Join Angie Austin and LaFawn Jantz as they explore the wisdom of Gregory Jantz’s book ‘Six Steps to Reduce Stress’. Dive into engaging discussions on living simply, the transformative power of organization, and the importance of dealing with stress in its various forms. Discover how a neat closet could be the first step to a clearer mind and learn actionable steps to bring harmony to daily life. Angie and LaFawn share anecdotes and wisdom that not only elucidate the essence of stress management but also inspire listeners to adopt a more relaxed and fulfilling lifestyle.
00:27:24 The Impact of Community and Research on Parkinson’s
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hello there. Angie Austin here with LaFawn Jantz, and we are talking about her husband’s book, Six Steps to Reduce Stress by Gregory Jantz, Ph.D. Gregory and LaFawn married over 40 years. Do I have that right, LaFawn? Yes. You do indeed.
SPEAKER 1 :
42.
SPEAKER 07 :
You are continuing his work. He passed away last summer. You have two beautiful sons and you ran together and started together the Center, a Place of Hope that’s been voted in the top 10 facilities for treatment of depression in the United States. And I just am so proud of you for continuing this work. And boy, God really made you for this because you’re just as great a speaker as he was.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, goodness. Not quite, but I’m a believer. I know there’s hope, and I know that help is available. So you don’t want people to be in those depths of despair when there’s hope. Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER 07 :
And there is hope. That’s why I started the good news. I just wanted people to really know that, hey, that there’s hope, you know, and, you know, one of my big platforms is forgiveness and your platform, mental health in general with, you know, faith, of course, helping you to help others. And it’s stress month, you said, so we picked out your husband’s book, Six Steps to Reduce Stress. And I love these mini books he did because you can tackle them like almost in a lunch hour, you know, in a break, you know what I mean? And you can really get some quick help. And I put a whole stack of them on my mom’s coffee table because I have a home studio and she’s kind of like a room away from me. It’s weird. It’s like I have a, it’s almost like one of those panic rooms. Like you’d never know I have a studio hidden behind my storage room. So you go through this like fold storage room, you know, the boxes. One day my daughter was up top, a snake hopped out. It’s like, yeah, dark. And then you open a door and I’ve got hardwood floors and beautiful lighting and soundproofing. And it’s like, How is this thing in the back of a storage room, right? But it’s got this secret little door. And so my mom has an apartment down here. And so I piled up all of your husband’s books in front of her. And I could tell by the bookmarks that she’d gotten through quite a few of them. She’s coming back again in a few months. So I’ve got the piles still there. So Six Steps to Reduce Stress. This is one of the little books. I mean, you can finish this really like a lunch hour or two. It’s about 110 pages, and it’s a tiny book. It’s about four inches by about five inches, so you can just pop it in your purse or your back pocket even. So let’s get started. Why is this such a big deal? Why does this lead to so many issues for people’s stress?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, you know, it’s something we all experience. But how we respond to it can shape our mind, our body, our spirit, our, you know, the way that we’re experiencing life. And so understanding the importance of stress and its impact is critical. Physiologically, there’s so much research on stress. You know, the effects of stress on our bodies and memories and digestive systems, even hair, even hair loss is linked to periods of intense stress. So, you know, it’s just our body carries stress in different ways and we all react differently. Some handle it well and some grow and move and change. get better and stronger and others don’t seem to do quite as well. So, you know, it’s a good, good idea to take a look at that and what your stress levels are, how you’re coping.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, my husband, I know he has a ton of stress just because he, um, I joke with him that, um, that, uh, our first 10 years of marriage was Disney world. And the second 10 years was lakeside, which think of any amusement park near you. If it’s not really that great, right. Or like magic mountain, but lakeside, the perfect example. because it’s an old old old like wooden roller coaster amusement park nearest where like there’s yellow tape on some of the seats you know that you can’t use on some of the rides and they need some paint here and there and the wooden roller coaster is kind of rickety but it still works so i joke with him that the first 10 years was disney world of the second 10 years was lakeside because oh no he’s doing the business and he’s so stressed out and we laugh about it but He has a worse temper when he’s stressed. He’s more easily like agitated. But he told me something the other day that totally goes with the first chapter of your husband’s book. The intro is called The Stressful Life. And it says, it’s 3.23 a.m. and you’re suddenly awake. You’re not sure what woke you up, but the room is eerily quiet. Nothing’s wrong, but suddenly you’re just completely awake. And whatever you’re dreaming about, that’s gone. And your body really wants to go back to sleep, but your mind is switched into full-blown stress mode. And my husband says… Sometimes his brain won’t stop and he’ll be going through all of these scenarios in his head. And one day in the morning, he said, you know what? I came up with a solution for such and such. So maybe it’s not such a good that I think bad thing that I’m stressed out and I can’t turn my brain off because I go over scenarios and sometimes I come up with solution. And I’m like, well, I guess that’s looking on the bright side of it.