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Self Centred with Roann

Self Centred with Roann

By Roann Ghosh

It takes guts to follow your own path, to unmute and and show up in life as a true and authentic version of yourself.

Through a series of talks and conversations with purpose-led individuals, this series will give you the tools you need to find your true purpose to live your most meaningful and authentic life.

Presented by Roann Ghosh and Epiphany Social Innovation.
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018 Design A Life To Thrive: A Daily Routine For A New Year's Lockdown

Self Centred with RoannJan 07, 2021

00:00
06:36
026 John Vincent MBE: Right Life, Right Now

026 John Vincent MBE: Right Life, Right Now

Chief exec/co-founder of Leon, author of Winning not Fighting
My guest in this final episode is like no-one in business I’ve ever come across before.
As co-founder of the sustainable and naturally fast-food chain Leon, John Vincent MBE has been at the forefront of a movement to change the way we think about our food and where it comes from. In addition, he’s been part of a campaign to get schoolchildren eating better food, and more recently helped to feed a million front line NHS workers during the pandemic.
But it's his book Winning not fighting: why you need to rethink success and how you achieve it with the ancient art of Wing Tsun that really prompted me to speak to him. In it, he draws on the ancient Chinese martial art of Wing Tsun to challenge some of the accepted norms that are preventing us from being truly happy, either at home or at work.
“We tend to define success as something which we've achieved in the past, or something that we are striving for desiring for the future. So, ironically, the idea we have of success takes us way out of the only place that we can ever really live in, which is the present moment.”
John’s own story is one that involves freeing himself from stress, chronic pain and the sustained fight or flight mode that our modern lives have created, by using the principles of Wing Tsun - a practice that speaks to the idea of living in an instinctive way, focusing on the unity that we share with each other and nature.
I believe that what he has put together in Winning not Fighting is a practical handbook for uniting human wisdom, business and physical movement in a way that could truly bring about change.
"I think that what we've done is we've, we've got caught ourselves up in a bit of a vicious cycle around feeding the side of us which is around ego and fear, as opposed to feeding the parts of us, which is about connection, love, and wholeness."
It's a wide-ranging conversation: we talk about these practical steps, but also gut health, personality tests, and The Littlest Hobo - and I do hope you enjoy it.
Mar 25, 202155:54
025 Michelle Ogundehin: Everyone Needs a Room of Their Own

025 Michelle Ogundehin: Everyone Needs a Room of Their Own

Magazine editor, author, TV presenter

Speaking to Michelle Ogundehin this week was a real joy. Currently on our screens every week as a judge on the addictive Interior Design Masters series, Ogundehin’s calm, informed and direct style has always been a real pleasure to watch.

But for me, it is in her recent book - Happy Inside - where she shares her most insightful wisdom. In Happy Inside, Michelle lays out a manifesto of how we can all live better by doing the small things well. She shows us how the everyday things we miss out on on a regular basis can have a disproportionate impact on our health and happiness, and how we should start sweating the small stuff.

And she says that we should give ourselves permission to take the time to express a more authentic version of ourselves, in the place that matters most, at home.

“We need a room of our own. We need space to retreat, and to rest and to be silent. And it doesn't have to be huge, but it’s understanding that we need this, the human species needs this - we need to retreat to the cave a little.”

As an award-winning editor-in-chief of Elle Decoration, regularly included in the power list of influential black Britons, Michelle has an impressive CV, but, she says, it’s the point in her life where she truly accepted herself for who she was, that brought her the most happiness, and, yes, the most success.

“Success actually is right there, it's right there in everyone's hand already, and it is just the power to go, you know what, I'm allowed to be me. And that's, that's enough. It's enough in all the messiness.”

I found our conversation, very stimulating, very practical and very helpful. And I really hope you do too.

Feb 23, 202159:18
024 Design a Life to Thrive: How to Zoom Better

024 Design a Life to Thrive: How to Zoom Better

In this short episode, I follow on with another of the daily habits that have made a real difference to my life. 

In the past year of the pandemic, one feature of all our lives have been virtual meetings. 

We often find our working day filled up with a series of back-to-back Zoom meetings, sitting at home, fighting wi-fi speeds, family interruptions and face freezes. It can be hard to find time to pause, let alone feel present at each meeting. 

