski resort up to the spot where that they put you in the harness, put the helmet on, and give you your instructions. And this time it was with a guide. You can't do Mount Norquay without a guide. And we started walking up and it was literally like goat paths walking up on the edge of the ski resort. And then we started getting up into the more challenging areas where you had the the rungs, the iron rungs coming out. and there was one part that I just got up to the one section the guide had to tell you, like reach up around the rock. And I looked out and I could see Banff. this is in Canada, right? Right. do you know what province it is? Banff is in Alberta. in western Canada. I just reached up and grabbed the rung and hauled myself up over that one peak. and there's a a picture that I've shown you, and I'm like, my gosh, that was me standing on that rock. Again, it was beautiful moments saying, Hey, we can do this and one of the people on the hike was really scared. She was nineteen, twenty years old and she was really scared of the hike. And at one point, she started shaking and I said, Why don't you just look at me? Look at the back of my head, and I will tell you where to put your feet in your hands. And she went behind me and followed me up. and that's actually goes into what was supposed to be a very long two hour exercise and work one day was coming up with what's your purpose? And my purpose came out in sixty seconds, so I had another like hour and a half, two hours to do nothing at that event. But my purpose was because of dancing to help people dance in the rain as well as the sunshine. And that hit me that day that I was helping her dance because I wasn't afraid I had done the Murin via Ferrata. I could do this. I felt safe. I'm in my harness. I can do some crazy things as long as I feel safe. It's when I don't feel safe that I'm like, I'm not doing this. I feel blessed that I had the courage to do those. Well, good for you. And I think it's nice that you could also allow your own natural maternal instincts to come forward where you could be the mom she needed. Yeah. And the expert, because at this point, like you said yourself, you're a really good hiker, it was your nature that made her follow you it wouldn't have helped her going, Come on, you can do it. You know, you were just saying, Here I am, holding space for you. And I bet she was proud of herself at the end of that. She was so proud of herself, and that was the really cool thing, seeing the smile on her face at the end and seeing How excited she was. And you know, she gave me a hug. I gave her a hug, told her how proud of her I was that she just was able to do this. and she said, you know, I'll never forget this. this is what's I find beautiful about the universe the two of you are from totally different places in the world, yet together in that moment, in that afternoon, we're able to come together and shift each other. Yeah. that's what's cool. It is. there's a relationship right there. It doesn't have to last long, but it's it's essential. It's important. And you remember that. And I know she'll remember that for the rest of her life. that's amazing. I'll be sure to share some of Diana's really cool photos from all over the world. Now, do you have a travel bucket list of places that you want to go next? What you want to do? Yes. we have a new bucket list, kind of like the top ten. things we want to do. it's a kind of above and beyond travel. Like some of them we might do some little travel episodes in between, but these are things that we'll have to save for or really plan. and we just planned one that takes the crazy on the top ten, like crazy things that we never thought we'd do. and we my husband came up out with it out of nowhere. And he's like, Do you want to go to Ecuador? And I said, Why? I've never thought of going to Ecuador. Right. If it's not in your So we are we're flying in March to Quito, Ecuador, which is a capital. We're gonna spend one day because we like to see the cultural aspects, but we really love seeing everything in nature. So then we go up to the cloud forest in the Andes Mountains and spend five days there. And then we go back to Quito and we catch a flight. And we are going six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador and we're spending five days in the Galapagos Islands. wonderful. talk about an adventure. I have another friend who's gone and it's like nothing else. that's amazing. that's good. Well, Diana, you should do it like a travel blog or adventurer blog or something like that. I get the blessing of getting to hear about her travels and seeing the pictures. And I myself don't travel as much anymore. I'm here with my girl I travel for business, but I don't get to do some of this stuff. I travel vicariously through Diana's adventures, which is kind of fun for me. that's amazing. I didn't know you guys were planning. That's that sounds wonderful. We just started planning it Scott came up with the idea and then he started planning it and he said, What if we book this and book this and this? And everything's booked, including our guides to kind of help us so that we don't get into trouble. Well, you have to be smart about it. That that's the key. travel is one of those things that helps us feel like the world is a lot smaller where we can feel connected with other people as you were talking about getting to know the culture of that area, instead of just being locked where where you're from. You get to see how other people do it in other parts of the world. What are they eating? What are they drinking? What are they listening to for music? And it's