Athena Wellness Podcast - Reclaiming Our Warrior Spirit

#068  Today is Wednesday, time for a little wellness boost - a shortened episode to keep your Warrior Vibe high.

Today, I’m joined, once again, by Kristin Duffy, actor, podcaster and avid triathlete.  In our previous conversation in Episode 67, we talk about the importance of continuously reinventing ourselves through our work. Today we explore reinvention through sport.

We talk about:

• The decision to train for an event like a triathlon
• What it’s like to complete the first one
• How endurance sport can become a passion and
• Advice for the first-time triathlete

Even if you have no plans to train for an endurance event, you’ll enjoy Kristin’s uplifting story-telling.  You may also find yourself inspired to try something you’ve always dreamed of but needed a little boost to make that dream a reality. 

Links:

Slackline Productions

The Second Chapter podcast
 

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#067  Have you ever thought about making a life change but felt that it was too late for you?  Perhaps you’ve set aside the dreams you had when you were younger…. Or maybe you’ve just fallen into a comfortable life groove.

Our guest today, Kristin Duffy, is all about inspiring women to start the second (or third or fifth) chapters of their lives no matter their age.  Kristin is an actor and artistic director of Slackline Productions, a production company she founded to create meaningful roles for women over 35 – as writers, directors and characters in the stories they present.

We cover a range of topics including:

• Kristin’s own reinvention, from working in corporate to becoming an actor
• What it was like to relocate from the US to the UK
• The importance of telling stories of reinvention

We end this episode with our Dose of Inspiration segment, where Kristin shares some of the things that are lighting her up these days.  And as always, I'll put links to those items and Kristin's website in the show notes.

I think you’ll walk away from this episode reinvigorated inspired in being reminded that it’s never too late to start over.

Links:

Slackline Productions

The Second Chapter podcast

Beyond Sixty documentary

Zadie Smith books

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#066  Today is Wednesday, time for a little wellness boost - a shortened episode to keep your Warrior Vibe high.

In this episode, Kathy recalls a near death experience that author Anita Moorjani shared in her best-selling book, comparing her life before this experience as if she were in a huge dark warehouse with nothing but a flashlight.  Even though she could feel that there was more to her existence, her reality was defined by what the small beam of her flashlight lit up.

We end with how to explore a powerful question, like “What’s beyond the beam of your flashlight?” using a mindful awareness technique.

Link:
Dying to Be Me – Anita Moorjani book

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#065  What do you think about when you hear the word creativity?  Maybe it's art, or music, or dance?  And while creating art has been shown to promote psychological, physical and emotional health, the creativity we'll be talking about today is broader. It's the ability to think and act differently by asking questions, making observations, experimenting, or connecting disparate concepts to make something new, something better.

And the deeper we go with anything – a business, a partnership, a writing project, nature – the more the stage is set to enter creative flow. 

Today we'll explore how to build your creative capacity in all aspects of your life and encourage creative flow.  We'll cover:

• What creativity and creative capacity are and why they're beneficial to your well-being;
• What happens when you enter the state of creative flow; and
• How to encourage creative flow in your everyday activities. 

By inviting creativity and flow into the everyday, our activities, even our work and chores, become more fun and engaging.  Challenges become problem-solving opportunities and our activities bring a sense of newness and aliveness as we connect with the deeper currents in our lives.

Links:

The Power of Creative Capacity – Interlochen Center for the Arts

Book – Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

TED Talk - Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#064  Today is Wednesday, time for a little wellness boost - a shortened episode to keep your Warrior Vibe high.

Today, I’m joined, once again, by writer and educator, Sam Thiara.  In our previous conversation in Episode 63, we talked about Sam’s journey back to his ancestral roots and what it was like to write his memoir, Lost and Found: Seeking the Past and Finding Myself.  Today we explore how to write your own story.

We talk about:

• The importance of building and telling your personal story
• Some practical tools to identify, develop and share your story
• The significance of the acronym CARPE

Whether you’re a writer or not, you’re living your story each day.  As Sam likes to say, “Everyone’s life is an autobiography.  Make yours worth reading.”

Links:

Website:  Sam Thiara

Book:  Sam Thiara

TedX Talk

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#063  Our guest today, Sam Thiara, is a global citizen.  He was born in the UK, raised in Canada by parents who were born in Fiji and a grandfather born in India, which sent him on a journey to find himself through story.

