<yt-formatted-string force-default-style="" class="style-scope ytd-watch-metadata">Find a New Career While Caregiving

Or Call: (253) 219-7131

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

How to Start Writing Your Memoirs

Lori Hutson joins Suzanne to talk about writing memoirs, an intriguing aspect of finding purpose and connection. Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/. Lori says, "we all have it in us, in some way or another. The first step is reflecting on our lives, just thinking about as journaling. But also, coming up with a theme to help you focus: what do you want to accomplish with it? I think about my family members — I would have loved it if my dad had written some of these things down."

Lori and Suzanne are discussing how to achieve social wellness https://answersforelders.com/vitality..., one of the eight fundamental principles of wellness. Lori, owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington, talks about the wellness mindset promoted by Humana.

You can connect with Lori through:

Or Call: (253) 219-7131

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Find a New Career While Caregiving

Many baby boomers are starting new careers, redefining retirement, doing things they always wanted to do. Flexibility is important to many baby boomers, whether they are looking for a new job or to launch their own business in order to make a difference. Lori discusses getting over barriers to move forward. During caregiving downtime, while you're not able to leave the house, you could to take online courses. You could connect with support groups and network. Think about transferable skills you've gained while caregiving, such as organization, leadership, communication skills, adaptability, and problem solving.

Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz said, "Nobody every accomplished anything by listening to naysayers." Think positive. People who say you can't do something are the people who are standing around watching as you do it.

You can connect with Lori through:

Or Call: (253) 219-7131

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Living Your Bucket List: Moving Abroad

Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/. Lori talks about seniors traveling and relocating to places like Mexico, Costa Rica, and Portugal, which have a lower cost of living and nice climates. Lower health care costs are an important consideration. The choice to live abroad is affected by health care options, access to providers, affordable plans, availability of ambulance services, and others.

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Find Passion and Joy While Caregiving

Family caregivers, caring for a spouse or a senior loved one, are often floundering in the world. A study said 40% of family caregivers leave or lose their jobs due to caregiving. They spend 70% more time on social media than non-family caregivers. Having left careers behind in their late 40s to mid-50s, they lose pensions and long-term-care benefits.

This segment focuses on how to redefine our lives even in the midst of caregiving. Sometimes we discount the skills gained while caregiving. Think about the things that give you passion or joy: hobbies, connecting with others, or eventually potential new careers. Keep an open mind. For Lori, having been in office management, the aftermath of caregiving launched her into a sales career, then now what she's doing with Medicare. Perhaps it's a time to consider correspondence courses. Suzanne had always wanted to plant roses, so during her caregiving downtime she researched and planted a rose garden. Perhaps you always wanted to take a dance class. While caregiving, make time to explore these ideas.

Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about occupational wellness (having a sense of purpose) and social wellness (connecting with community and culture), two of the foundational principles of wellness. Lori, owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington, talks about the wellness mindset promoted by Humana.

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Forgiveness: Harm from Anger of Betrayal

Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about physical and emotional wellness. This segment focuses on forgiveness: betrayal, perceived feelings kept sometimes since childhood. Learning to open up and talk about it is important, recognizing that you're feeling it and why.

As mentioned on the show, Lori and Suzanne previously discussed forgiveness extensively in the podcasts How to Forgive, Part 1 https://answersforelders.com/how-to-f... and How to Forgive, Part 2 https://answersforelders.com/how-to-f...

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Forgiveness: Harm from Feeling Resentful

This segment focuses on is resentment: betrayal, perceived feelings kept sometimes since childhood. Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about physical and emotional wellness. Lori, owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington, talks about the wellness mindset promoted by Humana.

Being in an angered state leads to increased stress, muscle tightness, chronic pain, sleep disturbances, emotional eating, digestive issues, increased blood pressure, and cardiovascular issues. Emotionally it can lead to self-isolation. Getting professional help can make a positive change in your life. First, work toward recognizing that you're doing it.

Lori and Suzanne previously discussed forgiveness extensively in the podcasts How to Forgive, Part 1 https://answersforelders.com/how-to-f... and How to Forgive, Part 2 https://answersforelders.com/how-to-f...