I used to feel the same about meetings, but since recording the second series of the podcast – which we also do via Zoom – I’ve adopted a simple practice that has made a world of difference.

I’ll share that with you today and hope that it also gives you the chance to pause, reset and start the next portion of your day with your full attention. It’s something I’ve found to be really positive. 

Thank you again for listening today.

Feb 04, 202105:08
023 Dale Vince OBE: Changing the Rules

023 Dale Vince OBE: Changing the Rules

Founder, Ecotricity

Dale Vince’s story is amazing. The British green energy industrialist and passionate vegan is the owner of Ecotricity and a former New Age traveller, and has been the man behind the renewable energy revolution that we’ve seen over the last 30 years

In his quest to stop climate change and remove fossil fuels entirely, he has taken on the established energy companies and The National Grid - and convinced them that there was another way to do things.

And he did this all from absolutely nothing. He left school at 15 and lived in a truck for the decade or so it took to get his message out there. Dale is the true epitome of a mission-driven entrepreneur, who works from his innate set of values to change the rules and protect our future.

“Surely, fundamentally, as a country, what we should be doing all of this for is for the quality of life of the people that live here, and the people that will come after us,” he says.

Dale followed his passion to save the planet and, because he was following a real calling, his success has been nothing short of extraordinary. As a passionate vegan he has also done enormous work in bringing the plant-based message to a wider audience, not least in being chairman of the world's greenest football club and first-ever vegan club, Forest Green Rovers. 

In our chat, we talked about our power as consumers and decision-makers, his journey to a plant-based diet and his commitment to sharing this message with the wider world. We also talked about the systems that need to change if we are to fix our broken world and how important it was to do the right thing.

As Dale says: “There’s nothing better than having a mission, having principles and living by them. Nothing better.”

Feb 02, 202140:16
022 Design a Life to Thrive: Creating Portfolio Days

022 Design a Life to Thrive: Creating Portfolio Days

Humans thrive with variety - you feel this when you go to a new place, rearrange your furniture, change your route to work. These changes light you up, refresh your routine, offer a new perspective. 

And, now, with us largely confined to our homes, this concept is more relevant than ever. Introducing change into each day can be a real tonic, and it’s something that’s helped me in my life recently, both before and during lockdown. 

The concept of Portfolio Days is simple. Rather than seeing your day as a block - a neverending tide of Zoom calls, emails, social media responses - see it instead as a portfolio of hours that you slice up prioritising variety and values over churn or busyness.

In this short episode, I’ll provide a simple set of tasks to help you work through the things in your life that are most important, and suggest ways you can incorporate each of these into your working day. We’ll look at how you can start to more closely link your daily activities with your own values, creating lasting change for the better. 

It’s not about radical overhauls, but small bold changes that make a big difference. And it’s one that has made me feel more grounded and resilient. 

I hope this helps you too. 

Jan 21, 202105:17
021 Matt Hawkins: Putting compassion into politics

021 Matt Hawkins: Putting compassion into politics

Campaigner and co-founder at Compassion in Politics

Matt Hawkins is a social and environmental justice campaigner and the co-director of Compassion in Politics - a cross-party organisation working to put compassion, inclusion, and cooperation at the heart of politics.

Set up in 2018, the organisation has the support of 50 Uk parliamentarians from six parties and academics and activists including Noam Chomsky Charisse Matthews Helen Pankhurst and Ruby Wax. The Guardian described them as ‘the movement to be hopeful about’.

In a political climate as charged as the one we’re seeing now - from Trump’s second impeachment and Biden’s imminent inauguration, coupled with a worldwide pandemic, Brexit and the recent food banks scandal in the UK, compassionate politics sounds like an oxymoron. But Matt and his colleagues are trying to truly put compassion, cooperation and empathy at the heart of politics.

In our chat, we consider how human change is igniting political change, and talk about individual responsibility, what each of us can do to make a difference. We consider how change starts with us - both as individuals, but also in how we continue to push the idea that purpose, passion, love and compassion, rather than career, wealth and status are at the heart of what actually makes us thrive.

I love the fact that organisations like his exist, as it shines a light on the great parts of our human nature. Matt’s is someone really making good on this individual contribution - he is a bright, incredibly passionate and well-informed young man who made me feel hopeful about the future.

I hope this conversation inspires you - and reminds you too of the personal power you have.

