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Can+Did, a TN Voices Podcast
Can+Did, a TN Voices Podcast
Lauren Lowrey
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You have heard Lauren Lowrey anchoring the local news in Nashville, but you haven't heard her like this! Lauren gets candid and opens up about her struggle, her passions, and a stirring in her during 2020 that made her take on an additional role as a podcast pro! She also shares her personal spin on self-care and offers some ideas for the listener.
Handed is a podcast of Tennessee Voices about mental health, featuring stories of people who have overcome mental health challenges, as well as those who have helped people overcome mental health challenges. This podcast is about authenticity, and it's intended to give a voice to those who are passionate about mental well-being. We hope that by sharing stories, listeners understand mental health and just how important it is in our day-to-day lives, and they will help us reduce stigma. We want you to know that so many who have struggled with mental health can and did overcome their challenges. And if you are struggling, you can too. I'm your host, Ricky Harris, CEO of Tennessee Voices, and with me is my favorite co-host, Will Voss, COO of Tennessee Voices. Welcome to our podcast. Let's get candid.
SPEAKER_00Thank you to our candid sponsors who made this episode possible. The OmniFamily of Services is a multi-state human services agency serving adults and children. Through a trauma-competent lens, they provide a continuum of care, including foster care, family preservation, behavioral health, and primary care services, focused on helping kids, families, and the communities they live in strong and healthy. To learn more about the Omni family of services, or to contact an office near you, there's a link provided in this podcast description, along with the contact email if you or your business would like to sponsor an episode of Can Did.
SPEAKER_03All right, you guys, I think we're rolling. Thank you so much, Lauren, for agreeing to be on our podcast. It's uh it's been a crazy couple of years, and you've got a lot of cool stuff going on that we want to hear about. But first, a quick introduction. I'm Ricky Harris, CEO of Tennessee Voices, your host of the Candid podcast, and my co-host. I'll let him introduce himself.
SPEAKER_02I'm Will Volks, COO here at Tennessee Voices. Good morning and welcome, Lauren.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Thank you. Good morning to you guys, too. We're super excited. I want to introduce our guest, Lauren Lowry. I don't think you need much of an introduction. Our listeners have probably seen you on TV as much as I have, but my favorite thing you've ever done is help us with our virtual gala last year. Because let me tell you, that was a heavy lift.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That was a heavy lift to do to go and try to get virtual attendance to something that was for us at Tennessee Voices, typically an annual in-person fun gathering. We were really nervous. And here's what happened. It turned out to be our best, our highest yielding revenue from a gala so far. I love that. And how many people came up to me and said, Lauren was great. And then the next thing they said, which I thought was an incredible compliment. Are y'all related? Y'all. How was I?
SPEAKER_04And did you say she's one foot shorter than me? No.
SPEAKER_03Oh, it was awesome. It was awesome. But you know what? Uh, you've done a whole lot more than our gala. A whole lot more.