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, yes. There’s that, you know, but there’s also the physical effects on the body. You know, lack of sleep can create its own physical issues. But, you know, if it’s not happening every night, then he’s maybe turning it into an opportunity. So, you know, to improve things and to pay attention to what might be sort of out of order and need his attention that maybe he wasn’t quite aware of. Um, and it talks about go-getters and stay putters in his book. So some are go-getters and they just need more time to reflect. And so if he, maybe if he would take time to sit still and reflect more, it may not affect his sleep as much, um, because his sleep pattern is probably what’s, you know, being disruptive, um, if he’s a go-getter, but a stay putter, you know, needs to maybe look at more of what, um, you know, what they need to do to manage their time more well because they may not feel the urgency of getting results. So he obviously, being a business owner, has an urgency to get results.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, I love that your husband, Dr. Jantz, put in here in the book, Stress Effects, by the way. Yeah. changing gears just a little bit here, unable to get and stay asleep, as we were talking about, these are right, which percentage of people who feel stressed out, like, what are some of the things that stress them, or that, you know, their symptoms, 40% of people say that they’re unable to get stay asleep, 33%, eating too much, and then eating unhealthy foods, making bad choices, whereas my husband would be the flip side of this not eating, I’m eating too much, He’s the not eating. It’s funny because his partner, one of his partners is eating too much and he got really round and my husband got like a stick. So I joke with him and they look like the number 10 because my husband got skinnier and his partner got rounder. And my husband’s pants, I could barely keep them on when he got when he first started the business. Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 07 :
Lashing out in anger at a spouse. lashing out in anger at others like coworkers or at home with your children, and then neglecting responsibilities at home. So unable to get to sleep, eating too much, too little, lashing out at people, and neglecting responsibilities, you know, putting things off, procrastinating. So these are all the effects of stress. So then as we go through some of the helpers here, step one, I love this one, LaFawn, live simply. Let’s start there. Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. In his book, he just brings you step by step what to do to begin to bring your stress down. And so the question he says is to ask yourself, is this necessary? And so what a person determines is necessary tells you a great deal about who you are. And so what do you find necessary in your life? Obviously, for your husband, his business is necessary. It is necessary. And so looking at what can you let go of and what you’re going to hang on to, sometimes you just need to stop and really consider, is this really worthwhile? Is it affecting my body, my mind, my family, my marriage in a way that is overwhelming? And what steps can we take to begin to live more simply? So there may be some things for him to consider, things for each of us to consider. So that we can take back control of our priorities in life and begin to reduce that stress level. If you aren’t doing it, then life is going to do it to you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Don’t you know? Isn’t that the truth? Okay. Live organized. You know, my daughter, one of them is very messy. And when she left for college, she got a really messy roommate. And I was like kind of relieved at first. Like, oh, thank goodness. I was so worried that my daughter would stress this other girl out. you know, and that the other girl, you know, if it was a neat person, well, well, listen, what happened? The girl was so messy. I mean, LaFawn, I would, they have one restroom for six girls, right? And the showers in the same stall as the bathroom. So think about that. Only one person can use the restroom or the shower at the same time. And so when you step into the stall, you pass the toilet and then you go into the shower. So I go in to use a restroom and there’s a huge pile. And I mean, I’ve never seen this in my life with a room that you share with a bunch of girls of all her underwear and socks. This other girl from like, Oh, probably two weeks. Right. Right away. I didn’t even use the restroom. I just came out and I went in my daughter’s room. Nobody was in there with her. I said, that’s not your stuff in there. Is it on the floor? And she said, Oh no, it’s disgusting. It’s my roommates. And I thought, Yes, because it made my daughter organized. She moved out of that room because it was driving her crazy. She got her own room, and now it’s spotless because that disorganization drove her so nuts that it broke her of her messy problem. Wow. Well, that’s good feedback.
SPEAKER 06 :
That was a great feedback system, wasn’t it? Yes. And that is how bad it can get, and we deal with cohorting. We deal with people that don’t know how to let go of stuff. So we have a term we say, clear out the clutter, eliminate to concentrate. When there’s so much clutter, you cannot concentrate. And so that can be part of the issue is that we have too much stuff. We have too much stuff on our calendars, and we have too much stuff in our houses, in our offices, and so eliminate to concentrate. I love that.
