Joy #14

Mike LePage:

So there are always ways to look at things, to lift them up to a new spirit. But at the end of the day, tragedy is tragedy and you have to find ways to move forward. And the best way to do that is with friends and family. The things you dread the most sometimes are irrelevant and you need to get out and sort of force yourself to interact with people because they're really ready to help you.

Katie West:

What are we noticing in our lives? Because then that's how we're going to end up feeling come January, you know, after it's all done. So I've been inviting people to really notice each moment, whether it's the grand hoo ha, everybody's over at your house, or you're simply going to get the mail. So in that and allowing yourself to bring that celebration of the noticing to everything that you're doing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Belisle. This is the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast Number 14, which is airing on December 18, 2011. The theme for this show is Joy. Today on our show we will be welcoming guests Mike LePage, Katie west of the Levity Institute, and Lucy Bangor of the Children's Museum and the Theater of Maine. We believe that the theme of joy is especially important during this holiday season. We think you'll learn a lot from listening to our guests, especially the first guest, Mike LePage, as he talks about some of the trials and tribulations of his own life, throughout which he's managed to maintain a sense of joy. We believe that you will be inspired and enabled to go out and create joy in your own life. Thank you for listening. This week we begin the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast with a reading from our Daily Treadmill. Our Daily Tread was written in honor of our late friend Hanley Dunning, and proceeds benefit her organization, Safe Passage, where I was fortunate to visit this past Thanksgiving week. Safe passage provides approximately 550 children with education, social services and the chance to move beyond the poverty their families have faced for generations at the Guatemala City dump. Visit them online at safepassage.org learn more about our daily tread@islandportpress.com this quote is from John B. Sheeran. Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. It is not something we see like a rainbow or feel like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are. Read more quotes such as this in the book Our Daily Tread, again available@islandportpress.com each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio RM podcast, we are pleased to present a segment we call Wellness Innovations, which is sponsored by the University of New England. This week we found information about laughter which we thought was appropriate given that we are going to be speaking on the theme of joy. According to the New York Times Health page, laughter is regularly promoted as a source of health and well being, but it's been hard to pin down exactly why laughing until it hurts feels so good. The answer is not the intellectual pleasure of cerebral humor, but the physical act of laughing. The simple muscular exertions involved in producing the familiar ha ha ha. Trigger an increase in endorphins, the brain chemicals known for their feel good effect. The results of recent studies build on a long history of scientific attempts to understand a deceptively simple and universal behavior. The findings fit well with a growing sense that laughter contributes to group bonding and may have been important in the evolution of highly social humans. Learn more about the health benefits of laughter on the New York Times Health page or or at Dr. Org. Learn more about the University of New England at une.edu.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, our theme is joy, which we thought was pretty appropriate for the holiday season. And one of the reasons we thought it was fairly important is because we understand that during the holidays, although the message is joy everywhere, all around us, we're all supposed to be joyful. Sometimes we're not feeling quite so joyful. I know in my own life, having gone through some transitions, what I have found to be important in creating joy is surrounding myself with the right people. And one of these right people is right here with us right now. This is Mike lepage. He's a dear friend of mine for many years and he is so Highly capable of creating joy in a life that others might have gotten discouraged by. But let me introduce Mike. Good to see you.

Mike LePage:

Good morning.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Good morning. I'm going to read a little bit about you and then we'll have a conversation. It's a privilege to have you here.

Mike LePage:

Well, thank you. It's great to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. Mike LePage is the broker owner at Re Max Heritage in Yarmouth. Over the past 12 years, he's been helping buyers, sellers and investors with their residential real estate needs. Over that span, Mike has served as a board member of the Greater Portland Board of Realtors, serving as president in 2008 and as a board member of the State Multiple Listing Service mreis and as a board member of the Maine association of Realtors, where he's currently finishing a term as president for 2011. Prior to joining the residential real estate world, Mike worked for Key bank of Maine and Private banking and for Gow's Capital Management, Acadia Trust. Over those years, Mike assisted clients in financial matters, which has helped him in his capacity working with clients in the real estate world. He has always been active in civic activities, having served on the boards of the American Heart association, the Friends of Casca Bay, Portland Stage Company, Bowdoin College Alumni Council, a founding member of the Kennebunk Portside Rotary Club, and is an active member of the Sacred Heart church Choir. A 1978 graduate of Bowdoin College and 1974 graduate of Morse High School, Mike's roots are right here. He graduated in the Kappa class, the Institute for Civic Leadership, and often lends his experience and expertise on things civic. Most important to Mike is his family. His wife, Meg, and four children. Burgess, Katie, James and Liza are the pride of his life and a source of inspiration and fun because as Mike would put it, it's supposed to be fun. Mike can be reached every Max Heritage, 765 Route 1 in Yarmouth. And we'll link people back in so that they can find you more easily. But I know they'll be able to find you because you're one of our long term longtime supporters. One of our first supporters for the Dr. Lisa Rudya hour, in fact. And thank you for that.

Mike LePage:

Oh, it's a privilege to serve in that capacity.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's a privilege for me to know somebody like you, Mike, because I know what you've been through, or at least some of the things. And yet whenever I see you, you embody joy 2007. Something really important happened in your life. Tell me about that.

Mike LePage:

Well, that was the year that my Oldest daughter graduated from college, but I don't think that's what you mean. It was in late 2006 that I was diagnosed with cancer. So 2007 was that period during which I went through chemotherapy. That was sort of a life changing thing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how old were you then?