How you can help:

I appreciate just how challenging campaigns like Compassion in Politics are to run. And I know for a fact that Matt has to work other jobs just to keep things going. So I would encourage you to support him, and the work at Compassion in Politics, in any way that you can.

You can donate to the campaign here https://www.compassioninpolitics.com/donate - and also support Matt’s anti-online abuse campaign which is seeking donations - https://www.stopthehate.uk/donate.

Jan 19, 202150:47
020 Design a Life to Thrive: Addressing Anxiety in a Pandemic

020 Design a Life to Thrive: Addressing Anxiety in a Pandemic

This week, I want to share some of the strategies I've developed to help support me with a lifetime of working through anxiety.
In a pandemic, at the time of another national lockdown, we are facing more worry than we would normally. Anxiety is something that I’ve struggled with for a while now and the pandemic clearly isn’t helping.
But I have found that by reframing it, things have become a little easier to deal with on a daily basis and this is what I want to share with you today.
I’m really convinced that to embrace something into our lives, any concept needs to appeal to both our hearts and our heads. So I want to talk about anxiety from the perspective of the body and the mind - helping you to both think about things differently and create the space in your life to rest and recover.
I really hope it brings you some peace today, and in the days and weeks to come.
Jan 14, 202106:11
019 Nick Compton: When being world-class is not enough

019 Nick Compton: When being world-class is not enough

England cricketer and photographer

My guest this week is Nick Compton. One of the top cricketers of his generation, having made centuries for England and played in the ashes, he is sporting royalty and the grandson of Arsenal footballer and legendary cricketer Denis Compton.

And yet Nick is no ordinary sportsman. Since retiring from the game in 2016, and taking up photography, he’s done an enormous amount of soul searching, and speaks with remarkable honesty about his experiences in cricket and what these later years of reflection and travelling have taught him. Nick has travelled to places like India, Kenya and deprived parts of the USA, exposing through the lens, the cultures of less privileged society, listening to people’s stories and sharing their lives. “I think I'm looking for a connection that goes beyond the aesthetics, or the superficial quality of just being a good photo - if that makes sense,” he explains. “I think for me it has to have something else. Talking to someone and really understanding where they’ve come from and what their life has been about.”

In our conversation, we also discuss success, what it means and how perhaps we need to reframe our expectations of it. We also talk about the fine line between success and failure and the emotional cost of our own expectations.

“I think that the line between success and failure for me was incredibly thin, transparent at times...anything that wasn't Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar was a failure. It just wasn't good enough, and it didn't matter who told me it was.”

It’s a fascinating exploration of the relationship between success and failure, purpose and passion - between the things that drive us, and those things that heal us. He describes photography as a ‘meditation’ and says that even during his career, photography provided an outlet and a way to really express himself. “Sometimes I was sitting there waiting to bat and I was actually thinking about the photos I could be taking of my teammates.”

And it’s his description of his journey that I think will really be of value here. He is very open and honest about his post-cricket search for meaning. I’ve never heard a sports person speak so honestly and I really hope it also gives you the strength to follow your passions - even if it means embarking on the harder road less travelled.

Jan 12, 202150:59
018 Design A Life To Thrive: A Daily Routine For A New Year's Lockdown

018 Design A Life To Thrive: A Daily Routine For A New Year's Lockdown

In this special episode to welcome in the new year, and the start of Season 3, I share some of the routines and habits that have really helped me during the past year.

As our lives become centred more around our homes and families, the lifestyle tweaks and changes that we’ve been putting off can now be put into place.

And while I suggest simple things, such as waking well and mindful breathing to journaling and 15 minutes of exercise a day, my overall message is actually about doing just enough that it feels manageable. As long as you follow a daily ritual that allows you to claim the day as yours then you're already making a great start to a new year. 

I hope you find this helpful and it helps you to flourish during these exceptional times.

Jan 07, 202106:36
017 Design A Life to Thrive at Christmas: Family & Nature

017 Design A Life to Thrive at Christmas: Family & Nature

Wishing you a very happy Christmas, and a gentle reminder to give the gift of presence this holiday season. 

In this mini-episode, Roann considers our connection to both nature and family. How important it is to protect these relationships, but how they are also so often the things we sacrifice for work and productivity. 

Family is the bedrock of a happy society, and our very existence relies on our relationship with nature. 

