Captivate Podcast: Feeling Overwhelmed? Wendy Weber Shares Why Support Is Always Within Reach

Life throws curveballs, but Wendy Weber reminds me that we don’t have to face them alone. She shares how leaning into community and asking for help transforms not only our struggles but our growth. Wendy inspires me to see caregiving as an act of love, not just duty and challenges me to let go of the guilt and embrace the strength that comes from being vulnerable. Selfcare isn’t selfish—it’s essential. If you ever feel overwhelmed, remember you’re stronger than you think and more supported than you realize.

About Our Guest:

Wendy Weber, an energy healer and devoted parrot enthusiast, harmonizes her vibrant spirit with a talent for singer-songwriting, amplifying voices, and fostering unity. Wendy brews  a unique melody of resilience and empowerment that she’s nurtured through decades of parrot companionship and raising her late daughter who had Down syndrome, then Alzheimer’s. Her parody and original songwriting resonates in both healing work and musical expression that has sustained her through adversity to triumph.

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyeweber/ 

LinkedIn: wendy.weber

Facebook: wendy.weber

About Me:

I have cared for many family members across the life span, experiencing the joys and challenges of child-rearing, the poignance of caring for parents, friends, and elder partners. I realized that I could not handle the stress of family caregiving 24/7/365. It was time for a new approach to caring. My health and happiness were slipping away. This is how Think to Thrive for Caregivers evolved. Let your mind meet your heart so you don’t lose track of your life.

Connect with Me:

https://www.deborahgreenhut.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahgreenhut01/

Find my books here

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Transcript
Deborah Greenhut:

Hi. Welcome back to the share giving secret where we try to make sure that caregivers don't have to go it alone. And today, I'm really honored to have with me my guest, Wendy Weber, hi, Wendy, how are you doing?

Wendy Weber:

I'm fine. How are you today?

Deborah Greenhut:

I'm very good. Thanks. So I want to share a little bit about your background before we get into our interview, you enjoy giving a talk that's called three great mindsets for raising your child who has Down syndrome. And I like to say that caregiving is an intergenerational business. It starts perhaps for some people with parenting or having been a child and maybe taking care of parents, and sometimes it comes back to that, back around to that at the other end of our lives, that we are taking care of our own parents as well. So Wendy is an energy healer and a devoted parent enthusiast, and she harmonizes her vibrant spirit with a talent for singer songwriting, Amplifying Voices and fostering unity, her unique melody of resilience and empowerment triumph over adversity has been nurtured through decades of parrot companionship and raising her late daughter who had Down syndrome and then Alzheimer's. Her parody and original songwriting resonates in both healing work and musical expression. So Wendy, I'm going to turn it over to you for a minute. What is it in your background that you think would be most helpful for caregiving? In other words, what is the share giving that you can teach people about?

Wendy Weber:

I think the main thing to remember is you don't have to do it alone. So when we talk about share giving, you have to learn to let go and share the responsibility, whether you have state or county or city help. We had respite care here in Phoenix in Arizona, and that was for for my daughter, but they have help for people who for your folks, for your parents, or anybody else you're taking care of, so you can get out, take a break and remember to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself, then you're diminishing anything you have to give It's just like being on the airplane. Put your mask on first. They tell you that, and you do that so that you can take care of somebody else. You just if you are stuck doing it alone, you know, most people have access to you're watching me on the internet. Do a search, find out where the help is. Maybe there's some just community groups who help each other. If you have a, let's say you have a loved one who has Alzheimer's, perhaps, or any of the dementia iterations, there are groups, support groups, and you don't have to go to it anymore. You can find them on online.

Deborah Greenhut:

Just those are. Those are really great suggestions. I'm also interested in something you said in your biography about being an energy healer and devoted parent enthusiast. Of course, I'm sure we'll hear a little bit about that. But how does the music play in to the healing? I think that that might be especially helpful to some of our caregivers.

Wendy Weber:

When we work with energy, we're working with vibration. And music is also vibration, and every vibration level is a different note. And the same thing with vibrations on where you are in your emotions, it's all connected. What music do you go to when you want to feel better? Now you can go to music that makes you feel sad. I try not to do that. I don't I don't listen to music that makes me angry. I got enough politics for that I don't know all the nuances, but we know that music touches a different part of the brain. I wrote a song, my first really original song. I'd been doing parodies, not parodies, but parodies, for years, and then when she was having her bat mitzvah, and I was writing a poem about her. After she finished all the ritual requirements, a tune kept knocking at my head followed me around. It would not let me go, so I said, All right, there was song. Then we I sang it there, with the help of the cantor. And

