Speaker 1: Hi everyone.
Speaker 2: I'm Holly Robinson, pete actor, author, advocate, do it All mom,
Speaker 2: and I'm also a caregiver. And this is care Walks,
Speaker 2: a podcast from iHeartRadio and Voltaian Arthritis Pain Gel. It's
Speaker 2: a show for family caregivers who give everything to everyone
Speaker 2: and need to make time for.
Speaker 1: Themselves through movement.
Speaker 2: Every episode is designed for you to walk as you listen,
Speaker 2: So just think of me and my guests as your
Speaker 2: weekly walking buddies. We'll discover a community ourselves and maybe
Speaker 2: even alleviate some joint pain due to arthritis in the
Speaker 2: process as we walk together and connect to the best
Speaker 2: parts of being a caregiver. So glad you could join
Speaker 2: us for another episode of care Walks. You know what
Speaker 2: I love most about our time together. It makes me
Speaker 2: feel like we're building a community, a community of family caregivers.
Speaker 2: And with each walk we take together and each conversation
Speaker 2: we have, it makes me feel a little less alone.
Speaker 2: All right now, just a reminder. Right now you're listening
Speaker 2: to the full version of this episode, but if you
Speaker 2: don't have time for a full walk today, then go
Speaker 2: check out our bridged version of this same episode. It's
Speaker 2: like cliff notes for podcasts. Okay, In today's episode, we're
Speaker 2: going to be digging into the shifting dynamics when adult
Speaker 2: children become caregivers for their parents. Now, this is something
Speaker 2: I know a lot about, as I was a caregiver
Speaker 2: for many years for my dad, and I'm not going
Speaker 2: to lie, it's a very unsettling change to that relationship.
Speaker 2: We love our parents, but it can be really strange
Speaker 2: when all of a sudden, they're no longer the ones
Speaker 2: taking care of us, and we are the ones taking
Speaker 2: care of them. We're setting the rules, and we're the
Speaker 2: ones who are awake at night worried about how they're doing. Now,
Speaker 2: as a parent myself, I can see the other side
Speaker 2: of the coin how those changes in the relationship can
Speaker 2: also really be challenging for parents who need care. I
Speaker 2: am looking forward to speaking with today's guest on this topic.
Speaker 2: Not only is she an actor, advocate, and podcaster, but
Speaker 2: she is also a family caregiver who took care of
Speaker 2: her father when he suffered from a heart attack. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about my friend Jenny Garth. I've known Jenny for
Speaker 2: many years and I'm looking forward to connecting with her
Speaker 2: and comparing our experiences of caring for our parents. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's challenging, for sure, but there's also something really special
Speaker 2: about being a caregiver to a parent as their adult child.
Speaker 2: It gives you a whole new opportunity to get to
Speaker 2: know them, and I'm really interested to hear Jenny talk
Speaker 2: about how it may have shaped her life and relationship
Speaker 2: with her father in really positive ways. I also know
Speaker 2: that Jenny has struggled with joint pain, as so many
Speaker 2: of us caregivers do, so I'm going to ask her
Speaker 2: about her own relationship with movement and how she keeps
Speaker 2: active with osteoarthritis. Before we get to our conversation with Jenny,
Speaker 2: let's get moving and start our walk with intent, an
Speaker 2: intention of gratitude. We sometimes forget to express gratitude to
Speaker 2: even the simplest gifts in our lives. There's a lot
Speaker 2: to appreciate about where we are in this moment. Show
Speaker 2: gratitude for your body on this walk and all that
Speaker 2: is doing to keep you moving forward. Think about how
Speaker 2: the parts of your body must work in harmony for
Speaker 2: you to do the amazing things you do every day.
