Conversations for a Complete Life

How do you know when your anxiety is normal, and when it might need professional intervention or treatment? With the Covid 19 pandemic, state of the world, and even plain old perimenopausal hormone shifts, anxiety is common for many of us, so Dr Jodi Richardson joins us on the show to talk all about anxiety and what we can do about it.

Amanda Hampson was 50 when her debut novel was published, after her ideas of a career as a writer were derailed by a teenage pregnancy. Her latest novel - her 6th - has just been released, and she joins the show for a conversation about her life, achieving dreams and the wisdom of midlife women. 

Stress - the ongoing, relentless everyday kind - is something most of us could do with less of, and so I asked former Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat boss Sharon Kolkka to the come on the show for a conversation on about how we can be more stress resilient.

Neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay joins the show for a conversation that unpacks the brain-hormone connection in women's brains during perimenopause and menopause. 

Life coach Kate James joins the show for a conversation about the power of thoughts, finding your authentic character, making life choices that mean something to you, and making your life beautiful. 

Many of the necessities of motherhood are boring and it's OK to admit that. In this episode I whisper in your ear about why this is so, why it's OK, and how you balance it out - the answer is small champagne bubbles of excitement (but not actual champagne).

These two concepts might be costing you not just your time and energy, but also your health. Falling in to the trap of doing too much, too often, can come from our desire to look after loved ones, and prove our value and worth.   

Jas Kechel returns to the podcast for a soulful conversation about reiki, energy, healing and the gift of quiet presence.

If there's one thing that can make all the difference to your health and wellbeing in your 40s, it's understanding hormone repair in perimenopause. When I came across the book Hormone Repair Manual by Lara Briden, I immediately emailed an invitation to the podcast to her to talk about it, as the book is one of the best I've read so far on hormones in perimenopause.

Feeling negative about your body or how you look consumes a lot of women often for a long time, even from childhood. Learning self-acceptance helped Emma and Carla Papas not only overcome body image issues, but they also discovered the power of yoga and movement to develop inner strength as much as the physical.

The mental load is a huge issue for busy women, and in this episode, Rachael shares three tips to help you carry the mental load you currently have, and one idea on how to reduce it moving ahead.

Reducing stress and the stress response in your body is one of the most important and effective things you can do for your health and wellbeing, and tapping has been scientifically proven to do this really quickly and easily. Dr Peta Stapleton is a world leader in the research into tapping, and she shares with us what that research shows, and what we can use tapping for.

Come on now, be honest: do you need to think about taming tech and being less digitally connected? No judgement – it’s an issue I am constantly grappling with, especially post-Covid when I really spent way too much time every day keeping track of the news. Good news though! Dr Kristy Goodwin joined the show to take us through the major issues tech presents for us, the impact it’s having, and how we can best navigate it.

When you don't have a lot of time to spare, you can feel a pressure to create 'quality time' which can simply create new stress for you. Whether it be quality time with the kids, or quality time for yourself, it shouldn't be stressful. Quality time can simply mean - awareness and attention. 

Finding time to exercise can be a real hassle, and so I'm a huge advocate of the idea of 10 minute movement - looking to include achievable chunks of time throughout the day to move.  In this conversation though, we shorten the time even more - two minutes - with Lizzy Williamson from Two Minute Moves, and explore how including more movement in your day via just two minute bursts can bring about a mindset shift that makes your lifestyle healthier, without changing your schedule.

Personal stylists Jane Corkill and Sally Manhire join the show to talk about the issues women over 40 feel when it comes to their bodies and the clothes they wear. It's all about feeling comfortable in your body and your outfit.

“I don’t have time” – a common refrain for time-poor women everywhere when it comes to fitting in the things they need or want to do but other obligations seem to get in the way. In this conversation, I riff about balance as a time issue – and how we spend our time is how we spend our life.

Angela Henderson, perhaps Australia's leading consultant for women in business, joins the show for a conversation on opportunities for women in the post-Covid economy, developing a strong mental game and making choices that work for you.

Burnout is a term used by many women to describe a complete exhaustion they feel, and the multitude of symptoms that accompany it. It's a real risk for overwhelmed women, so Rachael invited naturopath Jules Galloway to come on the show to talk about what burnout is, how it happens, and the symptoms to look out for.

Let's start the year as we mean to go on - with more balance. Rachael goes over the five strategies she uses every day to feel calmer, healthier and more balanced and they take just a few minutes each.

Rachael calls up her friend Danielle Appi for a frank and open conversation about ageing, going grey, and looking forward to the future.

In a world where feminine traits are seen as weaknesses, Julie Parker is encouraging women to reclaim their sacred talents and follow the priestess path. In this episode, she explains what that means and how modern sacred women can incorporate ancient wisdom in their daily lives.

Perimenopause has a reputation for being a tough slog, but the idea of the maga woman makes it sound like a powerful awakening.

Motherhood does not come with the requirement that you are responsible for all the laundry, dishes, cleaning and tidying. That is not in the job description of 'mother'. Being a mother means loving and protecting and raising your kids. In every other way, you should treat your family like your flatmates.   

Nicole Avery joins the show for a conversation on her life from corporate gig to mother of 5 and parenting expert via her highly successful blog Planning With Kids.  We talk about the struggle of losing yourself in motherhood, the overwhelm of doing all the things, being organised and having goals. 

I've spent 16 years working from home with kids in tow, so in this episode, I'm sharing some tips on how I've done it, from the time my kids were newborns through to now that they're teenagers. 

Moving through midlife means dealing with a lot of change. Psychologist Ellen Jackson joins us to talk about how to deal with it.

