Authorities Unplugged Radio with Ludie Hansen

0:00Hey everyone, welcome to Authorities Unplugged Radio. This is the place where we bring you the stories that inspire from prestigious professionals across the globe. From their toughest trials to their greatest triumphs, we are uncovering the journeys that define success. Plus, stick around for some game-changing insights and powerful suggestions to fuel your own ambitions. Let's dive in and make this a fantastic experience together. It is my honor to introduce a woman whose life embodies resilience, passion and the power of reinvention. Her name is Loody Hansen. She is the visionary founder of Loody's Revival,

1:00a movement dedicated to restoring hope, dignity and emotional strength, caregivers, families and individuals navigating the challenges of dementia, eging trauma and life transformations, but her work didn't begin in theory. It began in her own life, its experiences. I'm not going to tell you all those experiences. Loody is going to share with us some of that stock. That's so nice to have you today. I'm excited to be here and honored. Can you tell me a little bit about what brought you to this? Absolutely. It's been around about journey. I'll say, I've been a speech-language pathologist for 34 years, coming up on 35 pretty quick here. I've always loved working with adults and working with neurogenic brain

2:08disorders and went through a season of loss with my daughter getting cancer, getting pushed out of a job, kind of becoming agoraphobic and shutting down for about two and a half years, and then trying to bring myself back up after also losing my parents and my mother-in-law and all that, in a matter of two years, two and a half years, and trying to bring myself out of isolation, I guess we'll say. I needed to get back out to work and I kept trying get back into my normal routine and it just wasn't cutting it. It just, it wasn't joyous anymore. We'll say that. And I'm like, I need to do something a little bit different. So I tried, you know, I during my journey of loss and change and healing with my daughter, I ended up losing 100 pounds. I got, you know, got myself healthy and I decided, you

3:13know, well, maybe I can help other people, you know, lose weight and do that. And I, you know, I tried and my heart just was not in it. And then I tried, oh, maybe I can help people get through their own trauma, you know, I've been through it. I've had to deal with it loss and my heart wasn't in it. And so through, through a friend's challenge, I was trying to work on an offer to give and I thought, I don't like any of this. And, you know, they brought me back to, well, what did you like? What was, what's your favorite thing to do? And it turned out it was, you know, before 2020 hit, I was teaching and educating and training, which is one of my favorite things to do. Individuals, families, communities about dementia and about the different levels of dementia and how to interact with them. And just being that support for the caregivers and what sparked my interest again. And my

4:19heart got big again. And now I smile all the time again because I'm back to doing what I absolutely love. You know, you've lived through mental health challenges, illness, air giving first hand. I'll have those experiences shaped the support you give to caregivers today. Today, when I'm working with families, I focus a lot on the importance of caring for yourself because through my own caring of my daughter, my ailing parents, giving my sister breaks, I didn't take care of myself. And my body took its, you know, had its toll on my body. And to me, the importance of the caregiver taking care of themselves is so critical for them to be able to provide the loving care and support that they should and want to be offering their loved one. And having lived through it, I know

5:26the challenge. And to me, I found just little things that could help me as things progress. And just being able to be in their shoes, know what they're feeling, knowing some possible solutions just opens my heart. And I serve with passion in that way. So I absolutely feel like I can give them the support they need in order to provide the care that they really want to give. A central theme for what you talked about is revival. Yes. What does that really mean to you? Is it just recovery or something deeper? I really feel like it's something deeper. And it's, it was, I originally was thinking about a name of healing branches because there's like so many individual little branches out there that, you know, are part of that caregiving experience,

6:28especially caregiving for a loved one with dementia. It's the revival piece is, when I got pushed out of my job, I felt lost. I felt like I was worthless and that I did not have a life. And those carry over to that caregiving component. You feel like, oh my gosh, I'm not doing enough. Oh my gosh, I said the wrong thing or oh my gosh, I don't have any energy. I've totally lost myself working through that and learning how to interact and communicate and be a part of your loved ones life, even though they're changing right in front of you is the revival. There's so many different pieces and aspects. It's not just one thing. And that theme of revival is, you might need a revival every minute one day. Other days, it may only be once or twice and sometimes it might be a day or two down where you need that revival. But it's reviving your soul, reviving your heart,

7:35reviving your mind so that you can be out there and be the best at whatever you're doing. In my mind, what Ludi's revival does is it balances the practical side, mainly speech therapy, the major dementia care, communication strategies with the emotional and spiritual side, healing, identity, restoration and mental health. Is that correct? That is absolutely correct. It is definitely all-encompassing and I focus a lot on communication is a huge part. Obviously, I've been a speech pathologist for about 34 years and it's been a part of my life, but it's not the same when you're communicating with someone with dementia because their whole brain is changing and it's learning how to understand that, changing brain and learning that it's not personal.

8:38There's just so many pieces of it. If I hadn't leaned back on my faith and my process, I might still be a Gora Fulbeck actually. So, you know, it's just a whole, a whole encompassing of definitely spiritual mind, body, communication. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about dementia caregiving and how do you help families overcome them? Absolutely. Yes. Anyone who does not, most people who end up caring for a loved one with dementia don't know anything about it to begin with and you're not taught, you know, your family member gets the diagnosis and you leave the office and then there you are. There's like little to no training or education out there is what's going to happen. I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that when they can't communicate with you that they're not communicating, but they are in their own

9:43ways and there are ways to continue to interact and communicate even though it may not be the conversation you used to have. It's learning to read the signals, be in the moment, enjoy the little laughter because if you can bring any piece of joy to your loved one, it brings joy to you and that's what I focus on and work on helping family members understand about their loved one. Yes, they're going to change not everyone's the same and everyone changes differently. It is totally the brain is physically changing and the person with dementia does not have control over it and they go through a morning process before they eventually cannot remember, you know, what's going on.