Speaker 2: It's not always easy, I know, but your body shows
Speaker 2: up for you. Use today as a reminder to share
Speaker 2: that strength, appreciate your movement, and consider how you can
Speaker 2: connect with someone who might need that little nudge to
Speaker 2: find that gratitude today too. We can only be as
Speaker 2: strong as the connections we make, whether that is sharing
Speaker 2: a beautiful memory or deepening your connection with yourself. Give
Speaker 2: thanks for the important connections in your life as you
Speaker 2: settle into the rhythm of your walk. I'm going to
Speaker 2: keep talking and share with you my conversation with our
Speaker 2: guests Jenny Garth, and together will widen our community of caregivers. Today,
Speaker 2: I have the pleasure of talking to not only a
Speaker 2: great friend of mine, but also a magnificent actress, fellow
Speaker 2: podcaster and caregiver, Jenny Garth. Like me, Jenny cared for
Speaker 2: her father for many years, and she has recently spoken
Speaker 2: out about living with osteoarthritis. Jenny, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for joining us. Hey, Holly, I'm so glad to see
Speaker 2: you too. This is an awesome way to have some
Speaker 2: girl time catch up.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: I just follow you on the Instagram. I see all
Speaker 3: your work. I saw the whales in Vancouver. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Oh well, I follow you as well, And that's social
Speaker 2: media use for good.
Speaker 1: It keeps us in contact with each other. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: This program is really designed to support caregivers. Share a
Speaker 2: little bit with us about your journey as a caregiver.
Speaker 3: Well, it started off really young. I was about thirty
Speaker 3: when my father suffered his first massive heart attack. We
Speaker 3: lived in Illinois on farm. Everything was perfect and idyllic,
Speaker 3: and my dad was, you know, this big strong man.
Speaker 3: All of a sudden he was, you know, incapacitated, and
Speaker 3: having a heart attack back then, all those years ago,
Speaker 3: was a lot different than having a heart attack now.
Speaker 3: So it was much more invasive and disruptive to life
Speaker 3: and so much harder to come back from. So that
Speaker 3: really changed my life as a young girl, uprooted our family.
Speaker 3: We had to move to Arizona for a drier climate
Speaker 3: for him, leave some siblings behind. It was really a
Speaker 3: pretty traumatic experience.
Speaker 1: Then.
Speaker 3: This was a few years later. My mom was having
Speaker 3: to work and continued to like do what she needed
Speaker 3: to do to keep the household going, and so I
Speaker 3: would fill in for her. And that was when I
Speaker 3: was already living out in la and acting. But I
Speaker 3: would take breaks so that I could go back and
Speaker 3: take care of my dad. I think what's so great
Speaker 3: about our conversations that we both had to be caregivers
Speaker 3: at a young age. My dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's
Speaker 3: disease when I was just eighteen, headed to college, so
Speaker 3: many new things in my life, and really considered just
Speaker 3: not going.
Speaker 2: To college so that I could take care of my dad.
Speaker 2: What do you think the biggest adjustment is that you
Speaker 2: had to make as a young caregiver.
Speaker 3: I mean just the sacrifice that you have to make
Speaker 3: to be there for someone on that level. It's if
Speaker 3: you know, it's an all encompassing sacrifice. So when you
Speaker 3: are actually taking care of someone like that, you're one
Speaker 3: hundred percent responsible for another grown, adult human being. It's
Speaker 3: not you know this when you have a baby and
Speaker 3: you kind of like ease your way into being a mother.
Speaker 3: This as a young girl was like, okay, wow, I'm
Speaker 3: going to jump in and do this the best I
Speaker 3: know how, And it was a lot I think that
Speaker 3: it had a lot of, you know, impact on just
Speaker 3: every aspect.
Speaker 1: Of my life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean becoming a caregiver for a parent. You mentioned,
Speaker 2: you know, when you have a baby, it's a different thing,
Speaker 2: You're completely different dynamic. But when you're when it's your dad.
Speaker 2: You know, what were the biggest shifts in your relationship
Speaker 2: with your dad when you became his caregiver.
Speaker 3: Well, the shifts had already, unfortunately started to happen as
Speaker 3: he went through his health problems associated with cardiovascular disease
Speaker 3: and all the things that came with that. He was
Speaker 3: my you know, this big, strong hero to me and
Speaker 3: there was nothing he couldn't do. And then when he
Speaker 3: got sick, that just changed and I saw him on
Speaker 3: such a vulnerable level, and it was so hard to
Speaker 3: watch your hero, your dad, decline like that. You know,
Speaker 3: a lot of it came from his own self doubt
Speaker 3: of his own self worth, how he felt as a
Speaker 3: man and as the provider for our family, and all
Speaker 3: of those shifts that happened, and then being dependent on
Speaker 3: other people was very, very difficult for him.