SPEAKER 07 :
I just wrote that to my husband. I said, I’m talking to LaFawn about this book, and I took a picture of the contents earlier, and then I just wrote, eliminate to concentrate. I will clean the closet. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s so good. And it’s motivating, you know, it’s like this negative motivation, I think, you know, but he really, he really gives steps for managing your time, managing your finances, you know, you get to if you’re chaotic and not keeping track well, then, you know, obviously other areas of our life can get out of control to including finances, and that can become a huge major stress.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. And what a great point, because not just live, organize the closet in the room, but your finances organized, your bills organized, downsizing your stuff. Like, do I need white, you know, eight white button up shirts? Well, I think I do because I can’t find seven of them. I literally, LaFawn, please don’t judge me. I just bought another belt and I have five very similar belts. And I bought another one because I couldn’t find the other four. And I’m like, where on earth are these belts? I have a huge walk-in closet. And I just started working on it, oddly enough, last night. And so I just made a pack with my husband. And then I’m going to sell a ton of clothes. I brought like, oh, gosh, I don’t even know what we’d say here. Probably 10 laundry baskets of like semi-designer kind of clothes that I don’t wear as much anymore. And I’m going to sell them all on like Poshmark and Bacari or whatever and at least make a little money and get rid of some of this stuff.
SPEAKER 06 :
OK, so you kind of need to think about how can you turn your home into, you know, a like a store model where you can put everything that’s like with like, you know, that because that that is a problem of just continuing to buy the same thing. And all of a sudden you have five of them. So before you say yes to another must have thing, decide what you’re going to give up first and make room for that new thing. And that’s hard because we’re so impulsive and compulsive to have it now. But simplifying your life requires that intentionality and choices. And so you simply cannot do it all. You simply cannot keep it all. Trying to do both complicates your life and adds to stress. So he says making choices is a way for you to take back control. So here we’re trying to get you in a position where you’re actually making a choice instead of on default mode. More, more, more. It does not bring happiness. All right.
SPEAKER 07 :
I want to keep you around for about five more minutes because I’ve got a guest next segment, but I want to talk to you a little bit more about this because we haven’t finished the book, but I’ll only keep you about five more minutes. Okay. live to organize and it’s not just a closet not just a room it’s your finances it’s your calendar it’s your schedule it’s your organization in your whole life and then next we’re going to talk about the last four steps live healthy live present live graceful and live grateful we’ll be right back with the good news yeah
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
Longmont is listening to the mighty 670 KLT Denver.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right. Welcome back to The Good News with Angie Austin and LaFawn Jantz. We’re talking about six steps to reduce stress. And we covered live simply, live organized, and now we’re on live healthy. Well, that just makes complete sense to me, LaFawn.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes. Yes. Live healthy means exercise and diet. The E word and the D word. So, you know. Find a way. Once you get going, you do feel better. If you sit and think about it, you’ve got the paralysis of analysis keeping you from doing the things that you already probably know you need to do.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Okay. And that’s one thing I have to say. My husband and I do go to the gym every night, but I think we could do a little kickstart in our diet. All right. Live present. Live present.
SPEAKER 06 :
Live present. Basically, sometimes the life we live causes stress, and sometimes the life we lived causes causes stress. So when you live in the past, all those negative memories seem to haunt you. That can create so much stress. And of course, that talks to what your mission is on forgiveness. That’s exactly what I just thought. That goes with forgiveness. We always talk about forgiveness, but you can’t forget what you won’t admit you know. So when people are in denial or they don’t want to talk about it or they shove it under the rug as if it never happened or doesn’t affect you, you know, that’s where we get stuck. So is it what’s happening now or is it the past creeping into your present? So we want you to live present and not forget. go and rehearse the future. So sometimes we’re trying to protect ourselves and, you know, keep ourselves from being hurt again. So it’s easy to dwell on the past and try to rehearse the future. And both issues can cause a lot of stress.
