Dr. Laura LaJoie: 0:00

Here's my plan. I'm going to live to be 110. I decided that at 108, I'm going to the rockest party in the country for the tricentennial so in 2076, and my husband said that he doesn't think he's going to live that long, and so I have permission to take two guys halfway. So I plan to have about two 55 year old hotties on each side of me and we're going to be going to whatever the fireworks and Fourth of July display or whatever that looks like. That's where we're going.

Yasmin Nguyen: 0:35

Welcome back to the Real Retirement Show. My name is Yasmin, here with my co-host, kathleen. Whether you're retired or thinking about retirement, we delve into the multifaceted world of retirement beyond the finances. This isn't your typical retirement discussion. It's a vibrant journey into what retirement truly means in today's world. We bring you real stories from real retirees and experts discussing real challenges, surprises, joys, heartaches and the myriad of emotions that come with retirement. From addressing family dynamics to mental and physical health to finding purpose, we tackle the issues that truly matter to retirees and those thinking about retirement. Today we're embarking on a journey that redefines the essence of living life to its fullest, especially when we embrace the golden years of retirement.

Yasmin Nguyen: 1:30

Our special guest is the extraordinary Dr Laura LeJoy, a beacon of joy, health and vitality. In this episode, dr LeJoy shares her vibrant vision for a life well-lived, including her audacious plan to celebrate the tricentennial in style, surrounded by youth and fireworks. But it's not just about living long, it's about living well. Dr LeJoy, with her unique blend of chiropractic expertise and passion for life, takes us through her personal journey from aspiring orthopedic surgeon to a chiropractor who doesn't just adjust spines, but attitudes as well. You're in for a treat, as Dr LeJoy reveals how she creates a community of wellness and joy within her practice, turning her clinic into a place where people of all ages come not just for physical adjustment but for an upliftment of spirits, from impromptu dance parties to personal connections that extend beyond the treatment room. Dr LeJoy embodies the spirit of living joyfully and intentionally. But that's not all. Dr LeJoy delves into the profound impact posture on our physical and mental well-being, offering insights and simple, actionable steps to reclaim our vitality. She shares heartwarming stories that bridge the gap between generations, highlighting the importance of community service and forging meaningful connections.

Yasmin Nguyen: 3:01

By tuning into this episode, you'll discover the secret ingredient to a fulfilling retirement, one that's built on health, community and, most importantly, joy. Whether you're seeking inspiration to revitalize your own retirement journey or are looking for ways to contribute to the lives of others, dr LeJoy's wisdom and infectious enthusiasm will surely light the way. So gear up for an episode that promises not just to inform but to transform. Let real retirement be your guide to a retirement that's not just about winding down, but about gearing up for the most exhilarating chapter of your life. Tune in, be inspired and remember it's never too late to infuse your days with joy and purpose. Let's join our conversation. Laura, would you share a little bit about your journey into knowing your profession and how you help others that are navigating this retirement chapter of their lives?

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 4:02

Absolutely. I started out when I was eight years old wanting to be a doctor, and I was headed for med school all the way through my school into college and I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon and work for the NFL. And I got into my junior year in college and had the opportunity to spend the summer at Cedar Center Hospital working with pathologists and orthopedists and I realized that I did not want to spend my life seeing patients of role-lead and pain or that I was seeing when they're under anesthesia, and so I started looking at other ways that I could pursue my goals in the healthcare area and I looked at all kinds of different things and finally landed on chiropractic. So when I was 25 years old I graduated from chiropractic school. I moved to Oregon to go to school because I knew I was going to stay here. I love the outdoors and I gripped it so in California and it's been such an incredible journey because I see literally the summer I had a patient that was three days old and my currently my oldest patient just turned 102. Oh my gosh, I stayed at Gammack. I've been in practice for 30 years, so some of these people are family. I tease that. This is the cheers of chiropractic in Wilsonville because we have so many people that come in at the same time every week or every other week, for performance adjustments they come in for not only for their wellness but also for their community, and it's an opportunity to really connect with people. I say I give attitude adjustments.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 5:29

I have this woman, joan, who's just, she's a delight. She was a dancer. She is just turned 92. And one day she came in here and I said how you doing? She's like it's a bummer day, I'm just not having a great day. And I said, well, hey, how did a dance party? And so I turned on the song Happy by Pharrell and we had a spontaneous dance party in the waiting room.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 5:50

And I had another woman who came in who was in her early 20s and I was like hey, brooke, how about you join us for having a dance party? She's like okay, and so we just had a dance party right there in the waiting room and I said, yes, I am unconventional as a doctor. I have not a white coat and I don't have that traditional stiff feel, but people know they're going to leave here better than they came and I give out hugs freely, so people don't really like to be touched, and so they might get a squeeze on the shoulder, or they'll take both of their hands in line and just look them in the eye and let them know their care is short. But I just think that that personal touch is something. Especially people that are in their third and fourth chapters are missing, and there's little ways that we can enrich that, and that's one of the things I really trying to do with my people.

