Grief, Grit, and Growth: A Caregiver’s Guide to Healing and Renewal

In our first full episode since the relaunch, we sit down with former caregiver, Licia Thompson-Young, who shares what it means to grow forward with intention after caregiving. From stepping beyond her comfort zone to embracing the unknown in unfamiliar environments, she reveals how healing began when she allowed herself to feel — and how grief, once buried, found release in her HIIT (High-intensity interval training) workouts at the gym. This is a story of courage, change, and the quiet power of choice.  

You’ll hear about her RISE™ framework (Renew, Ignite, Soar with Excellence) and her helpful resource “When Your Soul Whispers”.  Licia is a Renewal Expert as a Leadership & Personal Growth Coach.  Tune in for a conversation about her newfound strength, renewal, and the surprising places where healing begins.

Licia's website

(Thank you to Pixabay Folk Acoustic Guitar 138361)

Transcript

Thank you for tuning in to the Island Treasures Podcast.

We value the insights shared by our guests and hosts, but it's important to note that their personal experiences are intended to inform and encourage, and not to replace professional, legal or medical advice.

With that, we are ready for today's exciting episode. Hello, and welcome to Island Treasures podcast. We're entering a new season with a new direction.

For years, we've walked alongside caregivers in the midst of their caregiving journey, offering resources, support, encouragement, and community. Now, as we shift our focus, we'll be exploring what comes after caregiving.

I'm your host, Alison van Schie, inviting you into conversations with former caregivers. Each episode features honest reflections on what comes next, stories of resilience, renewal, and rediscovery.

And since the podcast comes to you from Vancouver Island in Canada, you'll hear the occasional episode that explores a different kind of treasure, local places and experiences that make the island itself something special.

Whether you're navigating life after caregiving or simply curious about the treasures held within Vancouver Island, I'm glad you're here. Let's explore new treasures together.

Licia Thompson is back with me today, and I am elated, and she is going to be talking about moving forward after caregiving, but we're gonna have a little catch up with what has been happening with Licia since she was first on the podcast three years

ago already. So welcome back, Licia.

Welcome, I'm so grateful to be here with you and your energy and your bright disposition. So thank you for the invitation to come back. Different conversation though this time.

Yes, it will be slightly different.

Great.

So let's have a brief synopsis of what your caregiving was like and then we will go into moving forward after caregiving.

Yeah.

So let me share with you since we met, I have gotten remarried. So after being divorced for 20 years, and so my name now is Licia Thompson-Young, which I'm still embracing that I changed my name. So just getting used to that.

But now your question was, tell me again your question.

Oh, to provide a brief synopsis of your caregiving story, but congratulations on becoming young.

There you go. Yeah. So my caregiving story, actually began when I was younger, and watching my mom become a caregiver of my great aunt at the time.

And my great aunt was my shero, kind of had a militant spirit to her, which I thought was amazing as a kid growing up, just because she was older, but she had a little fire in her.

But so that kind of opened the door though for me, though I was not the primary caregiver at all, but I watched my mom becoming a caregiver.

And then there was an older couple who was friends with my great aunt and my great uncle, who after they had passed this couple, they were in their 90s, reached out to my mom and asked her to become their caregiver, which I thought, whoa.

But they said that they had watched her take care of our aunt and uncle and they wondered if she would do the same for them. And so my mom initially, like it kind of caught her off guard and she thought, I can't do that.

But then she said, but they never had children, so they outlived many of their family members. And so she processed it, she said, yes. And then I watched her become a caregiver for this couple until they passed away.

So years went by, of course. But I never forgot that when then I became a caregiver for my mom, which was shocking because she was the epitome of health until she wasn't, right?

And so just watching her navigate, and she was totally aware of everything. She made all of her decisions. I was really there just for different conversations when she kept me in the loop and things of that nature.

And then after that, then my dad became ill with cancer. And so I became a caregiver just a few months after my mom had passed. Then I became a caregiver a few months later for my dad.

I didn't see either of them ever leaving or having illness because they hadn't. So I had not thought about that. Shame on me.

It was out of your sphere.

It was something you hadn't seen. So why did you expect it?

Right.

And your parents, if I remember correctly, didn't live together. They were separated.