Christmas is a time to remind us of these things, to lock our phones away, turn to loved ones and breathe in the fresh air.

So take time this Christmas, disconnect and reconnect. 

Dec 22, 202006:39
016 Gelong Thubten: Meditating with the UN

016 Gelong Thubten: Meditating with the UN

Buddhist monk, meditation teacher and author of A Monk’s Guide to Happiness.

Thubten is not your normal monk. Super-sharp, super-smart, super-capable, he went to Oxford University and then to New York to become an actor. He was living the dream, and yet he describes it as hell. “It was really hard, because I was so unhappy. And so everything I was doing was just to escape the unhappiness - and it wasn't working.”

Facing burnout and breakdown, he retreated to his parent’s house, before deciding to join a Buddhist monastery, which he thought would help soothe his troubled soul. But it did more than that. It turned out to be his life’s purpose.

Now, after 26 years of being a monk, his perspective is different, but the way he communicates with the world remains deeply real.

As you’ll hear, he’s very grounded, spreading his message of meditation and the truth about happiness anywhere that he can serve. He has worked in prisons, businesses, hospitals and schools, and is now working with the UN trying to get global business leaders to include meditation in their meetings, in the hope of driving real change. Change which is internal and long-lasting.

And that internal change relates to us too. Thubten’s message is that happiness is within reach for all of us - and you can take steps to find it now. You already have everything you need.

It’s very empowering and a message I really needed to hear. So I hope you enjoy it too!

Dec 10, 202053:50
015 James Thornton: We Need To Save Civilisation

015 James Thornton: We Need To Save Civilisation

Founding lawyer, Client Earth.

Essentially acting as lawyers for our planet, Client Earth has spent 15 years making sure that countries, companies and politicians consider the environment with their actions. And they actively pursue in court those who don’t.

As founder James Thornton said me to in this week’s episode; “We've been stopping a whole generation of coal-fired power stations in Europe. You can't build one anywhere in Europe - we’ll stop you.”

James and his ever-growing team of environmental lawyers are defending the oceans, protecting the forests and giving a voice to the people who depend on them. This is tackling the climate crisis at its root, and defending our long term right to prosper as a species in the most practical way possible.

It’s a very novel, and thankfully increasingly effective, approach - as you will hear from James, a man who has a very interesting take on things. His story and mindset are really enlightening and his practical approach also applies equally to day to day life.

He says: “Before you get up out of bed in the morning, it's a good thing to say, what do I want to dedicate my life to? And that in itself is a very centering thing to do.”

There’s a lot we can learn here. And, far from leaving me downhearted, this conversation is practical, uplifting and offers a renewed sense of hope for the future.

Dec 03, 202048:21
014 Matt Rudd: Reframing Success

014 Matt Rudd: Reframing Success

Award-winning Sunday Times columnist and author of Man Down: Why Men are Unhappy and What We Can do About It

“Whether or not I will be a more ‘successful person’ is up for debate - but who cares, quite frankly.”

It’s fantastic to have Matt Rudd on the podcast today. Matt’s book, Man Down looks at reframing toxic masculinity and how it doesn't serve any anyone - a really urgent subject, given the rising cases of male suicide and depression.

In our discussion, we talk about what success looks like - the misconception of what that is and the damage we are doing by striving for the wrong things. At its heart, his message is for all of us to get out of autopilot. He talks about readdressing our values, and we discuss how what we're told at school about being a success creates a generation of ‘completer finishers’. As if there is no reward in the journey, only the outcome.

I love the way that Matt is truly open and vulnerable about his struggles. He’s just trying to work everything out too. And in writing his book, I think he's found some important lessons that we can apply to our lives right away.

And, if you are a female listener, then this episode is definitely for you too. We're all interlinked - mothers have sons, wives have husbands, sisters have brothers and so on. The pressures of the modern family unit are very real for a lot of us. It's refreshing to be given permission to be kinder to yourself and to move the goalposts in on what success looks like.

I really enjoyed our conversation, and I hope you do too.

Nov 27, 202052:42
013 Eve Kalinik: Nourishing the Whole Self

013 Eve Kalinik: Nourishing the Whole Self

I’m delighted to be talking to Eve Kalinik today, author of Happy Gut, Happy Mind, and champion of promoting nutritional wellbeing as a way of supporting your mental wellbeing.