SPEAKER 07 :
I like this next one. We’ve got about a minute to cover each of these. Live graceful, like giving people grace, because when you give someone grace, you stop stressing about every little affront, every little thing, every little like people. I did an interview once with a friend who is an author, and she said people are like professionally offended by everything. Can’t we just give people grace and think that maybe they’re not trying to diss us or offend us or mock us or maybe, you know, it has nothing to do with us.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly. And the best way to move through that is to become unoffendable when you have to. much to do. Any request becomes unreasonable. We can get paranoid and perceive, you know, things, people making demands, but, you know, just be unoffendable. And the word I use is great grace. I have great grace for this person. They’re negative all the time. They’re always angry. You know, somebody that’s unpleasant to have great grace. We do not know what, you know, what they’re dealing with or what they’ve come through. So great grace means just living grace. you know, risky, living graceful means living risky and at peace with the risk. If you have risk and don’t stress about all of this grace and forgiveness and risk the peace and, you know, trust God to figure it out for you. Ask him to show you the way to give grace and forgive and follow where he leads. And I think sometimes we just try to do it under our own power. When we’re weak, we’re strong and we can call on God and he will answer us and show us the way. So don’t stress, whatever you do.
SPEAKER 07 :
I have to wrap it up because my guests are here. But live grateful is step number six. Yes, grateful. And my friend, he does a gratitude list every day, calls it the golden list. That is Jim Stovall who went blind and his grandmother said make that every day. LaFawn Jantz. Thank you so much. It is the center, a place of hope, and the book is Six Steps to Reduce Stress. And stick around. I think you’ll find this next interview very inspirational because I know for a fact that these guys have a very positive attitude, which helps with stress as well. Thank you, LaVon. If you are just joining us, this is Angie. You’re welcome. If you are just joining us, this is Angie Austin with The Good News. And, you know, it is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. And there are two people joining us today that I think you will really be inspired by. We have a repeat guest and we also have a brand new guest. John Lear is president and CEO of the Parkinson’s Foundation. And Robert Beatty is a person living with Parkinson’s disease. Welcome back to you, John. And welcome to you, Robert. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. You are welcome. All right, John, let’s just break it down for people who’ve heard of it. Maybe they’ve seen someone with it. What exactly is Parkinson’s disease?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so Parkinson’s disease is characterized as a progressive degenerative neurological disorder that affects how the brain controls movement. And so today, more than 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s disease, and about 90,000 individuals are newly diagnosed each year. It is primarily a disease of later in life, diagnosed in the 60s, 70s. So only about 5% of people with Parkinson’s will have what we call young onset Parkinson’s. That’s diagnosed before the age 50. So when people think of Michael J. Fox, he’s a bit of an anomaly because he was diagnosed so young. But some people experience tremors while others may experience stiffness, slower movement, walking difficulty, balance difficulty. There are also a number of non-motor symptoms like sleep problems, mood changes, or cognitive challenges. And because there’s no single test, recognizing the early signs like small handwriting, loss of smell, or trouble moving can help people seek medical advice and treatment sooner. So the good news is that, you know, if you do get the right treatment plan, you know, you can have a good, high-quality treatment.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, so let’s, Robert, I want to talk to you about all of those symptoms and, you know, things that you deal with every day and a little bit about your story. Because, Doc, we love to hear from the genius doctors, right? But to hear from someone who’s actually managing and to hear their story, it really connects with a lot of us. So, Robert, tell us about your journey.
SPEAKER 03 :
My journey is, as John said, I had a lot of the non-motor symptoms in the beginning. Initially, what most people would say, or as my primary care physician said, You’re just getting old. You need to relax, not worry about things. That was two and a half years prior to when I got diagnosed. I said to my doctor at that time that I knew something was wrong because I knew my body that well. I was working out regularly. I had a little weakness in my left leg on the treadmill, and I pursued it. And when that doctor didn’t help me, I became my own advocate. And I went around and basically until I found a neurologist that I trusted and felt good about. And you can find resources through the Parkinson’s Foundation in finding good neurologists. I received my diagnosis. And from that point on, managing my Parkinson’s has been about taking an active role in my health. And when I was diagnosed, I immediately decided I was not going to allow my stress or dis-ease with Parkinson’s to define my outlook or quality of life. So I chose the optimistic mindset, anchored it in faith, and assembled a strong care team and an exercise plan that would address my physical needs. emotional and spiritual needs.