just really stretches yourself that way. Now, Diana, in your travels, we touched on this a little bit, from a spiritual perspective, you already talked about how nature opened that up for you. So do you feel deeply connected when you're out in some of these heights? I do. it's just a amazing. And recently in the like the last year, we've been on hikes and I will focus in on just like this little piece of moss or this leaf that's really interesting and I'll just stop and look at it and be like, I get to be here in this moment and see that beauty. and there there are times where I I feel like Again, I can feel all the goodness in the world in that moment and everything is peaceful and it is it's just stunning. It's important to connect with nature, whether we're doing it right outside our own door. we're blessed because we already live in the state of Maine, which is very, very beautiful. I would encourage anyone, whether you can travel a block or you can travel 10,000 miles, to take that extra time to connect with the Cathedral of Nature and tap into your own higher self in that setting. We have gotten such just assaults on our senses from nonstop news, everything being thrown at us, we're we're losing that deeper connection to our higher self. When someone is talking to me about developing, for example, their psychic abilities or their sense of intuition, that's probably the number one recommendations I have for them to start off is to shut things off and connect with nature. Cause that's where you can start having the room to hear your own inner voice, hear your own higher self talking back to you. as the old adage says, praying is talking to God and meditation is listening for the response. if you're never in a place where you have those moments of peace, where can you listen to those responses? I do highly recommend people embrace nature as much as that they can do. make a commitment to do that. Now, Diana, we've talked all about your travel, some of that adventure aspect of it. Now you're also pretty health conscious. I mean how you eat, tell us a little bit about that. So about Twelve, fifteen years ago, I was having a migraine for a whole week. And then I'd have a week off from the migraine. And then I had a migraine for another whole week. And this was going on and on. I said, something's not right. I had really bad adult acne my entire life up until that point, to the point where my cheeks were all red and broken out. you know, and just tummy problems and other other things. And I watched a show. about eating plant based. And I said, Huh. I wonder if I ate more plants and cut back on the meat, if that would have a good effect. And after two meals, I said, I think I can do this. And two weeks later, I stopped having migraines, my face started clearing up. Within a month, I didn't have to wear makeup anymore. migraines probably in that entire time I've probably had five migraines in twelve to fifteen years. Wow. Which is huge. for someone who had to deal with migraines, you know, regularly. Absolutely. It was so much better. and you know, a lot of friends you understood, but I I had friends, I have family that just didn't get it, and kind of poked fun at me like, Come on, have this cheeseburger or have this steak. how can you not eat this? And my response just back was like, Y that's okay for you, but for me I can't I can't go back to that way because I've seen what eating more plants does for me personally. Absolutely. And I think that that's what people need to realize is mind your own business. If it's not your body, mind your own business. my husband doesn't eat red meat, doesn't eat pork, 'cause he can't tolerate it. He's his body he gets ill from it. I eat everything. I can eat anything. And that's my choice to be able to eat, in moderation, whatever I choose to eat. anytime he's tried to step out of that, he pays the price. I think it's important that we know for you that's what's right for you. And if it works, why not? Why not? It's not an issue. To me, it's not an issue. People will be like, you know, what can you eat? What can you eat? And you're mindful of it. But I have some friends that Like, I don't know what to do. Diana's coming for dinner. And I'm like, I eat food. Just like give me a baked potato. If you're having potatoes, make me a baked potato and have maybe broccoli on the side, or just give me the baked potato. It's just dinner. I'll be all right. I'll survive. Well, and that's it. I think if someone, does have some really strict dietary stuff, they know how to take care of themselves. And whether or not it's what They're bringing they know to bring stuff with them too we travel together in our getaways, and we've never had problem finding good food all the women that we travel with, everyone has their own unique stuff. We're at that age where we all are exploring different aspects of eating. we can always find there's a little something for everybody, that's for sure. Right. So well, this is awesome, Diana. So I wanted people to know that, she's a good example to having that high vibe for life and to not being limited by projections and limitations of herself or of other people. She's has always been an inspiration for me for people who go their own way and write their own ticket. And I know because I'm her good friend, her life isn't easy. It's not like, she's all this privileged, She works for what she has. She makes a plan to achieve what she wants. And like everybody else, she's had heartache. She's had crappy jobs. She had all of this. But it's true, a lot of people make excuses. well, you could afford to do that or you can afford to