SPEAKER_04No, it's an honor to be involved with what you're doing. I think the work that you're doing is so amazing. So I I'm appreciative that I could be, you know, just even aligned a little bit in the work that you're doing in this state. So thank you.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Well appreciate that. We it would be I'd be remiss if we didn't say you're an Emmy Award-winning news anchor. That's that's a huge honor. Yes, it is. Wow. And you've recently started some new stuff. So we want to dive into all of that. Uh, quick intro to topic that I've really been talking about a lot that I think is synergetic with what you're talking about is purpose. So um maybe we just start with Amsterdator. Why don't you tell us what's going on with that and why?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Oh my gosh, it's a huge, hugely long story. And I'll just tell you up front. Like I can make things go really, really long. So I'll try to make it brief. And if there's a string you want to pull, then you just pull whatever string you want. Um, Amstergator is a video podcast that I launched in February. Uh, on the day that we're recording this, I have just launched episode one of season two. So I have a new episode that just went live this morning. It's what I've been working on for several weeks to get it going. But Ampstigator is the marriage of two words, amplify and instigator. I did something similar to what you guys did. I did a double meaning here with uh two different words. But it's basically when you amplify something, you bring intensity to it. An instigator is someone who brings about something. So in my mind, it's someone who brings about change. So when you have an intense person bringing about change, then you get all sorts of amazing things that come out of it. My goal is to bring purpose from that. So Ampstigator is this way, it's a project. I look at it. I say this is a project. The podcast is the first part of that project. The next part will be live events where we get people together and really start talking about how to live with purpose. Um, but it was really born out of my own personal struggle to find meaning. Um, you know, it's so easy to look at people who've achieved a lot of things or who are living this life that you think looks just so great or so glamorous. It's easy for us to say, oh, well, they've got it figured out. Like clearly, this attorney who's been doing this for 20 years clearly is living on purpose, or that um aerospace engineer, clearly they're living on purpose because they're so highly specialized. Um, more often than not, the answer is no, they're not, you know, and so I had to for myself de-shame this idea that even though I had achieved all these things, even though I have three beautiful children and a loving husband and I'm healthy and all these things, I had to de-shame this idea that that gosh, I wasn't happy. And I kept saying, Is this it? And I knew that made me sound ungrateful, but I knew I also had to start reaching deep inside to find the real answers. Like, what is gonna bring me fulfillment? What is really gonna make me happy? And one of the things that came out of that for me is what do I love more than anything in this world? It's having deep, one-on-one conversations with people to understand them, to feel them, to drive them even deeper in their understanding and their awareness of themselves. And that was the birthplace for Amsterdator, which is a long-form uh video podcast where I sit one-on-one with people and just talk with them and again drive their awareness deeper. And all of this, all of the questions center around the points in their lives where um things were not great, how they overcame and how they found purpose. Because I've found that purpose often emerges from pain. It often emerges from something that was negative. So it's it's in the act of overcoming. It's in the act of overcoming and reclaiming what is already ours that we find purpose.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'll tell you that that is it's phenomenal. And I was recently reading an article over the past couple of weeks. It was talking about the great resignation. We've heard so much about, and there was a different spin from this particular writer. And they talked about how it isn't that employees aren't happy with their employer. It's that during the pandemic, they've had time to really focus on well, what do I want my purpose to be? It sounds like this podcast is definitely in line with that. Uh individuals, we we've taken this time, we we had to isolate, we couldn't be around anyone else. And all we could do was sit there and think, and of course, watch a lot of good Netflix during that time. But uh many people are are have found their purpose during that time, and a lot are recognizing now is the time to start. Let it not be too late before I get there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, I completely agree. And and it was the case for me too. And even during lockdown, I was pregnant with my third child. He was born in August of 2020. And so I had this really uh beautiful time. Obviously, COVID was not a beautiful thing for everybody. For me, it resulted in a beautiful time of self-exploration and excavation of what do I want to do? Who do I really want to be? And, you know, I realized I was tired of talking about people making a difference when I myself was not making a difference. You know, I was just talking, I'm putting on makeup, I'm reading out loud to people. What difference does that make? Now I've had some people say, oh, come on, Lauren, you're selling yourself short, you're, you know, you're informing the public, you're doing all this stuff. And and I and I have to, yes, thank you. Thank you for the acknowledgement. But at the same time, it's like, but really though, what difference does that make? If I'm not there, someone else is sitting there and reading those words. It doesn't have to be me. So what is it that I was put on this earth and uniquely positioned with the with the gifts I was given, with the talents I'm given, with the experience I have? What am I going to do that makes a difference that only I can do? You know, and so that's what I was really trying to find during the pandemic. And and I and I think a lot of people did do that because the calendars got cleared and you had nothing else to do but sit with yourself. You know, I mean, what gosh, what do I have to bring? What am I doing here? Does this make a difference? Is this what I really want to do? Like we've never had a point in our whole existence, I feel like, that where we had to really go back and think through what it is. You know, it's like when you got in trouble, your mom says, Go think about what you've done, you know, like that's what COVID was. Think about what you've done. And I wasn't happy with it, you know? And so I said, How can I use my platform? You know, how can I use these skills that I have to make a difference? And I believe by making purpose accessible for people, that makes a difference. Because so many people think purpose is like this high out, far out there, you know, high grade thing that they'll never be able to accomplish when it's completely the opposite. It's already in you. All you gotta do is uncover it, you know? And so that's the message I'm trying to bring.
