Figuring It Out

But what if we could enhance the quality of our life today by confronting our own mortality and shifting the way we think about death?

Death or dying may feel dark and strikes up a mix of emotions for many of us.

There’s the fear of it happening; the anxiety of the unknown; and sadness for those that we’ve lost.

After my conversation with today’s guest Mary Jones, I’ve been thinking a lot more about how I think about death and how I want to leave the world. This process has helped me reflect on my own values and identify the things that are really, truly important to me.

Mary Kelly Jones is the Director of Family Support Services for Hospice & Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley in Potsdam New York. With over 25 years’ experience at Hospice, Mary manages Hospice Chaplains, Social Workers, Volunteer Manager and Bereavement Staff. Mary is passionate about educating Hospice staff and the St. Lawrence County community in all matters related to end of life.

She has written over 30 grief publications for hospice families and community. She has served as a member of the Professional Education Committee for the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization.

In addition to her role at Hospice, Mary is an adjunct instructor at SUNY Potsdam in the Public Health and Human Performance department. Mary has taught Death & Dying, both fall and spring semesters, for the last twelve years. Mary also serves as the chair of the St. Lawrence County Suicide Awareness Coalition and currently chairs the St. Lawrence County Community Service Board.

Mary and I talk about:

• How you fundamentally shift as a person being in the room when someone is near the end of life.
• How changing the way we think about death can help us heal and die well.
• How Hospice as opposed to the traditional medical system focuses on the quality of life instead of trying to lengthen their life as patients near the end.
• That death is inevitable so instead of trying to stop death we can focus on enhancing our lives.
• Why there’s no right way to grieve except to make sure that you do.
• How a death and dying course taught a group of college kids what it means to live.
• Four simple phrases—“Please forgive me,” “I forgive you,” “Thank you,” and “I love you”—carry enormous power to mend and nurture our relationships and inner lives.
• And how our legacies and the legacies of the ones we love will always be carried on.

If you’ve ever felt alone; like you’re the only one feeling what you feel, I think today’s conversation will resonate with you. Kate is open and vulnerable about her abuse and eating disorder and recovery. We all have experiences, chaos, and trauma whether big or small and it can be so easy to feel alone in it.

This conversation is really special to me because as you’ll hear at the beginning of the episode, I was meant to meet Kate. When I think back to serendipitous moments, this was one of them.

Kate, formerly known to the world on Instagram as SheBeKaleInIt is a strong, resilient, and beautiful person. Healing trauma emotion etc.

Kate is a yoga instructor, business mentor, and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. She candidly shares her story and experiences with trauma, mental health and body image with her students and audience online. Through mindfulness and intuitive practices, Kate hopes to inspire others to radically accept themselves, their bodies, and move intuitively. She's also the co-founder of a wellness events business, The GOOD Fest, which hosts 1 day wellness festivals to empower and inspire 400+ women around the country. Kate's writing and teaching have been featured in mindbodygreen, Yoga Digest, YogiApproved and The Fullest.

Kate’s currently working on a retreat Conscious Creators with Ava Johanna and Revamp Retreats as well as my conscious business mentorship program for women in wellness.

During the show we talk about:

• How our past affects our present and how we can embrace the good and the bad to create a better life experience
• Using intuition to align with you true voice
• Recovering and healing from abuse, PTSD, and women’s trauma
• How to ask for the support you need
• Finding faith to relinquish control and eliminate chaos
• Pushing past fear to get what you really want
• Body image

Vijay Ravindran is the co-founder & CEO of Floreo - a groundbreaking research and venture-backed virtual reality therapy system to aid parents and professionals working with children with autism.

He is an accomplished entrepreneur and technology executive with experience in online retail at Amazon and the news media industry for The Washington Post Company.

Ravindran's career spans digital commerce and news media. He joined Amazon in 1998 when the company sold books and music. He later served as director of the ordering department at Amazon and led the team that launched Amazon Prime. As Chief Digital Officer for The Washington Post Company, he founded WaPo Labs and oversaw the development of over a dozen products in digital news and launched Washington Post Social Reader and Trove, a personalized news web application.

He is an engineering graduate of the University of Virginia and serves on the Board of the Lenfest Institute, which develops and supports sustainable business models for local journalism.

You'll hear

• How Vijay's position at Amazon opened the door for him to pursue his passion.
• The inspiration behind FLOREO and the incredibly cute "first employee".
• Floreo's first steps and their partners and supporters who helped get the product off the ground.
• The affordability and accessibility of Technological Therapy vs Human Therapy.
• The fears and challenges that come with along with his venture being a creator of the first product of its kind in the world and a parent of a child with autism
• Determining Real World Progress
• FLOREO where the product stands now, ten years from now, their cutting edge technology and dreams to change the world of Virtual and Augmented reality training tools.

In this episode, I'm talking with America's Heart doc aka Dr. Joel Kahn.

Joel Kahn, MD, of Detroit, Michigan, is a practicing cardiologist and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Michigan Medical School and trained in interventional cardiology in Dallas and Kansas City. Known as "America’s Holistic Heart Doc", Dr. Kahn is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and maintains sub-specialty board certification in Cardiovascular Medicine. He was the first physician worldwide to complete the Metabolic Cardiology curriculum in conjunction with A4M.com/MMI and the University of South Florida.

Dr. Kahn has authored scores of publications in his field including articles, book chapters and monographs. He writes articles for MindBodyGreen, Thrive Global, and Reader’s Digest and has five books in publication including Your Whole Heart Solution, Dead Execs Don’t Get Bonuses and The Plant Based Solution. He has regular appearances on Dr. Phil, The Doctors Show and Fox 2 News. He has also debated plant diets on the Joe Rogan Experience and has been featured with Larry King Live in a recent heart special. He has been awarded a Health Hero award from Detroit Crain’s Business. He owns 3 health restaurants in Detroit and Austin, Texas.

In our conversation he shares:

• How his 4 decade detox keeps him healthy
• The best strategy for being healthy all experts can agree on
• The experience with a pediatric cardiologist helped him define his future by age 14
• Why we need to elevate early identification of heart disease
• How being healthy doesn’t have to be expensive.
• Who’s at risk for heart disease
• The true cost of being healthy
• And so much more...

Dr. Adam C. Bandelli is an organizational psychologist and leadership advisor with over twenty years of corporate consulting experience. In his latest book Relational Intelligence, he details the five essential skills he has researched to create life-changing relationships. Adam received his Ph.D. and master’s degree from the University of South Florida in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Now, he owns & runs Bandelli & Associates where he and his team of consultants leverage psychological insights to help their clients unleash their true leadership potential. He has been featured in Chief Executive Magazine, SUCCESS, Fast Company, HR.com and more.

Through his work he not only helps people build stronger relationships that have a positive impact on their lives, he’s also an advocate for mental health and hopes to break the stigma associated with mental health disorders, specifically bipolar.

We talk about:

• The difference between emotional intelligence vs. relational intelligence
• How generations are different in what they need from communication styles
• How COVID has impacted the workplace & leadership roles
• The 5 essential skills of relational intelligence, how anyone can develop the skills, and why trust is the most important skill in the framework
• Doing the work on ourselves
• How to have constructive and meaningful conversations with people you don’t see eye-to-eye with
• And why being authentically YOU is the best way to build meaningful relationships and how to step into your authenticity

Follow Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adambandelli/

Visit his Website: https://bandelliandassociates.com/