Yeah, that's a fact. They had been divorced since I was 12. So my relationship with them had always been, for the most part, separate, being with them separately.

So, yeah. So that was interesting too, because then my dad started asking, well, how's your mom? And I was like, wow, you've never asked that.

So, Lisha, how did your caregiving season come to an end then?

So in 2012, my mom passed.

And then 10 months later, in 2013, my dad passed. So we knew that that's probably where their illnesses would take them. But you keep hope alive despite, right?

Because things can change. And so he got more time than what he thought. But again, it was just a few months after my mom passed.

So I was still trying to process my best friend, my mom, and like how could she leave? Like I just didn't see it coming. And obviously I was in denial because she had had some health scares, you know, many years prior.

But and just in life, she overcame every obstacle. I literally watched her overcome numerous obstacles, whether it was career or whatever, my entire life. And so I saw her health situation as nothing different than, oh, it's just a matter of time.

And she'll be fine because she always was. So this being the first time that that wouldn't be the outcome. It was hard for me to process the outcome.

And like, did I miss anything? What should I have done differently? Could I have done anything differently?

So I replayed that for for quite a while. And then finally made peace with, no, we had all the conversations, you know, as part of it was genetic. So sometimes you can't overcome what's genetic.

But yeah, just being the caregiver twice for the people that brought me into the world. And I didn't have much time with him after she left. So it was just really devastating, if I'm honest.

Well, yeah, for sure.

And both of them, your parents both passed within a year of each other.

Like 10 months, 10 months of each other. Yeah. And they had been very active.

Both of them led very active lives even in more so probably during their retirement years, because they had more time. So they had been the epitome of health, joy and just fun and all the things.

And then then suddenly, now you think out of the blue, now you have this diagnosis. Like how does that work? But that's the reality of life.

But you don't often think about it, unfortunately, because when things are going well, we just assume that they will continue. So yeah.

Yeah. You weren't prepared.

No, and neither were they. So yeah.

So you talked about with your mom, she was your best friend. There was a lot of grieving there. And then with your dad as well.

Like, let's talk about how did you process your emotions then?

So I want to say that I didn't allow myself to have emotions. I didn't know that at the time.

It was after the fact as I reflected, because I felt like I didn't grieve my mom because I didn't have time, because I needed to take my dad to chemo and all that came with that.

And so then when I, after he passed, and now it's quiet, and I'm like, I lost two parents in 10 months. What the heck? How does, you know?

And so just trying to process it, I realized that I expected to be tired physically and mentally, but I couldn't seem to get rested. Meaning, even after he passed, I felt tired longer than I thought I would.

Not that we know, but normally, you can shake it, you know, get, get rest and keep going. But this was different. And so let me back up a little.

My first inkling that something was wrong was after my mom passed, before that, I had been invited to go on a girls trip to Costa Rica, and I declined because I said, no, my mom, you know, I'm taking care of helping my mom.

But then when she passed, I thought, man, I wonder if there's still room. And when I called, they were like, absolutely, just, you know, go ahead, get your ticket. And yeah, so I went and someone had agreed to be on standby if my dad needed.

And he said the same thing. He said, I'm fine though. So that for me was one of the best things I could have ever done was to leave my environment, leave the country, go to Costa Rica where we were with nature every day.

I met some amazing women in this group. I knew some, but then I didn't know friends of the other person who had put together this experience. And we hiked, we ziplined.

Everything we did was with nature and with animals that are prevalent in that part of the world as well. So I've never been so close to alligators and monkeys and all of that. And so just being there taught me how healing nature is.

People say that, not that I didn't believe it, but I hadn't looked at it from that perspective. And so that trip, because I was surrounded by it.

So that felt like I told everyone, and I still bring it up for other people who are trying to come back from some major life challenge and get outside, get outside with the sun, the water, the grass, the trees, all the elements.

Because it did, it gave me energy, you know, from deeply within. I didn't cry there.

You know, I was still crying here, but when I got there, I was just like, I thought this is amazing to be able to breathe and just get clarity as I was hiking and doing all these things, like ziplining in a country that I don't speak the language.

My friend and I said, we're not going to do that when we get there. But when we got there, we looked at the zipline area, and we said, we have to do this. Why would you come to Costa Rica and not experience the heights of it?

