Author, Becky Livingston, joins us to share about her journey through grief.  Becky was born and raised in England and immigrated to Vancouver, BC to work as an elementary school teacher.  Her work has appeared in Modern Loss, Hope Café and the anthology, Always with You: Parent Talk About the Death of a Child.  She currently lives in centralf BC, close to her daughter and granddaughter, and continues to live the minimalist lifestyle she learned while traveling.

In this week’s exchange, we discuss how being ‘too busy’ is becoming an epidemic in our society today. Do you have enough time in the day for all those things on your to-do list? Do you find yourself answering the greeting “How are you?” with the word “Busy!” However, we all make time for the things we decide are important. So what’s on your important list? Netflix / TV binges? Social media? Relationships? Your health and well-being?

Is it worth it?

This week, our discussion is about connecting and building community with special guest, Alison Caldwell Johnson.  Community and communicating are Alison’s favourites.  She’s been building the first by practicing the second for more than 20 years through her work in the non-profit sector and life in the ‘she-likes-people-sector’.  She especially likes getting clear on the point – the point of an organization, a blog post, a meeting and sometimes just the next task ahead.

This week, we talk "Adulting" with Jill Sadler.  Jill is the founder of Parosol, a company that helps adults of all ages get their adulting (also known as estate planning) DONE.  Jill helps adults END procrastination and avoidance and replace it with peace of mind and confidence knowing that they have a comprehensive estate plan that leaves nothing out.  She has a Masters degree in Business plus two additional college diplomas, and her designation as a Certified Executor Advisor.

We welcome Emily Magone to the podcast to tell us about discovering how she could take her passion for painting and making it her career. Emily is a self-taught nature artist from Northwest Montana, currently in San Antonio, Texas. She explores the world seeking epic natural beauty without human interruption and brings the healing power of that beauty into her work.

Jenn Kosh is back and this time she is teaching us how to use the moon’s phases to intentionally change our stories and our lives. As an intuitive astrologer, teacher, life coach, writer and speaker, Jenn has been creating the space for people to achieve significant personal transformation, helping them find clarity, insight and direction into their unique life plan, including all the different types of love relationships they came here to experience – in all areas of their life.

Ryan Neale is a regular teenage boy who just graduated middle school and is heading to high school in the fall.  He enjoys playing basketball, guitar, and hanging out with his friends.  In his final year of middle school, Ryan battled depression and feeling isolated and alone, but decided to reach out to his peers for connection.

Ryan wrote a graduation speech about this, and, while his speech was not the one chosen for his commencement ceremony, he is sharing it here on Epic Exchanges.

Legacy is defined as “a gift of property, as money, by will: a bequest.  Anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.”

We all will leave a legacy of some kind.  Good or bad. And it ultimately is our choice what that legacy becomes. What do you want your legacy to be? 

Start creating it today.

This week, Paula Toledo joins us to share her creativity in dealing with grief around her husband’s death to suicide. We discuss the importance of being authentic and finding your voice and your own ways to express whatever it is that you are going through or have faced throughout your life.

Paula describes herself as a creativepreneur and story healer. She is a published writer, singer/songwriter, and recent presenter at TEDx Laval.

Each of us is the hero of our own constantly-unfolding tale – one that nobody else can write. However, too many of us leave these stories untold. When we deny ourselves the opportunity of sharing, we actually can CREATE illness. But the ultimate power that comes with telling and sharing your story is that this act has the amazing potential to heal.