Mike LePage:

I was 50 when I was diagnosed, so 51.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

51. And this was right after you had made a fairly big move in your life, which we described in your bio,

Mike LePage:

Right, the moving to real estate. Yeah, I did that in 1999, 2000, and then two years later ended up purchasing the agency ReMax Heritage. So all of that happens sort of in that same time frame of change. And most people say change is inherently good, But I don't think a diagnosis of cancer is that kind of change most people are looking for.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

No, that's not an inherent goodness that most people would think. However, I think it did have a positive impact on your life in a strange way. Is that so?

Mike LePage:

Well, you always try to look back and people say no one's gone through cancer without it changing them. I'm not sure it really changed me. It just sort of deepened my perspective on how I try to live my life and what I believe in. And I look back on the whole cancer experience as an opportunity really, to help other people that are going through similar challenges. Because at the beginning of that process, you have choices as to how you want to deal with it, who you want to tell, if you want to keep it to yourself. And I made decisions then to share it with anybody that wanted to hear about it. And at the same time, I decided that I wanted to sort of control the way people dealt with me, which is something I'd really never done before. And that control was to sort of invite those people that really had a good spirit about them, rather than those that came up to me crying and said, oh, my, I hear you're sick. Because for me, I never thought I was sick. When I was diagnosed, I was actually perfectly healthy. It was the process of chemotherapy that made me less so. So when someone could come up to me, sort of almost crying and say, oh, I hear you're sick, I would say, actually stop. No, I'm not sick. I'm feeling not great because of the chemotherapy. But if you are going to cry, it's not making sense to me because I'm not crying. So if you have to be that way, I don't need you around.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Did you have the sense that maybe they were projecting their own feelings of sadness and using you as kind of a I don't know, an excuse to be sad.

Mike LePage:

I don't know. I think when you're going through stuff like that, you become a little more self focused and think that they're just projecting to you how they're feeling about you. Oh, you're going to die is sort of the feeling that you get.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's not a very cheerful and healing thought, is it?

Mike LePage:

But that's sort of the end of the game is you do realize through the process that mortality is real. But not now was sort of the way I approached it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You told me a story once when we were sitting together that impacted me. I've thought about it often. It was something that happened earlier in your life that really served me. Again, I guess you're just a guy that gets to have lots of pivotal moments. How lucky are you? This one's not a pivotal moment I would want or wish on anyone, but it's. It was life changing. Tell me what that was.

Mike LePage:

Yeah, you're referring to the event that happened shortly after we returned to Maine. Meg and I moved to Seattle and lived out there for four years. And when we returned we were living in the Wells community on Drake's island. And we had. Our first daughter was almost 2 years old. Jesse was 2 at the time, almost 2. And we were babysitting for my sister and and her husband's first child. And they had tried for a long time to get pregnant and were finally successful. And part of the reason we were moving back to Maine was for family. And the tragic event that happened was when Megan, I and Jesse were babysitting, the child died from sids and I was the one that went in and checked on her and it felt wrong as I looked at the child and I picked her up and she was limp and in retrospect she was dead at that time. But having trained through swimming and such, lifeguarding and cpr, I knew what to do. So I was in the kitchen floor doing cpr. And the poignant event for me in that whole process was I looked up and my nearly two year old daughter was standing there with a bottle because the baby needed something, must be a bottle. So that was sort of one of those pictures in my life that will never erase. And the EMTs came and we went to the hospital and I had the unfortunate experience of greeting the parents coming down the hallway to let them know that their baby was dead. So tough moment in life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is tough. And yet you somehow transformed it.

Mike LePage:

Well, you learn a lot when you go through hard times. I think one thing you learn is how great people tend to be. And Bobby and Marianne, the parents, were pretty amazing. Not one minute from that moment to now have they ever made me feel guilty. You feel guilty. It's part of what you have to feel when something like that happens. But you understand in your brain that you don't really, you really shouldn't feel guilt because there was nothing that could be done. And from the parents perspective, they were actually grateful that it was me that found the baby in this situation because I knew what to do. I think the guilt would have been pretty profound for someone to find the baby and not know what to do. So at the end of that part of the story, it was comforting to them that it was me and not them because it would have been much harder to live with otherwise. And they've had two kids since then. And you know, one of the things people tend to say to people when something tragic happens is, oh, don't worry about it. You can have other kids or things like that in other situations, and it's sort of the wrong thing to say because the event that happened is real and you have to sort of get your arms around it and whatever happens next is something else. But the real end of that story is they did have two sons after that, and their original plan was to hopefully have two kids. And their younger son actually has a tattoo with the birth date of Larry, the child that died, because he realizes that if that hadn't happened, he probably wouldn't have been born. So there are always ways to look at things to lift them up to a new spirit. But at the end of the day, tragedy is tragedy and you have to find ways to move forward. And the best way you do that is with friends and family.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

For people who might have suffered from cancer or illness or tragedy, but would simultaneously like to be experiencing joy in this holiday season or in their lives. What tools can you what thoughts can you offer them? What tools worked for you in your Situations.