She says: “If we truly want to have an authentic life-long attitude towards nourishing ourselves - which by the way food is only one part - then quick fixes, fads, detoxes and diets are not going to cut the proverbial mustard.”

As for Eve herself, she had a successful career in fashion PR, which she says was anything but “healthy” - long hours, fast food, skipping meals, being sucked into weird diets. Which is something we can all relate to. Subsequent burnout and recurrent kidney infections led her to really take stock and stop, to look at her life, look at what she was putting into her body and to make that leap to connect the way she lived and ate and the way she was feeling.

So we talk about her journey, we also talk about the microbiome and the gut, because, as she lays out in her book, the gut is intrinsically linked to the state of our mental health and the new science around our gut is fascinating.

She also talks about this idea that we’ve got a lot of time back. Because of COVID and lockdowns, we aren’t commuting for so long, and she says we need to use this time to start nourishing ourselves by slowing down the way we work, the way we think, the way we eat.  Maybe even going back to former traditions where we honour our food and take our time with it, rather than being obsessed with working and productivity.

“What has transpired in the last six months," she says. "Is that reconnection - fundamentally reconnecting with ourselves.”

She also talks about how you can nutritionally take small bold actions now, that can have a lifetime of effect.

I’ll think you’ll get a lot from this, there’s some really practical stuff that you can take away, and some fascinating ideas for starting to nourish your whole self more.

Nov 05, 202042:06
012 Design a Life to Thrive: Values over Ego

012 Design a Life to Thrive: Values over Ego

Welcome to the third in my series of Designing a Life to Thrive. 

We have a big opportunity to re-appraise our lives thanks to Covid. To put our focus on things like connection, nature, family, personal fulfilment and purpose. A new narrative for our time. 

As a society, we can start to develop new systems that serve us and our planet more.

The first principle in this series was to slow down and make time for the self; the second principle was to be as one, thinking of ourselves as global citizens.

The third principle is going to be one of the most practical, but powerful things you can do - to choose your true values over put-upon ego. With practical tasks as well as some profound ancient wisdom, I hope you get a lot from this episode. 

Nov 03, 202006:49
011 David Price: People-Powered Innovation

011 David Price: People-Powered Innovation

“To what extent are we going to let these things be someone else’s problem, the next generation’s problem? Or are we actually going to say, let’s re-evaluate the economic wealth disparities around the world?"

This episode I’m speaking to David Price OBE. He’s had an incredible portfolio career, first as a musician, then working in education during the 80s and 90s, before founding UK culture change consultancy We Do Things Differently. He is the author of Open: How We'll Work, Live and Learn In The Future and this year published his most recent book, The Power Of Us: How We Connect, Act, and Innovate Together.

The Power of Us is an urgent call for leaders, teams and individuals to challenge the status quo. In our conversation, we talk about how the response to Covid-19 has shone a light on the people-powered innovation which is reshaping our world. David says that we’re now seeing a global wave of self-determined and self-organised activism, a sense of community that has been empowering for all of us.

David takes us behind the scenes of some of the world’s most innovative organisations, harnessing the power of collaboration and diverse thinking to effect real change – and demonstrates what we can learn from them. He also offers a practical tool kit of ideas to show us how we can foster our own cultures of creatives to transform our lives and rebuild this world, better for the future.

And he also explains how urgently change is needed, across the world. "We are faced with something that is quite shameful when you think about it," he told me. "Globally, only 30 per cent of employees are engaged by their work. That means 70 per cent arent. And they are leading lives of unmitigated misery." For David, the answer is not in trying to change cultures from the inside, but in starting anew, building a different model, a better one, with a culture of trust and autonomy for the future. 

We also talk about how you can find your way out of a career and life that you are not passionate about by trying new things, looking for new learning opportunities and taking time out for your hobbies in your daily life so that you can get closer to your purpose and passions. And we even discuss the end of line managers!

If you are the two-thirds of people not loving their careers, this episode is for you.

Oct 29, 202057:26
010 Saasha Celestial-One: Find that one thing that feels achievable

010 Saasha Celestial-One: Find that one thing that feels achievable

“Purpose is that feeling you get in the morning when you wake up and you know that what you’re working on, what you have planned, is precisely what you should be doing.”