Kathleen Mundy: 6:34

When you mentioned that you wanted to help people engage in their community, I'm going to assume that you also helped them enlarge their communities as they retired, with kind of a wellness approach. Can you just elaborate a little bit on when a retiree comes in to see you, how you help them expand their world?

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 6:53

Wow, that is a great question. I really spend a lot of time, particularly at the beginning, getting to know what they want. There's so many different types of people and I find that some people really want that one-on-one connection. There's other people that are really kind of quiet in the background, but they enjoy being in groups. They just don't want to be the one in the front of the room. So I just get to know what are their interests, especially for people that don't have family nearby and they're coming in here, and part of their condition, if you will, is that they're alone and they're experiencing loneliness, and so I really listen for what their cues are. So, for instance, I have a patient who is a professional knitter. She teaches knitting and she has a knitting circle, and so if I find somebody that is interested in that, I can say hey, I happen to know that on Wednesday mornings at 10 o'clock there's a knitting circle at the community center. You might be interested.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 7:51

We talked about the book clubs that we have at the library. We have a really active pickleball community and there's other people that just want to go and have coffee on a regular basis with someone. So we have the Wilsonville Walkers and we have a group that walks two miles twice a week. They have fast and slow paces and at the end of it they go and have coffee, and there's sometimes up to 25 people having coffee together at this local pub. So some people might say, oh well, I can't walk two miles, and I say, well, why don't you just meet them at the park, walk around the parking lot while they're out, going their two miles out and back, and then meet them at the coffee shop. There's even people that have retired from the group because they just don't feel like they have the capacity to walk two miles anymore, and so they show up at the coffee shop at 1030 and meet everybody when they're done walking.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 8:44

I mean, I think it's just being able to make people aware that these connections are possible and having them find a place to start, and I think that's really what it comes down to. A lot of people don't know where to begin, and so I always try to meet them where they are, help them find a starting point. For instance, I just read this fantastic book this last year called Built to Move by Dr Kelly Starrett and his wife Julianne Starrett, and it's all about the elements of healthy living. Well, it starts out with getting on the floor. Get on the floor and get up. And some of my patients look like me, like I have three eyes, and they said, well, if I get on the floor, I can't get back up. And I said, well, that's the point.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 9:26

If you were to fall on the floor and you are by yourself, what are you going to do? You're not necessarily carrying your phone around the house, you're not necessarily have anybody in the house with you. You need to be able to get up. And so get down on the floor and build those muscles that are going to allow you to get up. And the ones that have actually done it find themselves getting stronger because it's a partial pushup and it's getting up with their legs.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 9:52

In fact, I'm going to be doing a talk here in my local golf course and I had a woman who's kind of leading the charts and she was saying what we talk about and like well, for an example, I'm going to have you come up to the room and get down on the ground. And she goes what do you mean? And I got up, I stood up in front of her, got myself down on the sidewalk and got up and I said no, it's your turn. And so she didn't. She's 74 years old. She got down on the sidewalk and got herself up and she goes. Well, that was harder than I thought it was going to be, and I said that's the point. We want to build those muscles that we want to keep using for the rest of our lives.

Kathleen Mundy: 10:30

This reminds me, yasmin. You and I had a conversation about the last quarter of your life versus the first quarter of your life, and how you have to learn how to walk and talk, and you also have to learn how to exchange with other people and make friends, and so I believe that it's the same experience in the last quarter. One of the things that we have, our resource center, is called the Sandbox, for specifically that reason. In many instances, that was the first venue that people met, congregated and made friends, and sometimes they were on the floor and they learned to get up with a lot of help when they were very young. So I love the fact that you think that way.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 11:14

Well, I was just going to say I think that one of the challenges that I see now is that sitting is the new smoking People are.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 11:22

They're sitting far too much and I'm seeing kids that are 10 to 15 coming in with posture and weakness and strength issues that I used to see in 20 to 25 year olds the people that were just getting out of college and sitting for four years studying and in class and then going into a job where they're sitting at a computer and now they're developing these short type muscles and is creating a huge problem for a society. I actually find some of my seniors people their 70s and 80s are more flexible than the kids in their teens and it is remarkable because we played in the sandbox, we played in the playground, we climbed trees, we rode bikes, we didn't come home until dark and I think that that's a huge element that's missing. So when I do see families because I actually have a couple of families that I see four generations and it's remarkable that these great grandparents are able to influence their great grandchildren to get out and walk, to work in the garden, to get outside and participate in life instead of sitting on their computers- so powerful.