Mike LePage:

You know, one of the things that I just sort of reflect back to my cancer diagnosis, and I was defiant at the beginning of that process, which is just a choice people make. Some can make other choices. But my defiance included a realization that I needed to stay healthy through the process, and therefore I swam, which is something I've always done. And I made it a point to make sure that I. If I could swim an event that I've swam every year called Peaks to Portland. And I did that between my third and fourth chemo treatments with the permission of my oncologist. But part of that was keeping a focus towards goals that would help through the process. And I think when people are going through hard times, they kind of need to do similar things to go do those things that they like to do. Maybe it's a movie, not a depressing movie, but, you know, a seasonal movie. Like Portland Stage we were talking about, has a great play going on right now, which I think you just saw.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes, the Snow Queen. I went and saw that with my daughter Abigail, and it was great. And it was great.

Mike LePage:

Yeah, you get out. I think the hardest thing to do is to sit and mope. And it's an easy thing to do because it's hard to go out and face people. You think everybody's looking at you as, oh, he has cancer. And I reflect on the thing that I was most concerned about at the beginning of the process was being perceived as, oh, poor Mikey has cancer, because I was going to lose my hair. After I lost my hair, no one once came up to me and said, oh, Mike, do you have cancer or are you not well? They said things like, oh, big swim meet coming up, new hairstyle. And it's like, huh. The things you dread the most sometimes are irrelevant, and you need to get out and, you know, sort of force yourself to interact with people because they're really ready to help you in most cases.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And at the time, wasn't there a soccer team that shaved off?

Mike LePage:

That's right. I'd forgotten that my son was playing on a premier soccer team with kids from various towns. And most of them shaved their heads, which was pretty cool. It was a little embarrassing, too, because, like, you guys look awful, but it was nice of them to do it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And it is that sense of sort of community.

Mike LePage:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I'll mention to people who are listening that Mike not only has worked, he's a supporter of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and has been from the very beginning, sort of without question. He just signed right on and says, I Believe in your vision. I believe in what you're doing. But he also supported our Daily Tread and in fact, still has a copy of Our Daily Tread, which we read from every week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour on the desk at his work. I mean, he's a guy that sort of does what he says he's going to do and then sticks with you.

Mike LePage:

Well, our Daily Tread is pretty cool because, first of all, most calendars have a date on it, so it's not useful the next year. And our Daily Tread doesn't do that. So it actually has sat in my office for what, three years now, I think. And year four is coming up, and it's pretty cool. You know, some of them are hokey.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hey, come on now.

Mike LePage:

But most of them are pretty cool. And whether they're hokey or cool, if you read them as you go to the front desk, a conversation starts, and then so do people share things that are important to them. And I think that's what's cool about that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And our Daily Tread, the gift that

Mike LePage:

you gave to the world?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it was a communal gift, and that's why actually we read from Our Daily Tread and these quotes that sometimes are a little hokey, these came from around the world after Hanley died. We asked people. These weren't quotes we came up with necessarily. We culled through them and we put them into themes, and every month has a theme. But this was everybody contributing. And that's what Our Daily Tread, again, it's sort of surrounding yourself with people who embrace the values that you embrace, whether it's joy or hope or any of the themes that you've talked about today.

Mike LePage:

It is a Daily Tread.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It is a daily tread.

Mike LePage:

And you have choices every day when you wake up.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

They absolutely do.

Mike LePage:

The first choice I make is what pants, then what shirt, then what tie? And I'm wearing a tie for you today.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I see. And it has a bowdoin. Has a whole bunch of bowdoin. Polar bears.

Mike LePage:

There you go.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. Go you bears. Mike is just a little ahead of me as a bowdoin. Just a little.

Mike LePage:

Right?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. Right. But so thank you. I appreciate that. He's always thinking. He's always thinking of the other person.

Mike LePage:

But that's what I'm saying, though, is, though, you wake up every day and you have choices, and it's the choices that you make that sort of determine what your day is going to be like. And if you start off like, many people today have seasonal colds. I'm hearing lots of coughing, and I have one too. And you wake up and you decide, am I going to stay in bed and mope about myself today or am I going to get up and make the most of it? And I think once you get moving, things get better. I couldn't talk when I first got up this morning.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we're glad you got your voice back.

Mike LePage:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And thank you so much for being a part of what we're doing here, for being here today and being on the air and sharing your story. I know it's a very personal story and I'm hoping that people who are listening out there who may have had similar experiences can take something away from your experience and be perhaps inspired by your own sense of joy.

Mike LePage:

Well, thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's good to have you, Mike.

Mike LePage:

Nice to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast, we have our regular feature we call Maine Magazine Minutes. And sadly, we are without our friend Genevieve Morgan, who is the host of Maine Magazine Minutes. But, but we wish her well. She's out joyfully doing things in the world. And I have the great opportunity to interview Katie west of the Levity Institute. Hello, Katie.

Katie West:

Hi there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Maine Magazine Minutes is all about inspiring people doing interesting things within the state of Maine. And Katie is one of these inspiring and interesting people. She's the director of the Levity Institute, an organization dedicated to awakening the buoyancy within us. The Levity Institute offers one on one sessions, classes and retreats exploring the four practices of intentional lightheartedness, laughter, play, celebration and wonder. Katie is also founder of the Levity Project, an award winning social movement creating change by expressing joy in public places. What a great. And she's laughing already. We haven't even started. This is all. These things are so great. They're so perfect for this holiday season and our theme today, which is of course, joy. What was interesting is when you came in, you said, I don't really know exactly why I'm here, but then you gave us all these reasons why it was good for you to be here. So tell us just a little about. You know, I read this thing about the Levity Institute, but why the Levity Institute? Why are you doing it and why is it important?