Wendy Weber:

anytime I started that song or played the notes, Layla would say, That's my song. It belonged to her. It belonged to nobody else, original words, original music. That was first song, and then later on, she recognized it. It touched something in her eyes. We were losing her, but that part of the brain still recognized something that meant something to her. So the music, we don't understand all of it. They're finding out more every day with the imaging, the brain imaging and the response to music, but the they don't understand all of the energy connection, yet the vibration level connection, yet, I don't know if I'll even see that in my lifetime. However, they're proving so many things with vibration and how that works, and how the energy works, and how, how your field, your your energy field, which is 12 to 424, inches to be healthy outside your body, you want to make sure that is maintained and not collapsed. And also, if negative things get into it, and they do, it has to be cleared. And most people don't know how to do that. And a lot of energy healers, depending on the kind of energy healing you do, do not know how to do that, so that's part of healing, or at least prevention. Doesn't work for everything. Yet we don't have all the answers.

Deborah Greenhut:

Yes, all that's so interesting to me. I remember reading and seeing that Tony Bennett could remember the lyrics to his songs, but was not able to converse. So clearly, the music is in a very different portion of the brain and and it is a whole body experience the way you were describing it, not just one area, not just your ears. So so that that's an interesting thing to consider. How does it? Does it help the person who is being the caregiver as much as it helps the person the loved one that they are caring for? Would you say? Are you

Wendy Weber:

talking about the energy healing

Deborah Greenhut:

for the music, the music for for ones, alright, the

Wendy Weber:

music, if you want to get calm, you know, I I remember being frustrated with my mother. I've been frustrated with my daughter, that energy comes out it projects. That's why we have to learn to protect ourselves. But they that energy projects and latches on to somebody else, unless you know how to detach from it when you calm yourself down with a mantra, with an energy technique, with music, with a song, you're able to, first of all, breathe. You must breathe. When you get upset, you stop breathing. Breathing is hugely important with energy healing and music, because if I don't take a breath, I can't sing anything. So we need to learn to do at least some simple techniques to calm down. And you know, if you have pets or they feel that energy even quicker than we do. My parents certainly do. My cat used to, I've never had dogs, so I don't know much about that, but, but they but I do know I have healed a dog. So when you use whatever technique, whether it's a mantra, whether it's music, what the melody you love, just do la, la, la. Maybe you don't know the words. It doesn't matter the music, the energy, the vibration. When you lower the anxiety, which is a lower vibration, and you raise the calmness, which is a higher vibration, you're more effective and you're not hurting yourself, either, because we can damage ourselves quickly or little bit at a time over time, music is a super antidote and a super means to lower that. I listen to classical all day in my house, there's a lot of things I don't like. I write music in different genres, not the latest ones. I don't like that. I don't like all that repetition. It's i It bores me. I know I'm not alone, but I like melody. I like to be able to understand the lyrics. And so, but I was thinking. I've been thinking about the modern music, which I just don't like, but maybe it's a form of anesthesia with all that repetition, and they all sound alike to me, but that could be a form of. And that's the sizing where you're at. And so you calm down. So maybe for other people, that works that way. For me, it just irritates me, so I avoid it, but, but it depends on what you grew up with, hugely, what you what would your parents play? What were you exposed to? I think our we have cellular memory. We have memory babies absorb that. Why? Why do they? Why do blood people want to play Mozart? Mozart seems to resonate with your brain, so it works better. Somebody who studied that told me that, and then it made sense to me. So I hope that answers your question, no,

Deborah Greenhut:

that helps. I was reading a book on why things sound the way they do, by an MIT scholar who was researching the acoustics of music and the breath component. And she was originally a rock music producer, and then she went back to school and got an engineering degree to do all of these, this other kind of research. And I think one of the things points she made, which you've also made as well, for me, is that breathing has a lot to do with both the vibration and the music. Part of it, because your breath can disturb the flow, or it can go with the flow, I guess would be the best way to put it. So that interrupts whatever vibration or reroutes it is that correct what I'm saying, something like that.

Wendy Weber:

I don't know if it reroutes it. I don't I don't have enough knowledge. I haven't studied that, but the breath. Do you ever watch a baby breathe? Yeah, Kelly's going up and down and up and down, and we lose that ability, and we have to work at it. I do breathing exercises every every morning. I try and do it throughout the day, but at least this first thing in the morning I'm grounding myself. I do energy exercises, but the the breath is what your body needs to live. The first thing that we lose or that the if we don't have air, if we're not breathing, we die. That water takes longer. Without food, it takes longer. But without air, that's it for you. That's all she wrote. But the way that, if you listen to any of the Buddhist and the the Indian practitioners or the Chinese practitioners, if you don't do steady or a deep breathing. If you don't breathe, you can't accomplish what you want to accomplish, or it's all lot harder. If you get upset the first thing, or you're you feel you're in danger, whatever it is you need to think about what to do. You better breathe so your brain has the oxygen to do what you need to do, and you can do that anytime in the day, the way I learned to breathe in for energy. And there's different methods. It's usually we do six, three breathing, and other people do four, eight. And there's all kinds of ways to do it, but you need to have some kind of a system. If you do it for two minutes, that may be as effective a meditation technique as anything out there, and you have it with you all the time, you know what the hardest thing is? Deborah, what's that? Remember to use your tools. I have a group of friends who I text them now every now and then, cut your cords and clap. So that's just something we're talking about, getting rid of negative energy, because they don't remember to do it took me a long time to be regular at it. Yeah, and and so, so if maybe have a timer, maybe have somebody remind you. I'm thinking of starting a membership group, you know, or low price, but people will come if they pay for it, right? If they don't pay for it, they won't value it to do exercises, the energy exercises, and to practice the breathing and do the techniques. So it becomes an everyday things, but if we don't do it at least once a week, you're going to lose it, and the effectiveness goes away. Absolutely

Deborah Greenhut:

I was going to ask you, if you had an exercise week, you and I could try that we could recommend to caregivers that would lighten the load a little bit. So is there a breathing technique or some other Yeah, yeah,

Wendy Weber:

the breathing, the breathing that I learned to do. And I said, this is just call it six, three breathing. So I start, I let all the air out, and. I breathe in. Now I can do it more slowly, because I'm a singer, so I have the capacity you breathe in for six counts. You try and increase the length of the counts as you get better at it, and then hold it for three and then slowly, and this is all through your nose. Now, a lot of people do it through the mouth, but there's a reason that we go out through the nose for six again. At the bottom, when you're out of air, you hold it because you still have enough air in your system, not going to die. Hold it for three and you breathe in for six again. So you do at least three rounds of it. If you're doing a meditation, do it for two minutes. I set a timer because I try, I start to check out, which is great. That's why is considered a type of meditation. And you can do this anyway. Don't do it while you're driving. No, no, but you can do it in just about anywhere else, and most of the time, people even know you're doing it. All these techniques. People don't know what it is you're doing. Don't be embarrassed if they ask you, just tell them, I'm of an age. Deborah. I don't care. People think I'm an entertainer. I do silly stuff. I don't care. But you know how freeing that is, by the way, I really appreciate your letting me share this information, because it's so important. It's so important. And I was thinking my songs, going over my song about who takes care of the caregiver, I have it written. I just need to, I'm adjusting the courts I want to make because it's some of its melancholy. I wanted to have some of that in the minor key, but I wanted to end it up in mostly major thought. That's how I think. But I have in here caretaker, and I'm going to change it, unless I have to think about that, because caregiver, if we're a caretaker, we're taking away I'm a lyricist, I

Deborah Greenhut:

think, yeah, for receiving it absolutely. I'm an English major, so I'm with you, yeah?

Wendy Weber:

So if you but caregiver, we're giving care. You know, one thing it has occurred to me, just answer one of your questions in this manner. What do you do when you're upset? How do you change that when you're a caregiver, giving that? That's you receive back from that we're taught to give. Well, we're not more growing up. We were talked to, you know, be humble, keep your mouth shut. You know, just do this. Do that. You know, give, give, give, give that. When you when you're giving, be aware of what you're receiving in return. That'll help you more time with your loved one, seeing a diminishing of pain, seeing a diminishing of angst, I

Deborah Greenhut:

want to thank you, Wendy, this has been such an enlightening conversation for me, and it's confirmed a lot of things that I thought with some really good specifics about vibrations and about Healing and about how to take care of yourself. So I want to thank you for being with me today. I'll ask you, is there any place you would like people to connect with you so that they can find out about the group you mentioned, or any other project? Well,

Wendy Weber:

I will be starting my own podcast pretty soon, but you can connect with me. The best way is on my Wendy at Wendy Weber music, com email, and Weber is with 1b as you can see, Wendy at Wendy Weber music, I'm also on LinkedIn, Facebook. I'm Wendy dot Weber. On Facebook, there's a lot of Wendy, so I'm Wendy dot Weber, and I'm on Instagram as well. Wendy e Weber,

Deborah Greenhut:

that's wonderful. We're going to put everything in the show notes for everyone to see when the when this episode airs. And once again, I thank you so much for being with me today. Have a wonderful time. Thank you

Wendy Weber:

for having me. Goodbye, everybody. I'd like to end with wishing you a joyous melody in your heart and harmony in your life.

Deborah Greenhut:

Perfect. Last Word, thank you.