Yasmin Nguyen: 12:30

Laura, I'm curious for those seniors that may not be as active physically what do you do to help them start moving again, and especially when they have mental beliefs and blocks around? Well, I can't move like that anymore. What advice do you have for someone to start getting their body going again?

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 12:50

I really meet them where they are. I have a man right now who is lovely and his posture looks like this, and so what I did is posture scan and his exam. At the very beginning I showed him a picture of what his posture looks like and I invited him to sit up straight and pull his head back and I said now, does that cause pain? And he said no. I said then that's a habit that you've developed that is not serving you, and so we started with habit. Then I have them stand on the doorway and put the doorway in between their spine and push their spine up against the doorway and their head, and they just have to bring their arms back and do angel stretches so that they can open up the pecs, which are muscles, especially the men or the female athletes. Their chest and shoulders become really strong and shut down and it causes the forward rounding of the shoulders. Well, if they're able to stretch that out, then they can start to restore the movement in the shoulders. In some of them I might have a woman that says, well, I'm having a hard time reaching up to the top of my closet, and I'll end up saying, well, then start reaching towards the top of your closet, like do the things that you are missing, so that you can help to improve the quality of that movement. So I just started to kind of meet them where they are, like they're having trouble with balance, which is a big one. I will have them stand. Also, have them start with their feet shoulder with the part, head back and looking straight ahead, because so often when they're walking they're looking down towards the ground so that they don't miss a step and then they become walking in a forward hunch and that's their common habit. Well, if they can then stand tall, develop their balance, we go from standing with the feet shoulder with the part to standing with the feet together, and then we'll have them close their eyes. Often they'll tell them stand in a hallway or in a doorway so that you start to feel in balance, open your eyes, but reach out for the wall. Once they start to develop the balance where they're standing just on the ground, then we say, okay, now what? You do that without your shoes on, because now you have more grounding and you're able to have more tactile sensation from your feet to your brain, and then we'll go from that to have them standing on a pillow. So now they're a little bit more imbalanced because the pillow is soft, but again, it gives them that feedback that they need their brain to be able to get them to balance appropriately. So we start with it wherever they are.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 15:23

If there's somebody who says I can't even walk to the mailbox and back anymore without becoming winded, okay Well, is it because you don't have the strength and endurance to watch the mailbox or is it because you've been breathing shallow and you don't have the breath to be able to get to the mailbox? And so we try to get to the underlying cause of the problem. If they're winded because they're not breathing, well, okay, then we start to work on posture and deep breath, holding breath and then getting that diaphragm pushed down so that they're really able to breathe with a more complete breath. If they start coughing when they're breathing, instead of saying oh, don't do that, I say I see the problem is that those muscles are weak and we need to develop them just like any other muscle, and so we'll do a deep breathing exercise that we might hold for a shorter period of time or a shorter breath, but we'll develop that. If they're having a problem getting to the mailbox because they're not strong enough, I'll have them start with sitting in a chair and give them marching in the chair for a minute. So it just really has everything to do with how intense their daily activity is or if they have no daily activity. That's a really important piece.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 16:42

The one I was mentioning there was 102. When she was 95, she was walking two miles a day. She was flipping houses. So she would buy a house or a condo and she would have her grandkids come over and help her do a cosmetic remodel. She'd live in it for a year and a half and then she would flip it and buy a new place and do the same thing. And she did that over and over and over again because she didn't want to be bored and it gave her something to do. It gave her an opportunity to engage with her grandchildren, and then the walking she was doing with this group. I mentioned the Wolfs of the Walkers.

Kathleen Mundy: 17:16

I'm so excited about this topic. I just think it's so amazing. I found myself straightening up very nicely as a result. I think that's really critical, and some of the things I was thinking about is posture has so much to do with everything we do in life, and so I know that you believe that your posture contributes to your overall health as we age, both mentally and physically. Can we just talk about that a little bit? What adjustments, if there are some that you might consider important, to regain that?