Katie West:

Those are great questions. Well, I'm doing it first because it's something that's very meaningful to me. And secondly, I'm doing it because I fell my way into it, you know, kind of perhaps with all great things. I had been noticing I'd been working one on one with people for some time in the realm of coaching. And I Began to notice that at the end, there was always the same. The same quality that they said, ah, it's lightness. And so that began to. It just started this passion of, what is it that makes us feel light? What is it that, you know, births lightheartedness within us? And then I was on a subway train a few years ago, and I just had this moment of looking around and just. I was smiling, had my eyes closed, and I was listening to some music. And when I.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Wait, you had your eyes closed on a subway train?

Katie West:

I know. Is that not smart?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

No judgment here, but all right, so it's okay. All right.

Katie West:

And so I opened my eyes and I wasn't doing anything weird, but. But except smiling. And when I looked around, people were frowning at me, like, frowning, like, actively, like, er. And it was this very powerful moment in which I realized that sometimes when we see people in their joy, because I wasn't doing it as an act of anything, I was just feeling joyful, that it actually. It highlights that where we're not feeling the joy. And it made me realize how much suffering there was at that moment and how we are each an agent of change just by how we live. I wasn't saying anything. I wasn't having particularly great ideas that day. I was just smiling. And in that, it began to really start a deeper questioning of how do we affect change in the world and what does it mean to live lightheartedly all the time?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Was there some pivotal moment in your life prior to the subway that made you recognize the importance of levity, of lightness, of joy, of laughter?

Katie West:

Yes, absolutely. It was with the practice of laughter yoga. I had on a date a few several winters ago now. My husband and I went out for the night and we went to this class. It was called Laughter Yoga. I had no idea what it was. I had just seen it advertised. And so we showed up and the woman explained that was just the intentional practice of laughing, you know, just for no reason. Just ha, ha, ha, ha ha. And halfway through the class, I turned to my husband and I was like, I hate this. I truly disliked this entire experience because I felt so foolish. And while I had always been a good player, I loved to have fun in life. I realized that it was always on my own terms, you know, and hiding behind and not a particular performer, you know, And I felt so naked. And then there was this very small, petite woman, and the exercise where you're supposed to shake someone's hand and hum, laugh, like, again, for no reason, and she shook my hand and she Wouldn't let go. And she just like, she kept going until she could tell I wasn't, I don't know if she could tell or she was just so amused by herself. And finally I just started cracking up. I fell on the floor laughing. She finally let go of my hand and it was in that moment that I was like, oh, oh, this is what it looks like when I'm not getting in my own way. And this kind of buzz energy lasted for like three months. And so that practice of laughing intentionally for no reason, you know, in spite of myself, really probably what launched an opening to the importance of this in our lives.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you think it's particularly important for this area, for this part of the world where it's maybe a little dark, it's a little cold? You know, Maine has this perpetual winter.

Katie West:

The perpetual winter, that's nice.

Lucy Bangor:

There is a little blip of warmth in the summer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I like winter. My birthday's in the winter. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying. Hmm.

Katie West:

I, I, I completely agree. And we actually, I talk about this when I teach, you know, intentional laughter classes and laughter yoga classes, because I will travel to other parts of the country and people are so ready to laugh or even be kind of goofy. And at times here there's this reservation. And so I've asked in many classes, like, what do you think this is about? And often people say, oh, it's hard to look into someone's eyes. Or it's hard to just, I don't know, you feel kind of bare, like I did that first time, of feeling outside your comfort zone. And what we finally came up with, you know, as a kind of compilation was that people here really treasure their authenticity and their kind of groundedness very. I really love how here in Maine we really honor what we believe. And, you know, we, but there can be an element of going within, you know, of not wearing ourselves right on our sleeves. Where maybe some of our Western counterparts, where I've taught in its, it's big,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

free for all, and it's fun.

Katie West:

And so it takes that warm up time of being more opening with the laughter. And why it's important is because that laughter to me is the kind of the glue that makes all of those wonderful principles of being grounded, of really being deep thinking, of really being authentic. It's what brings the lightness so we don't just kind of wind ourselves down into a depression of the state of the world.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Describe some of the activities. John McKean, our audio guru, we call him. He was saying he stumbled across something that you were doing on the Internet. Not you specifics. I know that sounded really weird, but I mean, something that the Levity Institute is engaged in that was startling and fun. Okay, I know there's so many definitions. I hope you edit this out, John. I know this happens. Of course he won't. So just to embarrass me, but go ahead.

Katie West:

That's the fun of it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You can just laugh.

Katie West:

So the Levity Institute has. I guess it's a project or it's something we do. I was just telling John, just for our own amusement, it's the Levity Project, and it's this idea that goes back to the subway, that ride of if we all were fearless and expressing joy when we feel it. You know, not faking joy, but just fearless. When I feel joyful about complimenting someone or smiling or even, you know, heaven forbid, dancing as I walk down the street, what would the world look like? And I think at that point, I became, as I was thinking that after the subway ride, I got very fascinated by these kind of micro changes. The Levity Project is about both our individual change and also gathering people who want to have fun together. We have both traveled across the country, around the country, and organized groups of people to do what we would call flash mobs out in public.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this is we, meaning you, and

Katie West:

so me and the Levity Project team. So the other half is Ina Lucas. She's. She came on board very early, was very taken with it. She's out in San Diego. And so we'll meet up and travel around and. But what's different than most flash mobs is it's not for performance. So it's not street performance. It's street engagement. So it's not that we're trying to force people like, hey, come here, laugh with me. But it's just the nature of people want to be a part of it. So if we're throwing a laughter party where we have a box of leis and people put on a lei and start laughing, you know, we were in Chicago last when we did this. It was just people just start appearing up the street and grabbing leis and laughing with strangers and all the way to now, we're doing micro movements where this is what you probably saw online is we ask people to do something, and then we compile the video for them. So our most recent one that came out in November was grocery store Dancing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

People go into grocery stores and dance, and somebody videos this.

