Access the Power Inside You!

In the Western world, the body and mind are typically perceived as two separate entities. The body is solid, made from physical matter, while the mind is intangible and non-physical.”

Master Mingtong Gu
Master Mingtong Gu

Chinese tradition takes a very different view of the situation, with a holistic paradigm of mind-body-heart as inseparable energy systems. There is an invisible, yet measurable, energy field connecting your mind-body-heart and all life!

Recently, modern science has been discovering the same secrets that Chinese healing traditions have known for thousands of years! For example, physicists have shown that only 4% of the energy in our universe has a physical form. The other 96% is formless and invisible.

Just like the universe, your physical body is only one small manifestation of your energy.

Master Mingtong Gu

As a child growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, Master Gu, our most resent guest on Life Mastery Radio, endured hunger, poverty, and a long separation from his birth family. Despite these incredible hardships, he became the first from his village to attend college.

Master Gu discovered the treasures of his own culture through the spiritual iconography of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Western mystic traditions while practicing yoga, Tantric Buddhism, and qigong.

Because Qigong cultivates your mind-body-heart and allows you to experience the true nature of all phenomena – including your body – as pure energy, this practice reconnects you with the universal oneness of yourself, others, and nature.”

Master Mingtong Gu
Master Mingtong Gu

Master Gu has created the Pure Qi Online series—a collection of courses which translate the ancient teachings of Wisdom Healing Qigong™ for contemporary times. He is also the founder of the Chi Center and the Center for Wisdom Healing Qigong, a beautiful 79-acre resort located 20 minutes south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Master Gu talked about Wisdom Healing Qigong on the show and offered FIVE STEPS to HEAL ILLNESS and INJURY, ENHANCE WELL-BEING, and ENJOY RADIANT HEALTH:

1. Movement to Create Mind-Body Connection

Slow movements allow for relaxation as well as an energetic flow. Deep movements allow the opening of energy channels as well as release of pain, blockages and stress.

2. Sound Healing for Emotional Clearing and Well-being

By chanting certain sounds, such as the “Haola” you can mobilize the movement and absorption of chi.

3. Meditation and Visualization to Calm Your Mind and Reduce Stress

You can access the power of your mind through visualization and meditation, which access different parts of the brain’s functions beyond linear thinking.

4. Connecting Energy for Holistic Mind-Body-Heart Function

Everything in life is based on energy. And so, we practice establishing your mind-heart-body energy connection so that these systems work together to experience a deeper wholeness, in the process releasing tension and stress from organs and muscles, thoughts and emotions.

5. Experience Oneness in Everyday Life

The profound sense of oneness with the universe and all life that you experience after consistent practice can be life-changing.

All you need to do is begin, re-empowering yourself and
reconnecting with the healing energy of life. For more information and guidance on your journey, visit
www.ChiCenter.com

Build a Better Life

We all have opportunity to build a better life. We should use our free will in creative ways, rather than in reactive ways.”

Eliyahu Jain

When Madonna, Roseanne, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Giselle Bundchen, Guy Ritchie and Michael Strahan were at a crossroads in their lives or wanted to delve more deeply into the wisdom of the Jewish mystical cosmology and teachings of the Kabballah, they turned to Eliyahu Jian, our most recent guest on Life Mastery Radio

Born in Israel, Eliyahu had many mentors and teachers. He studied Chinese medicine, Kabballah, and Astrology. He learned to help people manifest from nothing to something.

Eliyahu enjoyed being a student until one of his masters told him it was time to help others. He was travelling and lecturing around the world, touting that he could know everything about someone in 5 minutes.

Cultivating true happiness enables one’s success to increase. Money does not mean happiness.”

Eliyahu Jian

Known for his keen sense of humor, contagious smile and natural ability to simplify complicated knowledge, Eliyahu uses a multitude of spiritual tools to teach.

Three building blocks to transformation:

  1. Understanding true freedom
  2. Changing desires from petty to freedom
  3. Faith that the Creator will grant you freedom

Freedom is to DESIRE, THINK, and CONTROL what you want, but not to let your want control you. Feel the fulfillment of your desire as if it’s already been achieved. Anything can act as a trigger for positive change if you only choose for it to do so.”

