Libsyn Directory

93. Happiness is a Choice | Clay Boatright

Release Date: 08/30/2023

130. What's the STORY You Tell Yourself | Ashmeeta Rama Madhav

The Beautiful Side of Grief

How are you parenting yourself in your grief? Are you giving yourself the same advice you would give your child? Sometimes we get so mired in our experience we can forget to take a step back to see the big picture. In this final episode of Season 6, I speak with Ashmeeta Rama, a resilience and grief support advocate, expert, author, and founder of the Growth Story Hub. Ashmeeta shares her profound journey through intense grief, having faced multiple losses including miscarriages, rejection, and the loss of her parents and husband. She discusses how experiences and self-talk shape our...

129. BREAKING FREE: Overcoming Anxiety, Procrastination, and Perfectionism | Daniel Packard

The Beautiful Side of Grief

In addition to grief, do you experience anxiety, fear, depression, procrastination, perfectionism, or any number of other conditions that hold you back from being able to live the life you want? Have you spent more more money than you care to recall on doctor's visits, therapists, books, apps, healing modalities, to maybe feel a little better though still essentially in the same place? Do you have HOPE within YOU that there is a way to get through what you are experiencing? If you answered 'yes' to any of the above, then you need to take a listen to this episode! It's likely to change...

128. Taylor's Gift: More than ORGAN DONATION | Tara Storch

The Beautiful Side of Grief

This is a heartwarming and powerful episode. Making the decision to donate your child's organs must have to be one of the toughest decisions any parent would have to make. Yet, it can also yield incredible rewards. Tara shares her poignant story of navigating the loss of her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, after a tragic skiing accident. Tara and her husband Todd made the life-changing decision to donate Taylor's organs, leading to the creation of the Taylor's Gift Foundation to promote organ donation and provide grief support for donor families. Through her narrative, Tara emphasizes the...

127. CHAOS! Overcoming the Overwhelm Today | Noah Asher

The Beautiful Side of Grief

My guest on The Beautiful Side of Grief in this episode is helping people overcome the hurt and overwhelm that comes from the chaos happening in their lives... For some, it's sickness. For others, it's incarceration. Or the loss of a loved one. In fact, it's one of those lists that is endless. Noah Asher is Helping People Find Purpose Within Their Pain and Their Past through the 3 H's - Hope, Help, Humor. He is the owner of The Chaos Movement where they help authors market their books so they can share their message and be heard. Noah has written and not...

126. The Power of Pebbles & ANGELS | Patti DiMiceli

The Beautiful Side of Grief

Can you imagine how you would cope if your only child KNEW they were going to die, and you were only 27? On The Beautiful Side of Grief today I get to speak to Amber's incredible mum, Patti DiMiceli who went through this with Amber at the tender age of 41/2. Amber was not afraid. She even picked out the clothes she wanted to wear to Heaven The story of how Patti and Amber prepared for this event - which she describes it as a Miracle, will bring tears to your eyes - so make sure you have some tissues handy before listening! How Patti viewed this event is also profound - it is one that...

125. FREEING MYSELF from a Lifetime with Narcissists | Dana Diaz

The Beautiful Side of Grief

In this episode we explore the grief related to abuse - and more specifically narcissistic abuse. If you have a close relationship with your family - think for a moment what that relationship would look like if they set you for a lifetime of abuse as you were growing up, and then into your adulthood. Instead of giving you the love and support you deserved, they chose to cover their own tracks from possible exposure, by making you out to be the bad guy and supporting your abusive partner instead. Truly, It's enough to send anyone crazy! Having the courage to stand up for yourself and speak your...

124. Believing in the UNBELIEVABLE | Candace Silvers

The Beautiful Side of Grief

Do you believe in the unbelievable? That you have within you, the ability to heal yourself of anything? And not just yourself, but your family too? That you can get to use the term NED - No Evidence of Disease* - such a cool term! It almost seems unbelievable until you listen to Candace who has seen life differently from a very young age. This led her into energy healing at a time it was still in the closet. Since those early days she has become a World Renowned Healer, creating the Silvers Healing ModalityTM and being aTeacher of that, as well as being a Human Behavioral Expert...