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Forgiveness: Tools for Healing

This segment focuses on how we begin curing ourselves from harboring feelings of resentment or betrayal, sometimes for decades. Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about physical and emotional wellness. Lori, owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington, talks about the wellness mindset promoted by Humana.

Recognizing that we're holding onto these emotions is important, as is releasing our need to put our expectations onto other people are big things. Anger often comes from unmet expectations that build up and cause frustrations over time.

Ask yourself, what are our own expectations? Realizing that others don't necessarily feel and react the same way we do is helpful.

The next step might be to investigate our inventory of feelings. Ways to do that include meditation, prayer, and journaling. When we start writing down your feelings and the history behind them, it can help spot patterns in your thinking, and is cathartic in and of itself.

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Forgiveness and Family

Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about physical and emotional wellness. Lori, owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington, talks about the wellness mindset promoted by Humana. In this segment, Lori and Suzanne talk about how to come together with your family in a non-confrontational way, a non-judgmental way. Lori and Suzanne previously discussed forgiveness extensively in the podcasts How to Forgive, Part 1 https://answersforelders.com/how-to-f... and How to Forgive, Part 2 https://answersforelders.com/how-to-f...

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

How to Forgive, Part 1

These two segments focus on forgiveness, which doesn't right a wrong, but it does disconnect us from being a slave to the experience. The forgiveness is really for ourselves. Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about physical and emotional wellness. If you're wondering to stay active and vibrant in the second half of your life, we hope you'll join us through this series. Lori, owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington, talks about the wellness mindset promoted by Humana. In this segment, Suzanne and Lori describe resentments they held onto for decades that affected their lives. In part 2, they talk about how they were able to let go of those grudges and forgive.

Suzanne shares a deeply personal experience that she doesn't normally talk about. When she was 22, a 14 year old skateboarder collided with her car while she was driving down a country road, and he died on impact. The sheriff sent her home, saying it wasn't her fault, but she was nonetheless distraught. Her mother was out of town, and when Suzanne called her on the phone and asked her to come home to help her deal with what had happened, she refused. Suzanne ended up harboring hurt, betrayal, anger, and resentment toward her mother for decades. Those feelings affected her life's outlook, in particular preventing her from being willing to trust and rely on others.

It's a relief to learn how to let go of the expectations we have on others. Learning to communicate not only with others, but get in touch with your own stories that you tell yourself about your life.

Lori shared a personal experience as well. “I'll share a story that I don't share very often, in even my close circle, about my kids' father. I had my kids really young. I really had a lot of things going on, and I really wanted this family, and I jumped into a relationship in my teens. I had my kids really young, and then he turned out to be a major drug addict. And so when my kids were 14 and 16, he tried to force them to do drugs with him. And of course I didn't know any of this was going on, and people that are on drugs, they can snow-job you. I thought he was clean. He was spending time with the kids, and come to find out he was pretty much forcing them into doing drugs or persuading them. My older son was 16 and he was at the point in his life where he could turn his back and say no. My younger son was 14, and he got into it, and that started a very long, eight-year battle for him. And he's doing fantastic now.

"But it was a challenge every day. I wanted to hang their dad — I wanted to hang him up by his toenails. And I was just so angry, hurt, resentment and blame, and it was really easy for me to shift all the things that I needed to take responsibility for, and put those on him. So all my kids problems were his fault. And so it was a long process for me to go through that. And I think one of the things for me is acknowledging, I had to just acknowledge where I was, forgive myself, because I did the best I could, I didn't have a lot to work with, because of my childhood. So I had to forgive myself and then accept responsibility for the things that I did that were not.”

Suzanne adds, " I think we hear things, like you can't change anybody else, you can only change yourself. The other thing I always think about is, life is nothing but a mirror of our consistent thoughts. And I truly believe this, we're gonna attract that type of energy towards us what we're putting out and, and in order to to have a fuller life, it's like banging the drum in your head, it doesn't make you attract the kind of people you wanna be around, number one. But even more importantly, it damages yourself, it damages your self esteem, it damages your own health, because of the resentments that you're you're churning in your head.

