Double Ds: The Discovery Diaries

For the first time, one of the Double Ds, Donna West, shares part of her story dealing with an extended workplace trauma, as a guest on the "Thriving Business" podcast, with Kate de Jong. Donna discusses being caught up in a traumatic Corruption and Crime Commission case in late 2021, where she realises she is falsely accused due to a bungled investigation at her workplace.

After reaching rock bottom and slowly recovering, she then faces a second related lifequake a year later when during an internal investigation, she is suspended on full pay for 809 days and isolated from her workplace, before finally clearing her name. 

Donna outlines the trauma she experienced and the tools and strategies that helped her through these extended ordeals, which have shaped her new mission to help and support others.  They have also provided the themes of the Double Ds Discovery Diaries podcast, courage and resilience. Donna also discusses the concept of lifequakes (unexpected traumatic life events) more generally with Kate, who shares some of her most challenging experiences.  

Show notes 

The Thriving Business podcast website: HOME | Thriving Business Podcast

Donna's website: www.donnasbalconyviews.com.au

LinkedIn: (1) Donna West | LinkedIn

Sponsor

Build your resilience and well-being - join Donna's weekly newsletter to build resilience and improve well-being. 

Andrew Steiner was a young Jewish boy during World War II, living in Hungary. He recounts memories of living through the Holocaust, where 11 close family members and countless friends were amongst 6 million murdered by the Nazis. 

Andrew discusses the relevance of those events to the perilous times we are facing today in world history. We all have an extraordinary and innate power of one within us. Andrew himself was saved as a child by someone who harnessed that power. We must not remain silent when harm is going on around us. Indifference always helps the perpetrators. 

As a well-known artist, Andrew talks about the importance of art and the historical importance of recording events. 

Since 1990, Andrew has provided education about the Holocaust to secondary and tertiary students. The Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Andrew Steiner Education Centre, launched in 2020, is the culmination of Andrew’s life work towards a fairer, more just, and compassionate world. 

Show notes:

You can find out more about the Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Andrew Steiner Education Centre and make a donation to this important work here: 

https://Tinyurl.com/AHMBrochure 

https://ahmsec.org.au/profile/andrew-steiner-oam/

Sponsor

Build your resilience and well-being - join Donna's weekly newsletter to build resilience and improve well-being. 

D'Arne Healy shares surprisingly broad wellbeing benefits of jigsaw puzzles. Whether on your own or with others, puzzling can help with loneliness, conquering addiction, giving your brain a break and improving focus, just to name a few. 

D'Arne has created inclusive communities, both as Founder of the Australian Jigsaw Puzzle Association and more recently the Inter-School Puzzle Club. D'Arne shares some of the personal puzzling stories she has witnessed, spanning all ages of jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts. 

You'll be finding and starting a puzzle once you listen to this episode and be better for it. 

Show Notes

How to contact D'Arne

interschoolpuzzleclub.com

LinkedIn: @d'arnehealy

Instagram: @interschoolpuzzleclub, @australianjigsawpuzzle

Sponsor

Build your resilience and well-being - join Donna's weekly newsletter to build resilience and improve well-being. 

Dr. Vish Ramakonar returns to the DDs to share the life altering change management work she learnt from Joe Dispenza, based on neuroscience. The program, "Change your mind, create new results" focuses on giving people strategies and tools to increase their resilience to navigate through challenging situations, create desirable change and ultimately, change their life.

Dr. Vish discusses how we become victims to our environment, how stress can be addictive and how most of our beliefs and behaviours are based on subconscious programming. We can all rewire our brains to create a brighter blueprint of our future selves and who we want to become, rather than acting based on our patterns of the past. Dr. Vish also demonstrates one of the program's tools, a heart focused breathing exercise. 

Show Notes

Books Vish recommends:

How to contact Vish

www.drvishramakonar.com

LinkedIn: @drvishramakonar

Sponsor

Build your resilience and well-being - join Donna's weekly newsletter to build resilience and improve well-being. 

Co-founder of neuro nudges, Tammy Tansley discusses how her small business started. Neuro nudges are packs of 70 self-coaching cards in 7 categories that can help you to build resilience, regulate your emotions, improve your habits and become more self-aware. Each card asks a coaching question, gives you a behavioural nudge and provides background into the related neuroscience.

Tools such as giving yourself space and time, relishing small moments of joy and the power of hope are all messages covered in this episode. 