Speaker 1: So it made it.
Speaker 3: Kind of frictious sometimes when you know, he didn't want
Speaker 3: to be taken care of and somebody had to take
Speaker 3: care of him, had to help him up and down
Speaker 3: into the bathroom and to bathe and all the things
Speaker 3: that you have to do. From that point forward, as
Speaker 3: a young girl, something inside of you switches and you
Speaker 3: become uber responsible for you feel like everything.
Speaker 2: I would say that's the biggest dynamic that shift for
Speaker 2: me was just going from being just the daughter and
Speaker 2: looking up to my daddy, my big, strong daddy, and
Speaker 2: then now being responsible for his care and and like
Speaker 2: you said, you know, we just didn't have a lot
Speaker 2: of information back then about health and wellness, and we
Speaker 2: didn't have you know, Google, and we didn't have all.
Speaker 1: These search podcasts.
Speaker 2: We didn't have podcasts. We didn't have anybody to talk
Speaker 2: to about this. We just we just white knuckled it, right,
Speaker 2: We just you just pushed through. And I will say
Speaker 2: that one of the best things about being a caregiver
Speaker 2: was going through sort of this evolution of emotions about
Speaker 2: my dad. And we had an interesting relationship like many
Speaker 2: people do with their fathers many daughters. But there were
Speaker 2: a lot of things that we hadn't said to each
Speaker 2: other and dealt with my dad a lot of baggage,
Speaker 2: and so I found that we had opportunity to have
Speaker 2: a lot of talks because we spent time together. Did
Speaker 2: you find it hard to set boundaries as a caregiver
Speaker 2: and connect, you know, you want to try to be
Speaker 2: there and talk and connect with your dad but you also,
Speaker 2: you know, you're sort of in charge. That was an
Speaker 2: interesting dynamic for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's weird to be in charge of your parent
Speaker 3: and they don't like it either, so it makes us
Speaker 3: super challenging. When I would go and take care of
Speaker 3: my dad on my own, it was just me and him,
Speaker 3: and we're both very very quiet people, like we are
Speaker 3: the kind of people that don't need to talk just
Speaker 3: for the sake of talking. Our energy is enough for
Speaker 3: each other, and we would just go on drives a
Speaker 3: lot and be in silence and just really enjoy that connection,
Speaker 3: that unsaid bond that we had, which was something that
Speaker 3: I miss because there aren't a lot of people in
Speaker 3: the world that I can just hang out with and
Speaker 3: not talk to special. Yeah, so we got to spend
Speaker 3: a lot of really quality time together, and jeez, I'm
Speaker 3: so grateful for that.
Speaker 2: You know, like many caregivers, did you go through like
Speaker 2: an evolution of emotions throughout your experience as a caregiver
Speaker 2: and what or who were the strongest support systems for
Speaker 2: you and your family?
Speaker 3: For me, back then, with my dad, I had my
Speaker 3: mom to talk to. I have my siblings. Now with
Speaker 3: my mom, I have my siblings to talk to about it,
Speaker 3: to sort of share stories and the ups and downs
Speaker 3: of it and the frustrations of it. And I feel
Speaker 3: like that's so important to have somebody or more than
Speaker 3: one person that you can just talk to and kind
Speaker 3: of vent with yes and let go of all that
Speaker 3: responsibility for a minute, know how valuable you are, and
Speaker 3: pat yourself on the back, Like give yourself that accolades,
Speaker 3: give yourself that acknowledgment of how much you're doing, how
Speaker 3: much is on your plate. They always say, when the
Speaker 3: oxygen mask comes out of the ceiling on the airplane,
Speaker 3: put it on yourself first, and then put it on
Speaker 3: someone else because of you. If you don't take care
Speaker 3: of yourself like we've talked about, you really aren't going
Speaker 3: to be able to take care of anyone else. That
Speaker 3: burnout is so real, and if you don't address it,
Speaker 3: I feel like it's just a disaster waiting to happen
Speaker 3: because you can't handle it all on your own.
Speaker 2: It's so so true. How was watching your father's health challenges?