We signed a waiver and we take off. Then when we get there and they're strapping us in, oh my gosh, that's when I was just like, what have I done? Why am I now in this apparatus?

I have no choice. I can't go back. I'm on the platform.

That was unnerving because we were above the height of the tallest trees. I don't remember what type of monkey they were, but they are small, kind of cute, and an unattractive kind of way.

But so we're, you know, at the top, I couldn't see the ground. So we're so high that I'm looking below the leaves on the trees to try to see the ground, and I can't see the ground. And so, you know, I'm just like, it is what it is.

I have to do this because it's impossible to turn back at this point. So that was mind-blowing, but experiencing that gave me a new found strength.

And so, yeah, then we did walking bridges, which is also was crazy because I thought we would just be walking, but the bridge swayed exponentially. So yeah, anyway, that was the best thing I think I could have done at that time.

It got me past grief for the most part. It gave me new found strength to focus on that if I can, with the language barrier, but I still did and went to all these platforms. I thought, I didn't even ask how long we'll be suspended.

I asked no questions blindly, just go. And then I realized there's like 12 platforms. We're on like the third platform and I want to quit.

And then I asked, and that's when I learned, this is terrible. What was I thinking? Why did I not ask questions like I normally would?

But it became a trust thing and it was fine. I have no regrets. Glad I did it.

Be fearful, you know, sometimes you just have to process it and commit.

Well, it sounds like you were, because you were able to totally remove yourself from your situation. Like not everybody gets that opportunity as a reboot. Like what a great opportunity you had.

And it was, and I almost didn't have it, right?

Because I had a decline. So it was for whatever reason, I knew that I needed to, you know, lock my house and leave. And meaning leave the city that where I was, where I knew, you know, I needed a new environment.

So yeah, so I encourage anyone to do walk away from your environment as it has been when you're at this point where that situation no longer exists, what does your future look like?

It's hard to get clarity, I think, if you're in the environment that you're comfortable with. So getting outside of that environment and being uncertain about the environment you walk into helps to get clarity about everything.

Like how strong are you? You know, all of that.

Oh, for sure. And it was making you focus on different things that you never thought you'd focus on. Like, I'm gonna get strapped into the zip line.

Oh, how many are there? How many times do I have to do this? Like how many platforms are there?

Oh, there's 12. Oh, totally distracts you.

The little clip.

Yeah, the tiny.

And I'm like 100 feet above ground. Why am I here? But now I have no choice.

I'm stuck.

What a great story. Like, what a great restart for you. And it did.

It totally took you out of your circumstance.

Yeah. For an entire week, everything I did was something I've never done before. Oh, and when we got to the villa, there were armed guards that had set up a command center at the garage.

And that was unnerving. So we pull up, we're in separate jeeps that we had rented. And when we get there, we were not expecting armed guards to have set up a command center in the garage at the home.

So it began with, are we in a war torn community? Is this, you know, what's happening? And it was fine, but they were there every night.

And I guess that's part of what you do. I don't know. So even getting past that, like do I need to stay awake all night?

Should I go to sleep? Should I be looking for a return flight today? Right.

So, you know, so the girls and I had that conversation instantly because we just, yeah. But it was, it ended up being fine.

So well, good, because you're here.

Right.

So Licia, not everybody has that opportunity, as I said before, but when you came back to the US and back into your life, how did the processing go then? And your dad was still alive at that point?

Yeah. So he had actually, when I got back, it was time to start chemo. So when I came back, I knew that I was immediately going into a world of cancer, and I had not been there before.

I had never been to chemo or seen chemo. And so that opened my eyes to an entirely different reality.

So when he passed away?

Then, what did I do then? I think that's when I went to Europe.

Oh, so you did it again?

Not immediately. There was maybe a gap. There was a gap.

But maybe a year or so later had an opportunity to go with the Girl Scout troop that my co-worker had. And she needed chaperones. So I said yes.

We started in London, and then we went to Paris. And then we went to Rome and Florence, Italy. So it was about two and a half, almost three weeks, abroad.

And again, fantastic, helped me heal, helped me come out of being sad and, you know, all the things. Gave me some different perspectives on life. So international travel doesn't have to be just travel in general.