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 17:52

Absolutely. I'm going to start with the mental health part of it. I strongly believe that posture is directly tied into confidence and self-esteem. I was told from a young age stand tall, you're going to be a tope. I'm 5'10", stand tall and keep your head back. And my children are 5'11", 6'1" and 6'2". So I have these daughters that are 6'1" and 6'2" and when they got into middle school they were these gentle giants and they wanted to get down like this and make eye contact with their friends. And I taught them take a step back, stand your full height, and then you still have the right angle to be able to make eye contact with somebody. So I think that posture is really important for self-esteem because it opens you up and it allows you to get a full breath when you're speaking. It also makes you ready for anything.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 18:44

We were taught growing up in LA. I was taught that when you're walking down the street at night in the dark, you stand like a giant, you walk like a giant, you look at the people around you, and so I think posture has a big influence on how people are able to see us. I think it also makes us approachable or not when you see somebody in the room who's shut down and their posture is very closed. Their arms are closed, their hands are together, their head is down and they're not making eye contact with anybody. They're not as approachable as a person who's sitting tall or standing tall making eye contact, smiling, and they're, given that introduction, like yes, engage with me please. And so I think posture is really important from that perspective. It's also really important in terms of degeneration. When we get into these postures where our head is forward, our shoulders are rounded, we drop our head down. It really impacts that spine. The spine and nervous system is the most vital organs in our body. We live our life through our nervous system, which is why chiropractic is so inspiring for me to be able to help people to allow that movement and function to be such a big part of their lives. But when your posture is tall and open and more flexible, you're able to get to action more quickly. You're able to move from sitting to standing. You're able to catch somebody if they're falling. If you're in a rounded posture and your head is down, you don't see the things happening around you and you don't feel the sense in your body when people think of chiropractic as something that is popping the spine. Well, it's just so much bigger than that because when you consider, for instance, the lower spine, the lumbar spine directly innervates the digestive system. So if somebody is having a stomach ache, I look at is there a problem that they're having in their stomach or is there a problem that they're having in their spine, and is there anything that they can do in terms of mobility? Because the stomach is all just muscle and so how is the stomach moving in a way that's going to allow them more comfort?

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 21:01

One of my favorite patients is a guy that came in. He was having mid-back pain, like right below his shoulder blades, and I was checking it out and he had a restriction in his spine. And so then I asked him are you having any kind of like reflex or GERD or any pain or any diaphragm? And he said yes. Actually I was just prescribed Zantac. I haven't even started taking it yet, but I have gastroesophageal reflex and I said well, if you don't feel like you have to take it, give me a couple of days to see if your nervous system will actually start functioning better once we get you adjusted. Well, t5 and 6 actually innervate the stomach and diaphragm. One adjustment. He never had the reflex again. He never took the medication because it wasn't a problem in his stomach, it was actually his spine that was giving him a miscommunication to the stomach.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 21:54

And I see those things all the time, people that fell out of a four-year-old girl that came in one time with her siblings. I was seeing her older brother who was on the preschool football team, and her mom said do you think you could help my daughter with her hearing? And I said well, I don't know, it depends on the underlying cause, but we can take a look. Well, it turned out the daughter had had a fall off of a piece of furniture, she had strained her neck and the muscles that were affecting the ear were actually affecting the upper part of the spine. And so when I went to adjust her, she actually took about six or eight visits, but it restored her hearing. That's remarkable.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 22:35

I'll tell you my favorite story. It's on the other end of the spectrum from retirement, but I had a three-week-old baby that came in one time and the mom was just beside herself. From the time she was born, the baby had not been able to not cry for more than 20 minutes. She was just miserable, and so a friend told her to come and see me. I adjusted her. I saw her for about six weeks and by the end of the six weeks the baby wasn't crying anymore. Now the biggest thing was that after I adjusted her to the very first time, the mom stayed in the exam room and sent her and she was back there for like an hour and when she came out she was crying. The mom was crying and I was like, is everything okay? And she said yeah. And she said this is the first time since she was born that I held her when she wasn't crying. Wow. And then just last summer I got to meet the young lady when she was 16. They had moved away and they had just moved back and I got to meet the young adult woman.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 23:35

But it's amazing, I talk about like Dennis and Mary. Mary is the woman who's 102, who is vibrant and lovely and communicates well and eats healthy, and Dennis is a 28-year-old man that I saw after he was in a car accident. I was having these ridiculous migraine headaches, had through the roof, blood pressure, and I told him at his very first visit. I said I know you're here for the headaches of the pain from the accident, but I hope you're open to a conversation about your general health because you are diabetes and a heart disease waiting to happen and I hope that you're willing to have this conversation. And he had a two-year-old daughter and, long story short, I saw Dennis sift for about three weeks, three times a week. He was getting better, the headaches were going away and he didn't show up for an appointment. Then he didn't show up. So the next appointment we called him to see if he was going to make his third appointment. He didn't show up. So finally I called his fiance and he had had a massive heart attack and died. Yes, 28 years old.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 24:45