Katie West:

Yep. Just, you know, different it sounds quite funny when you say it like that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

No, I'm totally in for this. But how would people get involved with this? I mean, I don't understand. How do you find this happening?

Katie West:

Well, so if you go, you can go to our website, the Levity Institute, and from there you'll find the Levity Project. And what we do is we'll put out a request. So this, you know, in 2012, it's going to be about every eight weeks.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is this email, is this Facebook, Twitter? How is this request?

Katie West:

You'll see that both through our newsletter and also just on the website. And really at the rate it's all going, it's starting to kind of spiral just by probably some friend sending it to you of saying, oh, this is what they're asking for. So we have done car dancing, we've asked people to smile and send in their videos. And I won't give away yet what January is going to be, but the grocery store one has been so popular that we invite people to send in, if you're so inclined to grab yourself or your family or friends and go to a grocery store and have someone film you, send it in to us and we're gonna make a sequel because so many people want in on it now. They want to show us their real moves.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Okay. All right. So the first, first one was just a warm up, but now we're the real grocery store dancing moves. Okay. And other things you have going on.

Katie West:

In January, Also in January, the Levity Institute, which we're based out of Willard Beach. We're going to be offering a series, but the single class starts Laughter and meditation, or laughter and silence, I think is actually what's on our website. But really what's the practice? Laughter yoga is, is a very social practice and I teach that in different places around Portland. But I wanted to start bringing laughter to that deeper place because a lot of people have contemplative practices, but again, they find that they're weighted down. And so how to bring that levity to that place of our own inner presence. And then there's also a levity retreat, which will be a day long retreat, and it's all about laughing and playing and celebrating and bringing that element of wonder into our experience.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Katie, with all of the serious things that are going on in the world around us, some might question whether it's appropriate to laugh or participate in levity. What would you say to that?

Katie West:

I hear that actually a lot. Is that question of am I kind of, am I being disrespectful? By experiencing joyfulness or laughter. And I actually tell people we can't afford not to because we've all experienced significant amounts of stress. And there's a study by the Harvard Medical Review that says that when we undergo a short period of high stress or a prolonged period of moderate stress, our cognitive abilities are reduced by up to 50%. So given what's going on economically, what's going on in our world, and for those of us that think about it and take time to absorb it, we're probably stressed. And so what good does it do to allow ourselves to start to function less and less? And so to me, if we really want to be the agent of change that we say sometimes we want to be, then it is very important to have practices that make us feel lighter. And we know that laughter helps to reduce our stress hormones, and it boosts our serotonin levels and has lots of good health benefits.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

have you found there to be challenges or people who might be a little skeptical with what you're doing?

Katie West:

No, not at all.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Not at all. Okay. This has all been 100% full forward. Okay, sure.

Katie West:

Now, my favorite. My favorite statement is, but, Katie, you can't be happy all the time. And I find that a very interesting statement. And so I think I got to really mull this over. This August, I got spinal meningitis. And so while I was in the hospital room, in a very dark room for many days, I thought about this. I was like, well, I can't be happy all the time. And once I was over the kind of the initial really difficult time, I actually found this funny. You know, I wasn't laughing when I was in great pain, but there was a lightness that never left because rather than letting the anxiety and I have two small children, you know what's gonna happen? Oh, my gosh, what does this mean? Am I not going to be here anymore? It was really just this lightness of, you know, I'm just here experiencing this. What will happen? And then once I made it through that, I realized, I mean, there was such kind of a stir around me, you know, so I was in a zone zero pressure room kind of thing, and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is like out of a sitcom. This is funny. You know, and the doctors Came in and I nicknamed one guy the meditation doctor because he'd be like, just remember, joy is with you wherever you go. He had no idea what I did for work? No idea.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Doctor said this? Yes. Wow. Like a local doctor. Yes, a local.

Katie West:

Maybe we should have him in.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I guess maybe we should, you know.

Katie West:

And so I was like, okay. And so by not. So when people say we can't always be happy, I think what they're actually saying is, you know, there's a fear that we won't allow ourselves to really immerse in an experience. Does that make sense? So I was really immersed, and it was very painful. It was very hard experience. But I didn't start telling a story of how hard this was and oh my gosh, and what's gonna happen. Instead, I was truly just experiencing it. And I don't think that means I was at this peak of happiness. I think we have a weird relationship to that. But did I feel lighthearted?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes.

Katie West:

Did I feel lightness that things would be okay in some way? I'm not sure if that makes sense.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah, I think it definitely makes sense. What suggestions do you have for people who are attempting to experience joy this holiday season?

