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This week I have a very transparent and real conversation with Becky Johnson.

In 1997, she had to make the heart-wrenching decision to quit her senior year as a college swimmer due to a debilitating condition that caused her neck to involuntarily pull to the right. Despite intensive therapy and support from trainers, her performance declined, and she ultimately left the sport. This issue persisted even after transitioning to triathlons, where she continued to struggle with her condition.

In August 2022, after starting her role as a social-emotional teacher, she faced a severe migraine that led her to the ER, where she learned she had Cervical Dystonia, a condition that runs in her family. Following a series of treatments, including Botox and consultations with specialists, she prioritized her mental health and began exploring cognitive therapies and nutrition, which significantly improved her well-being. The support from her current medical team of holistic and medical doctors has been invaluable in managing her condition.

Now, she is preparing for an Olympic distance swim/bike duathlon in July to raise awareness for dystonia, motivated by her desire to connect with others and support those facing similar challenges. She is collaborating with ‘Beat Dystonia,’ a non-profit organization, to gather donations and share her journey, aiming to foster understanding and compassion for those living with this condition.

Listen in on the wonderful conversation where Becky discusses her symptoms, how she was diagnosed with Dystonia and what life has been like for her. She shares how she has focused on her mental health and the importance of finding the right people who are in your corner. That makes all the difference.

She even shares how she feels she lives in more JOY now then she did before.

Contact information for Becky Johnson:

Email: 813therapiesllc@gmail.com

If anybody is looking for care from a chronic illness or anxiety from a high school or collegiate sport, please check out my website, https://www.813therapies.com/ I'd love to have a brief conversation with you.

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Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

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My guest today is Michelle Ruddell. Michelle is a speaker, author, and semi-retired teacher who lives in Central Texas. She speaks to women's groups about how to find joy in the middle of tough circumstances. her book, "Welcome to the Club, I'm Sorry You're Here", was written to offer hope to grieving parents.

Michelle shares with us the story of losing her 5-year-old child over 30 years ago, how a neighbor told her she would never be happy again, and how she has consciously learned to find and choose joy in the midst of grief and hardship. This is an inspiring story to offer hope to parents out there who have lost a child.

We also hear tools she uses personally to tap into JOY; gratitude, taking care of yourself and serving others. Listen to how she serves others by helping them find joy during difficult life events.

Connect with Michelle:

Email: michelle@michelleruddell.com
Website: michelleruddell.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071241318194

IG: https://www.instagram.com/michelleruddell_speaker/

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

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In this episode, I have the privilege of talking to Tanya Hackney. Tanya graduated with a B.A. from Middlebury College in 1997, where she majored in English and double-minored in French and Education. She married her high school sweetheart and taught kindergarten in Atlanta, Georgia before transitioning to homeschooling her own five children aboard sailing vessel Take Two. She’s lived aboard, traveled, and written for the Take Two Sailing blog for the last fifteen years. She has always had a bad case of wanderlust, having taken countless road trips as a child, spent a semester in Paris during college, and honeymooned in Mexico. In 2021, she published an award-winning memoir, Leaving the Safe Harbor: the Risks and Rewards of Raising a Family on a Boat. In her free time, she plays the ukulele, paints landscapes, and kayaks

Our conversation is about life raising a family on a boat and how her family has found a way to find JOY among the difficulties of sailing and living on the sea.

Tanya also shares with us a wonderful story about her Mother-in-Law, Mary who lost her life to cancer. She shares how her family and friends celebrated with Mary during a "Death Day" party...before Mary passed and how they all felt JOY during a time of deep grief.

Finally, Tanya shares the important of gratitude and how that has helped her tap into JOY even during life's massive challenges.


How to find Tanya:

Blog- www.taketwosailing.com
Book- https://ingeniumbooks.com/LTSH
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/tanya.hackney.71
https://www.facebook.com/TakeTwoSailing/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/taketwosailing/
Pinterest- https://www.pinterest.com/tanyataketwo/

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

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This episode is hosted by Hunter. To be completely honest, we were having a hard time finding a moment we could all sit down together to record so he took the bull by the horn and did his own episode.