Changing one's environment is something that should rank pretty high, I would hope, for people who can do that.

Yeah, well, it certainly worked for you.

Yes.

Because not everybody can do that, but you can stop and take a breath and, like you say, immerse yourself in nature.

Right. And you could do that wherever you live, right? So it's with different parks.

Some people never go to parks, some people at all heights, maybe try new things. I shouldn't say maybe, I would encourage people to try new things, to purposefully take yourself out of your comfort zone.

So be willing to embrace uncertainties, because it gives you clarity and strength about who you are at the core of your being, that we often don't know because we haven't had to test ourselves maybe in that way.

That's just something I learned from both of those experiences. Be fearless. I mean, really?

Like, why do we play everything so safely? Can't grow that way.

No, we can't grow, but we're coming from a place where we had to play things safely, right?

Yes. So, but then afterwards, we have to heal ourselves, right? Because healing, and you don't know that unless you walked through the journey of being a caregiver for someone that you love, because I had never felt depression before.

And I didn't know that I was depressed either. I thought I was just tired because of back-to-back caregiving. I thought I was just physically exhausted until it kept lingering.

And then I went to get a physical about that. I was talking to my primary care, like, this is what's going on. Something's wrong.

I think something's wrong. Like, do I need blood work or whatever? And so we did.

And my numbers were off. And I thought I was having a heart attack one day, driving home from work. So, and he's, and I called, I drove home, but I did feel like not, I felt discomfort in my heart, I thought.

And when I called, I diagnosed it. He asked me a series of questions and he said, I promise that you're not having a heart attack. And so I said, I don't, I don't believe you.

I'm sure that I am. And so we went through that whole conversation. And he said, you know, come in tomorrow.

I want to run some tests and blah, blah, blah. If anything changes, he goes, call me or call 911. So I said, fine.

So, you know, I was fine overnight. But when I got my blood work back, my numbers were off. And so we talked about what that meant.

And he diagnosed me with acid reflux and I said, no, I don't have that. And I was very confident.

You're the doctor.

I was the doctor. I became the doctor. And so he said, humor me.

Let's try this medication. And I kept saying, I don't need that. Because I know people who do have acid reflux.

And I didn't recognize in that moment that symptoms are different for every individual. So because I didn't experience what they had meant in my mind in that moment, that it didn't apply to me.

But this was when I took it with me when I went to Costa Rica, just in case because I was leaving the country. And then he said, humor me, I want you to take it while you're in Costa Rica, and then let me know what happens.

So of course, I was fine when I was in Costa Rica.

There you go.

For many reasons, that being one of them. And I did have acid reflux, totally different symptoms. But when I came back, I went to a gym and hired my first trainer.

So I had worked out before, but I gained weight during my caregiving years.

Yeah, that happens.

Yeah. And I couldn't figure out how to lose the weight because I had never had to lose weight before. So that got me to the reality that I need.

I don't know what to do. Let me hire a trainer. And then my primary care physician, also we talked about a nutritionist.

And so he recommended someone, I went to both. That was life changing as well. And I remembered the day in the gym, because I also went in and I said, I need a trainer who is aggressive.

I said, I'm prone to negotiate things for whatever reason. And I don't want to be able to do that. I want to pay someone to tell me what to do.

For the first time in my life, I want someone to tell me what to do. And so it ended up, I get this former football player, NFL player who did just that. We became good friends, but probably about, I would say, three months in, two months in.

I remember being there, totally fatigued, but I felt good. And I turned to him and I said, oh my gosh, thank you for saving my life. And he's like, whoa.

So I kind of shared, like when I came in, you had no idea of where I was and my head and just, you know, but yeah.

So I did HIIT training and I wasn't, I wasn't embarrassed or shameful about laying on the turf when I'm literally laying on the turf to just get my breath back.

What is HIIT training?

HIIT training, high intensity interval training. Thank you for asking. I should have said that.

And I don't, I didn't know that either at that time, but I learned. So it was a 40 minute workout, but you never stop and everything is at a very high level of intensity so that you burn more calories quicker. And when you leave, you still burn.

So I had not ever done that before. I'm a former athlete, but not after high school. So just man, life changing.