SPEAKER_03That that's this is such a timely conversation because this is exactly where I am as a leader leading the people who work at Tennessee Voices. We have these weekly videos or or sometimes written content that we send out. I I start on Monday, it's called our Monday motivation. Will wraps it up at the end of the week with what's called his weekend wishes. Both are designed to like create communication, obviously, with all of the staff because we're spread all over the state. But the other purpose of the design for this communication is to really help move intrinsically, move people toward being connected to their purpose and being connected to themselves. Obviously, we're thinking about reducing burnout because of the high-level work that they do and the stuff they hear, right? But one of the things that I felt really led to start moving in a direction was to help them reconnect to their purpose because I really think 2020 and 21 might have stolen some of that from us in a way where we um we got flooded with anxiety or flooded with fear or flooded with all these things that um disconnected us in some ways. So we've been talking about intrinsic motivators and and well, extrinsic motivators, which is all the stuff I can do as a leader to make them happy with their their work culture and their employment benefits and all that stuff. But what's the intrinsic stuff that keeps you going? And and we really drilled down through self-care. We did a lot of self-care work and understanding yourself both mentally, physically, spiritually, socially, what are your needs? And then we got all the way down to purpose. And we start, I've started sharing these conversations and people are talking back to me and they're saying, like, wow, I hadn't thought about that in a long time. I've been in this field for 25 years or whatever. And it was a little bit scary for me at first. I was like, oh no, what if I'm what if I help somebody discover that they don't want to be here? Well, that's good. No, no, no, no, no. That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_04That's a good thing. I I say that to people all the time. Like, I mean, in every in every video, I'm like, what can I do to get you closer to what you need to be doing? And if it's not with me, how do I help you get there? Because I just feel like there's I just feel like there's gotta be a blessing there. You know, if I'm a doorway for someone, no matter what, you know. So you're being a doorway. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Getting someone to where they need to be, that's not bad.
SPEAKER_03No, no, it's just uh it was a little bit scary after I, you know, actually had that first conversation. I sat with myself as a leader, as a CEO, who's desperate to find staff, by the way. Desperate for the workforce to improve because we don't have enough people to even hire out there. And I was like, oh no, what if this has the opposite effect that I think it's gonna have, which is reconnecting to your work and all that kind of stuff. It's like, okay, well, it that is what it is, obviously. Um but you know, one of the aspects that we talk about as a human being, and we talk about this at Tennessee Voices a lot, is understanding yourself spiritually. And for everybody that that's different, obviously unique. It should be. That's how that's how it's supposed to be. Um how does this purpose piece connect for you spiritually?
SPEAKER_04I'm so glad you asked that because I um, you know, it kind of goes back to my own personal journey of like I grew up in a very, very religious household, like to the point that when I left and went to college at 18, I'm like, I'm never going to church again. And I, you know, like, and I didn't, you know, I didn't. And um, you know, fast forward to I'm 37 now, so fast forward to being 35 and 2020, being pregnant and and starting to feel different, certainly by 36. I was just like, I was really deep in this by January of 36, um, excuse me, January of 2021, when I was turned 36. I was like, I started to realize that you can't disconnect um spirituality from a real understanding of who you are. And I and I had always disconnected that, you know, I because I I I wanted to discount it for a long time. And then I began to realize reaching deep inside yourself does become a spiritual exercise because there is, and and I think that the linchpin, the word that brings it all together is listening, listening. You know, you have to understand and cultivate this ability to listen inside. The answers are there. I I believe that is a spiritual practice. So I had one of my guests on the podcast for the first season. Um, she works in this space, like in corporations, where she starts um helping people bridge from physical to spiritual. And I was like, girl, how do you bring that into corporate? Like, how do you how do you do that? She's like, um, well-being. And I said, Well-being is spiritual. She's like, Absolutely. You start people, you start them by connecting to their bodies, asking them when they feel when when they have an emotion, where do you feel that? Where, you know, do I feel it in my heart? Do I feel it in my throat? Do I feel it in my stomach? She's like, by constantly connecting people with felt sensations in their body, then you start to uh uh cultivate this awareness of things that are going on beyond what's going on in your mind. You know, like in our culture, we give mind so much power. We give it all the power when really it's just one piece. You're not a body without a mind. You're also not a body without a heart, you're not a body. There's things that you have to have. So we have to stop allowing the mind to always be in control and start to hand over some of that control to this deeper awareness. And I think it's a spiritual awareness.
