The Finding EQUILIBRIUM Show

Join me for this wonderful conversation with Chief HR Officer Kantar APAC, Narelle Burke.

Narelle is an Australian living in Singapore with responsibility for the thousands of employees across the Kantar group.  Like many organisations, the pandemic provided an opportunity to transform the organisation and put wellbeing at the centre.

Three years later, Kantar has invested in future-proofing their organisation. In this conversation, you will learn:

- Where does the responsibility for wellbeing lie? With the organisation or the individual, or both?

- What Kantar has been doing to help their people build resilience and wellbeing

- Why prioritising wellbeing is key to leading with energy and confidence

- How to ensure the wellbeing of yourself and your team

- The steps to take to gain personal effectiveness in your life and career

- How to measure and track the impact of your wellbeing journey

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We're living through a global pandemic of chronic illness.

Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity have increased dramatically over the last 40 years. According to Dr Greg Fitzgerald, the problem is that too many of keep buying 'chronic illness lottery tickets' through our lifestyle choices.

The over-consumption of hyper-processed foods, lack of movement, poor sleep and chemicalisation, have combined to create a costly problem.

But the good news is that we can turn this ship around. In this discussion, Dr Greg looks back at some of the learnings and insights from his 40 years as an Allied Health Practitioner.

Discover:

- What are the core elements of Lifestyle Medicine?

- What are the proper conditions for health?

In this interview, I speak to Dr Jenny Brockis. Based in Western Australia, Jenny trained and worked as a GP before her own experience with burnout forced her to take a different path. She retrained as a Lifestyle Medicine Physician and started to focus her energies on helping people to thrive in life and work. In this great conversation we discuss:

- What a lifestyle medicine toolkit looks like

- What we can do to keep ourselves from burnout

- What's getting in the way of creating a true healthcare system that focuses on prevention as well as cure

- What a true human-centric workplace looks and feels like

- What leading organisations are doing to create human-centred workplaces

I hope you enjoy the discussion. You can find out more about Jenny's work on the links below.

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Have you ever wanted to know more about Akashic healing, but didn’t know where to start?

Well, this interview with Doinita Ward will help you understand more about the Akashic records, how you access them, and what you can do to help yourself navigate your best life, by consulting the records to help you make the very best choices for yourself.

Doinita helps you understand:

- How you may have accessed your own records, without even realising!

- The difference between being psychic and accessing your Akashic records

- The role the heart plays

- The best way to access your own records

Links in this episode:

In today's episode I speak with Eleni who is an Ayurvedic Practitioner and educator with a deep fascination for health and wholeness. As a trained Ayurvedic Practitioner and Western Herbalist, Eleni shares some amazing insights and tips on how to support your health and longevity.

Key takeaways:

• Why is Ayurveda referred to as the People's medicine
• The importance of taking responsibility
• Why one size doesn't fit all
• Why food is medicine
• Why herbs make food digestible
• The importance of seasonal cleansing
• The power of Grandma's medicine

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How to we navigate our modern lives and come out thriving?

Andy Roberts believes that we can weave in the lessons from ancient Eastern philosophies, from Confuscious to Buddhism, as well as positive psychology and other modalities, in order to find the balance we are looking for.

In this interview, he talks about:

- building emotionally intelligent people and businesses

- reframing our struggles

- learning how to see the bigger picture

- identifying the impact you have on your communities

- some tips on how to bring yourself back to balance

Links in this episode:

Such a great conversation with Becky Thoseby who is responsible for the workplace wellbeing strategy and approach for the 88,000 employees of the UK's Ministry of Justice.

Discover:

- What a holistic approach to workplace wellbeing really means

- Why a focus on upskilling the line managers makes all the difference

- The steps to transitioning from an issue-based approach to wellbeing, to a holistic approach

- How to use an evidence-based approach to support change

Links in this episode:

Linda Ray is on a mission to change the world one brain at a time, building psychologically safe workplaces by connecting 1,000,000 current and emerging leaders to amplify impact.

She is constantly innovating and leads the world in the emerging field of organisational neuroscience.

In this interview she shines a light on how organisations can best treat their people, from a psychological perspective, not “treating them like commodities,” which is beneficial both to the individual employees, their leaders, as well as to the bottom line.