Sam is an educator, storyteller and youth career coach, who helps his students through their personal and professional development with transformational practices.  He’s also the author of a memoir that chronicles the search for his ancestral roots. 

We cover a range of topics including:

• A practical approach for finding purpose
• How to work with questions to explore who you are
• Connecting with your inner voice
• What it was like to travel to his grandfather’s village and write his memoir

We end this episode with our Dose of Inspiration segment, where Sam shares some of the things that are lighting him up these days.  Links to those items, Sam's website and to his book, Lost and Found, Seeking the Past and Finding Myself, are below.

Whether you’re a writer or not, you’re living your story each day.  As Sam likes to say, “Everyone’s life is an autobiography.  Make yours worth reading.” 

Links:

Website:  Sam Thiara

Book:  Sam Thiara

Book:  Every Conversation Counts

Book:  A Story of Karma

Book:  The Storyteller’s Secret

Movie:  To Sir With Love

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#062  Today is Wednesday, time for a little wellness boost - a shortened episode to keep your Warrior Vibe high.

It’s hard to disagree with Plato, who is quoted as saying “The sea cures all ailments.”  The beach is the perfect setting to enhance our overall well-being.

In this episode we explore how the combination of sun, sea and sand can act as natural medicine that nourishes our body, mind and spirit.

We end with mindful awareness practice tailored for the ocean.  Give it a try the next time you’re beachside.

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#061  We’ve all felt it.  Someone walks into a room and the energy shifts.  Perhaps the person brings a sense of heaviness.  Or tension.  Or an uplifting feeling that elevates the mood and makes everyone smile.

Isn’t it interesting that we can feel stressed around some people but good around others?  We carry this energetic residue and can emit it ourselves.  This is because we’re made of energy, in mind, body and spirit.  So what we feel when we’re around others turns into how we feel.  Energy is a vibration that travels in waves, attracting like energy.

And studies have shown that energy impacts our well-being.  So how can we attract the good energy?  That’s what we’ll be exploring in this episode.

We’ll cover:

• What positive energy is and why it’s beneficial;
• The impact of negativity and strategies to prevent downward spiraling; and
• How to increase positive energy in mind, body and spirit.

Both energy awareness and positivity are wellness tools.  They can transform pessimism into optimism.  It’s just a matter of perspective – the glass may be half empty, but it’s also half full.

Links:

Study:  Optimism and Its Impact on Mental and Physical Well-being

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#060  Today is Wednesday, time for a little wellness boost - a shortened episode to keep your Warrior Vibe high.

Today, I’m joined, once again, by Bobbi Kahler, entrepreneur, author and coach, who shares her wisdom on how to move forward for those who may feel stuck or at a plateau.  Bobbi also shares her thoughts on how journaling can help us Just Start.

Link:

Bobbi Kahler – website

Healthy Minds – app

Where I Come From – book

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast

#059  Today’s show is a masterclass in what can happen when we override our inner wisdom and the long road back into alignment with ourselves.

Our guest today, Bobbi Kahler, an entrepreneur and success coach who has worked with more than 3000 clients focused on personal growth and transformation.  She’s also the author of Travels of the Heart: Developing Your Inner Leader and the podcast host of UnYielded: Thriving No Matter What.

Our discussion begins with the Bobbi’s own wellness journey.  When her own work ethic and high expectations severely impacted her health, western medicine failed her and she was forced to seek integrative solutions.  It’s a fascinating story of exploration and, ultimately, recovery.  She’s now a thriving athlete.

We cover a range of topics including:

• The importance of trusting your inner voice
• Lessons and takeaways from the year 2020
• Why “Learn Your Way Forward” is a beneficial life approach
• How curiosity can be a superpower 

We end this episode with our Dose of Inspiration segment, where Bobbi shares some of the things that are lighting her up these days. 

This is a wonderful conversation to remind us how to trust ourselves, connect with what matters most and take small steps toward our best life. 

Links:

Healthy Minds app 

Where I Come From – book

Elevate: An Essential Guide to Life – book

Green Lights – book

Bobbi Kahler – website

If you'd like to join our circle and never miss a weekly episode, please hit subscribe.  While you're there, you can rate the podcast by highlighting the stars that match your experience.  Much appreciated!

For episode materials, show notes or to submit a question for a future episode, visit: https://athenawellness.com/podcast