It was a privilege this week to talk to Saasha Celestial-One about feeling fulfilled in her work every single day. The founder of Olio - the revolutionary food-sharing app - explained how her work to reduce food waste has given her a true sense of purpose, something she describes as ‘the absence of regret, and a lightness of knowing what you’re doing.”

Born in America to hippy parents - who gave her her unusual name - Saasha is a true hunter-preneur - someone who has found the patch of land in which they can truly make a difference, and then thrown all they have at it.

Remarkably down to earth, she is a huge advocate for the power of the collective, and explains how people often think they need a bigger patch of land than they actually do.

But we can all make a difference if we are led by our passion. As she reminds us: “Find the smallest possible thing that feels achievable and just do that.”

In this chat, we also talked about the freedom of no longer having self-judging conversations with yourself, the difficult balance between investment and social impact and learning how to understand the difference between what you need versus what you think you need.

Saasha says her greatest motivation lies in the lives of the individual people she’s helping with Olio - facilitating a return to wholeness, and a way of living that feels less lonely and more communal.

“I’m really curious about everyone else’s story,” she says. “It’s real easy to get caught up in your own little world, but we’re all just humans doing the best that we can."

Oct 22, 202045:58
009 Design A Life To Thrive: Unity in all things

009 Design A Life To Thrive: Unity in all things

Follow your passion and it will lead you to purpose... In conversations with purpose-driven individuals, there are consistent themes that come up. There are patterns of daily habits, routines and that are mentioned and repeated again and again. 

In this series of quick talks, Roann Ghosh looks to find where these practices originate so that we can gain a better understanding of why they have been so enduring. He's found five central universal principles that are central to us thriving as humans beings. Five principles that are not taught in schools. And yet five principles that are universal, simple, and accessible to all. 

Accessible because they cross borders, cross belief systems and span millennia as accepted wisdom. Universal principles that unite east and west. Principles that are espoused in ancient religious and philosophical texts, and 21st century purpose driven entrepreneurs alike.  

In this episode, Roann discusses the second universal principle that he believes can create the conditions for personal and collective thriving: Be as one - look for unity in all things. Especially now in times of civil unrest in America and the global coronavirus crisis.

Self-Centred Podcast is presented by Roann Ghosh and Epiphany Social Innovation.

Oct 20, 202005:56
008 Aaron McHugh: Time to get out of your own way

008 Aaron McHugh: Time to get out of your own way

“From the outside, my life looks pretty much the same. I still work a full-time corporate career. I’m still married to the same woman. I still live in the same neighbourhood. The only difference is me. I’m no longer fragmented. I’m whole.”

If you feel unhappy in your job, the solution isn’t always to change your job, but to change yourself.

In this week’s episode with coach, author and public speaker Aaron McHugh, we talk about how important it is to get out of your own way. And about how his new book, Fire Your Boss, isn’t so much about firing your boss as getting real with yourself.

McHugh talks about his own journey from loss and burn out, to laying down all of who he was before to find his purpose. We also talk about how fear often drives our purpose and impulses –leading us into places and positions that are wrong for us.

The key to Aaron’s message is that resolving the deepest root of workplace unrest always stems from those drivers that keep us trapped - fear and self-preservation. “What happens when you turn that voice of fear or dissent into a voice of abundance? How does that reframe your reality?” asks Aaron.

We also talk about the purpose of play as a way to access sheer joy, about being responsible for your own happiness, slowing down to give ideas and possibility space to breathe and how important our attention is as a tool for focusing ourselves towards what matters.

Oct 15, 202001:03:00
007: Design A Life To Thrive: Slow down and make time

007: Design A Life To Thrive: Slow down and make time

Follow your passion and it will lead you to purpose.

In my conversations with purpose-driven individuals, there are consistent themes that come up. There are patterns of daily habits, routines and that are mentioned and repeated again and again.

In this series of quick lectures, I have looked to find where these practices originate so that we can gain a better understanding of why they have been so enduring.

I have found five central universal principles that are central to us thriving as humans being.

Five principles that are not taught in schools. And yet five principles that are universal,  simple, and accessible to all.

Accessible because they cross borders, cross belief systems and span millennia as accepted wisdom.

Universal principles that unite east and west. principles that are espoused in ancient religious and philosophical texts, and 21st century purpose driven entrepreneurs alike.

These universal principles have stood the test of time, and I want to share them with you.