Links in this episode:

Are you in a job you hate? If so you’re not alone, as research shows over 80% of people are not engaged in their work.

But, how to find a job or career that DOES light you up?

Well, Kirsten Brumby has a unique approach for you to really look inside and find your thing, plus has a refreshingly original way of applying for jobs, standing out from the crowd and getting future employees to sit up and notice.

A fascinating, not-to-be-missed interview.

Links in this interview:

Thea O'Connor is a senior advisor on Workplace Wellbeing, specialising in the wellbeing of mid life women. She's also the founder of Menopause at Work Asia Pacific.

Learn why Menopause has suddenly become such a big issues for companies around the world

The cost of 'silence' for the individuals and for the organisations who want to become an employer of choice

What leading companies are doing to support mid-life women goes through this period of their life including: management training, new policies and guidelines and employee education

There's no standard way of going through menopause, but it will effect women in different ways. As with all transitions, the more sensitive and supportive an organisation is, the more they will be perceived an organisation that genuinely cares about its people which will impact productivity, retention and engagement.

Links in this episode:

How do you achieve EQUILIBRIUM in your life?

We all know the feeling: we're juggling a million things at once, our to-do list is a mile long, and we're running on caffeine and no sleep. We're so busy, we don't have time for anything else. But is this really the best way to live?

In this episode of The Funding EQUILIBRIUM Show, wellbeing coach Jeanette Bronée discusses how to find the balance between being busy and healthy at the same time. The author describes how a major change in her life led her to re-evaluate her choices and make changes that have improved her health and well-being.

In this episode you’ll learn:

- How to be both busy and healthy

- The difference between wellness and wellbeing

- How self-care is more about our relationship with ourselves and less about external habits

- The wake-up call that caused Jeanette to change

- The best ways to initiate real change

Links to be included:

Nick Lee’s life forever changed when his wife Jodi was unexpectedly diagnosed with bowel cancer and sadly passed away. He has since dedicated many years to raising the awareness of bowel cancer and preventing others from getting this harsh disease.

In this interview:

- The surprising stats of who tends to get bowel cancer

- The importance of early detection

- How Nick found the motivation to continue his work

- How the Jodi Lee foundation got started

- How Nick feels about recently receiving the Order of Australia for his charity work

Links to be included:

As a personal trainer back in the early 2000s, Jessie Pavelka saw first-hand the impact that losing a significant amount of weight can have on a person and their community. Next came The Biggest Loser, books and fame as his Philosophy The Four Elements of helping people lose weight grew in popularity.

Roll forward to today, and Pavelka helps leaders and their teams move towards better health and wellbeing through The Four Elements: Eat, Sweat, Think, Connect. 

In this fabulous discussion, we discuss:

1. The starting point for making any significant change

2. The role of the wellbeing Pioneers 

3. The importance of connecting common passions together to build community

4. How the four elements: Eat, Sweat, Think and Connect can be applied each and every day to find Equilibrium

Thank you for sharing, JessIe and for making time to be with us.

Links from the show:

This is a not-to-be missed episode about mental wellbeing. Anna Feringa is on the front line when it comes to understanding mental health. With a background in personal injury insurance and now working as a consultant advising on corporate policy, she is an expert when it comes to understanding the do’s and don’ts when providing a mentally safe workplace environment.

She teaches us the things to look out for, and the traps to avoid.

In this episode we cover…

- The extent of the mental health problem in Australia and the impact of COVID

- How workplaces can avoid mentally toxic situations

- What constitutes a psychologically safe workplace

- The issue of whether to speak out about psychological issues

- The role of leaders in tackling the issues

- Leadership vs. counselling

Links to be included:

This is an awesome conversation with James Breeze, who taught us how we can get out of the rut of auto-pilot entrepreneurship and live with intention, compassion and mindfulness.

James Breeze is a psychologist and entrepreneur who wears many hats. Inspired by his time in South East Asia where he also trained as a monk, Breeze picked up on habits and life-style changes that he continues to apply in his research, business and personal life.