SPEAKER 07 :
I have to tell you that one of the most important things you just said that has stuck with me from talking to other people who’ve managed their health care is that you became an advocate for yourself. And when you know something’s wrong, you have to dig deeper and not just have the expert tell you, well, I think everything’s good. So I love it that you advocated yourself and you have such a positive plan with the exercise and the faith and your team. And John, you guys provide a lot of those resources for people who want to put together their own team. I’ve always been impressed with, the resources that you offer to people to help them navigate this and also the community, which is so important to ask other people with Parkinson’s. We’re not all alike, but how do you handle the blah, blah, blah? So let’s talk about those resources, John. Where are they and what are they?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so we really do pride ourselves on being the trusted and go-to source for all things Parkinson’s. And we really like to drive people to our website, which we think is comprehensive when it comes to Parkinson’s. It has all sorts of materials and information that can really help people from prediagnosis all the way through, you know, end-of-life considerations. And, you know, so the website is Parkinson.org. That’s Parkinson.org. We offer materials in both English and in Spanish. For people who want to talk to somebody live, we also have a helpline, which is staffed by experts in healthcare. And you can call our helpline during working hours in the United States, and you’ll get an expert on the end of the line who’s happy to answer any questions that you have related to Parkinson’s and to make referrals to things in your local community. They’re really just terrific. And that number is 1-800-4-PD-INFO. That’s 1-800-4-PD-INFO. for PD info. The other thing is, if you go to our website and you want to look for events in your local area, we do a lot of educational events around the country in partnership with our academic medical centers. So there’s a lot of things happening in the Parkinson’s space, and all of that can be found on Parkinson.org.
SPEAKER 07 :
You know, Robert, you and also Michael J. Fox, your attitude, you know, being so positive, Robert, I think it has such an impact on, you know, your journey, your disease, how well you do every day. And I’m sure, John, you saw recently Michael J. Fox was on a new comedy about a shrink and they were sitting there. like a waiting room and it was just so i love how he uses his humor to like make fun of parkinson’s he’s like blank parkinson’s you know i can’t say the word obviously but anyway it just totally cracked me up and it was um another famous actor with him and it was just so funny to see them in the And then Michael, when the other guy goes ahead of him, he’s like, what the – I was here first. You know, like how did this happen? Why am I still sitting here? So, Robert, your attitude reminds me of his because you’re managing things with such a positive attitude. Do you have advice for patients and their caregivers that you want to make sure, hey, if I – I wish I would have known this right away when I got diagnosed.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I do keep a sense of humor about it. Yeah. Parkinson’s Foundation, they have their Moving Day Walks, which is a fundraising walk and a community event where you can honor loved ones with Parkinson’s while raising funds and awareness about PD. And you come up with a team name, and I remember at the time forming our team name that I had come home from my diagnosis, and I said, well, I can always get a job at Home Depot shaking paint cans, or I could get a job at a bar as a martini shaker. Well, martini shakers ended up being our team name. We raised $60,000 having martini parties, and it all worked out for that benefit. But my advice would be for people with Parkinson’s, remember that when you receive a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, you’re not the only one who receives it. Your family members and friends that love you receive it as well. Let them support you. And between them and the Parkinson’s Foundation walks and the other resources, there’s plenty that you can do to make your journey with this disease
SPEAKER 07 :
something positive and something that lets you like to live well with parkinson’s and it’s cool too because you you you kind of have a mission now like you’re kind of a role model for others so it’s opened up a whole new world of like helping others for you as well and i love the idea of advising people to accept other people’s help Because so many of us want to do everything on our own, and people want to help you, open up that door to allowing people to help you. John, I always like to ask people where they get their passion for what they do. I’ve done TV and radio news now for over 30 years, and I get to interview people like you who have really changed so many lives and had – such a positive impact on so many people. But your whole life now is about doing things for others, really. So where did that come from? Where did that passion for helping others, maybe in this area specifically, come from? Because I’m sure it must be very fulfilling. But also, you know, there’s some tough days in this.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I’ve been in the Parkinson’s days for 10 years. And, you know, it’s a wonderful community. Nobody wants to be a part of this community. But once they get into it, they see the silver linings of it. And that inspires me every day. And I’m a strong believer in research. I’ve worked in cystic fibrosis, which had significant breakthroughs in new drug development. And I believe very strongly that we can do that in the Parkinson’s space. We’ve got the great researchers who are really looking into things. We just raise more money, we can fund more research, and we’ll get there quicker.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it sounds like the martini shakers helped you raise some money as well. So, all right, thank you to both of you for all you’re doing for others. You’re definitely having a positive impact on so many people. Where do we go to get more information?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yep, go to our website, Parkinson.org, or call our helpline at 1-800-4-PD-INFO, I-N-F-O.
SPEAKER 07 :
Robert, a real blessing to talk to you. A very inspirational message. Thank you for your positive attitude. Thank you. You’re welcome. And, John, thank you for all you’re doing for others as well. I loved speaking with both of you today. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