And I think that so frequently our young people take for granted the fact that they do have this ability to bounce back with their health so quickly. And I think that's one of the beauties of being in your third and fourth act in life is that people who've made it this far they're like okay, I have two choices. I can either sit on the couch and wait to die, or I can figure out how I'm going to make the most enjoyment out of the rest of my life for as long as I live, and it can be two years and it can be 22 years, we just don't know. I mean, the oldest woman on record lived to be 118. So she started fencing at 85. This woman was amazing. She was still riding her bike, but she was a hundred years old.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 25:32

It gets remarkable and it just has that difference in the shift of how you see yourself. And if you see yourself as somebody who is vibrant and capable, then you're going to be doing more. If you see someone who is weak and suffering, then that's how you live your life. But a lot of people that I see that have gotten into a rut and they're stuck and they feel like they've had too many injuries or they have too much pain and they can't do anything. Then they start to wonder how can I change? And that's where I come in, because again, I meet them where they are.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 26:09

I have this one woman that I saw for years and years that every single time I saw her she was just a negative Nelly, like she was never happy. She was always happy to be here and she would feel better when she left. But this one day I was just tired of always meeting her when she's unhappy and I said hey, I have a homework assignment for you. I said I want you to go home and before I see you again in two weeks, I'm going to have you write down 10 things that bring you joy, and your assignment is to do two. And I said you've got two weeks to write down this list and then do two things. So two weeks later she was supposed to come in for an appointment and she didn't make it for her appointment and I thought I had scared her away and I thought, I'll be honest, I pushed her too far. Like pushing her to joy was just too much.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 27:00

And so then the third week she did come in and I said well, so how did it go? And she goes wow, I only have seven things on my list. I'm like that's great, like let's celebrate that. And I said so, what crazy things are on your list? And she said, well, I love to play with my cat and I enjoy being in the garden. I like walking to the mailbox, especially when it's sunny. And I said, well, did you do any of those things? And she goes yeah, I played with my cat and I worked in my garden. I'm like, great, you did the homework assignment. And some people want to make it this big grand expression and the reality is. When we meet people in the world, sometimes a simple smile or meeting someone with eye contact is all they need to know that there's somebody that is seeing them and recognizing them, human to human.

Yasmin Nguyen: 27:49

Laura, you are so much more than a chiropractic professional. You, in many ways you are a joy ambassador and you're helping people all different range from early in their lives to later in ways that really show them what's possible. It seems like mental health is important to you, and could you share a little bit more about your perspective on the importance of that and also why joy?

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 28:17

Well, joy is such an important piece of our lives. Joy and happiness are different. Someone can be happy in the moment, but joy is something that you cultivate, in my opinion. I've been inspired for a long time to be studying health and longevity, and part of those studies have had led me to joy. So, like the book by the Dalai Lama, desmond Tutu, it's called the Book of Joy, and they are these incredible people in their 80s that have thrown through this incredible strife and yet they meet life from the lens of joy. And so I was so inspired and that's where I really started to dig deep in my exploration of joy.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 28:59

Your book, the Game of Joy, is so important to the world. I'm excited that you got it out there. I really bought a case of those books and I give them to my patients to actually help in their lives. Another person who was really struggling she was going through a tough time and she'd gone through a tough breakup and she was not happy at work and she was coming in here and I didn't have any more advice, I didn't have any more things to say, and so I gave her your book and I tagged the chapter on joy activators and I said you already know what's blocking your joy. You don't need to focus on that piece, I said, but what you need to do is focus on the joy activators and look at the ways that you can activate joy in big and small ways, because it doesn't have to be complicated and you are the one in control of how your mind works, how your body works on a day-to-day basis and how you meet up with other people is also your personal expression of joy.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 29:58

I come from a place where my dad died when I was four, but I had the gift of my grandparents, who actually had me live with them for a couple of years when I was growing up, and a lot of my mom's friends were very critical of the fact that she sent me away. Well, she sent me to the people that had raised her, and my grandmother was one of six children. She lost her mother in a year and a half old, and these six adults who were her and her brothers and sisters were people that every single time we got together for family parties, it was laughter and joyful and just this incredible love of life, and so I knew that that was possible, regardless of what you've been through. One of my uncles had been a prisoner of war in Japan for six years during World War II, and the things that kept him going was his faith and his love of his family, knowing that they expected him to come home. And so at the end of the war, when he was released, one of the Japanese officers that had been overseeing their cell block actually gave him the strap that he had used on these soldiers and my growth I'm sorry it makes me tear up my uncle hid it back to me and said no, and you were just doing your job and I forgive you. And I think that that's another thing, that forgiveness is just such an important part of getting to this point in our life.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 31:31