In this episode, I will discuss the first universal principle that I believe can create the conditions for personal and professional thriving:

Slow down to get to know yourself better.

Self-Centred Podcast is presented by Roann Ghosh and Epiphany Social Innovation.

Oct 13, 202008:34
006 Emma Slade: The capacity for kindness is in all of us

006 Emma Slade: The capacity for kindness is in all of us

“Here I am about to die and I’ve done nothing. Nothing that’s been really joyful, nothing which has been really kind, nothing which has been full of love, nothing which has actually made any difference at all. Other than that I know a lot of facts and I’ve looked at a lot of spreadsheets, and I haven’t really fully come alive, and I’m about to die. I really don’t want it to end before I get a chance to get on with what I’m actually meant to do.”

This week, I talk to Buddhist nun Emma Slade, someone whose epiphany moment is perhaps one of the most incredible of all.

Taken hostage at gunpoint during a business trip in Jakarta, Emma - then working in finance for HSBC -  was faced with staring down the last three seconds of her life, and considering what that life had been. And, in that moment, she found her life wanting.

On returning to London, both changed by the experience and inspired by the overwhelming compassion she felt for her attacker, she left finance and took up yoga and travel, eventually finding her way to Bhutan and Buddhism. She has since written a book on her transformative life, presented a Ted talk and runs a charity in Bhutan as well as supporting people through coaching and workshops.

“The capacity to be a kind person is always there,” she says. “Even if you can’t see it.”

In this fascinating interview, we talk about how compassion and kindness can be profound drivers for change, and how we need our epiphany moments to help us get to the truth of our lives.

Emma also talks about purpose being a path, and how in our lives everything that we do has a place - a sort of ‘gathering of talents’ which we bring to our mission when we eventually find it.

For Emma, a mission is about identifying that one place where you know that you can make a difference, something she says is possible for everyone to find.

Oct 08, 202001:00:35
005: Paul Conroy: Face your fears

005: Paul Conroy: Face your fears

What drives a man to walk into a war zone again and again? What keeps a man going after surviving death not once, not twice but five times?Purpose.
This conversation is with Paul Conroy the esteemed war photographer: to say he went places that others feared to tread is an understatement. 

He and his partner Marie Colvin went to some of the most dangerous war zones to tell the stories that others couldn't or wouldn't, often focusing on the human stories - the suffering of the women and children, the kind of stories that regularly are glossed over in regular news.


They told these stories to make the conflict more real and relatable to people in the hope that their actions would bring about a seismic change and end the human suffering. Since being shelled in Homs in 2012 in which paul was injured badly and tragically Marie lost her life, he's made it his mission to keep putting pressure on the powers that be to recognise the suffering of the Syrian people and end the atrocities.


He's had a very interesting and varied life, he was thrown out of the army, then worked as a musician, and a news photographer before teaming up with Marie. He's written a book about his experiences called 'Under The Wire' which led to a documentary, and a very well received Hollywood feature film, but the one thing that has been consistent in his life is the unerring pursuit of what he sees as, as his purpose.


He's a man of huge bravery, currently has a bounty on his head' and has seen the worst of human nature - yet he is steadfast on his mission in pursuing justice for those innocent people who are still suffering in Syria.


There is a huge amount he can teach us about having the guts to follow our convictions, find our purpose - after all our hurdles are just a blip compared to what he has been through.Finally, he talks about the reward being in the endeavour, not in the outcome. This sentiment, which has its roots in ancient China, is more relevant than ever today as we seek to rush to our desired outcomes, rather than savouring the present moment. 

Self-Centred Podcast is presented by Roann Ghosh and Epiphany Social Innovation.

Jun 12, 202039:50
004: Alison Darcy: Turning ideas Into reality

004: Alison Darcy: Turning ideas Into reality

"I don’t have to be a YouTube entrepreneur.  I just need to lean into the fact that this is a problem that needs to be fixed, we will do our best to try and contribute to fixing it."

Alison Darcy is the founder of Woebot, an app that offers cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

She says: 'We're on a mission to make mental health radically accessible' which is important as more than half of the world’s population still doesn’t have access to basic health care, let alone mental health care.

She saw the problem first hand through her clinical work at Stamford, but instead of being content just to research and run trials she embarked on finding a practical solution that was available and accessible to all.

She wasn’t scared to follow her passion. Whatever it took, that’s where she went.