So I'm still working out. I've never quit. That was in 2013.

I vowed that I couldn't quit ever because I don't like what it feels like to have to start all over, but also it changed my life.

That's a great coping skill though, to exercise regularly, to push your body. Like after caregiving, a lot of people do lean on food as a comfort to get through. And why not?

It's there. It's legal.

It feels good, you think. You don't realize you're destroying your temple. Of course, you eat comfort food, which we don't need to do, shouldn't do unless it's within moderation and mine was not.

But like I said, you were coping.

It was your survival.

You just didn't know that. You don't know that at the time, sometimes. I didn't know it until I got to the other side and looked back and thought about all the crazy thoughts that I had that I thought were great ideas, which were not.

So yeah.

But you listened, even though you argued with your doctor, you did listen. You did try the medication.

I love him.

There you go.

He has been, we laugh now. He is talking about retiring and I was, I kept saying, how could you consider?

I still need you.

What do you mean? And so, I said, we've had, I don't know, I feel like I started going there, found him. I might have been 35ish or whatever.

So, we are friends, you know, and he's so respectful. We laugh about how I would tell him, no, this is what I have. And he'd go, humor me.

So, he never was demeaning. He never shut me down. And he'll say, let's partner.

And so, I love that about him, because then it opened up a dialogue and he understood my thoughts, I understood his, and then we could agree to compromise.

So, a lot of times, I didn't do what he recommended, but we compromised, and the compromise was the right thing to do.

That's a great approach. Let's partner on this.

Not because I thought of it. It just happened. So, yeah.

So, it is just funny because I keep saying, retire.

Yeah, no, you can't retire.

Well, what would I do? I'm not going to have this relationship with anyone else. Like, we got to be in this forever.

So, he could semi-retire.

Maybe.

So, he's obviously facing a transition in his life, and you faced several in your life.

So, let's talk about how you moved forward after caregiving. You've talked about finding fitness, finding nutrition, moving forward that way.

You've talked about going into a different environment and totally working through your grief after you came back from that. Share more about that. How did you work through your grief?

So, I realized I was able to process grief in the gym.

Now, I could outside, but it was helpful for me in the moment because I started getting stronger and I knew that I could feel my body getting stronger. I could feel that I wasn't breathing as laboriously as I was when I first got there.

And I no longer, I think I felt depression in my body because I was tired, totally drained all the time. It wasn't that I was crying or had any kind of negative thoughts or whatever.

I just didn't feel good even walking a couple blocks from where I parked to the building where I work. That's how I knew something was wrong. But I didn't know that those were symptoms of depression.

I thought something majorly was wrong. When I got to the gym, and then I was thinking about a couple months later when I felt good for the first time in months. And that's when I said to him, I just need to say thank you.

And he's like, you know what, what's going on? I said, I feel good. I just want to say thank you.

Like, I don't, you know, my mind set was, I don't need to explain all that was going on because I didn't know what was going on until that moment. And I thought, so depression can make, like it has, it's depression because I'd never been depressed.

I didn't know that being depressed, I thought it just meant sadness. I never thought it drained all energy and it's hard to walk.

So again, that's why I keep saying for me, my journey forward, it's just full of lessons learned from what was a negative experience maybe. I hate using the word negative.

I don't know that that's the right word, but right now I can't think of a word to exchange that with. But death is, death is negative, I guess. Death is sadness.

You know, you lose your parents or whomever that you love. It's hard. It's just super hard.

So, but I had no idea that it would take my physical energy away. But had I not gone to the gym, I don't know how I would have gotten it back. Because my, I forced my body and my mind to go to a higher level than it had ever in my entire life.

That being there, I had never experienced the challenge of such a difficult workout regime. But I kept going back, because it felt so good after I finished, not during, but when it was done. And that's when I put two and two together.

And I was like, wait, so let me Google depression, symptoms of depression.

So I, it's coming through loud and clear that your exercise regime really helped with your clarity and moving forward. And it helped you see everything that you had just come through in a different perspective.

And like you said, you take lessons, you take lessons from what you've learned. And you are a reinvention strategist and you help other people now from your experiences. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

I changed it.

I changed it this year. I realized people don't want to be reinvented. They want renewal.