do that. You choose to do that. And sometimes that means sacrifice in another way that someone else wouldn't sacrifice. for example, some of the cable bills now are ridiculous to have internet and cable hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month. And there are plenty of people in my life who just they just cut that right out. They're like, Okay, I'll have internet 'cause, you know, I gotta work or I gotta do whatever. But they don't bother anymore. They'll make that sacrifice so they have money to put aside in a travel account. Or be able to do a different adventure. Diana also is a big fan of music she's got the best concert list of anyone I've ever heard of. one of the things that I think is most mindful for everyone that I want you to take from knowing this lady is she goes for it. that's one of the things that I admire the most is she doesn't limit herself. And I think each one of us, if we just stop for a second and we think, what would I want to do? yeah, write it down on the list. You might not do it right then and there, but go back to that list and think, maybe now's the time. I could do that a little bit more. And give yourself permission to do some things for yourself, not just take care of those around you and not say, Well, yeah, I I gotta work, I gotta do this, I've gotta do that. Is there a small amount of time that you can just carve out for yourself to work on whatever it is that you want to achieve? Excellent. And I think that's the important thing is that you came up to a point where you're like, wait a minute, I value myself. I'm going to invest in myself, make an effort to make my life the best that it can be. and it shows. And I hope I hope you guys could tell that because we could actually talk for a long time we can just do an hour on a concert she's been to. But we're not even gonna start that because it's that good of a list. now, Diana, as you know, every guest I have on Rare Medium, I put them through what's called the Rare Medium 10QQ, which is the 10 quick questions. Are you ready for your 10 QQ? I'm ready. All right, here we go. Do you believe in the afterlife? Yes. I have experienced too many things not to believe in the afterlife. There you go. What was your age in the best year of your life so far? I'm gonna cheat here a bit because I have loved bits and pieces of every year. Okay. even the tough years. So I'm going to say fifty-eight, because I turned fifty-eight the latter part of this year, and next year is still yet to come. There you go. That's a good cheat. We'll let you cheat on that one. That's a good cheat. Now who's your favorite musical artist? I there's so many incredible musical artists, but the one person that I've latched on to that most of my friends don't know of is Justin Furstenfeld from Blue October. His songs are just so poignant and resonate. And they're they're beautiful, beautiful story songs. beautiful. That's you know, that is why I asked that question, because I I'm hoping that my guests from all over the world We'll introduce our audience to the people that they dig. it's cool. It's good to know that about each other and we can learn and grow from what other people enjoy. now you've been a lot of places. Where would you most like to travel? Ecuador. It's coming up. Which is coming up. but I think beyond Ecuador, Possibly France. France. Okay. Any particular place in France? like the Loire Valley and Provence and those areas. Just kinda do a tour. Nice, very nice. what person has inspired you the most? I'd have to say my dad. my dad taught me not to set limits for myself. Diana's dad, in spirit now. he's a big hero of my husband as well. Of course, I love Diana's dad and grew up with Diana's dad, but you know, he and my husband were like two peas in a pod. So really nice. now if you could have an entirely different profession, what would it be? I'd be a nutritionist. Very nice. Yes. Very nice. Now, Diana, just so we never really talked about your job. Diana has been working in the recruiting field and professional placement field for all of your career. Thirty years. what are you most grateful for? I would have to say, and it hit me hard this year a number of times, is because we went through a a personal loss and then I had foot surgery. I'd have to say the thing I'm most grateful for are my friends. old friends like yourself, but also new friends that just came out of absolutely nowhere that were like, Yeah, I can take you to your doctor's appointment or let me just come over and sit and chat with you. and it it's friends are everything. Yeah, it's a gift. Yeah. People that pop into your life, it's heaven sent. Do you love yourself? Yes. What do you most regret? I would say when I was younger and starting out my career, and probably the first fifteen years of my career, focusing sometimes a little too much and at the expense of my family and friends and not being able to see that I needed to stop and just breathe and be in the moment. And there were times I missed really beautiful moments, I'm sure, because Just was focused on chasing that corporate ladder. Right. Well, then that's what they condition you to do. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Been there, done that. Yeah. In a word or two, what is your advice for your fellow humans? Believe in you. Good advice. Diana Roberge thank you so much for being on Rare Medium It's wonderful to have you. Thank you, Deb. It was wonderful to be here. This has been Rare Medium with Deb Snyder. Please subscribe on your favorite channel and leave any comments you'd like us to see. To learn more, visit DebSnyder.com or Heartglow.org.