We had no idea what he was going to talk about until he recorded it. He "killed" it. Maybe he said the title of our podcast wrong, but he definitely knows what to talk about when it comes to creating JOY.

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

Send us a text

How does MUSIC bring one JOY?

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:

• Benefits of music
• How we have used music to:
  • Lift a family member up
  • Start our day joyfully
  • Alleviate a long car ride
• What have we tried that has worked?
• What have we tried that has failed?
• One action step

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

Send us a text

This topic came up at the end of our dinner time. Addison announced she wanted to talk about something. This is the usual in the Raymond Household. Important topics come up during our dinner time. I pulled out my phone and started the voice recorder.

She pitched us in making her curfew later...to 12:30 or sometimes to 1:00 am.

What are her reasons?

She wants to practice time management before she goes to college in a year and a half.

How do Mark and I respond?

We have similar responses however we do disagree in some parts of this. With that being said, curfew is a struggle for us because Addison does not always have a set plan of what her friends and her are doing. We do not want her driving all around town at night so how do we come up with an appropriate curfew time?

She has to have more of a solidified plan of what she is doing in order for us to be comfortable making her curfew later. And it depends on what is happening the next day as well.

Listen in as to what we decide.

Our goal is to make sure everyone is feeling good at the end of the conversation, to avoid anger and frustration, and to keep navigating JOY in our household.

Please share this with ONE person who you know will take value in this. Someone who has teens or will soon have teens and wants to hear how we navigate these conversations.

Please share with us your thoughts, ideas and feedback!

We all learn from each other as PARENTING IS HARD!!!

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

Send us a text

Ahhhh, social media! The bane of my existence with my children! The 13 year old is pitching his reasons why he wants Instagram! We let his sister get Snapchat when she was 13 and if we could rewind, we would NOT have allowed that for at least a couple years later!

So now Hunter is trying to convince us why he wants IG. There are very clear reasons why as you will hear in this episode. Adding social media comes with a host of problems such as; more time spent on the screen, arguing about screen time, posting, strangers, fake crap, social pressures, and many more issues. As Mark and I navigate this discussion, we work on keeping it real and light with low reactivity. However you can tell at the end of the conversation, Hunter is not thrilled with the outcome. Since we did not receive clear reasons why we did not say "yes", he was not happy about it.

We even added some teen slang into the conversation to keep it fun and light.

Do you think there were some clear, good reasons as to why Hunter should get IG? Tell us why or why not and how have you navigated these conversations with your teens?

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond

Send us a text

This episode was recorded right before the holidays. I found an interesting article in the AARP magazine that talked about memory and steps on how to improve your memory. Even though AARP is for "old" people there were some great pieces of information about the distractions that notifications play in our lives. Every time our phones beep, we pick up the phone immediately and it derails our brain from the task we were focused on. It actually takes some time for use to refocus.

I have learned that coming to the table with data and research is much better than dictating something without any back ups. So instead of saying..."Your phone is not allowed to be with you during homework." I have learned that bringing in the research as to why phones should not be close when doing homework. That is why I shared this article. This brings in a conversation of multitasking and the impossibility of it even though we think we can do it. Do you think you can muli-task?

We then move to our screen time check. It is pretty funny to hear where we are all at what our goals are. If we do not check our screen time numbers than we do not know how much time we spend on our screens and it is actually very eye-opening. It is MUCH MORE than you expect!!

I challenge you to look at your screen time each week.

Our dinner dialogues are fun and make me laugh often.

Please share this episode with ONE person you know who will LOVE it and gain value. Our goal is to show others that all families can NAVIGATE JOY TOGETHER.

Drive-A-Logue link: https://drivealogue.com/?sca_ref=4141865.xLTkWKLvJW Put NJT in the coupon box for a 20% discount!

Lauren's Book, My Dad Died From ALS and How I Found Joy 30 Years Later
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2J15M3Z

CONNECT WITH LAUREN AND HER FAMILY

Email: lauren@dailyjoy.us
IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurensdailyjoy/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lauren.g.raymond