And so I just exchanged the word and all my branding, because all along, that's what I've been helping people to do. Grow forward from whatever that major turning point or personal challenge, whatever the personal challenge is.

Everyone experiences personal challenges. It's how do we grow forward when that time frame for that challenge ends, and how do we grow forward with intention? And that's what I love.

So I work with people after their experience, yes, because rebuilding and renewing, I have also learned that, to make a long story short, I work with people to renew their core values, because we don't do that.

I mean, some people probably do, but the majority of people, including myself, I've renewed mine because I felt like I was an orphan, despite the fact that I was in my 50s. I still felt like an orphan because I didn't have time to process.

My mom passed, and then I'm trying to process my dad, and now the people that gave me life are gone. I'm like, whoa. So that's when I thought, so who am I now going forward?

I mean, I'm a mom, I'm a great mom. I've got these kids in college. One was a graduate.

One, my mom made it to, both my parents were at my oldest daughter's college graduation, but then neither of them were at my younger daughter's graduation because they had already passed. So just that, because they would have been there.

So things like that. But yeah, so renewing core values or just identifying what are they?

So when I started asking people about that, most people couldn't tell me what their core values were, and I knew that they couldn't because we don't think like that, unless you've been through something.

And so that helped me to create the methodology that I teach people in my RISE program.

And that is, I actually got a trademark on it, but a lot of it comes from my journey forward and also being a leader and corporate for 22 years, and seeing the effects or the impact that people who were in my department, many reported to me, but we

all go through like personal challenges. And you feel as though when you come to work, you have to shut the door to that, you come in and you're supposed to immediately go into professional mode.

And while that sounds good, sometimes that journey that people have, you can't just shut it off because it's so big, right?

But I watched people crumble at work, not that reported to me, but people would end up on performance counseling because their performance had declined, but no one had a conversation to find out what was going on.

And they didn't disclose that they had this heavy personal matter going on because you think that you have to be professional. And so I don't believe that at all. I mean, there's more to why I don't, but there's room for humanity and corporate.

And so putting all those pieces together, my own journey and them being a leader is what got me here today.

And so I now go back into corporate environments, any organization, and I like working with their mid-level managers because they have to report to different levels. They have a lot going on.

I've been a mid-level manager before I became a director, and a lot hits you at that mid-level. So if you add that, you're helping people that report to you. And if you're in a career path that's service-oriented, I was in the workers' comp industry.

So we're there to serve and help employees who need those types of services. And if you have personal challenges going on, but you're trying to give and serve, it can be a lot if you haven't dealt with your personal situation.

So I knew that when I launched my business that I knew big picture what I wanted to do, but it was very difficult for me to drill down to what lane is that? What am I calling it?

And in what way am I serving based on what I learned about leadership when navigating personal challenges? So it took being a while longer than I wish, but I'm there.

So now I do, I go back into corporate environments, and I work with the people who have experienced personal challenges and who are having difficulties moving forward so that they can show up fully professionally, and it helps to increase retention.

Oh, of course.

We don't need them to be on counseling for professional, way they show up professionally, if the issue really isn't that. The issue is, they're depressed or overwhelmed, or they're bitter, or they're whatever.

I just don't believe we should cancel them out because everyone will experience challenges personally.

Everyone, everyone.

Yeah.

Everyone does. So can you tell me what the Rise program looks like?

Oh, sorry. I meant to go there. So it stands for Renew, Ignite, and Soar with Excellence.

And I have built different aspects of what I do within those confines. And then all of that ties back to my book, When Your Soul Whispers, because I also teach from a heart lead. I teach people to be heart lead, not mindset.

I started with mindset, right? But then I realized it's much deeper than how we think. I teach people to acknowledge and lean into their heart and their soul, and then connect that to your thoughts, to mindset.

So you need both, but I definitely, your core is where it's at. And that's what I learned from my own journey.

Oh, rich takeaways. How wonderful.

Thank you.

Yes. And you're helping people move forward. And I love that.

And you're right, we don't check on our core values very often. I do know what mine are.

Yeah. Good. See, because most people don't.

But it is really good to check on them and to recalibrate.

Oh, for sure.