The people that live with these poisons of unforgiveness it's really hard, you know is when we talk about that mental health piece. They try to meet people where they are and they think that they've done to themselves that they have not forgiven themselves for, and so they're living in this quagmire of self-heat or self-destruction because something happened that they feel like they should have had control over, and instead of looking forward and saying how can I do different, how can I be different, how can they come out of this in a way that is going to make up for it if you will. And you see families that are broken because there was a disagreement and somebody is so stubborn that they won't allow the forgiveness. You don't have to forget, you don't have to put your guard down and let that person hurt you again, but you can forgive the situation just so that you can heal.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 32:26

A lot of times we get to those positions in the clinic where I start to understand that this physical pain has nothing to do with an injury or degeneration and has everything to do with how the body keeps score. I mean, there's actually a book called the Body Keep Score and the body will keep all the stresses internally and that creates inflammation, that creates spasm, that creates stress. It can increase your cortisol levels and your body has an opportunity to release all of that as you start to work through the mental, physical, emotional stressors that pile on and cause people to have these pains or discomforts in their life.

Kathleen Mundy: 33:09

Wow, you've hit every barker and I can honestly say that I think that we can isolate a particular trait in each relationship and you think, oh my gosh, I never really thought about that, because we always think why did something happen? What's the root of that? And what you just explained to us now seems incredibly simple but incredibly accurate about going to the source, what it is, what we bring to life, the things that are hidden and we bring it in a way that we don't even want to see it show up. So how do we get rid of these energies that are within, from the history and the life experiences that we've had?

Kathleen Mundy: 33:59

Once again, we seem, whenever we have these conversations, the intention was to speak of your practice and how you can bring chymopractry to the elderly and look where we are. We are exactly where we were supposed to be Dealing with things that cause heartache and discomfort and the inability to live a joyful life and experience the things that are available to us. And to that point, I'm going to circle back a little bit. One of the things I know that you're very good at and very, very involved is that you give to your community. Talk to us a little bit about how important you believe that is for the third and fourth chapter of your life.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 34:43

I think it is vital. I think that service to our community, to humanity, is one of the greatest gifts that we were given, and I had the gift of joining a community when I was 25. I moved to this town and we had a very active Rotary Club. I was single, no kids. I was first out of school and I just knew that I wanted to be involved in a community of service and the Rotary Club. We don't talk about our professions so much, I mean you learn what each other does or did, but I was the youngest person in the room and the oldest was in their 80s and currently and very involved in Rotary. I work a lot with youth services because I think that if we can teach the youth of the world that service is fun and you have ways that you can be creative and helpful, that there's an opportunity for them to then take that into the next generations. And so, like one of my best friends in Rotary right now, he just turned 87. He was a pilot in the Navy, actually, and just this incredible man who is constantly serving in ways that he got our club really involved in youth exchange. So we bring young people from around the world to our town. We host them, we send our high schoolers out to other parts of the world, so we have a youth service club at the high school and one of the advisors for that. A couple of the really cool things that we're doing right now is the students are going to be doing a tech day, so we're going to be going to the senior center and the seniors will come and be able to ask any questions they want about how to use apps, how to use Instagram, how to make a reel, how to engage in their email, and they'll be able to do an exchange with the students, using the skills that they have been born with and develop through their early lives, and the seniors will be able to develop new skills that will help them to engage with their own grandchildren. The other thing we're doing is an adopt, a grandparent day.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 36:43

So there's a lot of seniors in town who they don't have family, that are local and they have stories to tell and with a lot of times, I think that when we look back in a lot of cultures, they hold their people that are in their third and fourth chapters of life at the highest esteem and I think a lot of times we take our seniors and we put them away. You know we'll put them in a senior housing unit without really having an expression for how do they get to continue to live an enriched life, and so we want to be able to take our students in to do this, adopt a grandparent program where they'll do it almost like speed dating. They'll sit down, we'll have the seniors at different tables, the students will have conversations with them for five to 10 minutes and then rotate so that the students will each get to hear different stories from at least three to five different people, and then we're going to take the stories and create a project where there'll be an essay or a poster or some kind of gift that we'll be able to give back to the seniors, and then we'll have opportunities where these kids will be able to reconnect with the seniors if they choose, and it's also going to give the seniors an opportunity to figure out what's missing that these kids really need to know about. What do they need to hear about in terms of giving back to their community, engaging with family, like what's important, and what are these students maybe not even thinking about the needs of their own grandparents where they can then take these ideas and go home and really use them. So I think that community service is one of the vital things.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 38:17

More than 50% of my club is over the age of 65. And sitting at the knees of these people and just listening to the stories and the life that they have lived and helping them to continue to feel like they matter I think it's really important, because when you're sitting at home alone for hours on end and you're not really sure where your place in the world is, I think a lot of people just need to be reminded that the reason that they've done it to this point in their life matters, and they all have a story. I love when I hear that my friends, especially the ones that have retired, are writing in book or engaging in a writing class or writing process to give the story of their life to their family, because I think that that is such an incredible gift to be able to tell the stories of the previous generations and share that.