Eliyahu Jian

At the end of each chapter of his book The Laughing Billionaire, Eliyahu provides a commitment note – you will commit to do something in writing, then you’ll take action.

Eliyahu’s views on Astrology:

Astrology is affecting us if we’re not affecting it. It’s like a movie being projected onto a screen. We only see a reflection of the real image.”

~ “Your life success, or lack thereof, during this time depends on your emotions. It’s the best time to ask for forgiveness and to give forgiveness. If, however, you’re looking only for justice, it will work against you.”


~ “If we will change, we will affect the planet to change as well.

~ “Mercury is in retrograde. Mercury is in charge of money and communication. This will be either good or bad, depending on how people use what happens.”

~ “Search for mercy, not justice. Just chill. I promise you will have anything you want if you just chill right now.”

Eliyahu Warns:

“Whatever damage you do until November 2020 will work against you for a very long time. Whatever you create until November 2020 will work for you for a long time.”

Eliyahu Jian offers free online classes. You can learn more at vitaltransformation.org

You’re Missing the Point

“One night I got up with the dog and saw a giant full moon. I heard her talk to me: You’re missing the point. It’s not about whether you stay here, or go there, it’s about who you want to be.”

Rebecca Thompson
Rebecca Thompson

Rebecca Thompson was a highly regarded engineer who became spiritually awakened through one of life’s trials. She had a successful career, husband, and three children. Life was normal and stereotypical until her husband lost his job and turned to alcohol.

Rebecca was keeping the balls in the air trying to hold her husband, kids, and finances in sync. She started doing volunteer work with her daughter and was invited to a dowsing class.

“We were each given metal dowsing rods, and we calibrated them by saying, ‘show me a yes’ and ‘show me a no’. We played for a few minutes and found it worked! I was just blown away. There was something more than me causing the reactions I was getting”

She was intrigued and wanted to know more. Her curiosity led Rebecca to a Reiki class wherein she had a very spiritual experience. Feeling powerless at the time because of her husband’s alcoholic addiction, these experiences ultimately led Rebecca to know she could have a different life.

I was so focused on what he was doing, trying to control him, and trying to keep him busy so he couldn’t drink, I wasn’t focusing on myself

Rebecca Thompson

Rebecca learned her higher power through a series of interesting conversations with friends, coaches, and the moon.

Rebecca was trying to decide to stay with, or leave, her husband. Many voices in her head were providing conflicting advice. The conversation with the moon provided Rebecca with the most powerful advice:

You’re missing the point

Slow down

You’re addicted to business

Listen to your heart

Don’t go it alone

After the decision to leave her husband, the moon told Rebecca:

Take stock. You need to be above reproach. Take stock of who you are.

During all these challenges, Rebecca had been talking weekly to her friend, Darlene. They had moved away from each other years before, but they talked every Sunday at 8:30 pm.

We’d made a pact that we’d speak every week on the phone and see each other twice a year. And we’ve done it without fail for years.

Rebecca Thompson

Their conversations about life, dreams, visions, and goals became the content for Rebecca and Darlene’s book: Sunday at 8:30: Two Decades of Life Planning.

In an exercise at a writing retreat, Rebecca started writing about her spiritual journey. It became more than an exercise, it became a book titled: Rebecca Rising: How I found courage and self-love through friendship, coaching and conversations with the moon

The two books were published within months of each other. Both are inspirational and motivational.

Rebecca’s greatest lesson: “Love myself

The Prescription for Chaos, Separation, and Fear

Julie Krull, author of Fractured Grace: How to Create Beauty, Peace and Healing for Yourself and the World was our delightful guest on Life Mastery Radio last Tuesday. Her book is a prescription for individual and collective healing and wholeness in our escalating state of chaos, separation, and fear.

My mystic Self opened up when I was a young girl. I had a near-death experience at about the age of 5.”