After every personal challenge, I think we should recalibrate because the challenge can change what's most important.

We should get clarity from these pivotal times in life, but you have to pause and examine yourself, where you are and what's most important, so live and learn.

I think that really sums up what we've been saying. That was a great summary of what we've been saying. Thank you for that.

Thank you.

You're helping with that too.

Awesome.

This is great. I appreciate the conversation.

Yeah. Before we finish though, if people want to check out your book or check out the RISE program or any of this, how can they reach you?

My website has undergone a renewal, totally. And I can be found there, and that's www.lisciatompson.com. And I would say that's probably where I would want people to go first.

Of course, I'm on LinkedIn mostly, and also on Instagram, but I primarily focus on LinkedIn. And then, what else? I would say my book is a great resource.

I package that with, anytime I go into an organization to do an experiential workshop, meaning I'm not just there talking, but I have them actually doing work. And it's tied to the chapters in my book, so that they have tangible takeaways.

So when they leave, they know their core values. They've already renewed them. So they can jump start whatever that transition is, because we'll talk about that.

But it's also uniquely tied to what I learned about that corporation and the people that are there. So I tie, I did one at a bank.

I'm not a banker, I'm not a finance person, but they're still humans who've gone through personal challenges that were invited. So I just use their language. Like I learned enough about, so I feel comfortable going pretty much into any organization.

I just need to learn a little about, so my audience, what do they do? What's important? What are they expected to do?

And use their language in many instances to make it relatable. But big picture, we're all human. We're just all humans.

The common thread, we are all human.

Alert, alert.

And we will all encounter personal challenges, and we should all want to rise and go forward after that timeframe ends. So I don't believe anyone should sit in their state of frustration or depression.

I know people do, but that's why I love what I'm doing, because I want to pick you up, help you see things differently, look at what you learn to be strengthened by it, and then use that strength in different areas of your life to just be great

To move forward after caregiving.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Caregiving is a lot, isn't it?

It is.

But you have done it, and you have moved forward, and you're teaching, you are leading, you are guiding, you're inspiring.

Oh, thanks so much.

And Licia, it is amazing. Do you have a quote that you could share with the listeners?

Yes. As a matter of fact, thank you for asking me that. Yeah.

So I'm going to go to my book on page 27. And I wrote, Feeling afraid and being indecisive are precursors to the cataract that distorts vision. The way that we view our life experiences depends upon the lens from which we choose to see.

So it's all about choice. And we have the power to choose differently, and sometimes we think we have no power. And that's what causes us to be hostage in the life, in places and spaces where we do not belong.

And I truly believe, I mean, I've done it before I knew better. So yeah, sometimes we sit where we do not belong and never belonged. Sometimes people think they can't change.

And when I say environment, sometimes it's physical, but a lot of times I'm talking our head space, and we think that I'm not worthy. People will say that, well, you can do that, but I'm not good enough.

Well, let's talk about that because we are all good enough.

And you said like being fearless and self-confidence moving forward. If you are stuck in that place, just believing in yourself really can help. And your quote just really speaks to that.

And it's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Thank you for asking.

And thank you for joining me today on the inaugural relaunch of the podcast. So thanks so much.

I'm excited. I'm honored actually. And it's so good to be able to sit and chat with you.

So thank you. I appreciate you greatly, Allison. Take care.

Thanks, Licia.

You too. So as Licia stepped beyond the familiar, whether through her gym workouts and nutrition, zip lining, or simply a change of scenery, she discovered strength, clarity, and a renewed sense of self.

Her story reminds us that healing doesn't always happen in place. Sometimes it asks us to move, to shift, to stretch beyond what we know.

And while not everyone can board a plane like Licia did, each of us can find ways to change our environment even in small, meaningful ways.

Because when we do, we not only begin to heal, we begin to recognize the quiet power of the skills caregiving gave us, skills that serve us moving forward in life after caregiving.

If Licia's story resonated with you, you can learn more through her book When Your Soul Whispers, or visit her website lichatompson.com. Thank you for tuning in today. And to Licia Thompson-Young, thank you for sharing your story.

If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with friends, especially those navigating life after caregiving. And if you don't want to miss future episodes, be sure to subscribe to the Island Treasures podcast. See you next episode.