Triple H's International Women's Day Special 8th March 2015

My guests were Mary Wilson co-presenter from the Hubbub, Bev Carter from It's Time To Shine and Donna Gianniotis from Yoga and Healing. I also have an interview with Annabel Daniel from Women's Community Shelters.

The audio is well worth listening to...apologies for the speed that I start the show - I am sure the conversation has sped me up...surely I don't speak that fast...unless perhaps the rush of morning accompanied me into the studio for the opening chat of the show... a good lesson :-)

Some photos from the day...

Donna and Mary

Lucy and Bev

Have we taken as normal things we should not accept as normal?

What we covered...

Communication and relationships - how do we communicate? Have we found a way to communicate that starts to accept statistics and projections as preconceived destinations and not question if we can have an affect on the trajectory of those statistics and trajectories?

Health and function versus true health and vitality led to Donna sharing her story about finding out that at the height of her 'healthy living' she had cancer. How taking time to reconnect with her body meant that she understood true health is far more than a functioning body

The fitness industry talk about health and often there is a great misunderstanding that it is related to muscle tone and pushing through pain to get results but Donna got cancer when we was a very fit Yoga instructor. Lance Armstrong was a very fit cyclist. So should we consider our vitality - how we feel when we wake up in the morning, how stressed we are, how much we live in our heads as part of our health?

Bev and Mary reminded us of the "I would rather not know" and "we presume it is cancer" attitudes that have prevailed over the years to keep us from getting to the doctor and looking after ourselves.

We would rather not know - 
we presume that ultimately it will be our biggest fear - cancer

Top Tips:

• If you don't know you can't deal with it
• Develop a better relationship with your body so you can listen to the communication our body offers us.
• Put your own oxygen mask on before you support your family
• Consider Bev's burnt chop syndrome (you will have to listen!!)
• Learn to say no
• Put yourself higher up the priority list
• Ask for and accept help

What are we teaching our children when we put ourselves last? Are we teaching them to not care for themselves and put everyone else first? Are we teaching them that everyone else matters more than they do? 

What would be the consequences of that belief be for a young person growing up? might they stay in a relationship or a job that was abusive?

One common theme through all we spoke about was the importance of self-worth and self-esteem. They are fundamental to everything we do in life and without an understanding of what they are and what they mean we discovered that we can find ourselves over-commiting, staying in relationships that are not working, accepting a level of verbal, emotional or physical interactions as 'normal' that are not 'normal and in some situations abusive.

Bev's beautiful tender story about domestic violence and how she turned feeling shame into embracing her vulnerability and fragility and see the strength in it. She felt great shame from what happened to her and found it very hard to accept help which she would say now meant that she didn't see all the support that was available to her - even from her family.

So how do we get there? How much do we accept as normal, so much that is not normal and how do we get back to celebrating ourselves and some of the less obvious traits and see them as strengths?

Celebrate our:

• Delicateness
• Playfulness 
• Vulnerability
• Sensitivity
• Nurturing

Let's value who we are as the most precious commodity - 
far greater than what we do.


Until, that is, we bring that commodity into all we do - 
then we have the whole package.

Annabel Daniel - Womens Community Shelters

We did a phone interview with Annabel Daniel the CEO of Women's Community Shelters. Please take time to listen to it. Annabel shared with us what was happening at the Opera House International Women's Day event as well as sharing the wonderful work of Women's Community Shelters.

Hundreds of Women are turned away from shelters every night (1 in 2 are the most shocking numbers) The Link2Home phone number mentioned in the Homelessness program on Stay in the Loop with Lucy is inundated with calls - 60,000 expected in a year and 70,000 received in 6 months really says it all.

The Hornsby Ku-ringgai Women's Shelter is the first shelter to be up and running and will be the model that is replicated all over Sydney (and beyond I suspect). The focus is on asking "what does this specific individual need?" they are not a number or a statistic, they are a hurt, scared and lack confidence in their ability to make it alone. the team at the shelter then support that woman to learn how to build her self confidence and develop the skills to be independent again.

If you would like to be involved in the local community shelter they need everything - tax deductible donations, volunteering, in-kind support - schools doing a toilet roll drive.

Check out the Hornsby Ku-ringgai Women's Shelter website for more information

Bev's Top Tips for re-connecting

Bev has been running It's Time to Shine for many years and her dynamic, colourful website really inspires you to get out there and reconnect with how your body can be dynamic, strong, vital and toned, yet the thought of the drudgery of exercise can sometimes get in the way of a resolution being a lasting routine and perhaps becoming part of your rhythm to the point that you miss it. One of Bev's blogs that was covered in the show talked about how to make exercise fun...

• Intention
• Discerning the way you exercise
• Gentleness
• Nature
• Playfulness
• Be gorgeous
• Be nurturing
• Self appreciation

Exercise can be a way to distract yourself from how you feel so all of the work Bev does is about maintaining that connection in your exercise and taking that into all you do. Gentleness and connection are the keys.

Who would have thought that you could consider all of those things when exercising? Check out Bev's website for more information on It's Time to Shine

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Bring a focus to how you do what you do

Donna's approach to Yoga and Meditation

There are many different forms and practices of Yoga, Meditation and Healing and Donna has a number of workshops and blogs which bring a connection and stillness back to your body which you can then take into your day to day. Her experience of breast cancer and how it has changed how she now teaches Yoga is covered in a number of blogs.

Learn how to connect and feel your body, not just do poses but to feel and honour your body and its gentleness. Stop, connect and feel the energy that you are going to use to move your body. Gentleness is a really lovely way to connect to our essence.

Claim the women beyond the doing.

Here is the link to Donna's website for more information on Yoga and Healing. 

                      Every day should be a celebration of the Woman we are

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Mary can be found on the Hubbub

Yes, each Monday night Mary can be found hosting The Hubbub - it is a what's on in Sydney and has some really great interviews and fun conversation to take you home on a Monday afternoon from 5-7pm.

All in all thank you to Triple H - we will be back with The Health Show (working title) on a monthly basis I suspect!

The music in the podcast is thanks to Glorious Music. The track is called Suave Connections.