Episode 14: The Thin veil of life and death/the importance of exploring the dynamics of death and dying With Cheryl Dienes, MSW and Kenn Orphan, MSW
Release Date: 02/08/2019
Episode 41: The Power of Adventures & Pursuing Wild Ideas
Grey Matters Now
Shelby Stanger is the host and creator of the hit podcast, Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production and the author of the new book Will To Wild. Shelby started the Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast on her own though and it became SO popular and influential that REI purchased it in 2020. Like her adventurous podcast guests, Shelby is a true badass and trailblazer whose trails have led her to major wild outdoor adventures, writing a book, large speaking engagements and even most recently a Ted Talk. Over the years, her work has appeared everywhere from Outside Magazine to...
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EPISODE 40: A First Person Experience With ROCD - a Newly Recognized Type of OCD That Deeply Impacts Relationships
Grey Matters Now
Samantha Colicchio is a San Diego-based writer who focuses on feminism, sex, and mental health. She writes regularly for lifestyle and wellness blogs and she is currently working on a book of nonfiction. To me, she is Sam my sweet neighbor and friend that is apparently also humble and a VERY talented writer. I knew nothing of her phenomenal writing skills until she recently wrote an article that was featured in the Huffington Post. It is a brilliantly written, brave, very transparent and vulnerable account of her struggles with Relationship OCD, a relatively new subtype of the disorder. May is...
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Episode 39: Enjoy The Ride: A Regenerating Journey From The Surf To The Turf with Ed Lewis/Enjoy The Farm and Enjoy Handplanes
Grey Matters Now
Enjoy: "To enjoy something is to take delight or pleasure in something." Upcycling: “The act of taking something no longer in use and giving it a second life and new function. In doing so, the finished product often becomes more practical, valuable and beautiful than what it previously was.” Ed Lewis started his first business in 1996 right out of college and since then his goals have shifted significantly. In the beginning work was all about self and making a living… admitting that in his twenties he couldn’t see too far past himself. photo credit: In 2005 after experiencing...
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Episode 38: Resonating With Full Circle Sound Healing: Healing The Mind, Body & Soul Through The Power of Sound with Mary Cap, Sound Healer
Grey Matters Now
Mary Cap is a sound healer based in Carlsbad, CA where she lives with her husband and son. After leaving a fast paced and high stress career in the hotel wedding & events industry to be a stay-at-home mom when her son was born, she found herself feeling lost in both identity and direction after about a year of being at home. Experiencing depression for the first time in her life, she began to unravel the layers of trauma and conditioning that she realized were affecting her everyday life, relationships and ability to live life to the fullest. This “dark night of the soul” led to a...
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Episode 37: Life's a Garden, Dig it / Cultivating Soul Food, Community, Hope, and Fun! With Stacie Vanags of Teaquila Farm
Grey Matters Now
A couple of years ago I started following a social media account Salted Spirit because I was so drawn to the beautiful images of this cool waterwoman podcasting and serving tea at the beach from my ultimate dream recording studio - a vintage Westfalia named Salted Carmela. This beautiful salted spirit is Stacie Vanags and she was creating something way deeper and more comprehensive than just beautiful images. Her mission was to make her way around Southern California, hosting Salted Spirit podcasts, workshops and cultivating COMMUNITY for waterwomen. Her workshops focus on...
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Episode 36: Breathe Well to be Well / Breathing Your Mind Home to Your Body and Into the Extraordinary with Reis Paluso /Breathwork coach and facilitator, certified Wim Hof Method instructor and co-founder of Our Breath Collective
Grey Matters Now
One common tool in everyones wellness, healing and navigation toolbox and mentioned in every podcast episode is breath. Yes - we need breath to exist, but we also need it to live and thrive. Whether we feel stuck, paralyzed, escalated or ungrounded by the weight of the world or everyday challenges, breathing is our vehicle to navigate forward. Our breath is a powerful and exciting tool that can take us many more places than just forward. A guide and expert can show us how to utilize this tool we carry with us everywhere, to unlock new spaces and experiences. As a surfer,...