If you are struggling to find your purpose, this conversation is for you. For Alison, purpose meant giving herself the permission to go for it, to ‘get in the ring’ as she puts it.

And she explains what it means to be in that place: the good and the bad of following your passion in a very open and honest way.

Whatever is driving you, whatever stepping off the conveyor belt means to you - you can give yourself permission to be that authentic version of yourself and work from that place.

Woebot: https://woebot.io/

[Interviews and lectures referenced during this podcast:

Marc Andreessen on his investment philosophy and what he looks for when investing Stanford lecture: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/marc-andreessen-take-ego-out-ideas
Andreessen Horowitz is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm with $2.7 billion under management, investing from seed to growth.

The First Principles Method Explained by Elon Musk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV3sBlRgzTI&feature=youtu.be

“The best way to complain is to make something.” James Murphy, lead singer of LCD Soundsystem during Shut Up And Play The Hits Documentary, 2012: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8FAA17DAB61EC754

“A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor.” (Brené Brown, Rising Strong: The Reckoning, The Rumble, The Revolution)

“By 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of world disability” (‘Dare to care: Stop exclusion’, WHO, 2001): https://www.who.int/world-health-day/previous/2001/files/whd2001_dare_to_care_en.pdf]

Self-Centred Podcast is presented by Roann Ghosh and Epiphany Social Innovation.

May 11, 202001:01:29
003: Andy Ramage: Using Passion To Fuel Your Purpose

003: Andy Ramage: Using Passion To Fuel Your Purpose

“There is that calling that comes to us at some point - is this it? Some of us go with it and others get stuck. It’s never too late to act on it”.

This conversation is with Andy Ramage, the founder of the wellness platforms One Year No Beer and Seneca Performance.

Andy is a retired footballer,  a successful oil trader and now an author and entrepreneur helping people to live fuller, energised and more authentic lives.

A lot of things can get in the way of us following our passions. A lot of them are self inflicted. Alcohol dependency is a common hindrance for many, and something that Andy found was holding him back during his days in the corporate world.

He was able to transform his life by quitting alcohol using a method first described in his book ‘The 28 Day Alcohol-Free Challenge” and then made available to all through the One Year No Beer platform.

By giving up the dependencies he was able to find the authentic version of himself and career autonomy. He also found that he was able to sleep better, boost Energy and beat anxiety through this practical approach.

He is now someone who loves journalling, is a voracious reader and podcasts listener, plant-based and rises at 4am every morning to do daily walks in the forest near where he lives.

He has gone from daily grind to reshaping his entire life: in this conversation he outlines his blueprint for you to do the same, including some practical things you can do right now and a reminder that it’s never too late - we are all just warming up!

[Books referenced during this podcast:

Andy Ramage: Let’s Do This: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-Do-This-motivational-psychology/dp/1783253282

Will MacAskill: Effective Altruism: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/people/will-macaskill/

Daniel Kahneman: Thinking Fast Thinking Slow: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0141033576

The Transtheoretical or Stages of Change Model

Johann Hari: The Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - And the Unexpected Solutions: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Connections-Uncovering-Depression-Unexpected/dp/163286830X

AltMBA and Seth Godin: https://altmba.com/

On the Shortness of Life by ancient Roman philosopher Seneca: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97412.On_the_Shortness_of_Life

Henry David Thoreau: Walden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden

Cal Newport: Deep Work: https://www.calnewport.com/books/deep-work/]

Self-Centred Podcast is presented by Roann Ghosh and Epiphany Social Innovation.

May 11, 202044:55
002: What This Series Will Do

002: What This Series Will Do

Why Passion And Purpose Matter

Let me give you permission. The permission to question. The permission to turn off your autopilot and examine exactly who you are, what you do and most importantly, why you do it.

Identifying and aligning your version of success, with the way you think, live and work means acting from an authentic place of purpose.

By sharing my own experiences and speaking to others that have been brave enough to follow their passions, I hope to be able to give you the skills, tactics and permission you need to follow your passions.

Self-Centred Podcast is presented by Roann Ghosh and Epiphany Social Innovation.

May 11, 202010:22
001: Introducing the Self Centred Podcast

001: Introducing the Self Centred Podcast

Roann is challenging us all to live by our true passion and purpose. Here's why...

Apr 09, 202004:45