Julie Krull

Julie had chronic tonsillitis. Surgeries to remove her tonsils were constantly rescheduled because consistent infection made surgery risky. One day Julie became septic – an infection of the blood, which spread quickly into every organ of her body causing a serious condition.

I was laying on mother’s bed napping. I heard her yelling at me to wake up. I could see her as if my eyes were open. I could not respond or speak, and the urgency in my mother’s voice became stronger.

This isn’t funny. Stop pretending. It is time to get up’.”

Julie explained she was consciously present outside of her dying body watching the reaction of her family and doctors deal with her physical unconsciousness.

She recovered from the physical infection and found herself infused with lasting effects of that mystical experience.

Julie learned to walk and navigate in the mystic world. She did not talk about it with other people because it felt strange, and many times there was no one to share it with anyway.

Julie continued to commune with God for many years, living actively in both worlds of reality and mystical realms. Whenever she heard news reports of tragedies, Julie would be deeply affected with heart-felt pain. At home, she experienced divorce and chemical dependency by family members.

In her conversations with God Julie would say, “I don’t get these humans. Why don’t they GET IT? Why don’t they understand the truth of who we are?”

At the age of eleven, the powers were really turned on. One day she was sitting on the grass in her yard asking God these questions and feeling unhappy with the way people treated each other.

At that moment I began leaving my body. There was a host with me – an amazing man with long gray hair and beard. We ascended and I was out of my body. I could see myself in our yard, I could see the neighborhood, and the whole community.
We went out into space. The man and I were holding the earth, hovered, in our cupped hands. I saw what was to happen on the planet now, as we begin to consciously heal.

Julie Krull

Julie saw hope for our world. Light was encircling the planet and landing on it, lighting it up. Everything came into balance.

I saw who I would be in my 50’s and what sort of work I’d be doing.”

Julie Krull

We normally see ourselves as separate individuals. Separate from one another, separate from the earth, from the planet, the cosmos, and separate from God. It has been in that consciousness which we have created all we have created, and it’s worked for a long time. We have mastered it.

We are learning now that the great spiritual wisdom of millenniums has been showing us a different way. We have an independent, inter-connected field of consciousness. We do not HAVE consciousness. We ARE consciousness.

Everything is breaking down. Those old systems no longer sustain us. We are now able to rebuild. Although this awakening is not widely being reported, it is happening right now.

We’re all in this place of expansion

Julie’s book is filled with wonderful stories and prescriptions to help you be part of the healing of our planet, and the souls of those who live on it.

Soul Readings and Holy Assignments

Deneen Joyner, our most recent guest on Life Mastery Radio, calls herself a Soul Medium, adopting that moniker during the process of healing from some of life’s greatest challenges.

That’s the end of the story though, and to better understand Deneen’s journey, we should start from the beginning.

From the age of five, Deneen could hear, see, and speak to angels. Besides the usual playmates of a typical five year old, Deneen was entertained by immortal beings.

It was a lovely time for me, but I didn’t have a filter. I was unwittingly revealing secrets about family members. It wasn’t long until my family silenced me. I learned it wasn’t acceptable to share truth, feelings, and my gifts with others.”

Deneen Joyner

Deneen began to feel her gifts were not good, and perhaps even shameful. She put her gifts on a shelf and stuffed her feelings down. Years of ignoring her gifts made Deneen numb and disconnected.

I began to focus on the pain in my life.”

Deneen Joyner

In 2011 Deneen felt the walls of life were closing in, and the bottom falling out. She was in emotional pain, and didn’t know how to get out of it.

Every day felt like the same day. I was tapped out.”

Deneen Joyner

Deneen had been running for years, exhausting her funds. She had not made her car payment for months. The day came when it was repossessed.

When I saw my vehicle being hoisted up on the tow truck so they could take it away, it felt as though my soul had left me. I had gotten myself to this place, and things were really bad.”

Deneen Joyner

Having denied her gifts years before, Deneen lacked resources to help herself. She considered suicide as the only way out.

I was angry at God for making me feel I should take my life. Why did you give me these gifts? What are they for? I asked God, but I didn’t get an answer.”