123. My Life was NEVER the same | Sydney Decker

The Beautiful Side of Grief

Have you been through something so life-altering that your passion is to now live as authentic & true to yourself as possible? If so, you are going to love this week's guest, Sydney Decker. Sydney had been experiencing depression, anxiety, agoraphobia and also turbulent thoughts similar to her dad, well before he tragically took his own when she was just 20 years old. It was this event that became the catalyst for unbelievable and heart-warming change in her life. Yet, it wasn't an easy path... Sydney, like all of us had to first come to terms with her shadow-self - the parts we like to...

122. From PSYCH Unit to KimbleFit | John Kimble

The Beautiful Side of Grief

Today I am talking to a young guy, John Kimble, who really ventured on the wrong side of life. He wanted to be a gangsta, he had no remorse around the things he did, he robbed houses, sold drugs, had addictions, had attempted suicide a couple of times, had multiple felonies and eventually ended up in a psych ward diagnosed as a sociopath. That's some heavy stuff to go through. Yet, he makes no excuses. He has turned that all around to now having his own fitness centre KimbleFit - and now helps others of all ages find the life they want - through the same means he helped himself. This is...

121. Ministering to Your OWN Grief | Rev. Jocelyn Jones

The Beautiful Side of Grief

Sometimes we can just be too close to a situation. We don't want to see what is right in front of us. This was true for Rev. Jocelyn when she was facing her beloved father's battle with Alzheimer's. She initially didn't want to see her strong, capable, and loving dad was having issues with memory loss right before her eyes. When she did face it, however, she decided that she was going to her best, along with her brother, to find the happy moments and memories in this journey, as well as supporting their mum, who was his primary caregiver. This is a great conversation about being human,...

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'It's all in how you choose to look at the situation. And happiness is a choice'

- Clay Boatright

Clay has definitely lives by these words. He nursed his wife and cherished friend, through two bouts of cancer, the later taking her life. And in between all of that, they their raised twin daughters, Paige and Mia, with severe disabilities, along with their elder daughter Blaine. Through this journey, Clay discovered a passion for advocacy, helping other families deal with disabilities at high levels both locally and nationally. He has a calm, centred approach to life and doesn't buy into drama. As you listen (and read his bio), you will discover he has a wealth of wisdom and knowledge which he shares in his book 'God's Plan, Our Circus'. This is a great conversation!

Clay's Bio

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Clay Boatright has lived in Texas since 1994, where he and his wife Carole raised three daughters, including identical twins with severe intellectual disabilities and autism. With undergrad and graduate degrees from the University of Memphis, Clay managed two full-time careers for almost twenty years, one in the consumer-packaged goods industry to pay the bills and another as a volunteer advocate for people with disabilities.

Over the years, Clay developed a deep understanding of the disability industrial complex and served on a host of health and education advisory committees, including Board President for both The Arc of Dallas and The Arc of Texas. In 2011, President Barack Obama appointed Clay to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities in Washington, DC, and in 2013, he was appointed Founding Chairman for Texas Health & Human Services’ IDD System Redesign Advisory Committee, which he held for six years.

Published multiple times in various media, Clay is often contacted by legislators, the media, nonprofit organizations, and parents of children with disabilities to help understand the challenges that families like his live every day.

Following Carole’s death in 2020 from ovarian cancer, Clay maintains a close relationship with his daughters and embraces the future with enthusiasm and a desire to help everyone know that God has a plan for their lives.

In this episode, Clay shares:

[00:01:42] His special memories of Carol

[00:03:33] Carol's first experience with cancer

[00:06:44] Birth of the twins

[00:07:38] Knowing things were different

[00:09:42] Where Paige & Mia are ta today

[00:10:54] Asking 'why'

[00:14:17] Asking God and getting the answer to 'why'

[00:18:37] President Obama appointment

[00:20:18] Juggling work, home and advocacy work

[00:26:14] Fortuitous timing of second bout of cancer

[00:33:22] What happened in Aisle Nine on Valentine's Day