Kathleen Mundy: 39:09

I think you've hit the mark again because it's really important, for, especially when grandparents perhaps don't live in the same city or even close by, I think that multi-generational aspect of relationships absolutely have been lost. Yasmin knows my story a little bit, where I lost my mom when I was 23. My children had never had an opportunity to meet her, my youngest daughter. When she came out of university and started working with me and my company, I said okay, here's what you're going to do, part of giving back you're going to join the Rotary Club. She said oh, mom, they're all really old. I said you're absolutely right, that's why you're going to do it. And she had over 10 years. Oh no, 15 years later she has great relationships with people in their 80s and I think that's a wonderful pseudo grandparent for her and she understands that.

Kathleen Mundy: 40:10

Generational differences Again, that goes to family dynamic. It isn't necessarily always have to be your own biological family. It's learning that dynamic so that you can have better exchanges with people in your life. So I love that story. I think that's amazing and the Rotary Club has just done amazing things around the world. I think their mission was to eradicate polio. My mom had polio, so they helped our family tremendously at that point in her young life as well.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 40:40

But one of the other things that I think has really come out of Rotary for me is realizing that these people have often slowed down in their life. That takes them longer to remember a thought or to consider a memory and it reminds me that sometimes, when I'm going a million miles an hour, that it's really important for me to slow down so that I can be with the people in front of me. It's easy for me to just go like a butterfly from flit to flit to flit and or hummingbird, and I have to remind myself that what they have to say is just as important as what I have to say and sometimes I learn something new that I just discovering. A lot of times I use these men and women as advisors because they have so much joy in what they're doing and I'm inspired. My goal actually is to live to be 110. Here's my plan I'm going to live to be 110.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 41:41

I decided that at 108, I'm going to the rockest party in the country for the tricentennial, so in 2076. I don't know if it's going to be DC or New York or Boston or where it's going to be. And my husband said that he doesn't think he's going to live that long. He only thinks he's going to live to be about 100. And so I have permission to take two guys halfway. So I plan to have about two 55 year old hotties on each side of me and we're going to be going to whatever the fireworks and Fourth of July display or whatever that looks like. That's where we're going.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 42:15

So then started to realize like why am I going to wait until I'm 108? Like I'm still going to live that long and in order to get there, I want to live healthy and vibrant and vital. I don't want to just exist at that age. I want to do what it takes to get there and I've done so much longevity research on health and aging because I think it's important and it's something that I want for myself. But I decided that, starting in 2026. I'm going to start exploring every five years and going to the big parties. I've heard Austin has a fantastic Fourth of July. I've scubaid. I heard there's one in Nebraska.

Kathleen Mundy: 42:53

I'm like I don't know what's there, but I want to go see it and I think, just having these targets, that we can make it to create joyful enrichment you again, you're ticking all the boxes for me, because the planning of an event in the future and the looking forward to it gives you joy in and of itself. If you don't have something to look forward to, you are consistently looking backwards.

Yasmin Nguyen: 43:18

That's so true, and I think part of this is also surrounding ourselves with those that inspire possibilities. I think sometimes when we get stuck is when we're in our own little circle and we can only see as far as our arms and we aren't surrounded with others that can show us like wow, I can have two 50 and five year old hotties next to me at 100 plus. So it's really important to have the people that show us what's possible.

Kathleen Mundy: 43:46

Well, it certainly is a motivating aspect. When I listen to you, laura, I mean gosh, you have such a wonderful outlook. And in order for us to appreciate that, I think the fact that we've had an opportunity to really listen to what you have enriched your life with and how you are bringing joy to your own existence through your attempts to bring joy to others. It's a gift that you've been given, and I'm very grateful that that gift is now something we can share with our audience.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 44:17

Well, thank you. I'm actually really excited to share your message with the people that I'm around. So when I go to Rotary on Thursday, I'm excited to tell them where they can find real retirement on YouTube and to share with them that this isn't just your basic financial here's how you get there but really to be able to look at enriching how do you get there in a way that is joyful and vibrant and interactive, because that's the message that I see you guys taking to the world that is so powerful.

Kathleen Mundy: 44:46

Well, thank you.

Kathleen Mundy: 44:47

In fact, one of the first presentations I did was to a Rotary group and explaining what our whole joyful retirement project was all about.