"One of the things that we want to talk about in our next segment is about how to let go of those resentments and how to move through it."

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

How to Forgive, Part 2

How do we identify resentments and work toward releasing them? Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution podcast series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about physical and emotional wellness. This segment continues from Part 1, in which Suzanne and Lori described resentments they held onto for decades that influenced their lives. Today they talk about how they were able to let go of those grudges and forgive.

Just realizing you're holding onto resentments helps — sometimes people don't even realize they're doing it. An outside person asking some questions can bring it out, and recognizing it is the first step.

Lori suggests one way to adjust is to try looking at events from a different perspective, with empathy: have you thought about how the other person thinks? In Suzanne's case, she wasn't ready to deal with it when she went through counseling. It wasn't until she "got" it, realizing that the more she told the story, the only person it was hurting was her.

We may have resentments towards siblings, parents, or others. Releasing of expectations is a solution. We're often expecting others to behave the same way we would, and that's not always the case. We have to let go of that. It can manifest itself in physical ways, so it's important to let these go. If you have these resentments, it often triggers other behavior, or contact with a person triggers those feelings. Lori adds, "If you have that resentment, and there's something that triggers it, maybe a place or whatever it is, to maybe work towards either — or maybe it's a person, there's a person that you interact with that is triggering those resentments — limit your contact with that person or just don't go to that place if there's a certain place that triggers that. Maybe work towards avoiding that as much as possible."

Suzanne adds, "I wish for each and every one of you that are listening today to think about how you can release your attachment to things that have hurt you. I would love if you'd share that on social media, and think about ways that you can forgive. I know I'm gonna definitely share this one on my personal Facebook page. I think it's important that we all look at how we can have a better life moving forward and certainly forgiveness is a huge piece of it."

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

In Case of Emergency, Be Organized

Keeping things in order is critical, so that in an emergency, or if you pass away, your loved ones or executors can find critical documents, particularly to know your wishes for what you want done. Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution Podcast Series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, to talk about this aspect of emotional wellness.

This causes so much stress for family if mom is in the hospital, and they need to find power of attorney documents, or passwords to get into her phone if she's passed away. Having an up to date "life book," as Lori calls it, avoids these sorts of hassles. It may not help with your own personal emotional wellness, but it will certainly help your family's.

For example, does mom have a life insurance policy? How would her children know that? A lot of people have a will, but a life book can serve as a precursor. Choose a format: paper or digital. Make categories of your personal information, doctor contact information, medical information in case you're in the hospital, financial records, legal documents including a will, important emergency contact information. It can be a three-ring binder with sections. You'd want to tell certain people what's in there, such as people who would serve as your power of attorney or executor of your will.

List your valuables. List personal inventory to help your family members know about. Lori's mom gave away a painting from her mom she later found out was worth $7,000. Also list items you want to bequeath to people, similar to what's in your will — but updating your will is expensive, whereas you can update this whenever you like. Take an opportunity to include a personal message for your family after you're gone.

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Health Benefits of a Positive Attitude

This segment is about how having a positive attitude makes a difference to our own healing and physical health. Lori Hutson joins Suzanne on behalf of Vitality Revolution Podcast Series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, talking about physical and emotional wellness.

Techniques include prayer, meditation, self-awareness, acceptance, self compassion, defining and setting clear goals and expectations, visualizing that you want health and wellness, healing, feeling good, and affirmations. Give ourselves grace. Find the things we have to be grateful for. Look for the diamonds in our lives. We have an opportunity to look for the things to be thankful for. We have choices in how we behave and how we feel, and we can find the positives. Laughter is important – laughter is healing, find things to laugh about, get yourself in that mindset. Bring joy and laughter to your life.

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Focus on Preventive Measures: Medicare

On behalf of Vitality Revolution Podcast Series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, Lori Hutson joins Suzanne. Lori is owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington.