There's a two dimensional idea of having it all that is essentially defined by the ideas of having a family, including loving partner, and career success which includes financial gain. But that's not having it all because it leaves out of the picture elements of life you need for your health, happiness and wellbeing. My take on the idea is to live a complete life and in this episode, I take you through the 10 elements of a complete life.

Pascale Helyar-Moray is the founder and CEO of Super Rewards, a new online platform that rewards women with superannuation contributions just for shopping online. The new platform promises to shake up the superannuation system, and allow women to contribute to their financial security in a way they haven't been able to before.

A new pep talk - this one about contemplating death and the days and years you have left. Day-to-day busyness and commitments can easily get in the way of us living our life the way we want to, so we have to wake up to the ticking clock, and make intentional choices ad decisions.

Kyle Lowe is a warrior woman - she's battled breast cancer and won; she founded a social enterprise supporting young homeless people; and she facilitates powerful confidence building workshops for women. In this episode, you'll hear her back story and also what a year of living sober has taught her.

A pep talk on being mindful of what you get your knickers in a twist over. 

After decades working as Australia's top award-winning makeup artist making other people beautiful, Suzi Dent found herself a first-time beauty queen at the age of 55. She had to get comfortable in dresses and learn how to stand and walk in high heels, after a life-time of dressing down and trying to cover her body.  She shares with us, in her own inimitable style, the laughs and lessons she's learned about women, beauty and ageing.

The title of mother is arguably the most emotionally potent one you can have. There's no doubt it's probably the most significant role you'll ever have, however it's not all there is to you. In this episode, I share some thoughts on how being a mother is just one part of who you are, not who you are entirely.

We always feel like we don't have enough time to do all the things we think or feel we need to do. In this episode, I share some thoughts about making time for the 'thing' or 'things' that you want to do but never get around to.

When it comes to getting everything done in a day, routines can be a blessing. If we’re not careful though, routines can work against us, particularly when they’re accompanied by bad habits. In this episode, I talk about some of the science and psychology behind creating habits and how we might use that to create better balance in our lives.

This is an important conversation ladies, and one we need to have regularly and in many formats. The essence of this episode is this: until gender equality is a man’s issue as well, it will never be. We cannot correct an imbalance when only one side is trying to right it, especially when it’s the side that is disadvantaged and holds less power in the first place.

If you’re looking for inspirational women who have risen to the top of a competitive, male-dominated profession then it’s hard to look past Australia’s top female journalists. In this episode I four key strategies for women who want to succeed, as suggested by several of the speakers at the 2018 Women in Media conference.   

When, exactly, does a girl’s potential disappear? The statistics tell us girls outperform boys at school; that more young women enter university; and more of them graduate from university. Yet, graduate starting salaries favour men in all fields of study but two, and in nine out of 13 industries. I share some thoughts on why women still lag behind men in terms of pay and work choices, and what it will take to one day reach equality.

Very few, if any, women ever say they have a work-life balance. Not a good one, anyway. Balance isn’t impossible though. The problem is we haven’t understood it well enough to make it work. Despite the sense of difficulty that surrounds the concept, it is nevertheless something worth pursuing because we cannot live happily or be healthy without some semblance of it. Balance as a concept is a misunderstood creature and it’s the misunderstanding that makes us feel like it’s impossible to achieve.

Women grow up hearing this message - good girls give and mothers are wonderful because they would sacrifice themselves for their children.   But this narrative of sacrifice needs to change so that women don't feel obligated to give up everything to their own detriment.    Changing the story to one of service though enables you to give your all without having to give up everything.

Hopefully this episode will put you to sleep. Not permanently and not immediately but certainly more often!   As part of the new look podcast, I want to address some of the reasons and issues we don't thrive as working women juggling family, and a big part of that is related to our health and lifestyle.   Some of it is obvious, and some not so much.   I asked my good friend Dr Rach Wyndham, an integrative GP and naturopath, to come on the show to talk about some of these issues and we opted to start with sleep because she says it's a good ground zero for all of us to look at.

This episode is all about having the courage to choose yourself and your own life. It starts out about business and Instagram but the story of Liss Amyah is ahhh-mazing and she is the definition of true courage, grace and strength. She is the mother of six children, is now a single mum, and runs her business in which she shares beautiful lettering work. In this interview we touch on some of her story about living in and later leaving, what she describes as 'crazy church land', the conservative fundamentalist religious community she was a part of when married.

Soooooo, what is going onnnnn?   If you've followed me or the podcast for a while, you will have heard me mention or speak about pivoting many times. That I've done more pivots than a ballerina. And here is another one. SHE is gone, and in her place, is a more complete woman. The podcast is continuing but s h e is not. It's a new name and expanded content to help you live a complete life. 

Karla Gilbert is one of Australia's most loved sporting icons, still considered the Queen of Surf Lifesaving  even post-retirement. She has taken the lessons of perseverance and resilience learnt from being was the country’s most successful female surf lifesaver and applied them to building her own online business as a health coach. In this interview, Karla shares how she has just tried to stay true to who she is and quietly go about helping other people.

Our society needs women to contribute their thoughts and ideas to balance views. We need that more than ever as we can now see in world events, and we can start doing that from our keyboard, on our laptop at our kitchen bench. Amplifying women's voices - encouraging women to contribute to the conversation - is vitally important in a world that's out of balance.  

The concept of masculine versus feminine energy was almost too woo-woo for me the first time I came across it. Explained in terms of yin and yang though, in terms of balance, it becomes clearer how these energies work and how we’re being affected by a chronic imbalance in our lives. This episode of the podcast delves into these complementary energy fields, and it seems fitting that for the conversation my guest is - for the first time on the show - a man!