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Live Well. Be Wise
Deepening the well-being conversation---the podcast that finds the Gold in your stories of hardship and the connection to Wise action and lived Wellness!
Hosted by Kari Lyons-Price & Dorrinda Carlson
"Hey Dorrinda, let's do lunch."
"Ok, any special occasion?"
"Nope, just wanna connect and feast in your presence." (oh and I also have an idea for a podcast?!)
I waited until lunch was settling into our bellies before hitting Dorrinda with the idea. She was in! The brainstorm began and while we both work in the field, we quickly ruled out a Wellness podcast because of how overdone they already are. Besides we felt they were only skimming the surface with the repeat loop of ''expert" advice, gimmicks and trends. We wanted to go deeper.
What's the real story I wondered, "how do some people manage to be well amidst all kinds of hardship and others with every resource known to humankind, can't even catch the tail of wellness."
All my life I've been fascinated by thoughts, beliefs, mental states and the general power of the mind (also because I'm a trained therapist)! Especially in its relationship to our health and well-being.
What is that thing within us that motivates us to be well? We're not talking about a health goal or a number, a state that is achieved. We're talking about wellness as a state of mind; contentedness, balance, or an optimal state of being.
And then the vision fully landed...
Here at Live Well. Be Wise, we are on a mission to engage with people beneath the "doing" and the products, to find out how wellness is a living, breathing, personal thing that gets shaped through life itself!
Told directly to you by the individuals who have lived it. No experts, no products, and no judgment. Raw, powerful, real life stories told by everyday people about how they met the challenges and hardships of life and came out the other side.
At Live Well. Be Wise we answer the questions:
- how do we learn and grow through the storms of life?
- what is the wisdom process? how do we cultivate it on purpose?
- And...how does our wisdom process inform our wellness?
Live Well. Be Wise is based in North Central Washington State and is a community-based podcast. This is a place to hear the stories of your neighbors. To celebrate diversity in all ways and to bridge the divide between us; culturally, economically, politically and personally.
Value Driven:
- We feel our most profound learning is from one another and that we are not alone on this human journey. We are fueled by that belief and the deep desire to reconnect the divide within us and between us. Seeds of wisdom are inside every one of us, and when we share that learning out, it expands, sparking inspiration and possibility for us all.
Through the shared human experience called, "story" we hope to connect each of us to one another. To recognize parts of ourselves in our neighbors story. And to allow this shared humanity to be an anchor for building connection, community and goodness, one day at a time.
Reach out, share your story, be inspired to cultivate your own wisdom path through hard things. We are 100% in this together!
Kari & Dorrinda
Live Well. Be Wise
“Scott Kreiter–Local Man Who Killed His Wife, Oh I Mean Killed His Mother!”
In today’s episode we sit down with friend and neighbor Scott Kreiter. He shares his story about helping his mom remain independent to the last moment--to choose death with dignity. (And no he didn’t kill anyone!)
Scott calls himself a neanderthal, not someone who is a deep thinker, but honestly we decided this show proves him wrong! With humor and depth he walks us through the stark reality of having your mom call you at 6 am the day after Christmas and say, "today's the day."
Scott was helping his mom end her life as she wished and well let’s just say, nothing ever goes quite as planned. Learn about the roadblocks and moving goalposts of helping a parent with terminal illness and how to successfully access Washington State’s “Death With Dignity Act.” Specifically how he and his family worked with End of Life Washington to make it happen. (see resource below)
We also discuss lessons learned on guilt, regret and "shoulds" and how a Saturday Night Live skit helped Scott let go of these unhealthy habits.
Hang on until the end when Scott reads his carefully constructed, "How to Stay Young" checklist, created by he and his wife Amy. These are his wise gems to share with the world as he incredulously retorts when I ask him about wisdom, "I'm too young to be wise, I'm only 55!"
Spoiler alert: there’s also some cussing, Willie Nelson and day-drinking in this one!
Scott works as a Project Manager in hydropower recreation, archaeology, and construction management, along with a potpourri of other things that don't really go together. He is an expert at none of these things. Scott's interests are in pretty much anything outdoors (biking, hiking, kayaking), having cocktails with friends, and traveling to the Caribbean. But at his core he is a homebody, with his true happy place being at home with family and whatever friends happen to drop by. Scott and his wife, Amy, are also the owners and managers of what they jokingly call "The Divorce Ranch"...but that's a story for another day.
Resources:
1. End of Life Washington, non-profit that helps people navigate the process of utilizing the Death With Dignity Act.
2. Topic Related Podcast: "When Death is Scheduled" on Grief Out Loud