In this episode you will learn:

- How buddhism teaches you to simplify things

- The bright side of COVID-19

- Choosing to spend one’s time mindfully

- Aligning personal values with your clients

- Being intentional with everything and everyone

- Practicing compassion in daily life

- Breathwork, journaling, meditation and other tools

Nathan Andreas (People’s Director at Body Shop Asia Pacific) is known as the “Disaster Person,” having lived through a variety of disasters including 9/11 and the Japanese tsunami. He has developed a methodology to cope with these situations, and, consequently, to the da- to-day stressors and frustrations that everybody lives through.

With a wise and candid style, this is a great ‘must watch’ episode.

Nathan reveals:

- The Body Shop culture

- How to build "authentic resilience" - a magical power for anyone who wants to live a life of wellbeing and make their life count

- addressing trauma and other challenges in life

- the role of coaches in helping people to uncover their inner strength and values.

- his journey to becoming an activist in the mental health and LGBTQ spaces

Jo Keiko Terasawa is the Head of inclusion and Equity for the APAC regions at Google.

In the past 11 years at Google, Jo has worked to encourage an inclusive workplace culture, driven by her own experiences of microaggression during her career.

In this interview, Jo highlights the ways in which we can sow the seeds of belonging and connection for different demographic groups.

Some themes covered in this inspiring interview include:

- The true power of diversity of thought

- The impact of ‘belonging’ on performance

- Creating a safe space for a variety of demographic groups including women, trans, and disabled people

- Programs that target the inclusion gaps for specific demographics

- Ways to and raise awareness and honour different groups' heritage e.g. Black History Month, Women's history

- How to think globally and act locally

- Ensuring a consistently inclusive and equitable Google experience

- How to constantly learn and educating oneself about ways to foster more diversity

Links in this podcast:

Theresa Hudzinski is the head of workforce management for Disney in Shanghai, and also the president of the IPWs (International Professional Women's Society). 

Having spent 13 years working for Disney in China, she now finds herself caught up in the latest rounds of lockdowns in Shanghai.

This is an insider’s view of what it’s like for her and her colleagues in Shanghai. And of the measures that Disney is putting in place to help their employees deal with the fallout of this uncertain situation,

In this episode, they discussed:

- What it’s like to coping with the uncertainty of a further severe lockdown in Shanghai

- The emotional toll of these measures to the people in Shanghai

- The emotional cost of disconnection during the pandemic

- Ways she prioritises employee relationships over business aspects

- The role of comedy as an effective coping strategy

- The need to rebuild community and stay connected, especially after COVID-19

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Today's fascinating interview is with Claire Aristides, hypnotherapist, who tells us how hypnotherapy works, the areas it works best on, and how Mindology was born.    

If you are at all curious to know more about how hypnotherapy could help you, this is a must-watch.  

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This week, we're pleased to welcome Alex Heaton, CEO of LiveSmart, who is sharing with us the importance of health measurement and how wellbeing has magnified in importance for employees and their organisations.  

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"If you want to be successful in the external world, you need to work on your inner work." In the first episode of The Conscious Accelerator Experience series, we chat with Serial Entrepreneur and Founder of the Conscious Accelerator, Constantine Georgiou.   

Find out: why you should make suffering your ally;  what is meant by the term 'founder resilience' and how you can use 'conscious hacks' in your life to build your own mental resilience.  

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What happens to you if you get caught up in an earthquake?  

Alan Cox was in the epicentre of the Christchurch earthquake and was left to deal with the emotional aftermath of that unexpected and deeply harrowing experience.  He talks us through what happened to him that fateful day and the things that he went through on his path to emotional healing.  

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In this inspirational episode, you’ll learn: 

- How he recovered from a complete mental breakdown 

- The glimmer of hope he gleaned from watching a TV documentary 

- The amazing results achieved from trying out a daily experiment on himself 

- How to build true mental fitness, rewiring your brain to be resilient to all that life throws at you 

- How to react to negative experiences in preferable ways, with a sense of calmness and life satisfaction 

Anuraj is a techpreneur, tech startup business advisor, global speaker, all-round tech enthusiast and inventor of the White Mirror concept which centres around using tech for the power of good, enhancing mankind for the better.  

He's shared with us the latest gadgets available right now to help both assist us in our wellbeing journey and also to optimise our own abilities, by using the powers of tech to enhance our own personal assets.  "The convergence of tech and humanity."    

A fascinating watch, and with the increasing escalation of tech innovations, no doubt the start of things to come.  