SPEAKER_01We'll be right back after this short break. TN Voices is now hiring qualified applicants to fill positions all across the state. You can be part of a growing team that puts the mental health of Tennesseans first and thrive in a compassionate work environment. To apply to join our team, log on to tnvoices.org slash employment.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back. All I can think about were so many books that connect body and mind. There's one called The Body Keeps the Score, which really talks about how trauma plays out in your body, but we don't give it the attention. And yeah, anybody who has experience in therapy or addressing anything in therapy, if you worked with a therapist who practices these um theories, then you you understand they'll ask you those questions in therapy. As you talk about this, what are you feeling in your body? But it has changed. My my leadership coach used to ask me that. And I was cool with connecting like in a therapy session, talking about your feelings and what you're feeling in your body, like that made sense. But then you're talking to me about as a leadership coach, about decisions and things that I need to do or intuitions, or and you're asking me, and I'm I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_04Right, right. But then, but you know what? I think there's a movement toward holistic everything, right? Holistic health, holistic mental wellness. I mean, everything, everything is connected. And I think we, you know, as a as a group of people, as a society that that clings so tightly to research. Um, I think the research is only just beginning to scratch the surface of how interconnected things are, you know, how interconnected our body is with our emotions. I mean, we know that with food too. Everything you put in your body, the air we breathe, the things we drink, I mean, everything affects other things. And I, and I think we would be naive to think that our thoughts aren't the same way, or our leadership isn't the same way. Like it's all connected somewhere. And I I want to ask you guys this because this actually became a major theme for season two of Amsterdator is the felt sensations. Um, and and uh, you know, for me personally, I'll start. For me personally, I feel everything in my stomach. Everything, everything, everything. Good, bad, like bypass the head, bypass the heart. I only feel it in my stomach. And so I asked a lot of my guests about that, about, you know, well, where do you feel that? The woman that the again, the episode that went live this morning, it's a woman named Amy Porterfield. She's an internationally known uh digital marketing expert. Okay, she's got hundreds of thousands of followers all over the world. And she told me she said, everything I feel is in my chest, everything is here. It's uh she's like, every now and then it's in my throat, but it's almost always in my chest. It's either constriction or it's an expansion for good decisions or bad decisions. So I want to ask you guys, where do you feel, where do you feel things?
