In Our Sandwich Era: Navigating Tricky Conversations with Our Parents

In this episode, Laurie shares a number of pointers to help you navigate having the tough conversations with your parents about long-term care and end-of-life issues. After last week's episode about talking with your spouse, several listeners asked for this follow-on episode to help them better approach tricky conversations with their parents.

Laurie draws from her own experience, and shares simple tips to help you prepare for and normalize conversations with your parents, treat them with the dignity and respect that they have earned, and show them that you have their best interests at heart.

This one is a must-listen for any midlife woman whose parents are still alive because even if she isn't currently going through these issues, she will someday. And as Laurie says, talking with your parents about these issues is just like talking with your kids about sex and drugs. You need to start earlier than you think.

LINKS + MENTIONS:
Episode 78: Don't Touch Me! 3 Simple Ways to Avoid Meno-Rage Ruining Intimacy in Your Midlife Marriage

Masterclass: How to Parent Your Parents

Best Life Retreat

📩 JOIN MY MAILING LIST
https://www.schoolofmidlife.com/newsletter

👉 CONNECT WITH LAURIE:
📩 Email Laurie

💻 Website

On Instagram

On LinkedIn

Work with Laurie

Transcript

0:01

Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm your host, Laurie Reynoldson. This is the podcast for the midlife woman who starting to ask herself big life questions. Like, what do I want? Is it too late for me? And what's my legacy beyond my family and my work. Each week we're answering these questions and more. At the School of Midlife, we're learning all of the life lessons they didn't teach us in school and we're figuring out finally what it is we want to be when we grow up. Let's make midlife your best life Hey friends. It's Laurie. Welcome back to another episode of the School of Midlife podcast. I'm so happy to have you back today. Today's episode is going to be a follow on from last week's episode. Thanks to all of you who listened last week. You, you sent in comments, you ask additional questions, I love receiving your feedback and I'm thrilled that you loved the last week's episode. If you haven't already listened to it, last week's episode was called Don't Touch Me! 3 Simple Way to Avoid Meno-Rage Ruining Intimacy in Your Midlife Marriage. It was a spicy one. I will drop a clickable link in the show notes. I mean it was spicy, but it was also practical. It was things that you could actually implement. Right. So in last week's episode, I shared three simple things that you can do to add affection and intimacy into your midlife marriage. Even when you're full of Meno- rage. Even when the sound of your partner chewing drives you crazy. And even when you feel like, like screaming on the inside, but you feel like you have to keep it all together and a brave smile on the outside. If any of that sounds familiar to you, make sure you listen to last week's episode. Like I said, there will be a clickable link in the show notes. What's so interesting to me is a handful of you ask that I do similar episodes on how to improve all of the other relationships in our lives. They said, yeah, it's, it's great that you did one for our midlife marriages, but we are squarely in our Sandwich Era. We're taking care of our own kids. And we're taking care of her parents too. Like we, we didn't really sign up for this. And it feels like a lot. It's it's heavy. So it would be great if you could also do an episode that helps us have tough conversations with our parents. And how about another one that helps us navigate tough conversations with our kids. Well ask and you shall receive. Kind of. If, if you've been around here for awhile, you know, that I only have a four legged child Theo and he is the goodest boy. But I don't think you want me to talk about how I've trained him to sit and stay in, come on command at least that's not what I thought you were asking for. And I'll say I don't really feel comfortable giving advice on something I know nothing about. What's the joke that I was a perfect parent before I had kids. Because we all think we've got a dialed in, right? I mean, we watch our friends and we think, oh no, I would never parent that way. They're doing that wrong. That's a pool. I'm not going to wait into, I'm not going to give you advice about how to have tough conversations with your kids. I'm not going to go on chat GPT or ask an AI bot for advice that I could just pass along to you. I mean, that's not what I do here. Everything I do is grounded in personal experience or if I don't have the experience, then I bring on an expert who does, because the last thing we need is more advice from a chat bot right now. We don't, we don't need that. I will say, if you are a listener and you have some good information about parenting, your kids, having those conversations. Come on the podcast. Let's sit down. We'll talk about it. We'll we'll have a great conversation. You can share everything that, you know, with the School of Midlife listeners. It'll be great. Just send me an email, drop me a text, find me on Instagram, whatever. Come on the podcast share what you know, I would love to have you. So while I don't know anything about parenting kids, I do know a lot about how to have tough conversations with your aging parents. Many of you, if you've, if you've been around for a while, you probably know that for the last year. And actually it's when I look at the calendar, it's exactly one year from today, but we have been dealing with a pretty pronounced decline in the health of both of Mike's parents. His dad turned 90 last week. None of us thought he'd make it to 90. In the last year he has been in the hospital. Probably five or six times where the practitioners, the doctors have