Suzanne says, "I am so thrilled to be able to launch this brand new program: "The Vitality Revolution." It's how to think about your wellness — Vitality, the eight foundational principles of wellness. And each month here on Answers for Elders, we're going to be focusing on two of the eight foundational principles. And this month will be on physical and emotional wellness."

Lori describes an experience with her family that brought her to her current career. "I grew up on a farm, and my dad was out in the field morning to night, and I do not remember one time growing up that he was ever sick. And it was amazing. The only time he ever went to the doctor was to get stitches because he cut himself on a piece of equipment or something like that. And so when he retired, he didn't go to the doctor. He went in because his leg was hurting, and he got diagnosed with cancer. By the time they found it, it was pancreatic cancer and gone into bone cancer. It was very serious at that point. And so they were telling me he doesn't have insurance. I was in my 30s, not even thinking about Medicare, that wasn't even on my radar. And so I opened up his wallet, there was a card in there and I said, yes, he does. He has it. He has Medicare. We'll come to find out it was only Medicare part A. He never took his Medicare part B and he was 81 years old. I got thrown into the Medicare maze, and his treatment's not being covered, and we had to sign up for Medicare. And I found a lady that helped me and I grabbed onto her like a lifeline. And so that's what really got me interested in doing what I'm doing."

Lori goes over the basics of what's covered under various Medicare plans, and also mentions services that a lot of people aren't aware are covered under Medicare. “I think a lot of people know your general test, that you can go in and have a flu shot, you can have pneumonia shot. Well, now the shingles vaccines and the DPAP, tetanus, those vaccines are all covered 100% now, that's a Medicare mandate. Those injections were pretty expensive for people. So I think that's one thing that people don't realize. I always recommend to people, because of what happened to my dad, go in and get those general tests done.

"Then there are things. There's more to diabetes management under Preventative that a lot of people don't realize. And then cardiovascular, there's some behavioral management on that. Depression screening, there's a stop smoking program through your Preventative. You've got colorectal cancer screenings. And now most of the plans are covering those at 100%, whether it's screening or it's diagnostic. The other thing I want to touch on is the wellness visit, because the advantage plans will cover a physical and a wellness visit, and there is a difference. So if you're going in and you have just original Medicare, you have a Welcome to Medicare physical, and that is a one-time thing. After that, Medicare doesn't cover your physical every year, but they cover a wellness exam. A wellness visit is your planning session — they'll ask when did you have your last colon screening? When did you have a bone density test? Have you had your vaccines? What's the plan for next year? Do you need the diabetes management program? Those types of things. That's your wellness visit. If you're going to your doctor and they're touching your body, that is a physical. They're looking in your ears, nose, all that kind of thing, that's a physical and the Advantage plans cover that 100% and then there's some blood work."

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Focus on Preventive Measures: Dental

On behalf of Vitality Revolution Podcast Series https://answersforelders.com/vitality... gold sponsor Humana https://www.humana.com/, Medicare expert and insurance agent Lori Hutson joins Suzanne. Lori is owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington.

This segment addresses dental health benefits available through Medicare Advantage programs. Dental health impacts our overall health and becomes more important as we age. Unaddressed oral infections can progress into your bloodstream and throughout your body to become something more serious. If you have to be treated for some condition, it's possible doctors will put off treating that if you have a dental problem, and have that treated first.

Lori says, “If you have original Medicare, you do have some coverage for a medical appointment, very limited. If you have something like a tumor in your mouth, or mouth cancer, things like that, that will be covered under original Medicare. I had an example, a member I was working with, she fell and she broke off all of her bottom teeth. Well, getting the teeth removed, that was a medical appointment, so that was covered under her medical, but the restoration wasn't covered. Then she needed a bridge, or implants, and that was not covered. So the Medicare Advantage plans, they will add in benefits, and dental is a huge issue right now, almost all of them now cover the basics. So they're gonna get cleanings, exams, X-rays, a couple of fillings. That's pretty standard, but then some of the plans — depending on your eligibility, depending on where you live, what's available for you — they will cover root canals, crowns, those types of things as well."