Kathleen Mundy: 44:57

And it was accepted and embraced and it was a real comfort to me because you know, with any project that you do, whether it's trying to enrich and talk about longevity and elders lives or whether it's trying to bring joy to people, we sometimes question am I doing this for me or for them, or am I on the right path and how am I going to get to the next step? And I think that from our perspective and I hope I can speak for you, yasmin is that the sharing of it has to happen. We encourage people to subscribe and do all the normal things that you do, but it's more important that they share it with a friend to get our message out. We're not the first people to ever talk about retirement or believe deeply on how to improve your retirement years, but I believe that we're the first that really want to share information that's going to make a difference, a meaningful difference, in their mindset and in their movements going forward, both physical and mental.

Yasmin Nguyen: 46:00

Laura, you have been such a gift today, sharing so many different aspects of this journey. How can people learn more about you and I hear you've got an upcoming podcast in which we get a chance to dive a little bit deeper into your exploration of joy and the people and the stories that you have to share?

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 46:20

I do and thank you for that. So the podcast will be called the Dr Joy Show DRJY Show and it'll be on all of your major platforms, and I couldn't be more excited. It's been a project in the making for the last two and a half years and it really came out of the desire to write a book about the journey to joy. And I started out with wanting to interview my friends who are over 65 about living that life through the lens of joy, how they got there and what it takes in your life. How do you have to prepare? Who do you need to surround yourself with? And in the process I had one of my coaches say well, if you're going to do these interviews, why don't you do a podcast? So the podcast was birthed two and a half years ago, then manifesting it all this time and finally we're getting it off the ground.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 47:11

And I'm so excited because my first guest is Yasmin. That was I love and your expression of joy and the joy project that you bring to the world is so important. And then my second guest is a man who has, in his mid 70s. He's been a mentor of mine for almost 30 years and has really taught me how you get to each stage of life and you don't have to lose your enthusiasm just because society has put this stamp of aging on you.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 47:43

And so that's the Dr Joy shows really going to be about having conversations with people on their journey to joy. And what does that look like and how do we manifest it, and what are some of the things that we can bring to the world, like joy hacks that's just such a fun thing to consider. Where you can hack into joy, like having a date with your puppy. For me it's going down to the beach and seeing waves or going kayaking, watching Greece Like I've seen it 50 times, but it doesn't change how much I love to sing and dance to the music. So I think that the Dr Joy show, for me, is a continuation of being able to express joy in the world in ways that I can share it with even more people.

Yasmin Nguyen: 48:27

You're a true joy ambassador and I'm so grateful that we get to create and inspire joy together in this world.

Kathleen Mundy: 48:34

Well, I certainly have experienced it today Not that I don't every day with Yasmin. He brings a lot of joy and it's so wonderful to see this blossoming in many different areas. Well, you guys are doing such great work.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 48:48

So thank you for including me in your project, and I love that I get to take your episodes and then turn around and share them with my mother and with my friends. I just think that the message is powerful and important.

Yasmin Nguyen: 49:01

Thank you Well, as Kathleen invited us all to share these messages with friends, loved ones and others that could really use maybe some inspiration and new hope, possibility and some guidance, and you've truly been such a guide and inspiration today, laura. So thank you for being here with us and being so generous with your experience your wisdom and your joy.

Kathleen Mundy: 49:25

Well, this was wonderful. I love, love, love all the people that we interview because, yeah, okay, I'm in my fourth quarter.

Dr. Laura LaJoie: 49:33

You're late in your third quarter.

Kathleen Mundy: 49:35

Well, actually, you know what this is so funny? Because I've always told my husband I'm gonna live to 126. And he said, kathleen, I hate to tell you this, but you're not gonna live to be 126. I said, okay, if that's the case, as long as I'm on the smucker jar, that's my goal. I went the smucker jar. On the Today Show there's a smucker jar and if you're 100, you get your photo. So that was always my deal.

Kathleen Mundy: 49:58

But I said, okay, if I'm not gonna be 126, that means I have to pack a lot of stuff into my life now, and so this project is actually one of those things, because I don't know if the husband shared with you or not, but I did retire, but it only lasted three months and it wasn't for me. So I'm packing all that stuff. There's just so much stuff to do in life that you have to decide when. And someone said to me the other day there's a good friend who is an amazing musician and he's decided to cut another LP and go on the road and tour and all this kind of stuff again, and he's in his 60s. And he said to me I just decided, if not now, when, and if not me, who? Who? That's right.

Yasmin Nguyen: 50:50

Thank you for taking time to join us today. If you enjoyed this episode or found it valuable, please subscribe, follow and leave a comment or review on your favorite platform. If you have friends, clients or loved ones who are retired or thinking about retirement, we invite you to share this show with them. Check out the show notes with the links to the resources mentioned in this episode at wwwrealretirementshowcom. Remember, retirement is a joyful journey we get to experience together. Join us next week for another Real Retirement Conversation.