Deneen Joyner

Deneen realized she wanted to know those answers even more than she wanted life to end. She began the process to heal. Her journey included learning about Family Karma.

The reason why people carry emotional pain is because no one ever showed us how to respond to emotional pain. When I began to uncover more of who I am, I discovered the ancestral inheritance I had been given. My pain was generational.”

Deneen Joyner

Deneen realized she had unconsciously learned an emotional framework; a lens she’d looked through to respond to life.

Family Karma is based on themes such as: incarceration, divorce, abandonment, illness, etc. This Karma is passed down invisibly to us until a black sheep becomes sensitive to it.

I was the black sheep, and although I couldn’t put my finger on why I felt uncomfortable in my family, I learned I had been given responsibility to change the Karma. I was the one to heal the bloodline.”

Deneen Joyner

Healing brought understanding to Deneen. She discovered:

  1. Divine Pain – sent to us by God in preparation for our Holy Assignment – our life’s purpose
  2. Recreated Pain – what we’ve attracted in our life, and what we continue to clone.

That pretty much makes for a messy life. We tend to focus on what we’ve recreated rather than what Divine has sent. Most often it takes trauma or a painful event to snap us out, and then Divine has our attention.
I invited my ancestors into my healing process, and they helped me. It became apparent that I had highly gifted healers in my family. What I’d been trying to outrun, I realized I never could.

Deneen Joyner

Deneen’s Holy Assignment was revealed:

Now that you have healed, you know how to do it, it’s your turn to show others who’ve forgotten as you did.

By 2014, Deneen knew the WHAT she needed to do. After some soul searching she discovered the HOW was to write a book.


You’re invited to learn what Deneen has in her memoir:
Soul Wounds & Sacred Revelations: A Warrior Daughter’s Awakening to Pain and Destiny
by Deneen Joyner

Defining JOY

Before you begin to read today’s blog post, which spotlights Victoria Price, take a listen to the iconic voice of her father, Vincent Price

Vincent Price Gives An Introduction To The Haunted Palace

How would you define JOY?

Victoria Price

Victoria Price, author of Living Life: 12 Heart-Centered Practices to Transform Your Life defines JOY as “The pure and simple delight in being alive”

While the world is living in a less-than-delightful circumstance, Victoria provides tools in her book to help us find JOY despite the jeopardy.

I have lost everything more than once. Money. Jobs, Homes. Relationships. Stuff. My heart. My soul. My sense of self-worth.

It was a big problem. And that was a big problem.

I saw myself having a big problem I had to fix. I hated myself for never being able to fix it.

It wasn’t until I began creating a daily practice of JOY that things shifted.

In fact, things didn’t shift. They TRANSFORMED. Everything transformed. I discovered the transformational power of heart-centered practice.”

Victoria Price

After a year of practicing JOY and sharing it with people, Victoria felt as though she’d discovered a magical formula.

I thought if I could change my life into a kind of spiritual experiment, maybe I would be able to discover why a made-up practice had succeeded when nothing else had.”

Victoria Price

As a little girl, Victoria knew LOVE could heal because she’d experienced it. However, before she began her practice of joy, she forgot how to feel the LOVE which had always been inside her.

Old fears melted away. Ancient stories lost their grip on me. I felt hope and experienced healing as never before! Why? Because all my practices had one thing in common: they were heart-centered, causing me to live as if I were living is, as, from, and through LOVE.”

Victoria Price

To fully reap the blessings of a heart-centered LOVE and JOY practice, it helps to understand the four components of practice:

Daily: Studies show that whatever we prioritize in our lives not only shifts to the top of our to-do lists, but it also becomes the lens through which we experience everything.

Deliberate: The word DELIBERATE means intentional, which comes from the Latin word for “stretching.” That is how Victoria thinks of practice – as the stretches we must do in our souls to keep ourselves limber in LOVE.

Conscious: It’s not enough to practice. To be conscious means to be present. If you are doing a heart-centered LOVE practice, but you are thinking about all the things you have to do next, then you’re not present.