Speaker 2: How did that change how you think about your own physical.
Speaker 3: Health seeing him struggle? It didn't really affect me at
Speaker 3: that young age, but when I did turn thirty, I
Speaker 3: started taking things much more seriously because that was my
Speaker 3: dad was thirty seven when he had his first massive
Speaker 3: heart attack, and so I was like, I'm gonna get
Speaker 3: ahead of this. I'm thirty, I'm ahead of him by
Speaker 3: seven years. I'm really gonna like look into it. So
Speaker 3: I started to really dial in on my own healthcare
Speaker 3: and like being my own advocate. And I felt like
Speaker 3: I was ahead of the curve at the time, you know,
Speaker 3: like being thirty, because oftentimes you wait too long until
Speaker 3: you've already got a problem, or you're starting to feel,
Speaker 3: you know, ill, or you notice something's not right. It's imperative,
Speaker 3: in my opinion, to take the bull by the horns
Speaker 3: and get in there and take care of yourself before
Speaker 3: something goes wrong.
Speaker 1: Isn't that interesting?
Speaker 2: I did the same thing, Jenny, when my dad he
Speaker 2: was diagnosed with Parkinson's at a very young age, young
Speaker 2: on set Parkinson's and in his forties. And when I
Speaker 2: turned the age that my dad was when he was diagnosed,
Speaker 2: which was around forty six forty seven, I was watching
Speaker 2: for tremors. I was I went to a neurologist and I,
Speaker 2: you know, I said, is there anything I can do
Speaker 2: to get ahead of this, and and they were like, relax, Holly,
Speaker 2: you know you can't. That's not the way this goes.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 2: You know, definitely take care of yourself. But but isn't
Speaker 2: that interesting when you when you're the age that your
Speaker 2: your parent was when they got a diagnosis or or
Speaker 2: a health crisis happened, how you you sort of go
Speaker 2: inward and go okay, and let me start looking at
Speaker 2: my own health and wellness.
Speaker 3: And maybe maybe that's, you know, a gift, that's one
Speaker 3: of the gifts of it is that if this hadn't
Speaker 3: happened with my dad, I wouldn't have been so conscious
Speaker 3: of my health and been so proactive in it, and
Speaker 3: I could be in the same boat that he was,
Speaker 3: you know, who knows. And that continues as you get
Speaker 3: older because you just you want to stay healthy for
Speaker 3: as long as you can. I just started to eat
Speaker 3: much more healthy. I've always been a healthy eater, always
Speaker 3: been vegetarian. And also knowing your family history, like researching
Speaker 3: your actual lineage and your biological parents and their parents
Speaker 3: and how what is passed down in a generation after
Speaker 3: generation of your family, because some families are more prone
Speaker 3: to cardiovascular disease. Some families are more prone to cancer
Speaker 3: and you can kind of see the pattern before it
Speaker 3: becomes a problem. And then from your family knowledge, going
Speaker 3: to the doctor and getting baseline of your own health
Speaker 3: like what is your blood pressure, what is your cholesterol,
Speaker 3: what is your BMI, and talking to your doctor and
Speaker 3: forming a relationship with them, letting them know like, these
Speaker 3: are my genetic my family predispositions to an illness, and
Speaker 3: these are the things I like to keep an eye
Speaker 3: on and be really targeted at looking at.
Speaker 2: Yeah, being really proactive with your own health is so key.
Speaker 2: And again, we went through caregiving situations with our dads
Speaker 2: pre Internet, pre Google.
Speaker 1: So we we're the real MVPs. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm claiming that. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: More from my conversation with Jenny Garth. After a brief
Speaker 2: commercial break, and now back to my conversation with Jenny Garth.
Speaker 2: I want to talk a little bit about joint pain.
Speaker 2: You recently shared that you are dealing with osteo arthritis
Speaker 2: and I would love to know what did the road
Speaker 2: to your OA diagnosis look like.
Speaker 1: Well, it was full of denial.
Speaker 3: Let's start with that, because who wants to say, oh,
Speaker 3: I have joined pain. I feel like I might have arthritis.
Speaker 3: Like for me, that was like something that old people
Speaker 3: had to deal with, and I was just not ready
Speaker 3: to cross that bridge or just acknowledge it. And the
Speaker 3: fact is, it's not an old people's disease quote unquote.