said, he's not going to make it through the night. And so you need to be prepared. And so each time we get prepared and we prepare his mother who is 91. Um, we prepare her for her spouse of 64 years not making it through the night and every time he proves them wrong. And we celebrated his 90th birthday on Friday, so we are going to call that a win. So he's 90, he's got some dementia issues a year ago today. His mother started having a series of falls and was in and out of the hospital herself. And the biggest problem with that is that they still lived in their home in a rural town in Idaho, an hour away from where Mike and I live. And she up until she started having falls was the primary caregiver for both of them. They had very traditional marital roles. She did everything. And on top of that, like I said, Mike's dad had dementia. Well, because we had we spent a lot of time with them over the past year in their house. And I mean, we were there pretty much every day. Turns out his mom also has some pretty significant cognitive decline. Like I said, they're both in their nineties, so that's not terribly surprising. But what, what is surprising is that really until a year ago, They were both in pretty good physical health. So, yeah, we knew his dad was forgetting words or having a tough time telling time or He definitely had some dementia issues, but I mean, they were in pretty good health. We ended up moving them into memory care this past spring. After his dad walked out the door one afternoon wearing a button-down shirt and his underwear with his jeans slung over his shoulder. And he got in his pickup truck and drove away and was missing for eight hours. We did not expect to see him alive again. I mean an 89 year old demented man driving around in his underwear. In the dark, not generally. That's not really the recipe for success, but. Um, after that, it was pretty clear to us that for their safety, that we had to make some pretty critical decisions and do it quickly up to that point. We were trying to honor their wishes. They wanted to stay in their home. Let's just say. We have learned a lot over the past year. So I feel very comfortable talking with you about how to have tough conversations with your parents, especially if they're conversations that relate to moving them out of their family home or how to take the keys away. I've been there. I, I know how to have those conversations. We've also dealt with the consequences of not having the tough conversations with your parents in 2015. My dad had a heart attack and died at 66 super unexpectedly. And he died without a will. Because we hadn't talked to him at all about his finances or his last wishes. Did he want to be buried or cremated? I mean, We'd had none of those conversations. Because we thought we had a ton of time, right? He was 66. And because we hadn't had any of those conversations, we had to figure everything out on our own and just hope that we were honoring dad's wishes in the way he would've wanted. Because again, he was 66. We thought we had all the time in the world. the timing of all, this is so interesting to me because last month. I hosted a two hour masterclass on how to parent your parents. And during those two hours, I shared everything I know about the documents that you should have in place, the different levels of care and different living arrangements that are available for seniors, how much they cost, what about long-term care insurance? How all of this can impact you as the caregiver and primary decision maker. And a lot more. I also spent a lot of time talking about how to have the tough conversations with your aging parents. So rather than recreate the wheel for this episode, I thought I just share that part of the masterclass with you right here. The part about having the tough conversations with your parents. And if you're interested in the masterclass, I'll drop a clickable link below. The two hour masterclass has been edited down to seven different videos, and there's a 30 page workbook that goes along with it. So it's just$97, a total bargain. Let me just say, even if you don't need the information, now you will, at some point. And when you need it, you'll be damn glad you have it. Again, it's$97 such a clickable link in the show notes. And for those of you wondering how last week's episode and this week's episode have anything to do with living your best life in midlife. You cannot underestimate the emotional stress that these conversations. Or lack of conversations and the circumstances that cause them. The toll that they play on your own health and wellbeing. Cannot underestimate that. I mean, trust me. It's pretty damn tough to live your best life when you're focused on keeping your parents alive. You know what it's like to keep your kids alive, but it's totally different to try and keep your parents alive. Even if you're a doctor and, you know, from a medical standpoint that they're receiving good care. Even if you're a financial planner and you know that they have enough money to fund medical care or living arrangements that they need. The stress on you cannot be underestimated. It's a lot. It impacts every part of your life, your marriage, your own health, your eating and sleeping patterns, your stress level, your job performance, your relationship. I'm assuming with her own kids. This is something you need to have in check. And I'm not saying this to scare you. Not at all. But as someone who's gone through it, I just want you to be prepared for it. Or as prepared as you can be, because I'm telling you it hits like a tsunami. And it doesn't let up. It is a lot. It's emotionally and physically exhausting. It's so tough to describe until you're in it. And when you're going through it, when you're in it, that's not when you want to be trying to figure it out. You're going to also want to find ways to be kind to