Shownotes

www.tammytansley.com.au

www.neuronudges.com 

Discount code for listeners of the Double Ds: DDTEN 

Katherine's distillery in Tasmania: https://justbdistillery.com.au 

Andrew Hubermann - Huberman Lab Podcast 

www.hubermanlab.com 

Sponsor

Build your resilience and well-being - join Donna's weekly newsletter to build resilience and improve well-being. 

Alastair Milne opens up about his mental crisis five years ago – a journey that led him to spend three weeks in psychiatric care in hospital. Alastair shares how he recovered slowly and eventually started his consultancy, Curam Consulting, where he focuses on developing fearless teams and improving psychological safety in the workplace.

Alastair discusses tools and strategies that help him today stay mentally well. He also outlines the steps he would undertake to start the healing process with a team that had been ruled by fear.

Show notes

If you need help or know someone who does:

Call Lifeline: 131114 in Australia 

Please seek support from a medical professional or other person 

Home | curam consulting

Awe by Dacher Keltner - Penguin Books Australia

Sponsor

Build your resilience and well-being

Join Double Ds Donna and Di for Part 2 of their first ever live podcast, as previous podcast guests answer the question, "What happened Next?" Hear from previous guests Susan Saleeba (#11), Tara Jeisman (#7), Nio Correa (#5), Steve Cox (#1) and hear about what happened following Wayne Sankey's episode (#8) about surviving the Boxing Day Tsunami. Themes include the power of sharing your story, self-reflecting, connection and community. 

Sponsors 

Speakers Institute 3-day Premiere Bootcamp: click here to sign up for the Bootcamp and support the Double Ds podcast at the same time:

Public Speaking | Donna's Balcony Views

Hybrid Warehouse 

hybridwarehouse | Instagram | Linktree

Darren's podcast is "Some Elbow Room" 

Join the Double Ds, Donna West and Di Murray, as they do their first ever live podcast in front of an audience, to celebrate the first anniversary of the podcast. 

Hybrid Warehouse owner Darren Payne interviews the Double Ds about their first year and how they turned a dream into reality and started a podcast. Their reflections and lessons to date, how they find and prepare guests, the power of podcasting and sharing stories of courage and resilience, communities and connections formed and how their guests have inspired them in their own journeys. 

Sponsors 

Speakers Institute 3-day Premiere Bootcamp: click here to sign up for the Bootcamp and support the Double Ds podcast at the same time:

Public Speaking | Donna's Balcony Views

Hybrid Warehouse 

hybridwarehouse | Instagram | Linktree

Darren's podcast is "Some Elbow Room" 

Lachlan (Lockie) O'Donoghue, co-founder of 20Talk, a not-for-profit focusing on improving the mental wellness of young people, discusses the origins of 20Talk, following the suicides of two close friends in their early 20's. 

Lockie gives tips on how to approach a conversation with someone who may be struggling, what to do if you aren't coping with life and a methodology for creating a personal self-care action plan to build your wellness and resilience. 

Lockie also explains the charity event 20Hours and how disconnecting from devices for 20 hours straight is a transformative experience for participants. 

Show notes

www.20talk.com.au

Wheel of life workshops

 https://events.humanitix.com/mental-health-maintenance-training

Wheel of life download 

Donna's Balcony Views - Build Resilience, Improve Wellbeing

Sponsors 

Speakers Institute 3-day Premiere Bootcamp: click here to sign up for the Bootcamp and support the Double Ds podcast at the same time:

Public Speaking | Donna's Balcony Views

Professor Rob Donovan is Founder of the Act-Belong-Commit health promotion campaign. This was one of the world's first mass media campaigns to promote being mentally healthy, which commenced in 2005 in regional Western Australia and is still going strong today.

Rob shares the background into the project, including the market research he undertook, the development of the Act-Belong-Commit message and how listeners can incorporate the principles to improve their own quality of life.

Rob also shares the growth of the campaign internationally - how various Scandinavian countries have embraced the campaign (A: Do something, B: Do something with someone, and C: Do something meaningful) and that he is currently working with several other European countries, including Ukraine, on upcoming launches. He also recounts some of his most memorable conversations with people who have changed their lives due to implementing the Act-Belong-Commit message. 

Show notes

Home - Act Belong Commit | Promoting Positive Mental Health in WA

The ABCs of Mental Health – Department of Psychology - University of Copenhagen 

Sponsors 

Speakers Institute 3-day Premiere Bootcamp: click here to sign up for the Bootcamp and support the Double Ds podcast at the same time:

Public Speaking | Donna's Balcony Views