Speaker 3: You can have osteoarthritis or forms of arthritis. You can
Speaker 3: have joint pain at any age, and it's just specific
Speaker 3: to who you are, your genetic makeup, and what your
Speaker 3: lifestyle is like and the foods that you're eating, so
Speaker 3: it all contributes to it. But for me, I've always
Speaker 3: had bad hips. Like it's a family thing, like both
Speaker 3: my parents had hip replacements, and I knew it was coming.
Speaker 3: I don't even think I've ever shared this with anyone,
Speaker 3: but in two thousand and twenty, right after the hospitals
Speaker 3: open back up, I underwent a hip replacement because I thought,
Speaker 3: I'm young, I want to I know this is coming.
Speaker 3: I'm having a lot of discomfort and my quality of
Speaker 3: life is diminishing. I couldn't hike with my dogs, I
Speaker 3: couldn't play golf, I couldn't sit comfortably all the things.
Speaker 3: And so I got ahead of that and did the
Speaker 3: hip replace and recovered beautifully. I was like up and
Speaker 3: going almost instantly. Wow, Yeah, that was it. I was
Speaker 3: only forty six five seven eight something like.
Speaker 1: That, right, right.
Speaker 3: But it was interesting because from that I felt like
Speaker 3: I was a little bit even more in touch with
Speaker 3: my body, especially my joints, because that major hip join
Speaker 3: is a big deal.
Speaker 1: And I had felt like.
Speaker 3: The stiffening of my knees a little and you know,
Speaker 3: when you wake up, your hands are kind of sore
Speaker 3: when you bend them around, and you know, you're like, wait,
Speaker 3: what is this feeling? Like, what is why am I hurting?
Speaker 3: You know all the time. So just listening to my
Speaker 3: body and listening to how my body healed from the
Speaker 3: hip replacement and how my body sort of compensated for
Speaker 3: the redistribution of weight during all of that, it had
Speaker 3: a major impact on the rest of my body. So
Speaker 3: it was during that time that I started to notice
Speaker 3: that the signs of arthritis were coming.
Speaker 2: You mentioned products that you users are anything that you're
Speaker 2: doing or products that you're using specifically that have really
Speaker 2: help with your OA joint pain.
Speaker 3: Well, there's over the counter voltairean arthritis pain gel is
Speaker 3: something that you can rub on and get relief with that.
Speaker 3: I use it, My siblings all use it, and then
Speaker 3: people come out of the woodwork like, oh Voltaire And
Speaker 3: I use Voltairean too, because it's like it really does help.
Speaker 3: Because there's nothing that they can do at this point
Speaker 3: to cure arthritis. I don't believe, or to make it
Speaker 3: completely go away, so treating it at this juncture is
Speaker 3: what we can do.
Speaker 1: My daughter.
Speaker 3: I still have my almost sixteen year old at home
Speaker 3: with me, and so I'm continuing to drive her around
Speaker 3: Los Angeles like an uber driver constantly, which is hard,
Speaker 3: like driving and sitting in it like that physician in
Speaker 3: traffic for hours upon hours.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's you can get stiff.
Speaker 3: So getting up and getting out of the car and
Speaker 3: moving around is really important because driving is one of
Speaker 3: the hardest things on me.
Speaker 1: Yes, I have five dogs.
Speaker 3: I'm constantly bending and lifting and taking care of them
Speaker 3: and playing, and you know, I just want to stay
Speaker 3: really active. And also, Holly, oh my god, I'm so
Speaker 3: excited that I'm going to be a grandma someday.
Speaker 1: Not yet. Wait, I thought you were going to break
Speaker 1: some news to me.
Speaker 2: I wasn't ready.
Speaker 1: H No, no, no, I'm not ready either.
Speaker 3: But I'm really looking forward to that, and I want
Speaker 3: to be super like active, and I want to stay like,
Speaker 3: you know, tip top shape, not just for me and
Speaker 3: my dogs anymore, my husband, but for my grandkids someday.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I mean I'm fifty seven now and a lot of
Speaker 2: my friends are becoming grandparents and and I'm like, wait, what,
Speaker 2: You're the same age as me, How is that possible?