yourself. You're just going to need to. All right. Let's, let's jump into how to have the tough conversations with your parents. Remember that this is partway through the masterclass. So there might be references to things that were discussed previously. That maybe don't make a ton of sense. Or maybe I talk about, as we talked about in the prior lesson. Even though you're hearing them for the first time, but you'll get the gist of it. I will say that because my dad died without a will and we were able to use that as an example to get all of those things in place for my in laws, the will, the POLST form, the power of attorney, all the access to the accounts, everything else in our life has gone much easier because we've had, um, access to those accounts. Convincing them to do that for us, that's what we're going to get into here. How, how did we do that? Tip number one, and these are in no particular order, so one is not more important than the others, But start earlier than you think you need to. So this is like talking to your kids about sex or drugs. You need to have that conversation before you think you need to. More you do it, the more normal it is going to see. It's not going to be a big deal. It's not going to put them like, why are we talking about this again? It's just going to be something, you know, that you talk about. And if. You want to use me as an example and say, you know what? I was talking to my friend Laurie the other day and she was explaining how she's been going through all of these things with her in laws and how helpful it was to have this information. Use me as an example. But, Normalize this so it's not a big deal. I don't know why we in our society, we were taught not to talk about politics and money and religion because then we don't actually know how to do it. So let's flip the script on that and just make it like it's no big deal. We talk about this stuff all the time. You can also share what your plans are for end of life, long term care. You've been having the conversations with your own kids. So let's not make this a big deal. The other thing is, The drop off can be dramatic. And what I mean by that is you never know how much time you have, right? You think, okay, my parents are in good health, they're in their 70s or their 80s, they're in their 90s, whatever, they're in great health, they travel all the time, they, they get out and they go to the gym, they walk, everything is great. Let me remind you that three days after my father in law's 89th birthday last year, my mother in law had her first fall and then her second fall. You just never know. Like, conversation can be great one day. Somebody I was talking to, I was in a meeting yesterday, totally unrelated to this, and the woman I was meeting with, her mother, just happened to wake up, felt a little off one day, um, ended up in the hospital for four weeks. we just don't know. Let's have these conversations before we think we need to have them. Um, things that you should be talking about. Just Do they want to be buried when they die? Do they want to be cremated? if they want to be cremated, where do their, where do they want their ashes to be spread? If they want to be buried, do they have lots reserved? Is there an area that they, you know, is there a family plot that they want to, to be at, uh, to be buried at? Um, cremation is interesting. I found this out with my father. You actually pay for the box for them to be cremated in. Okay. So, you can choose the cardboard box, which is going to, burn the same as a wood box. The wood box has some very beautiful woodworking details on it. My dad was a woodworker. That's what he did in his spare time. That was one of his hobbies. I chose the cardboard box because yeah, my dad appreciates a nice beveled edge on a, on a beautiful box. But I also know that he wouldn't want to pay extra to be in a box that's going to be burned up. But when you have these conversations and you normalize them and they're just something that you talk about, then you can go ahead and you can make these decisions when you're at a neutral emotional level instead of, Oh my God, my parent just died and now I've got to make these decisions and. The people at the funeral homes, they make it very easy to spend a lot of money, and they're great. Most of them are very above board, but, they will offer you a cheap version, they will offer you a middle version, they will offer you a premium version. And it almost feels like they are trying to get you to, you know, do right by your parents, to make you feel like you are honoring your parents in a certain way. But if you've already had those conversations and you already have a good idea of what do they want to do, then, then you can take the emotion out of it. You can just be very matter of fact, well, you can take the emotion out of it to the extent that you can take the emotion out of it because your parent just died, but, you're making clear headed decisions that honor them in the way that they want to be honored, but also make good sense. Talk about if they want to have a funeral. Do they want to have a memorial service? Do they want to, have all of the kids go out on the boat and scatter ashes there? I've got a friend who is in her 70s and she has a house at the Oregon coast and it says in her will that she wants to She's got money set aside. She's going to fly people over. They're going to have a big party at her house. She's got a house over there. That's what she wants to do. So if you have these conversations, you know what to do when the time comes. You know that you are honoring your parents in the way in which they want to be honored and remembered. Okay, moving on. Schedule the conversations. Don't surprise your parents. In my experience, when you surprise them, that puts them on the defensive. They automatically don't want to talk about it. They automatically