Katie West:

I think that coming to the point of what's the season all about, you know, for people and. And without looking at it with individual belief systems is looking at that often what people are intending is to celebrate. There's this deep desire to celebrate each other this season. The experience, some memory. And, you know, what I often talk about is at the very base of celebration is the idea of noticing that's what we're doing. You know, is when you look up the root of celebration, it comes from the. It comes. Its original meaning has to do with. To frequent, to make known. So the idea of what are we making known? What are we noticing in our lives? Because then that's how we're going to end up feeling come January, you know, after it's all done. Is. So I've been inviting people to really notice each moment, whether it's the grand hoo, ha, everybody's over at your house, or you're simply going to get the mail. So in that and allowing yourself to bring that celebration of the noticing to everything that you're doing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Pretty profound stuff, and yet also fun.

Katie West:

Very fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's always fun. There's no point in not having it be fun. It's really been a pleasure to have you come in and talk to us today. How can people find out more about you?

Katie West:

They can go to thelevityinstitute.com they can pretty much google levity and Katie and I'll come up or main and levity

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

is L E V I T. Yes.

Katie West:

And just to speak about that, if you look it up in the dictionary after this broadcast, you'll probably see that it says inappropriate humor, lack of appropriate seriousness, frivolity, and fickleness. But the definition I'm working with was in a dictionary about 100 years ago, and it was buoyancy being lighter than that which surrounds us. And so that's what I wish for people is that sense of, as I was describing earlier, of just feeling that we can be lighter than whatever's going on around us. So if you're stuck in that traffic jam this holiday season or gosh, that thing you wanted wasn't on the shelves, it's just allowing ourselves to do take a breath and realize that we can still be light even amidst the chaos or whatever's going on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Absolutely. I completely agree.

Katie West:

Yay.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you so much for coming in and being part of our Maine Magazine minutes and Genevieve Morgan, of course, with us here in spirit. And I highly encourage people to go to your website and find out more about all the wonderful work you're doing. Great.

Katie West:

And dance in grocery stores.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And dance in grocery stores any chance you get.

Katie West:

Yes, thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Please visit us online@themainmag.com Our November December 2011 issue features new articles on other inspiring artists and entrepreneurs living in our state. Subscribe@mainmag.com or pick up an issue at your local newsstand. Each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we read from the Bountiful blog, which is bountifulpath.com. we link to the Bountiful blog every day on our Facebook page. Dr. Lisa, like our Facebook page and read our blog entries and let us know what you think. This week's blog post is called Deliberation and Re Entry. Before I left for Guatemala, I had tea with a friend who had herself visited the Safe Passage site several times. Jane, one of the foundational members of the group that created our Daily Tread, had known our late friend Hanley Denning well. Jane told me that re entry after my trip might be interesting, which it has been. It has been interesting to return to a land of relative peace and prosperity, knowing that I am a fortunate lass. It has been interesting to return to the life I have cultivated for 40 years and realize that there are a few things I still need to change. It has been interesting to return to my friends and family feeling changed already. The most interesting thing has been to remember what we originally wrote in our daily tread in 2008 live with joy. Live deliberately. Share what you have and who you are with others. These words, printed the year after Hanley's death, continue to ring true. I know that I must continue to live each day as if it is the only one I have been given. Life, as my dearest one reminds me often, is not a dress rehearsal. Happiness and joy are within our grasp if we keep this notion in mind. At the same time, I'm cognizant of the fact that I must continue to work deliberately toward the future. I have a radio show that is among the most important thing I have ever done. I have patients I value highly. I have three children whom I call beloved. I have countless friends and family members who enrich my life daily. I know that even as I am enjoying the present, I must be making necessary changes to ensure the sustainability of my joy and the joy of those around me. Finally, I know now that in sharing what I have and who I am, I must be highly realistic about what I actually have to give. Guilty in the past of giving just about everything away to my own detriment, I no longer have that luxury. I am just one woman. I do not need to save the world. I simply need to show up, be who I am, treasure what I have been given, do what I can, be the best person I can be at any given moment. And if I stumble or fall short of the expectations I have set for myself, treat myself the way that I attempt to treat others, with compassion and love. These are my re entry thoughts. Life is simultaneously long and short. We must live deliberately and with joy. We must share of ourselves, and we must continue to realize what a gift each day truly is. Read more Bountiful blog entries on bountifulpath.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

each week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast we feature a segment we call Give Back in recognition of the fact that health is more than simply the individual and the way the Individual works within the world, but also about the health of the family, the community and the world at large. This week's Give Back segment is about the Children's Museum and today we have joining us, Lucy Bangor from the Children's Museum of Maine. Hi there. Lucy joined the Children's Museum of Maine staff in January 2008. As a lifelong theater buff, she was excited to be on board for the merger of the museum with the Children's Theatre of Maine later that year. She delights in the museum and theater's hands on collaborative culture where staff, volunteers, visitors, actors and audiences all all use their creativity to engage children in learning through play. Lucy particularly enjoys the holiday season at the museum and theater where the space comes alive with performances and celebrations. Well, welcome.

Lucy Bangor:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Good to be here. It's an interesting thing to be kind of in the holiday season, full swing and know that there's a lot of joyful stuff going on. And I really hadn't thought about the Children's Museum at all, but I know there must be joyful stuff. So tell me what is happening at the Children's Museum this holiday season.

Lucy Bangor:

This is a great time and I think especially last year is when we really started establishing traditions, things that we, we wanted be a seasonal celebration place. So last year we launched our, we did our first run of Santa's Reindeer Revue in the children's theater, one of our main stage productions for the season. And the concept is really funny. Just in the other reindeer jealous people because Rudolph has been such a star for so long, they're sorry they bullied him, they apologized and now they want to move on and get some attention too. So the idea is that they put on a talent show to get everyone's attention and huge hit last year and really gives each kid a chance to shine and we get to tailor it to the actors who are in the show. So we're doing it again this year with a new cast and coming back with new talents and magic and comedy. And so that's really exciting because I think that sort of just brings a lot of energy to the space and people are really excited to see it come back. It's our first repeating show that we've done. We tend to do new shows every season, so that was exciting. And we also have Santa on site. He's coming four times to do photos with children, which is great. I love the idea of bringing that back to downtown. It's something that people used to come downtown, get dressed up, go to the major department store and with that sort of Having disappeared from American culture in most cities, it's nice to see that back in. In downtown as part of sort of a family day. So we have. We started that last year also. And Santa's coming back this year. He's been kind enough to make time for us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Very nice. Yes. He's busy this time of year, so

Lucy Bangor:

it's good to stop at the Children's Museum.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about the Children's Museum, how it came to be. Why. Why the Children's Museum in Portland, Maine?

Lucy Bangor:

It was actually the Junior League of Portland that started it. And it started in Cape Elizabeth in the 1970s in a little one room, essentially. And then a lot of people remember Stevens Avenue. When I talk to people my age, a lot of the time they say, oh, I remember going to the little one. I remember going to the little one.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So.

Katie West:

Right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And they used to have. I remember, like the fireman's hats and the fireman's jackets.

Lucy Bangor:

Firemen's are sort of firemen. Fire trucks, all of that are sort of. And you still have quintessential children's museum. Yeah, almost any children's museum you visit a lot. A lot of times they'll have some element of that. It's just endless fascination with that whole idea. And so it began there. And really, it's just about wanting children to learn through play, I mean, in the 1970s. And children's museums have been growing ever since then, really since Brooklyn began children's museums over a century ago, I think. But just the idea of childhood and how much you can learn through. Through playing, and research has borne that out. And I think, as people discover more and more, that play is not just silliness. It's not just. It's not by any means a waste of time for children of any age from, you know, from infancy into school age, that play is extremely valuable for problem solving skills, for cognitive development, for language development, and they need a place to do that. And children's museums are all about sort of unstructured playtime as a complement to sort of more structured things that they might be doing in school.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How did you come to be part of the Children's Museum? What was your path?

Lucy Bangor:

I'm from Falmouth originally and was living in New York and working in finance and didn't find that personally very rewarding. It was, you know, lovely people to work with and whatnot. But it wasn't something you could get excited about every day. It wasn't helping anyone, I guess, as cliche as that sounds. But you do start to realize that something's missing when you're not doing that. So knowing the cost of living in New York and how difficult nonprofit balancing a non profit job might be there, I decided to come back home to Maine and found this job almost right away in January 2008. Began in the Development Department of the Children's Museum and Theater, or the Children's Museum at the time and started there and I've been there now it'll be four years in January.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I assume you must like it because you're still there.

Lucy Bangor:

I sure do. The culture there is amazing because it's so collaborative and it's so hands on and you know, I get to meet the actors who are in the show. You know, there's nothing sort of, you know, it's being in marketing. Public relations is an office job technically, but there's all of us are, you know, within the whole museum all the time. We're, we're up and down the stairs. We're even. I mean, even from my office, you can literally hear the laughter of children in my office. So you're really involved in everything all day. You know, it's a small staff and everyone's solutions and ideas across departments are really valued. And so, and I have moved from development into the marketing department. And so there's just, just, it's a place that's really open to transition and growth and collaboration. And so, yeah, it's a pretty amazing place to go every day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How many children are served children families by the Children's Museum every year?

Lucy Bangor:

Our visitors number nearly 100,000 each year, about 1700 member families. We also serve about 3500 teachers and students in outreach programs. When our educators go into classrooms and bring things like istar, the inflatable humpback whale, which is an absolutely amazing experience. ISTAR is a permanent fixture in our big gallery right now.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

See, now I'm a little sad because my youngest is almost 11, so I don't know that I was thinking about going to see an inflatable humpback whale, but I might have to.

Lucy Bangor:

I think even, even at 11, it's, it's worth a. Just a visit just to, just to try. I think there's still so much they can get. I mean, because you, you'll see when you see kids probably maybe in middle school age passing by outside. I mean, you see the eyes kind of widen in this little bit of a sense of longing. So especially I think if there's a younger neighbor or a friend or a sibling or a cousin, anybody who they can come with and have fun as

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

an excuse to go in, right.

Lucy Bangor:

And have that sort of be their entry point. And then it's a little bit bigger kid. It's a little bit I'm helping and I'm mentoring but they also get to just have fun and they get to, you know, be the cashier at the grocery store while the little one brings up the groceries. And I mean there's so much for them to do the hands on play. But then upstairs also we have some. They can get something different out of it, I think some, some slightly more sophisticated material in our Wales exhibit inside Istar and then also on our second floor where we have more science programming and we have the We Are Maine exhibit which is. Has video clips of families who live in Maine now but have roots all over the world. And that is accessible to young children. But also I think older children can get a little. They're usually peer level. A lot of the kids in those videos are around 9, 10 or 11. And so they can get something special out of that too. So I think it's worth a try. Even at 11, you know, for people

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

who are interested, how will they learn more and what do you need from the community? I mean this is a give back segment so. And we assume that there are things that you might need. What does that look like? How can people help you out and how do they find out more about your organization?

Lucy Bangor:

There are a lot of ways to get involved. Membership is certainly one for families. That's a great option. It's a, you know, it's supportive but it's also free admission for an entire year. So as a family it's. And it can be a lifesaver on a lot of, a lot of winter days. We have a terrific volunteer program. We have the on site volunteers who do programs that you may have seen when you come visit the museum. They do science programming, art which is wonderful. And those start in their teens. We have a great program for that. Jamie Andrew is our volunteer coordinator, our community engagement coordinator. We have great training for them. But there's also, there are other volunteer opportunities that I think people aren't as aware of. Like our auction committee which is really great for parents because it can something where you can really make your own hours and commit the amount of time that you feel comfortable with and you don't have to be making it to our building every day in order to be making a difference.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And the auction takes place place one

Lucy Bangor:

that'll be at the end of May this year and in a new location, which is very exciting. We're moving to Ocean Gateway. So, yeah, it's a. And the team is really great. And it's a great way to meet other parents and a pretty neat way to give back without having to, you know, especially for any parent working or not working, committing to specific hours can be really challenging. So this is nice because it's more flexible. And then, of course, there are donations. Our membership and admission actually makes up a little less than half of what we need for an operating budget every year. And the rest of it is all contributed support. Foundations and individuals and businesses, local businesses. So it's an enormous part of being able to deliver what we do. You know, the programming that we do every half hour, the theater productions. In order to keep our costs low, we need a lot of contributed support. And this is the season, so it's a great time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Indeed it is. Right before the end of the tax year.

Katie West:

Yeah.

Lucy Bangor:

And you can give gifts and other people's names, too. You can give scholarship memberships in someone else's name, which is a really nice idea. We distribute those to very worthy families in the community with some really heartbreaking and amazing stories about what they've been through, but also how much joy they find when their family comes to the museum and theater and how having access to that would mean something so much to them. Just having a safe place to play. So scholarship memberships are a really amazing way to give back.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Also. How do people find out more?

Lucy Bangor:

Kitetails.org is our website, k-itel s.org our Facebook page is very active, so that's a fun place to sort of communicate with us. And you'll find out about, you know, insider things, last minute schedule changes, all that stuff. You can sign up for our email list on kitetails.com. and call us. We're there. We love answering questions. It's a huge part of what we do. We try to be very responsive, so extremely open to suggestions and communications and ideas and unconventional donations. And, you know, we really. We try to respond to absolutely every inquiry we get. So you can always call us at 828-1234.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Lucy, is there anything new or particularly interesting that you'd like to tell us about that's happening at the Children's Museum?

Lucy Bangor:

Well, all of our exhibits are always evolving, but right now is an extra exciting time. Actually, even as you and I sit here, members of our staff are meeting with engineers from Fairchild Semiconductor, and we're working with them to create a new engineering exhibit, which we're so excited about. It's a really new concept for us and sounded very overwhelming. You know, how do you do engineering for children? How do you do that for our audience? And what we've discovered in this really collaborative process that we're doing with Fairchild is that engineering, you know, of course there's math, of course there's science, but in its essence, it's really problem solving. And children have great instincts for problem solving and a real need to do that. That's what they want to do. So that's really going to be the core of the exhibit, is just presenting problems and asking them to come up with creative solutions. And ultimately the goal of that is to not just have a really nice, neat new exhibit that can engage maybe slightly older kids also, but to also then provide new generations of engineers ultimately, as a long term goal. Companies like Fairchild really struggle to fill the positions that they need because a lot of children find engineering intimidating early and then never pursue it. And so this is about sort of offering them an entry point. So very exciting. We don't have an opening date yet, but that'll be something to look for in the next few months.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, they can check that out on your website then and keep up, keep up to date with what's going on over there. Very nice. Thank you so much for the work you're doing with the Children's Museum and bringing joy out into the community at large. And we know that adults and children benefit from this. So we encourage people go to your website and we will link through on the Dr. Lisa website and Facebook page and have a happy holiday.

Lucy Bangor:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You too. This week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast, our theme was joy, which we undertook because we understood the importance of joy in the holiday season. What we found over the course of recording this show is that joy is possible in just about any circumstance. We began the show with the quote, happiness is not in our circumstance, but in ourselves. Happiness is something we are. And this is something we found to be true as we had a conversation with Mike LePage as he discussed problems he had encountered in his life and how he had managed to overcome them and create a sense of joy. We had a conversation with Katie west of the Levity Institute, who brought laughter into the conversation. And then we went on to discuss the Children's Museum and Theater of Maine with Lucy Bangor. Each of these individuals helped shape our perspective a little bit when it comes to the notion of joy. And in the end, it is about perspective. As I mentioned in the bountiful blog reading, wherever you are, look around you and see if you can find the rainbow. See if you can find things about which to be joyful. No matter what's happening in your life, it's always possible. We Hope that the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast continues to serve as an ongoing source of joy and inspiration for you this holiday season and Beyond. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Thank you for being a part of our world. Let us know what you think on the Dr. Lisa Facebook page through the Dr. Lisa website, drlisabelisle.com or simply giving us a call at our office. 207-847-9393. Thank you for being a part of our world. May you have a bountiful life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

SAM SA.