SPEAKER_02I I will tell you, for me, it is it's usually my chest and my stomach. I I was just recently, you know, um discussing with with individuals, you know, some things going on, and they said, Well, what does your gut tell you? And in that moment, I just thought, you know what, I I'm already sitting here nervous and I know what I'm thinking. And then I I think so often when we're we're expressing empathy or sympathy, it automatically goes to my chest. And it makes me think, you know what, this is this is my heart letting me know, all right, you're feeling this. You're feeling this, you you're you're connected to this. It's it's having an impact on you. So I I definitely I'm treading along right there with you that there's a big connection there between the feelings and thoughts, you know, how the mind and the body will be connected.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm immediately thinking about, I'm I'm sorry, this is not my own answer yet, but I'm thinking about my daughter when she was young and had terrible anxiety. Um, we would take her to the doctor, take her to the doctor, because she didn't know she had anxiety. She would just tell us all the time, my stomach hurts, my stomach hurts, my stomach hurts. We were like, what is happening? We she didn't act or behave differently. So it wasn't like, you know, here we are therapists, my husband and I both were supposed to be able to we're going like she's not behaving differently, she's not having like emotional struggles, whatever. So it's test on the gut and running blood work and doing this and doing that, and try this medicine, and we can't find anything. That's what we kept hold. And I talked to a pediatrician who was doing some pretty cutting-edge work with anxiety with kids um in his practice. We don't we don't find anything that can point to why this is happening. So he started asking, he started giving the parents uh screenings for anxiety, like just a little, only to find out that every single one of the mystery stomach problem cases were anxious kids. Wow. And they started a they started a group, like a little support group for the parents. And as a practice, they just walked with them through figuring out how to. Manage anxiety and help kids manage anxiety. And it was like this was my daughter's 14 now. This was when she was four.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_03And I mean the light bulbs went off immediately. Like, okay, this is the way that her anxiety plays out at four. It wasn't, it wasn't all the behavioral stuff I was looking for.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It just played out in the body.
SPEAKER_04And the interesting thing too is I feel like this becomes a theme too, and some of the things I've been talking about a lot, talking a lot about lately, which is we forget, you know, like we as adults we've learned how to tune out the body and we've forgotten. But you know, as children, we knew, you know, your daughter felt something. She just didn't know how to articulate what she felt. Well, then as adults, we can articulate, but we choose not to feel. So it's like this really interesting thing where we we need to remember, you know, we have to force ourselves to remember. But Ricky, you got to tell me where you feel things, though.
SPEAKER_03So all of mine, and this is so bizarre. All of mine is in my muscles, in my back and shoulders. Really? Every every stressor I have, my shoulders become up to my ears, and I have to keep telling myself, like, release the tension, release the tension, because it just stays there. That's why I have a chiropractor uh in my life that I see every week almost. Well, not every week, but every other week, but it is the most critical part of like reminding my body to stop some of the stuff that it's doing to try to address my own stress. That it's a lifesaver for me. This is so fascinating. Okay. Well, there's so many things about this we could keep talking about, but I do, as we hit the 40-minute mark and we have a maybe five more minutes left, I do want to hit on. Do you still dance?
SPEAKER_04Don't you have a background? Yes, uh, I do. So, okay, yeah. So I have a I grew up competing, you know, in dance, you know, as a lot of girls do. But once you turn 18, if you don't choose to major in dance, then what do you do? Well, that's how I found ballroom dance. You transition to like partner things, and that's something that you can do as an adult. So I started learning how to do that stuff in college just because I had friends who um knew how to salsa and that sort of thing. So I started learning that type of dance. Uh, and so after college, um, when I was sending out resume tapes trying to get a job in television, and it wasn't, you know, nothing came through quickly enough. I'm not someone who waits and I don't I don't do patience very well. I'm working on that. But um I started teaching yeah at a ballroom dance studio and teaching and competing in ballroom dance. So that's kind of how I transitioned as an adult. That's also how I met my husband. He does not dance. Let's just be clear about that, first of all. And he's a terrible dancer, still to this day. Uh, but he saw me walk into the dance studio one day and he was like, Oh, okay, I need to figure this out. But we truly had an instant connection. And so, like, we've just literally been together ever since. He walked into the dance studio, signed up for dance lessons, and that was the whole thing. But um, as it's so funny that you asked me if I still dance. I dance around the house and I teach my kids how to dance all the time. Like we turn on the music and we run around the kitchen and dance and dance and dance. And it feels great. And actually, that's what I've found has been the greatest release of stress for me. Um, when I I had a woman tell me, uh, she's like, you know, because I was talking about like feeling, as you were describing, feeling stress in your shoulders and back and just like, oh, feeling it. Like, I got to move energy out of my body. How do I do that? And she's like, you know what? Sometimes, sometimes you just need to think more childlike. She's like, just what do kids do? They they flail, right? They dance around the house, they skip around. And so that's actually become like my dance and my way of like getting getting energy out. But I've been thinking a lot lately, I've never stopped loving dance. I've never stopped loving the that expression. Because I feel like if you learn how to express yourself through your body, you never forget that. And that kind of becomes a part of how you express yourself. So I have missed that expression a lot. And I've started to say to myself, um, you know, when I get this podcast at a more manageable place, you know, like when I when I can get these things, when I can get my life, when like maybe when kids are out of diapers, when everyone's out of diapers, like, what am I gonna do to treat myself? And I think I mean dance has to come back in my life because I love it so much. So to end long answer to your short question, do I still dance? Not in the way I used to, but I will.