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Episode 35: The Layers and Pages of Authoring Dear William: A Father's Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, Love and Loss
Grey Matters Now
Best selling author David Magee, formerly a columnist for Newsweek, a former daily newspaper and magazine publisher, and the author of many books about businesses and sports figures began to shift his focus when he wrote wrote an article for the front page of the local paper in 2016. This personal article ripped the bandage off a wound, to air out and share for a greater good and healing all around. It began with these 2 sentences: "A new freshman class started at Ole Miss this week and I wish I could tell them ALL this story. It’s about my oldest son William, who was a freshman in 2008, he...
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Episode 34: Rerooting Ourselves Through Harmony with Tina Page, LCSW and founder of Rerooting Circles
Grey Matters Now
Tina Page is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of California. She has been creating and holding safe space for individuals for over 20 years. In both informal settings as well as in structured therapy settings she utilizes intuitive wisdom and best practice approaches that support each individual in their journey. For the past 3 years, she has provided therapeutic services on-line and has worked with people all over the world. Her ability to connect and create a safe and compassionate space while challenging her clients transcends technological limitations. She has also been a big...
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Episode 33: Processing waves of grief through the ebb and flow of life's losses
Grey Matters Now
On June 11, 2020 I recorded Episode 25: Healing Trauma Through Surf Therapy and Waves of Love With Natalie Small LMFT and Leanne Tibiatowski. Groundswell Community Project a sisterhood of inter-sectional womxn holding safe & brave space for individuals and communities to find their healing, power, and belonging in Mother Ocean’s Waves. Since our last podcast GSCP realized that the world was in need of a specific resource for processing grief. Waves of Grief: Their Waves of Grief community drop-in groups were birthed out of response to the various types of personal and communal grief that...
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Episode 32: The Aquadolls - We ARE the band...How to maintain balance, purpose, respect, and success
Grey Matters Now
Meet the Aqua Dolls The band is composed of a power trio Melissa / vocals & guitar Keilah / vocals & bass Jackie/ vocals & drums And... their amazing manager Jaysea Devoe who is always behind the scenes taking care of business! This was Jaysea's 3rd time on the podcast. In her 1st episode, a teenager's guide to balance, we discussed how valuable her foundation, light, and tools would be as she navigates through life and things become more challenging. It has been a gift to follow her growth and evolution into her new role and how her foundation and light were so important in...
info_outlineI love that this episode coincides with the release of my friend and fellow Hospice Social Worker, Cheryl Dienes’ book The Final Dance / What The Dying Teach Us About…EMBRACING LIFE!!
Join Cheryl, Kenn and I for a conversation about the dynamics of death and dying. It is interesting that we are taught, as soon as we are born, to navigate through all general passages of life and development. The one passage that is not part of our developmental education and, that we are all going to experience, is death. If we explore our own experiences and feelings about end of life ahead of time, the conversations are not that uncomfortable and are actually quite liberating. When we process our feelings and beliefs ahead of time, we create a clear open space for being present for processing our raw emotions and or being present for our loved ones for their sacred transition. It is the one thing we will experience that is half physical and half metaphysical. I have had many personal and professional experiences with end of life. EVERYTHING I have learned has been a gift to help be present for myself, others, and for healing during and after a transition of life.
From Cheryl’s book:
I have come to see how important it is to turn toward the end of our life and look squarely at it. We need to learn to accept the inevitability of death. Imagine how different out lives would be if we saw death for what it is, accepted it, and embraced it. Until we do, we will continue to cheat ourselves out of the very gifts that death offers us to illuminate the whole of our lives. These are the gift of clarity about what really matters, the gift of courage to follow our life’s calling, the gift of freedom to authentically speak our truth, the gift of wisdom to let go of what hold us back.
We owe it to ourselves to feed our personal imaginations with images that see death as the natural, non-threatening phenomenon that it is.
-The Final Dance
By Cheryl Dienes, MSW
To purchase and learn more about Cheryl's book The Final Dance visit www.thefinaldance.com.
To find resources for Grief Support contact your local Hospice. You do not have to be a hospice patient or family member to receive grief support and services through hospice will be little to no cost!
Landscape cover art of me in Big Sur By Kirk Fagergren.