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Luke Baylis, Founder, and CEO of healthy fast-food chain Sumo Salad, shares with us the story behind Sumo.  

How it started, the huge ups and even bigger downs in building a $90m company, and how he reinvented himself to make himself "super resilient" and able to cope with everything that was thrown at him.  So many lessons can be learned from his extraordinary story.  

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Christine Pitt, food expert, shares her vision for combining modern food-producing practices with the wisdom of the Indigenous peoples of the world, to optimise the health of the communities we serve.  

Have you or anyone you know suffered from miscarriage?    

This devastating loss occurs in approximately 1 out of every 4 pregnancies, so it’s much more common than you might think.  And yet, the way it is dealt with by the medical community and workplaces is generally clinical and practical, leaving the couple to deal with the emotional fallout unsupported and alone.  

Samantha Payne, Founder & CEO of charity Pink Elephants Support Network takes us through her own experiences of multiple miscarriages in the Australian healthcare system and how she courageously set up the Pink Elephant Support Network to help families receive the care and emotional support that she wished she had received when she needed it.  

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Learn about:
- How healthcare systems deal with miscarriages
- The role that workplaces, communities and families need to play for couples suffering from miscarriage
- How best to support women returning to work after a miscarriage
- The way men are treated with regards to pregnancy loss    

Isa Noterman’s resume looks like a Who’s Who of Tech companies: Google, Spotify, LinkTree. This interview gives us a window into what it’s like, not only to work in fast growing tech companies, but to head up and shape the company culture!

She describes how things have changed on the back of the pandemic and talks about the way the culture is heading right now.

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Isa takes us through:

- The insider viewpoint of the tech startup culture and the unique attitudes, roles and responsibilities the staff have in those environments

- The role of leaders in such fast-paced environments

- Where mental health considerations have come up in the various businesses, and the initiatives taken

- How the pandemic was dealt with, from the inside of Spotify, and the deep considerations that were put in place

- The contrasting experience at LinkTree, which was already a largely ‘remote worker’ organisation

- What it was like working at Google, and her take of the innovative environment and practises she experienced

- Her experience at Spotify, which had a very different flavour culturally

She took us through both the practical and emotional considerations of this period of rapid change

Links in the podcast:

How do you create a culture that everyone wants to be a part of?  

Kellie Egan has worked in cutting-edge companies that have pushed the boundaries when it comes to creating inspiring cultures that encourage people to do their best work.  She takes us on her journey of how she got to do the work she’s done and the inspiration she received along the way.  

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In this podcast you’ll learn:
- How to create a wow culture that attracts people like a magnet and that people won’t want to leave
- Tips and tricks for a great workplace experience
- The type of thinking that you need to keep pushing forwards  

You will LOVE the conversation I had with Nancy Evelyn!  Such deep wisdom in every phrase…  

Nancy Evelyn is a herbalist, iridologist, astrologer, founder of Estuary Learning, who has an intrinsic understanding of traditional remedies and using natural earth energies to cure dis-ease, using a wide range of modalities that she has learned over many years.  

In this episode you will learn: 

- The difference between modern and traditional naturopathy 

- How traditional medicine works 

- The history of naturopathy 

- How Bach flower remedies are made 

- What is high vibrational medicine 

- The definition of nosodes and how they work 

- The terminology for EQUILIBRIUM used 100 years ago  

Tradition meets Science in this fascinating interview with Simon Borg-Olivier, who is a master in a plethora of traditional practises, including yoga, meditation, mysticism and other Eastern practices, who also has 3 degrees including Molecular Biology, Exercise Physiotherapy and Physiology!  

Simon teaches us how to BE, on the most fundamental of levels. How to control the very nature of our blood flow, heart rate and parasympathetic nervous system. Yes, this is all in our gift. He posits the idea that we can all be supernatural, if we learned the techniques.  This interview may need to be listened to more than once to truly grasp a fraction of the learnings that Simon has blessed us with.  

From this podcast, you will learn: 

- How to BE 

- How to fully connect to yourself, to others and to the Universe 

- The secret to full relaxation 

- Getting into the flow state or ‘zone’ 

- The ideal posture 

- The importance of movement, and how to bring movement into our lives (and what not to do)  

Links included in the podcast: 

Benjamin is an Ayurvedic practitioner, Yoga teacher and Astrologer, who will share his tips on how to live a life that optimises Wellbeing and Resilience.  