Committed: This word makes so many of us nervous because it connotes pressure, obligation, duty. Try thinking of it this way instead: every day we are bombarded by fear, so if we do not commit to practicing LOVE, we will slide back into fear without even knowing it.

It was a THRILLER (reference back to Vincent Price) to have Victoria on the show. She most definitely brought JOY to Todd, me, and all the listeners of Life Mastery Radio.

See what I mean by watching our interview with her here: the JOY of Victoria Price

A Journey to Find Your Voice

Its been a journey to find my voice, my heart, and my passion. I found great freedom in being able to write things down.”

Laura Staley

Laura Staley, author of Live Inspired, a guidebook for the experience of life, was our guest this past Tuesday. It was certainly an inspiring book to read, and an inspiring experience to talk with her on the show.

Laura came from a tragic upbringing. In her book she shares the lessons learned from these tragedies, and how we can apply them.

A “trauma bond” had to be broken with her abusive mother so Laura could be free to do the deeper work of healing. This healing journey included learning to talk to all the other parts of herself and accept that many were imperfect and flawed.

I had great capacity for love at age 10; to be able to speak from my heart. However, I didn’t have a safe place in which to do that. All those voices are now inside me, and I can reach in to them, and set them free.”

Laura Staley

Laura had to disconnect from, what she called, the bully “that lived in my mind”. She began to recognize the voices in her head were not hers. They were recordings of what other people had said to her.

Laura set about “shredding limiting beliefs”.

Laura tried hard to make her mother accept and love her. The opening story of her book illustrates to the reader the very struggles she had in that mother-daughter relationship her whole life:

My sister and mother played the piano beautifully. My mother would be joyful when she played (despite all the other cruel characteristics I witnessed from her constantly), confirming to me that my mother had capacity to feel such emotions. I wanted to be the person that brought her joy.

I thought to myself, ‘Maybe if I learned to play the piano…’

‘You’ll never play like your sister’ my mom would say, but she finally relented and found a willing piano teacher.

On my first lesson, after my mother left me alone with the teacher, an awful human being emerged. She took my hands and smacked them with a ruler. She disparaged me for crying, and throughout the lesson I attempted to play through tears.

Once home, my mother continued the cruel micromanagement begun by my piano teacher. While I played, my mother would whisper into my ear, ‘you’ll never play like your sister’.

Finally, in despair I shouted, ‘I’m not ever gonna take lessons again. I’m done!’ Then came the awful words from my mother: ‘you’re an ungrateful, selfish, bitch’.

It took me years to learn I was not a worthless piece of $%#*, as I was told.”

As an adult, Laura would become enraged with her own children. She recognized her behavior was not helpful and, in fact, terrifying to her children. In her book she names this characteristic of herself whom she calls Lois:

Lois wasn’t me, but an act, a front, a pretense, a grotesque inside-out costumed character. She raged with the F-word, a word forbidden in my childhood home. For years she simmered with many flavors of fury deep in the lockdown pot of my body. She bubbled, vigorously boiled, and blew the lid right off especially in the early years of mothering my children. Lois splattered hurt all over these precious ones I treasured the most. Had I created her to cope? If I had, I succeeded in making one nasty creature.

Even through this psycho bitch rage, Lois oddly fueled a distorted sense of courage for which I felt pride, I carried deep shame too, realizing only cowards or deeply troubled people lash out at small beings. When you don’t know the pathway out, reacting like a madwoman fools you into feeling powerful. Lois took over my body at the slightest provocation; when something in my immediate environment looked or smelled like a trigger from the past. I didn’t invent her. She was my body screaming, trauma lives right here!

Laura stated, when people overreact it is likely because their life is feeling threatened. Our mind reflects on a real experience when our lives were threatened, and it triggers a physical response.

Laura’s stories will make you feel empowered; feel seen; and brave about your own vulnerability. It will also help you have compassion for others on their own journey.