SPEAKER_03Well, you know, there is a nonprofit in town, and I can't think of who, but I'm gonna look it up afterwards. That they do their fundraiser every year is like a local dancing with the stars. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sign me up.
SPEAKER_04Have you heard that? Yeah, yeah, sign me up. Oh, yeah, I need to do that. Yeah, sign me up. Ricky, just put me in. Sponsor me, Ricky. That is awesome.
SPEAKER_03Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02We were the biggest cheerleaders.
SPEAKER_03I I would I would love to know. Uh, ballroom dancing was a dream. Never took time to learn it. So I will come support you and you know, like pretend that that's that I live vicariously. Oh man.
SPEAKER_02I will say this, Lauren. You know, we tell everybody who comes on, and we don't just say it just to say it, but we say, hey, you've helped somebody, you know, whoever's listening, whoever's watching, you have helped somebody. So so we appreciate that. And I I say that, you know, today in thinking of exactly what you just said, you know, you you love to dance. For me, that's my carpool karaoke right there. I was going with Bruno Mars this morning on the way in, just getting pumped up. Hopefully nobody heard it. I know the cars next to me were watching, but we we we practice and we preach self-care. And that's something that many individuals may have just realized, you know what, that's something that probably could help me out. Just dance, just be free. Let me go back to the arts where I first began or found my first love. You know, these are things that we we think, all right, I've got to make sure I've got the therapist, I've got to make sure that I've got all the supports, or I'm attending these things. There's so much that can go into a self-care plan that people miss. And this is one of those things that can be in addition to other things, such as therapy, such as get being in support groups and connections. Could be just simply dancing, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, like just dancing in the kitchen. I I just like I can't even tell you. I feel like if there's anyone who lists is listening and and maybe you did music growing up, or you did some kind of painting, some artistic expression, some kind of dance, anything like that. I I can't tell you how amazing it's been for me to just like remember I can still do that. And I don't have to go to a dance studio to do that, or I don't have to pull out a canvas and paint to do that. You know, sometimes for me, expression can be as simple as walking in nature, just like being in silence, not bringing my phone, you know, hearing, hearing nature, hearing life happen. And I, and I uh for me, that's such a calming practice too, just being outside, because it's like, wow, it reminds me, I I am so small, and this is so small in comparison to this. You know what I'm saying? Like, here are these trees, been here hundreds of years. That is longevity. What am I doing right now? Burning myself out. So I need to be like the tree, right? You know, so so it's like there's so many simple things that cost no money. Dancing in the kitchen, free, walking on a trail, free, you know. You know what I mean? Like, yes, there's so many beautiful free practices that can remind us to just take a load off.
SPEAKER_03Yes, so true. Well, we are so glad you came. I'm gonna end with this quick comment. I I love John Maxwell, and in one of his books, he talks about leaders, and he says leaders are two kinds they're either creators or maintainers. And you, my friend, are his perfect definition of a creator. So it's been super fun talking to you, listening and learning. And I can't wait to see what happens next for you. Love this podcast you've started, and thank you for being on ours so much. Oh my gosh, what a gift!
SPEAKER_04You guys are doing great work.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you. Have an awesome, awesome day.
SPEAKER_04Bye. Bye.
SPEAKER_01You guys are awesome. Thank you for joining us. If you enjoyed today's program, like, subscribe, and review this podcast. If you or someone you know is in need of mental health support services, log on to Tnvoices.org or call 1-800-670-9882. Join us next time as we get candid.