Dr Suzy Green, Clinical Psychologist, and founder of the Positivity Institute, educates us on how to cope in these turbulent times and how to build Mental Toughness.  She takes us through her simple model on optimising your life based on a deliberate focus on Mental Toughness.  

How do you create a psychologically safe environment?  

Bill Carson takes us through the steps to take to create an environment that works for all, giving us new and interesting ways of dealing with life experiences like losing someone you love, starting a new job, and so on.  He has a refreshing take on fight or flight, which takes the concept to a brand new level.  

What you will learn: 

- The difference between anxiety and depression 

- The 4 different types of safety that you can provide for team members 

- The best way to onboard a new member of staff, to best create a feeling of inclusion safety 

- The best way to have one to one catchups, to make people feel psychologically well - How to help people who are going through hard times / crisis situations  

'Before every breakthrough comes a breakdown'.   

In this episode of the Conscious Accelerator Experience, Kinisologist, Ian Haycroft, shares his story that took him from Australia to the US, to China and then back to Australia with 6 children and no job.   He shares the moment that he realised that we are all deeply loved and can access a deep state of peace when we need to.   

An inspiring and valuable conversation with Ian Haycroft.  

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How do you optimise your PERFORMANCE?  

Craig Johns has been an elite athlete, performance coach and CEO.  He tells us his story and then draws on his broad experience base, to help us perform at our best.  

In this interview you’ll learn: 

- The learnings we can take from the world of elite sport, that we can bring into our personal and professional lives 

- The role mindset plays in our levels of success 

- How pressure relates to performance, and the optimal levels for peak results 

- What habits you can bring into your day to ensure the most successful, healthy outcomes 

- The difference between rest and recovery 

- How to influence the business C-suite   

Interviewed during Veganuary, here is an interview with Lara Young, founder of app VEats.  

Lara talks about her own fascinating journey to a plant-based life, and how it spurred her to develop an app to help people who want to eat plant-based, to find restaurants that serve it.  

This interview covers: 

- The journey to becoming plant-based 

- The benefits of a plant-based diet (some of them are surprising!) 

- Ensuring you’re getting all the essential nutrients 

- How vegan food is for everyone, not just vegans 

- The challenges and how they were overcome 

- How the seed of a business idea emerged 

- How that seed was nurtured and a business manifested 

- How to Find EQUILIBRIUM in your life 

I was lucky enough to interview Kate Colley, Head of People & Culture, at Australia Post.  

We had such a varied conversation on all things wellbeing, but in particular:  

- How to support (and monitor the wellbeing of) a large diverse team that’s physically in a wide range of different places 

- How to build psychologically safe teams and trust between people to raise their hand if things aren’t going well for them 

- The pandemic’s impact on work-life balance and a more compassionate approach to people 

- How Australia Post integrated Michelle McQuaid’s CARE Mode into their organisation 

- How the organisation develops leaders and encourages people to be at their best, delivering the overall strategy via their people 

- How self-insight is used to develop people’s EQ and leadership ability 

- Simple tips to allow people to take a proper break from work

Links in the conversation: 

Are you *done* with this pandemic, and all the political instability?  Do you just want things to return to how they used to be, and are raging against this ‘new normal’ that you now find yourself a part of?  
This conversation with Sue Langley from the Langley Group helps to reframe some of the things that you might be feeling. Using her expertise in positive psychology, emotional intelligence, neuroscience, and leadership, Sue gives us practical tips to help us to re-think our experience of this pandemic and see things in a more positive way.  

Sue helps us to not only cope in these unprecedented times but to actually flourish.  

She helps us to: 

- Find meaning in our life 

- See the reasons for gratitude, joy, and happiness 

- Learn some great daily habits 

- Understand what the science says about happiness  

Links that are mentioned in the chat: 

Sally-Anne Ferguson is CEO and Founder of Inner Origin, described as 'The Amazon of Wellbeing Products,' which stocks healthy versions of everything you put on your body, in your body or around your home.    

She shares with us her family's amazing journey of healing her brother from a rare form of cancer and how she was inspired to start a business that helps others also live toxic-free lives.