Your heart knows WHO you really are. Listen to your heart. Listen to Laura’s interview here:

Laura Staley Life Mastery Radio Interview

Insights of The Celestine Prophecy

When I heard James Redfield was scheduled to be on the show, I began to read his first book, The Celestine Prophecy. I’d heard about it years ago and thought it would be like so many other self-help books written by guests we’ve had on the show. Please, don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved every book I’ve read related to our guests. In this instance, however, I was completely surprised to discover The Celestine Prophecy is a novel.

As I read the compelling adventure story about a man seeking for higher knowledge and power, I was made to wonder, “is this a novel, or did this really happen?”

Within a few days of reading, I’d reached the inspirational conclusion, excited to learn there was an Afterword section wherein I was taught how to apply the insights of the book into my life. In other words, a NOVEL taught me SELF-HELP.

The Celestine Prophecy, published in 1994, sat at #1 on the NY Times best seller list for 3 years. It has ended up being the first of many literary successes for James Redfield.

James Redfield

[The Celestine Prophecy] is about tuning in to spiritual insights; understanding how the world really works from the viewpoint of consciousness and moving the world to a better place.”

James Redfield

Working with troubled teenagers as a therapist at the time of its creation, his work was the laboratory for The Celestine Prophecy. James put the information he’d taught into a living story based on his experiences, and those of others.

Inspiration energy, heart based, emotion-based energy, can only be achieved in a story with believable characters. We live in a spiritually designed universe. Until you know how to get in alignment with that design, life is materialistic at best.”

James Redfield

The Celestine Prophecy shares a consensus of thought on the key experiences of spirituality, a scientific wave of thought starting with Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who introduced the idea of spirituality into the scientific world.

The book began as a pass-along book. James shared the manuscript with many people, who shared it with others. Within 6 months The Celestine Prophecy was everywhere in the 1990’s.

Why the resurgence now?

It’s a new time in the world because of three very different generations on the earth.

Baby Boomers are retiring with time on their hands. They’re asking the higher questions: What can I do to leave a legacy? What can I do to be of service?

Millennials (children of boomers) are reaching an impactful point in life. They’re looking at year 40 coming at them; and for answers to the question: Is there more to this life?  They have the education, the job, the family, but still feel incomplete.

The Gen X’ers are looking at their future with questions: How can I afford college? Can I be successful? Am I going to be okay?”

Three generation are starting to search for answers. The Celestine Prophecy speaks to this quest. More people are meditating than ever before.

It’s a new time, and people are passing the book along again.

The characters in the book are searching for clues to discover hidden and valuable insights that will raise spiritual consciousness. During the interview, James shared a few of the insights:

  1. Synchronicity. Many people doubt it, but if it’s real, and we actually do receive help from above, then all spiritual consciousness is real. This is where the journey begins
  2. Evolving earth forward through consciousness. It’s our birthright
  3. Karma. There is consensus building about karmic structure. If you’re a giver, and aligned with synchronicity, you’ll surround yourself with givers. If you’re a taker, and misleading other people, you’ll draw more takers into your life.
  4. Mediation. Finding your intuition. Quiet your mind and set a mantra to open your heart and feel love. Love brings stability and peace; and keeps you from getting cynical.

There are 5 more insights found in the story of The Celestine Prophecy. Insight 10 (provided after the story ends) is tuning in to the afterlife. Recognizing the reality of angels and the concept of heaven.

The new edition has an Afterword about how to stay awake after the journey and discovery found in the book.

Live the insights and get in alignment with how the world really works. Get on the path of service. We are intuitively guided when we have an open heart and mind. We set ourselves up for synchronicity. That brings us to dreaming, and then the dream begins to unfold.”

James Redfield invites us to connect with uplifting energy and live a higher consciousness.

Visit his website and join the online community being built which you can be part of. The Celestine Vision

Get it Done, and Make it Fun

Our guest last Tuesday, Nancy Juetten, has created an easy and fun way for each of us to check off the boxes to life’s most important tasks.

The rug has just been pulled out from underneath almost everyone on the planet, and we’re all figuring out how to master this new reality.”

Nancy Juetten
Nancy Juetten

Nancy wrote the book, “Bye Bye Boring Bio” years ago to help businesses and business owners with creative marketing ideas in crafting biographies.