Speaker 2: But then you know, I'm like, I got twenty my
Speaker 2: twins are twenty four, Jenny, I'm like, it's going to
Speaker 2: happen at some point.
Speaker 1: So I'm very.
Speaker 2: Much like you in that I want to stay active.
Speaker 2: I want to stay healthy.
Speaker 1: I want to.
Speaker 3: Stay moving, realizing the importance of exercise and movement the
Speaker 3: whole package, the whole like physical, mental, emotional, all the
Speaker 3: well beings that go on with a person, like all
Speaker 3: the parts of me that I need to keep well,
Speaker 3: that's my goal.
Speaker 2: You got your daughter still home and still there, And
Speaker 2: does she ever work out with you or move with
Speaker 2: you or hike with you or is it just you
Speaker 2: and the dogs? She just wants to ride to a party.
Speaker 1: Pretty much?
Speaker 2: That one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, unless it's like a TikTok dance that she's
Speaker 3: trying to get me to do no. But my older daughter,
Speaker 3: I have a twenty five year old and a nineteen
Speaker 3: year old. They're both in New York right now, so
Speaker 3: I go visit them and we walk like so much.
Speaker 3: There's a funny story when when I was visiting my
Speaker 3: daughter's one time, I was experiencing some hormonal flux. Let's
Speaker 3: just say this was not that long ago.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling you, uh huh.
Speaker 3: And it was a hot, sweaty day and they wanted
Speaker 3: to go on a city bike ride. So I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's do it. They've got our city bikes. And all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, I don't know how it happened. We
Speaker 3: were in Brooklyn. They had me ride the bike over
Speaker 3: the bridge, over the whole and I was just drenched,
Speaker 3: had to toe like dripping sweat, and they were laughing
Speaker 3: so hard, and I was like, I'm good, keep going,
Speaker 3: We're fine, like not going to acknowledge the fact that
Speaker 3: I was like, oh what, yeah, Oh my gosh. They
Speaker 3: come home like, so I go there. I'm very active
Speaker 3: with them. And then they come back here and we're
Speaker 3: just like, let's go to the beach, let's fly a kite.
Speaker 1: Let's go on a hike. Let's do this. So yeah,
Speaker 1: very I love going. We're good at that.
Speaker 2: My daughter just has been living in Brooklyn for a
Speaker 2: while now, and I drive a that bridge and have
Speaker 2: never attempted to ride a bike over it. So you
Speaker 2: get major props then now I won't, but you get
Speaker 2: major props for me.
Speaker 1: I think that's pretty amazing this one.
Speaker 2: I want to know, though, Jenny, what are some of
Speaker 2: your favorite self care practices? What just makes you feel
Speaker 2: like you love yourself?
Speaker 3: Being outside, being in nature, Like you know, just putting
Speaker 3: down the work and going outside and having some good
Speaker 3: fresh air is one of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 3: I've also become addicted to my bathtub.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm so.
Speaker 3: I'm very conscious of the environment. So I will never
Speaker 3: fill my bathup like I like a quarter tub full
Speaker 3: of water. I will punish myself and only have like
Speaker 3: parts of myself in the hot water.
Speaker 1: Because I don't want to.
Speaker 3: I feel like it's so excessive to like fill a
Speaker 3: giant tub of water.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, no, no, don't wait. Can I just
Speaker 2: have a my mom fashion moment? This is the one
Speaker 2: thing about me that I am the opposite. It's not even.
Speaker 2: I'm not even. It's just I'm so forgetful that I
Speaker 2: leave the water running. And anytime my family knows that
Speaker 2: I'm drawing a bath, they all stand in the bathroom
Speaker 2: because I'll go off and do nineteen other things. And
Speaker 2: whether it's just a couple drops of oil or turning
Speaker 2: off the lights, lighting a candle, I think that's a
Speaker 2: really good moment of self.