10:44There's a whole process that occurs as well and that's another one of my big goals is to help the families and that person with dementia through that process as well and you can do that. And you share a story of a family or caregiver who cared to Loody's revival rock bottom and how their journey evolved with your support. Absolutely. So I actually helped a family that their loved one actually had gone into a memory care unit and was was actually about to get kicked out because they kept, you know, being very disruptive and they couldn't figure out why this person was, you know, taking part the window every night and this is partially my story but partially a friend of mine. So they're kind of combined. We both did something very similar and what ended up happening was through a good

11:48history of what that person used to do. They used to put in windows. They were a window installer and what would happen is he'd wake up at night, he'd think he'd be going into work, he'd disassemble his window, put it down and go back to bed. But there was a safety issue with that. So what we ended up doing was after he would fall asleep, we'd set up a card table and we'd put out an exercise and activity for him to do with instructions and instead of taking a part of window, he would come sit at that table and work on that project, finish it, go back to bed and he would be able to sleep through the night and be fine and he didn't get kicked out. But also helping the caregivers at that community understand that there's a there's a reason things like that happen. And if you're working with the individuals in their home, which is like 90% of the population

12:53with dementia have caregivers that are family members at home. Most people can't afford to put someone in a memory care. When you come to situations like, you know, they're just screaming, they're just hitting, they're, you know, I can't, I don't know what to do. We just argue. And it's learning, get out of your box. You know, we think if we give a direction or instruction, we're telling them what to do, they should do it. Well, it's kind of opposite where you need to figure out why they're doing what they're doing or figure out a way you can, if they're doing something that is dangerous, figure out a way to transition them into a different activity and move forward rather than budding heads and then everyone getting upset and then all the tension and the stress arises. So everyone has individual things that occur and that's my goal is to help people work through those those things and then see it and and and and in their in their

13:56eyes and the the person with dementia's eyes. So even your personal history of loss, health straddle struggles and family trauma. How have you managed to maintain hope, resilience and compassion and how do you help others do the same? Yes. I would say getting back to my spiritual, getting back to going to church, getting back to reading my Bible every morning, getting back to getting out and interacting with people is what brought my hope back, looking at things from a different perspective and that is a lot of what I work on. You can be of any faith, you can be of any, you know, religion, whatever, whatever. It is that you believe, but having that come from within and feel confident in it and know that you none of us are perfect.

15:02We're never going to be perfect, but we can make changes and we can adjust and we can learn. The person with dementia is not at a point where they can do that. So we are the ones as caregivers that need to help work through the situations and I, with my experience with that, I, my mom and I went through a lot of battle back and forth and then I finally realized, you know what, this is silly. You know, let's just not introduce those things that cause upheaval or whatever, where we argue about things, which, you know, parents and daughters, we do that, but, you know, learning to take, it's kind of like taking the higher road, I guess is the one way to say it, and be, just be, be the person that we're physically able to change our thought process, where

16:03our loved one is in a position where they can't. Just, it allowed me to see it first hand and then try to work through it and I certainly was not perfect. I know that and I want others to know that you don't have to be perfect. Well, how did you avoid burnout today while helping others avoid it as well? Absolutely, that's a big one. And one of the biggest things I do is make sure I take that time for myself every morning. Some days it's two minutes, some days it's 30 minutes, but I take at least a little bit of time every morning to start my day with affirmations, positive thought, reading the Bible, listening to praise music, whatever is calming for me. And then as the day goes on, I might write down us a comment or a Bible verse is what I turn to when I start to get a little on edge or as something's changing and it's like, wait, no,

17:09I'm doing what I love to do and I need to stop and take that breath, take that big breath, blow it out, relax. And that's actually a great way also to give yourself a pause instead of just reacting in certain situations. So what is your vision for the future of Loody's revival? Where do you see it going in five to ten years? Yeah, I would like to be a referred source. Somebody who, you know, my name is known for doing what I do. My top goals is to really expand the reach of Loody's revival and to support more families that are walking through the challenges. I want to be able to offer workshops and small group mentorships and practical resources that help the caregivers understand, you know, the changing brain, the process. I want to have

18:14on my platform on my website for anyone to come and get and just be a resource. In the back of my mind recently, I've been thinking if I can get to the point, it'd be great to be able to figure out how to do a 50, not for profit, like being able to give people what they need in the situation because there's so many people out there that can't afford extra support in any way. I've been looking at some options that are out there now and other states and other countries and I'm like, that would be amazing to have in a lot more places. So how can people find out more about you and what you have to offer? Yes. The best place to find out information would be my website, which is loody's revival.com. You better spell that one. Yeah, absolutely.

19:14How many of everybody is going to do that properly? It's my first name is Loody, L-U-D, as in dog, I-E, and revival, R-E-V-I-V-A-L.com. It has information about me. It has information about the different programs I offer and it's growing. Things are changing. It's constantly changing as I look more into it and try to get things more available to anyone and everyone. So that is the best place. There's a link to get a one-on-one chat with me, a Zoom call or a Google Meet, whatever's preferable for you. And I also have a Gmail or not a Gmail. My email is just info at loody's revival.com. So, you know, they can reach me that way too. Loody, thank you so much for sharing your time with us today.

20:20I thank you for giving me the chance to share. Okay, friends, I encourage you to check out this site by for now and have a fantastic day. That's a wrap on this episode of Authorities Unplugged Radio. Thank you for tuning in and sharing this journey with us as we spotlight extraordinary stories from around the globe. Remember, every trial has a triumph and every triumph holds a lesson. Don't forget to subscribe, share and join us next time for more inspiration and insights from the world's most remarkable professionals. Until then, keep striving, keep thriving and stay