shut down. They automatically shut down. Start thinking that there is some nefarious reason that you want to have these conversations with them. But, if you frame it in a way that you're curious, that you have questions for them, you want them to bring questions, that you want it to be this conversation, and you have set aside a specific time for that to happen, it's It's just much easier. It's, we're having a conversation. It's on the schedule. We have devoted a bit of time for it. Um, that can be a short amount of time for the first couple of conversations. It can be a longer amount of time. If you have people that are coming in from out of state, Maybe you schedule an entire day with them and you say, you know what? We're going to go meet the banker. We're going to talk to your financial planner. I think we should talk to the accountant. For my in laws, my brother in law flew in. my father in law collects old cars, so 50s era Chevys, and he has them in I think seven different storage garages all over the county. Well, we had no idea where the keys were for those cards or where they were stored. So that was part of, you know what? We're going to just do a field trip and we're going to go visit all the cars today. And so we made sure we had the keys to them. We made sure we knew what the combination for the locks were, all the things, right? But because it was scheduled, it was not a big deal. And then you can tie a beautiful little bow on it at the end of the day, and everybody goes out to dinner. You can do this in a way that is not confrontational. It doesn't put them on the defense. It's just, we just want to make sure that we are doing what you want us to do. When you're scheduling these things, you always, you also want to invite the right people. And in my opinion, These early conversations should just be the immediate family. So if you have siblings or, their spouse, have ever everyone, those key decision makers in the immediate family, they should be part of the conversation. As you get further into the conversation. And again, schedule them. What I mean by that is, it's, this is not one conversation. This is a series of conversations, because I'm not going to say it won't be successful if you only do it once. The likelihood that you are going to get the information that you want, and that it will be successful, goes dramatically down if you are trying to cram it all in one meeting. Because you will get to a point that this is, This is exhausting information, it's exhausting exercises, but on an emotional level, right? They're going to want to tap out at some point, you're probably going to want to tap out at some point. Earlier conversations should be shorter periods of time with smaller groups of people. Okay, so moving on. Approach these conversations with compassion. You want to make them part of the decision making process. If you have time. So if you are in a position where your father in law leaves the house in a button down shirt and his underwear and you haven't had these conversations and you need to make a decision tomorrow, then they don't, they don't get a say. Right? Because you are just at the point where you are making a decision and this is what is going to happen. But if we are having these conversations now, and before we actually need to have them, then, this is a joint decision making process. We are having these conversations so that we can do, parents, what you want us to do. You spent time and energy and emotion in raising us, And we want to be there for you to repay that we want to extend the same courtesy. We want this to be a collaborative decision. We want to honor your decisions. So Bring them into the decision And be deferential to what they are telling you. They may, they may decide that they want to give all of, you know, a big chunk of their money to the Humane Society, and they don't want to give any money to one of the kids. That's okay. You can be deferential to that. There, there's probably reasons that they want to do that. Decisions like that might be something that you want to revisit periodically because kids can come in and out of their parents graces and, you know, things may have remedied themselves or the relationship may be different. Because we're going to have these conversations on an ongoing basis, it's not one and done. We don't get to the point where we're like, okay, we know what the answer to this question is. We're going to keep having these conversations and we're going to continue to be deferential to what they want and honor their wishes. we had a really interesting thing come up about this when it had to do with Mike's parents, who for as long as I can remember have said, we want to be cremated. There was a, there was a time about a month ago where, um, actually about four instances over the course of about four weeks where My father in law was admitted to the hospital and each time they said, this is it, you need to prepare. He's dying. He's not going to make it through the night. Well, miraculously he did. It was interesting because during those time periods where we were talking to my mother in law, who has also experienced some significant cognitive decline in the last year, she no longer wants to be cremated. Now she wants to be buried because she wants to spend the rest of her life. in the country. So the plans that we had before have changed. We will, of course, honor those wishes, um, unless, of course, she and my father in law die at the same time, or she predeceases him, because what they wanted before the dementia was to be cremated. So there's a delicate balance there, right, where Once you are dealing with dementia, it's like all cards are off the table. But hopefully you can have these conversations with them and understand their intent and their wishes before they get to the point where, it changes because, because of