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Focus on Preventive Measures: Emotional Wellness

On behalf of Vitality Revolution Podcast Series gold sponsor Humana, Lori Hutson joins Suzanne. Lori is owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington. This segment focuses on emotional wellness: how do we nurture and be nurtured? It' how we can feel a general positive sense of well-being.

Lori says, "It's really managing our well-being, to take charge of that. We've been emotional beings for centuries, but it started coming to the forefront really in the 40s and 50s that psychologists and psychiatrists started thinking, oh, hey, wait a second, maybe we should become more aware of our emotional well-being. And then in the 70s, 80s, it really started ticking off. We are becoming a society that is more and more aware, and recognizing that this is really essential. It's not just love, or something just to think about. It's about our self talk and what we say out loud. Words do have a lot of meaning. We're talking about ourselves, or joking about ourselves. Or somebody pays you a compliment you say, oh, well, yeah. You really need to learn to accept that and love ourselves and I know it can be really difficult.

"But you might give gratitude. That's huge. If you think of one thing to be grateful for... the more we're in gratitude, the more our self-esteem flourishes. I have had a ritual for a long time where I get up in the morning and I write down five things that I'm grateful for, and it might be something so simple — we were talking offline about our pets, and it could be some funny little thing that my dog Ruby did, or our kids came over for Mother's Day and watching our little kids go through 500 water balloons. So tiny. But if we're just letting life float by, and we're not really recognizing those things, we're really missing an opportunity."

You can connect with Lori through:

Hear more of Lori's podcasts on Answers for Elders https://answersforelders.com/tag/lori....

Learn more about Answers for Elders, the North Star in Navigating Senior Care, at https://answersforelders.com/welcome-....

Focus on Preventive Measures: Primary Care

On behalf of Vitality Revolution Podcast Series gold sponsor Humana, Lori Hutson joins Suzanne. Lori is owner of L.J. Hudson Insurance LLC in Washington. Regarding physical wellness, this segment focuses on the evolution of primary care. The overall landscape has changed with the advancement of tele-heath, being able to do visits from home.

Lori says, “If there's a silver lining in our industry with COVID, it forced people to use technology. Because when you're working with older folks, we're resistant to change, and I don't want to have to learn something new. And then, with the COVID restrictions, we had to. Tele-health has really added a new element to it. So you can be sitting in the comfort of your own home, set up the appointment, and have your primary care visit that way. I remember maybe 10 years ago being down with bronchitis, and I knew it was bronchitis. I had it once before. I called my doctor and they said no, we can't prescribe anything, because we have to see you. Well, my husband was working full time. I didn't want him to take time off. I couldn't drive, I was too sick. So by the time I felt well enough to stand up, I thought, well, I'm on the way to get better anyway. And so I think that, for some of those types of things, tele-health has really helped.

"I want to talk a little bit about our future. There are less and less primary care doctors available. What's happening is in the medical schools, the students now, for the most part, they're going for specialties, they want to be a cardiologist or an anesthesiologist. Primary care is suffering right now. And so I just think in another 10 years, what the heck is gonna happen, because there's not many students coming out, the older doctors are retiring. The insurance companies are really recognizing that. There's gotta be some innovative ways to help resolve some of these issues. One of the things that people are doing is this concierge doctor system, where you pay a monthly fee to have a primary care doctor on call. That could be $2- to $10,000 a year. If people can afford that, then they've got their doctor on call at any time.

Suzanne mentions now that One Medical has been purchased by Amazon, you can sign up through Amazon. Lori adds, "And the thing about One Medical is that is a national program. And so they have their One Medical, and then they have their One Medical Seniors. If you're looking at Amazon, and you see the One Medical, that has a monthly fee, but the One Medical Seniors does not have a monthly fee. That's embedded into your health care. That's one of the ways that some of the insurance companies are are trying to come up with some ways to help people. It's kind of a hybrid between having that concierge doctor on call all the time, and then having your normal primary care physician that you go in and you sit in the waiting room."

You can connect with Lori through: