Words of Wellness with Shelly
Do you get confused by all of the information that is available regarding ways to improve your health and wellness? Do you often become frustrated or overwhelmed with decisions on how to be your healthiest? We all know and understand how important our health and wellness is to the vitality of our lives, however navigating the wealth of health and wellness information available can often feel overwhelming. Understanding the significance of our well-being in leading fulfilling lives is crucial, yet determining what steps to take that are essential for our health can often be confusing.
Welcome everyone to "Words of Wellness"! In this podcast, hosted by Shelly Jefferis, M.A., a seasoned health and wellness professional with over 35 years in the industry, all of your questions will be answered and clarity will be provided through personal stories, education, tips and inspiration. Throughout her profession, Shelly has always had the heart and desire to help others feel their best and live their best lives through her supportive and compassionate approach. Through engaging solo and guest episodes, several topics will be addressed, questions will be answered and clarity will be provided in an effort to lead you to a healthier, more energetic life. With a master’s degree in kinesiology, extensive experience as an educator, speaker, coach, and entrepreneur, Shelly brings a wealth of knowledge and a genuine passion for empowering others to feel their best. By featuring industry experts and relatable individuals, the podcast promises personal stories, practical advice, and inspiration. She is excited to come to you weekly sharing all she has experienced, learned and discovered through the years. Whether you're seeking to elevate your well-being, gain practical insights for personal health, or simply be inspired to live a high quality vibrant life, this is the podcast is for YOU! Be sure to tune in weekly and join us along our "Words of Wellness" journey and embark on a path toward a healthier and more fulfilling quality of life full of happiness, energy and joy!
Words of Wellness with Shelly
Shelly's Shares: Letting Go: A Mother's Journey Through College Goodbyes
Leaving a child at college marks one of parenthood's most profound transitions – a milestone many approach with mixed emotions but few are truly prepared for. As Shelly shares, her heart still aches recalling the moment she pulled away from her daughter's college dorm nine years ago, as tears flowed freely.
The 12-hour journey home from Oregon became a long ride of grief, with her husband, her son and herself cycling through waves of tears that would briefly subside only to begin anew. That raw, vulnerable experience – the physical ache of separation, the empty bedroom waiting at home, her husband's plaintive "Why can't she just come home?" – represents a universal parenting moment that deserves honest conversation.
This episode launches a three-part series exploring Shelly's personal experience taking each of her three children to college. She shares these stories not to amplify the difficulty, but to provide the preparation and awareness she wishes she had. While the sadness remains unavoidable, understanding these emotions as natural and communal offers valuable comfort. Remember that this transition, though heart-wrenching, eventually transforms into something beautiful – different from what came before, but equally meaningful. For mothers navigating this journey, consider joining our "Moms Who Flourish" wellness event on October 4th in Southern California, or reaching out about one-on-one mentorship specifically designed to help navigate this significant life transition. What was your college drop-off experience like? Share your story with us and join this important conversation.
CONNECT WITH SHELLY:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellnesswithshellyj https://www.instagram.com/momswhoflourish
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShellyJefferis
LINK to upcoming MOMS WHO FLOURISH Wellness Event October 4th: https://buy.stripe.com/00weVc40n64nbsNblH0gw0p
A few of Shelly's favorite clean products:
High quality, clean nutrition and beauty products: https://shellyjefferis.isagenix
Clean-crafted wine, free from chemicals & pesticides:
https://scoutandcellar.com/?u=healthyhappyhours
Cayla Gray- Non-toxic cologne & perfume: https://caylagray.com/wellnesswithshellyj (10% discount)
JuJu Non-toxic candles & air fresheners:
https://goodjujucandles.com/?ref=mrtgnygh
Coupon code for 10% off: ShellyJefferis
Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.
Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!
In Health,
Shelly
I gave her a special necklace before we left and then we pulled away and I really truly will never forget that moment. Like what's happening here, like we just pulled away. She's standing there, we're waving goodbye. You know, tears are flowing and it just is so hard. It makes me cry still all these years later.
Speaker 1:Do you get confused by all of the information that bombard us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more, to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journey so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life and that you will we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy.
Speaker 1:Now let's dive into our message for today. Hello friends, welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly and I will be your host, and this is our Monday episode of Shelly's Shares, and I am going to do a three-part series, starting today, and share with you all my personal journey and experience with taking our kids to college, and a couple reasons I thought about doing this One. It seems to be almost that time of year where perhaps some of you are taking your first, your first born, maybe your only child, to college. Maybe you're taking them back for their second, third or fourth year. And also, I just want to share what it was like for me in hopes that maybe it can be a comfort to all of you and perhaps help you through your journey, if you might be a little apprehensive or rightfully so a little sad around this time of year. So I'm just going to share a little bit about what it was like for me in my experience my mama experience taking my kids to college, and another part of this is that I want to invite any of you who are in distance close distance, or even if you're not close distance I've had speakers fly in from out of state and drive in from out of state to speak.
Speaker 1:Our upcoming Moms who Flourish Wellness event is happening Saturday, october 4th in Southern California, and I do have the early bird registration link in the show notes, so check it out. We'd love to have you join us. It's an incredible day devoted to all of our moms, incredible speakers in the area of various areas of wellness. We have wellness vendors, businesses that are owned by moms. We'll have a special healthy lunch that we'll serve and just a day of connection and community, so we'd love to have you join us. The other part of this is that I am offering mentorship, whether it be one-on-one or in a small group setting, for any of you moms specifically, who might be looking for clarity in your own personal wellness journey and adding that to your motherhood journey If you are feeling like you could use some clarity and some direction and just some help with fitness, your nutrition, mindset and making sure you're giving yourself the time that you need physically, mentally, emotionally on a regular basis. So if this is something that you would like to know more about, please feel free to reach out to me. My contact information is in the show notes. Again, you can reach out to me. My contact information is in the show notes. Again, you can reach out to me. Best place would be probably on Instagram right now at wellnesswithshellyj, and let's just have a quick, quick jump on a quick call 10 minutes, 15 minutes and see if what I have for you could be a good fit and could help you along your journey of motherhood combined with wellness. So here we go.
Speaker 1:The first experience that we had involved taking our daughter to college, and she chose University of Oregon and we live in Southern California. So we made the trek up to Oregon, packed up the car, she said some goodbyes to one of her brothers who couldn't go with us because of school. That was hard enough in itself at that point and we hit the road. You know, driving up there was fine, was fun, doing all the things that you do when you take your child to college and you move them into their dorm, especially for the very first time. Again, this was our first, our very first experience, and you know it's fun. You take them shopping, you get them what they need for their dorm. You get them the snacks that they need, you get them any of the toiletries, shower things that they need, the soaps, the shampoos, anything that is necessary and whatever can fit in their dorm is what you get them and hang out for a little time, a few days, whatever it takes. Make sure they have everything that they need.
Speaker 1:And then it's time to say goodbye, and I could really truly start getting emotional just thinking about that moment. For us, and I will never, ever forget it, it was my husband and our youngest son and myself, and we said our goodbyes to our daughter, jessica, and she was standing on the sidewalk outside of her dorm. I gave her a special necklace before we left and then we pulled away and I really truly will never forget that moment. Like what's happening here? Like we just pulled away. And I really truly will never forget that moment. Like what are we? What's happening here? Like we just pulled away. She's standing there, we're waving goodbye. You know, tears are flowing and it just it's so hard, it makes me cry still all these years later.
Speaker 1:But we, you know, got on the freeway and started our truck down the highway to start our way back home and I can honestly say that 12 hours in the car, we stopped, we tried to have lunch, but that really didn't work out very well. That really didn't work out very well. But 12 plus hours in the car, pretty much the entire way, one of us was crying and, you know, one of us would stop. You know, maybe we'd all stop for a moment and then one of us would get started again and then it would just cause the others to start crying again as well. And it was just a very, very emotional ride home, a long ride home. And it was a comfort getting home to our Cody, who was home, but at the same time, you know, we had just experienced something really, really difficult and there was really no way to verbalize it to him at that moment, at that moment in time.
Speaker 1:But I will share, you know, coming home and having that feeling like, okay, she's not here, she's not home, she's not in her bedroom. It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy and I'll never forget. The next day, my husband and I were out walking and he was crying and he said why can't you just come home, why can't you just come home? And I just said you can't, you can't. And I want to share this with all of you, and this is important for dads as well.
Speaker 1:But I'm sharing from my perspective as a mama that I feel like I wish that in hindsight you know hindsight's 20-20, and I'm not going to say that it would have made it any less sad, but I feel like I would have liked to have known and had some preparation for that experience. And it's not it's not right or wrong and I'm sorry I have like tears flowing, wiping my nose, wiping my eyes. It wouldn't have necessarily alleviated the sadness around the whole experience. However, I do feel like and this is something that I'm feeling passionate about to share with moms now is that I do feel like having some idea about what to expect could have helped. It could have helped the situation, but we went into it blindly, having no idea, and I have to be honest with everyone. It was heartbreaking, it really was, and again, we just didn't. It was our first time, knew nothing about it, had no preparation, didn't know what to expect, nothing. And you know, looking back, that's one thing that I wish I had.
Speaker 1:But again, I want to repeat, it doesn't mean it would have been less sad, but I think some preparation and having some awareness as to what to expect could have helped just a little bit. To expect could have helped just a little bit. And, quite frankly, our youngest, our Brandon at the time was, oh gosh, eight, nine, maybe a little bit older, but it was really hard for him too and I would have loved to have been able to help him through it, which I think I did. But you know, you always look back and you think I could have done something a little bit different, a little bit maybe better. But we took that time that we needed. You know that the next day, if I, if I recall, I think I let him stay home from school, um, and we we both just kind of hung out and it definitely took some getting used to. And it definitely took some getting used to and you know I get emotional talking about it, and we were talking.
Speaker 1:This was nine years ago, so it was a long time ago, but I still can feel that moment and I just have that vision of pulling away and leaving her standing there and I just. It's a tough one, but I want to share this journey with you all and, like I said, this is going to be a three part series that I'm going to share. Next week I will share about taking our Cody and then the following week I'll share about the experience taking our Brayden. And this is just meant to share a little bit of my personal journey with you all, in hopes that you can feel some comfort if you're going through it as well, and feel some comfort and encouragement if it's in the future for you. Maybe it's a year, two, three, four, five, more or more years down the road for you. But I also just like to be that person that shares in hopes that it can help maybe just one person with their journey, with their experience.
Speaker 1:And, like I mentioned before I got started, I am offering one-on-one mentorship and definitely offering it for any of you who might be empty nest moms, who might be struggling. I am here to help you. I'm here to help you get back on track with your wellness routine, get back on track with your personal day-to-day routine and your identity. If you're struggling with that, your fitness, if you're struggling, your nutrition all of those things I am here to help you. So, again, reach out, contact me through Instagram and let's see if I can be of support through this journey for you.
Speaker 1:And I will say that so much has happened specifically for our daughter since that day. She spent her time at Oregon completing her general education. Then she traveled to a small school in Michigan to complete her degree, because it wasn't something that was offered in Oregon, and then from there, she applied for internships and got an internship in Boston, applied for internships and got an internship in Boston, and now her job has taken her to San Diego. So she's pretty close by now. But it's been a journey, a journey of her being far from home for a few years, and now it's really a blessing to have her close, closer to home.
Speaker 1:So it does get easier, my friends, and you have to go through the moments, though I just believe, I truly believe, and I will always, always share this. You have to go through the emotions, you have to go through whatever it is in our lives, right, the heartbreak, the sadness, the grief. You have to go through it and experience it in order to experience the happy moments, the joyful moments and you know, I heard someone talking about grief recently and this is a form of it. When our children move out, it is a form of it. It's because it's such a different, a different time it's. It's what we've known for almost 20 years is no longer there and uh, but it just becomes different and it, it, it becomes really beautiful. It just, it, just it takes time.
Speaker 1:So, again, I hope this just comforts and encourages someone out there who is listening, and I would love to know your thoughts. I would love to know about your journey. Connect with me on Instagram and, again, if you're going to be close enough, in proximity, that you can join us on Saturday, october 4th, please jump in and get the early bird registration and get registered to join us. It's going to be a phenomenal day. So, with that being said, my friends, have a beautiful, blessed week. Do something for yourself and your wellness on this day, and I will see you next time on Words of Wellness.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode. I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend, or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. Thank you.