what's going on in there. Okay, we talked about this before. Have the conversations often. When we normalize the conversations, the more and more we talk about this, it feels less awkward for you. Like you don't have to Get all ready for the conversation. Wow fireworks, but you it's going to be easier for you It's going to be easier for them. It's just not a big deal now I'm not saying you have to talk about this at every Sunday dinner or you get together every couple of weeks to play bingo or whatever it is. You don't have to have this conversation at every time you're with them, but Have it regularly. Schedule it, have it regularly. And we kind of talked about this before, but be open, curious, ask all the questions. We have several years ago, and this is kind of interesting, uh, I didn't put this anywhere else, in the materials, so have them, have them write out their life story. Um, this will help you when it's time to write their obituary, but. It gives you some really interesting things to have conversations with them about because there is plenty that has happened in their life. that you've never talked about, right? who was their best friend when they were in school? My mother in law grew up in rural Kansas. She rode a pony to school with her identical twin sister, so if we wouldn't have had some of these conversations and asked some questions about, well, tell me about, you know, And then what happened in high school and just kind of get them talking. You can have, you can have them write it out and then ask questions about it. You can just ask them questions, but because you're having this open conversation with them, you're pulling out information. Then when you ask them a question about, Okay, well, so if everyone else is buried in Kansas, do you actually want to stay in Idaho, or would you rather be buried at the family plot in Kansas? That, then, is just kind of a normal question. You're just asking simple questions. Include the right people. Okay. When we start, we want it small, right? And then we want to be able to add others as the, conversations, as we get further and further into the conversations. And I want you to be sensitive about the optics. What I mean by that is, when we are starting out, we want to keep the decisions among the inner circle, the immediate family. And then, as we get deeper into the conversations, we want to add different trusted advisors. So, maybe we start Also asking, somebody from the church to come to these conversations. Maybe we start asking their financial planner to be part of these conversations. Certainly their doctors and physicians should probably be part of these conversations, right? So keep it small first, and then extend invitations as you get deeper into the conversations. And when you're extending the invitations, make sure you're letting your parents know, Oh, and the, the financial planner is going to come to this conversation. And in our experience, they think that's great because they like talking to the financial planner. They think it's really good that the family is also involved because they want to make sure that. We're also hearing the same that they are hearing, and we're all on the same page, and everything is as it should be. Like, everyone's on the same page. It brings them a level of comfort. But, if we start with, we brought this entire group of people together, and now we're just gonna start peppering you with questions. Then they, they go on the defense. Emotions get high. It will not set you up for success. This is the last one. Pick your battles. Know when to call it. Know when, you know, even if you told them, you know what, we're gonna, we're gonna have a meeting with the financial planner and then we're gonna go to the bank. If things just you can tell that the energy is shifting, they're getting defensive, maybe they're getting tired, maybe they're falling asleep in the meetings. This might not be the day to do all of the things that you had planned. Maybe it's going to be better if you go to one meeting and then you go to lunch and then you go do something after. So we want to anchor these discussions, especially if they're a little heavy. with how can we then also make it light at the end? Can we go, can we plan a dinner out? Can we plan a lunch? Maybe we open a special bottle of wine? What can we do to make this fun? I'm not sure that fun's the right word, but make it so that it is not something that they dread. And when the stakes get high and people start getting, you know, Going after each other, call it. Move on, come back to it some other time. But keep the energy neutral. And then, give them as many wins as you can. It's not about you having a plan and convincing them that that's the right thing. If you are able to have the conversation in a way that, you know, offers them some options, and you're able to kind of shepherd them in the direction you want them to go, then that's one thing. But You approaching them about having these conversations and you telling them what they have to do, that is never going to be successful. Give them as many wins as you can, because remember, this is their life. Yes, it is impacting you in a huge way, emotionally, a lot of time, um, sometimes a lot of money and resources. But, at the end of the day, you want them to live the best life that they can, right? In the safest way possible. So you are looking out for their interests, you want them to be healthy, you want them to be happy. so part of that also includes you. giving them the ability to make decisions when they are capable to do that and honoring those decisions. Okay, let's talk about car keys because this conversation is it's the worst. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's, it's the worst because when we start talking about taking away their keys, we're talking about taking away their independence. Like I said, my father in law is a big car guy. So you're also taking away part of his identity. not only is he proud of the cars that he has, you know, his regular driving cars, but also these ones that he keeps in the garage and he collects. But people have gone to him his whole life about, I'm looking for a new vehicle. What should I buy? So his identity has kind of been tied up in this, Well, I'm a car guy, and I don't do much around the house, but I do drive my wife to the doctor's appointments, and the grocery store, and, So not only are you taking away their identity, but you're taking away their independence and their freedom. And the only way you can do it is if You have to keep coming back to this is the safest option for you. You can't do it anymore. You can't see well, maybe. Your reaction time isn't well. What would happen if you were driving through town and a ball ran out in front of you and a little kid followed that ball and you could not stop the car? They don't want to be in that situation, right? My father in law renewed his driver's license at 86, because all you have to do at that point is walk into the DMV, take an eye test, and they give you a new driver's license. driver's license for another eight years. If you can tell that their driver's license is expiring, make sure they don't renew it. We're going to get to driver's licenses, actually, probably in the next slide, but, um, it's part of their identity. They're going to hate it, but It has got to be something that you are only doing it to protect them. It's the safest route. You're not only protecting them, you're protecting the people around them that they care deeply about. But it's still gonna suck. When you take the keys away, have some plan in place for their transportation needs. Whether that is someone, whether that's you, like you're going to drive them to all the doctor's appointments, whether it is a neighbor, whether it is a transportation company, there are actually transportation companies who drive elderly individuals to the appointments and to their grocery store. You can call an Uber, right? You can, maybe they don't have the ability because they don't have a smartphone, but there are ways to get them to where they need to go. Make sure you have a plan for that. Make sure that there's a backup plan for that. If you're able, Move, physically move, any family vehicles away from the house, away from wherever they are staying. Because this is what I know about older people. They have a set of keys, which you have taken. They have a backup set of keys. They have a backup backup set of keys. They have a ba They have so many copies of keys. It is unbelievable. So what you don't want to have happen is you take the keys, you think that everything is fine and dandy, they go into the guest bedroom in their desk drawer, they've got backup set of keys, and then they take off in their truck, in their and their underwear, right? So we need to take the, um, take the opportunity away from them. Move the vehicles away from the house. That can mean sell them, but you don't necessarily have to sell them. We have my in laws vehicles at our house now, and when we, sometimes when we are going to go for lunch, take them out to dinner, we will take them in their car, because that feels normal to them. It's not a big deal. it's a sense of normalcy. it feels a little like what their life felt like before we moved them. If you're able to move the vehicles, great. I think that that is going to help. And it's, it's not also, it's also not going to be a daily reminder of what they can't do, right? Cause if the truck's in the, in the driveway and they can look at it, and then they walk by it when they walk out to take the garbage out, then it's a constant reminder of what you have taken from them. So if you are able to, out of sight, out of mind, get that vehicle out of there, then I think it's gonna be easier for everyone. I hope that gave you some ideas about how to have the tough conversations with your parents. It's great to have an outline. It's great to have an idea of what you're going to talk about. It never fully prepares you for having those conversations, but hopefully some good tips and some pointers. And remember too, that if you want the entire masterclass, there's a clickable link in the show notes. Thanks so much for being here today. Have a great week and I will see you back here next week when the school of midlife is in session until then take good care. I have a question for you. When was the last time you spend a day focused completely on yourself, away from the daily grind, the constant emails and text messages. The never ending question of what's for dinner tonight. Well, if a day sounds good to you. What about an entire weekend away? And before you start thinking that sounds a little too indulgent, let me remind you that you can't take care of everyone else in your life. If you don't take care of yourself first. I'm thrilled to personally invite you to join me at the next best life retreat in world famous sun valley, Idaho, with an entire weekend of group coaching to figure out what you actually want in life. How you define success. And to help you lay the groundwork to create a life that not only makes you happy, but also leaves you personally fulfilled. There'll be incredible group activities like happy hour paint and sips, morning walks, a sunrise hike. Your choice of spa appointments and an award-winning spa. All wrapped up in luxury accommodations, gourmet meals, premium drinks, and the best gift bag you have ever seen. I'm telling you this will be one of the very best weekends of your entire life. To keep the retreat intimate, there are only eight spots available and when they're gone, they're gone. So go right now, click the link in the show notes and grab your space before they're gone. I can't wait to see you in Sun Valley.