Speaker 1: Care, doesn't require a whole lot of other stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am. I'm a meditator too. I love to
Speaker 3: sit quietly. It sort of grounds me back to my
Speaker 3: true nature of just being quiet. I will light some
Speaker 3: incense before I go to bed. And also, you know,
Speaker 3: it's so easy to watch the news before you go
Speaker 3: to sleep or watch something on TV before you go
Speaker 3: to sleep, But I try to remember to turn the
Speaker 3: TV off and just be in like silence and let
Speaker 3: my body sort of calm down the way it's rhythmically
Speaker 3: supposed to and have a good night's sleep. So sleep
Speaker 3: is the most important thing.
Speaker 2: And just getting back to what we were talking about
Speaker 2: with caregiving for our moms, eventually, what do you think
Speaker 2: you would do differently when and if you're in that position?
Speaker 3: M I mean, I would somewhat know what I'm doing,
Speaker 3: somewhat know how to keep another person alive like that.
Speaker 3: That was, like you said before, I was just winging
Speaker 3: it when I was younger. But now all the experience
Speaker 3: of being a mom and I will be much better
Speaker 3: at it and also more patient just a little bit.
Speaker 3: I'm more grounded now as a person. And you know,
Speaker 3: every decade represents something wonderful and new, and I've just
Speaker 3: turned fifty and I'm really excited to see what that
Speaker 3: brings like for me as far as like how it
Speaker 3: changes me. But I think I'm just less reactive now,
Speaker 3: more patient, more able to set aside my own whatever
Speaker 3: and just focus on someone else and their well being.
Speaker 3: And then I'm also able to sort of categorize things
Speaker 3: a little bit better now and say, this is my
Speaker 3: block of time that I'm going to be, you know,
Speaker 3: really focusing on taking care of my mom or my
Speaker 3: kids or whatever it is, and then I'm going to
Speaker 3: carve out half an hour and for a bath for myself,
Speaker 3: you know, Like there's I'm going to be able to
Speaker 3: take care of everybody a little bit better, including myself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I would throw in that there, ask for help,
Speaker 2: ask for help, ask for help, do it all. You
Speaker 2: can't do it all, and then you don't want to
Speaker 2: look up ten years later.
Speaker 1: Build your schedule.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I have, Like a thing that I learned
Speaker 3: from a therapist was a seven day week, Like look
Speaker 3: at your month in seven day increments and make sure
Speaker 3: you're feeling like if your life is a pie chart, right,
Speaker 3: and here's the part where you're taking care of someone else.
Speaker 3: Here's your work, here's your roman life, here's your social life,
Speaker 3: here's your self care life. Make sure your pie is
Speaker 3: really as balanced as you can. When you're divvying up
Speaker 3: your time and your energy. It's really important to have
Speaker 3: that balance as much as you can.
Speaker 2: It is so important. And Jenny, I really appreciate this conversation.
Speaker 2: It's been so awesome talking to you. I feel like
Speaker 2: we see each other and we've worked together, we've done things,
Speaker 2: we see each other in passing. But this is like
Speaker 2: the longest conversation we've ever had and it's the best one.
Speaker 2: And I hope that everyone listening, well we'll take something
Speaker 2: from this. And I really appreciate you joining me for
Speaker 2: care walk, So thank you. Jenny Garth, happy, so happy
Speaker 2: to do it. Great to see you you too. I
Speaker 2: want to thank Jenny Garth again for being my guest today.
Speaker 1: Really enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2: We talked about the parent child dynamic, how she saw
Speaker 2: her dad as such a strong figure as a child,
Speaker 2: the importance of balance in your life when you're a caregiver,
Speaker 2: and some of Jenny's favorite self care practices.
Speaker 1: She loves her baths, so.
Speaker 2: Do I, meditation and being in nature. Well that's it
Speaker 2: for today's episode. Thanks again to Jenny for joining me.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to tune in next week when we talk
Speaker 2: all about nutrition and joint pain with doctor Monica agerwach
Speaker 2: Care Walks is produced by iHeartRadio in partnership with voltairean
Speaker 2: Arthritis Pain Gel and hosted by me Holly Robinson Pete.
Speaker 2: Our executive producer is Molly Sosha. Our head engineer is
Speaker 2: Matt Stillough. This episode was written and produced by Sierra Kaiser,
Speaker 2: with special thanks to our partners at GSK Platform, GSK, Weber,
Speaker 2: Shandwick and Edelman.