Recently, Nancy has co-founded the development of Life Goes On Roadmap®. It’s a system for personal financial information organization that prevents aggravation and frustration around not being able to access crucial documents and information when life serves up an unexpected surprise.

On the very day of our interview with her, Nancy announced a new initiative to thank first-responders for their service, especially during the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic.

First responders and essential workers can visit this link https://bit.ly/FirstResponder2020 and enter their name and email address and receive the Get Your Act Together Getting Started Template as a free digital download.

This report guides the reader on a scavenger hunt to assemble the most important documents and information they need to navigate in a crisis.

Human resource directors from hospitals, grocery stores, fire departments, and other first responder and essential worker organizations can reach out to me by phone or email to arrange for delivery of the full digital system of Life Goes On Roadmap® to their teams.

Nancy Juetten

The complete system includes a guidebook, gameboard, digital organizer, and access to a client-only Facebook community to get expert support for questions that come up.

The gameboard transforms getting organized into a game everyone can win as opposed to a task to put off until later.

What starts out as a transactional exercise turns into a transformational journey that gets families talking about important matters that warrant their timely attention, now more than ever.”

Nancy Juetten

By sharing our system as a gift, we can touch and transform the lives of those who are playing such a crucial role in helping all of us get through what is the most daunting health challenge of our lives.

Nancy Juetten

Nancy revealed to us the first few steps you can take to get your act together:

  1. Update beneficiary designations on insurance documents and wills
  2. Take pictures, and collect receipts for all valuables
  3. Give your family members access to your phone so they can reach your contacts in order to share necessary information

Life turns on a dime, and if you do not have your act together you’ve got a whole lot more drama, trauma, and chaos to attend to in the worst possible time.”

Nancy Juetten

Nancy was interviewed on TV last year about her system. Take a moment to listen to that interview here:

Nancy Juetten King 5 News March 2019

It’s time to get your act together!

Beneath the Pandemic and Grief

Our guest this past Tuesday was The Grief Girl herself, Kristi Hugstad. What a delight to visit with her again. Her book is Beneath the Surface: A Teens Guide to Reaching Out When You, or a Friend is in Crisis.

Kristi Hugstad

Seven years ago, Kristi’s husband died by suicide.

I had a really hard time processing that. I knew I could either be a victim of my circumstances, or I can take this pain and figure out how to use it to help other people.”

Kristi Hugstad

Kristi helps many people through feelings of grief and unhappiness, including middle school students.

If we’re going to stop suicide from happening, we need to educate our youth about mental health…they are grieving the loss of hopes and dreams as their proms, graduations, and award ceremonies are being cancelled.

Kristi Hugstad

Kristi’s advice about how to connect with our teenage children during this pandemic (or any time):

  • Don’t force conversations. Ask “how are you handling this?”
  • Observe changes in patterns and/or behavior
  • Don’t mete out judgement or put them on the spot
  • Don’t minimize their emotion
  • Validate that what they’re feeling is real

The best tool you can give someone right now is to listen. Let them speak, and don’t try to fix it.

Kristi Hugstad

Kristi suggests there are signs to look for if you suspect someone you love is becoming depressed:

  • Changes in behavior
  • One-word (or grunts) answers
  • Not showering, or ignoring self-hygiene
  • Isolation, and/or no longer doing what they once enjoyed
  • Becoming someone you no longer recognize

During this pandemic we are all grieving structure, routine, social connection, purpose, and self-worth. Your self-care will be modeled by your children.

Kristi suggests the following tools to help you and your family get through your grief journey:

  • Journaling
  • Writing
  • Play games the kids are interested in
  • Take care of yourself first and be in a strong place to help others
  • Ask kids to teach you how to do something (like play a video game)

Now is the time to reach out and reconnect with the people you’ve been meaning to connect with. I feel best when I get outside myself and help other people. I let go of the things I can’t control.”

Kristi Hugstad

If you or someone you know needs help, reach out to Kristi Hugstad: Go to www.TheGriefGirl.com