Mark [0:00] Welcome to the Heart of Connection podcast.  I’m your host, Mark Randall and I really appreciate the opportunity to be here at the Torquay Community House, talking to you about the Heart of Connection to self, others, and ‘All That Is.’   Just by way of introduction, which mind giving a brief story, your story as part of the conversation and introduction to yourself please.

Laura [0:25] Okay, thanks for having me, Mark.  A big part of my story is I have been here coming up for 18 years.  So that is a huge part.   Prior to that, I suppose I had a very checkered past and did many things.  What I like the best about here, is when we talk about Connections is the connection to people and to others.  We have so many opportunities to do exactly that on a multitude of levels.  It has been great to develop the different ways that we can or be part of that development in the ways that we can connect with others.

Mark [1:12] In the development of that connection to others, have you come across a common thread in the various groups that use the community center?

Laura [1:23] Yes, I don’t think it really matters, what walk of life or what status or whoever, wherever, you are in life, at the end of the day, we’re all the same.  There is always that point of heart that people have to be reached on.  People also want to be reached on.  It doesn’t matter

Mark [0:00] Hi, Dale, thank you for being a guest on the heart of connection podcast.  I’m your host, Mark Randall.  It’s wonderful to have you on board today to have a conversation about what you believe the Heart of Connection means to you.  Just by way of introduction, would you mind giving a short story of yourself?

Dale [0:20] Yeah, thanks for having me on board Mark.  A short story.  I don’t think there’s ever a short story these days.   If I was to put it down into a couple of sentences, or even a short paragraph, I spent 12 months my time on the street is13-year-old.  This was quite life-changing, especially when that 12 month period was up.   I got caught by the police for breaking into a shop to eat because I was that hungry.   I had to do something and it probably changed my life.  So from there on, you know, I was put into a church type situation, which was the Seventh Day Adventist back then.   I did not follow any religion at all at that time.  I certainly appreciated the guidance and the direction and the fellowship that that family taught me.  They sort of set me up for where I was going.  They helped me get through some of the pitfalls and highs and lows of life.  It was in a country town of Whyalla in South Australia.

I then headed out to Adelaide on my own as a 20 year – 21-year-old and set my life on from there.  I’ve managed to achieve a few things through my life.  I guess having that 12 months on the street.  While it seems quite tragic and traumatic to a lot of people it certainly has some highlights.  The highlights are some of the bonds that I formed with other streets kids.  A life spent on the streets has told me a lot about people.  It has taught me a lot about myself and what I actually can achieve.

Mark [0:00] Hello Zoe, welcome to the heart of connection podcast.  Thank you for being a guest on the podcast. I’m your host, Mark Randall and lovely to have some time with you to have a conversation about the heart connection. Just by way of starting Zoe, would give a brief story about yourself?

Zoe [0:17] Cool, thank you, Mark, for inviting me on to the show.  For the view is a brief story, I came from a background of personally going a through a lot of trauma, a lot of adversity and the pathway of my own healing, my journey of healing mind, body, and remember who I came here to be.  In a really simple way of putting it, led me down that path of training and modalities to do with the mind, trauma release, sensuality, intimacy, bodywork, yoga, all of that.  So it’s been a beautiful journey of that adversity and trauma which would then unlock my gifts, to then share with people that I get the pleasure of working with.  In a nutshell, that’s probably the simplest way to describe it.

Mark [1:16] Where are you based? You’re in Sydney

Zoe [1:18] I’m in Sydney I’m in the inner west and Balmain and Rozelle area.  I’m also a Star Magic energy healer which has been something that sort of happened quite recently.   Based in the Inner West.

Mark [1:38] I always love to go to Sydney and I love to sit it circular key.  There’s something about Sydney that always draws me.  The bridge is just an amazing, that space up there.  I know I’m on a holiday, I am a different state.   I drove up there just a couple of weeks ago to gets some chairs from IKEA, it was actually funny.

Zoe [1:58] I can see the harbour bridge from where we live, which is pretty cool.  I can say it from our children’s bedroom.  It’s great, I think we’re rea

Mark [0:00] Hello Sharon. Welcome to the Heart Of Connection Podc

[0:00] Rebecca welcome to the heart connection podcast I’m your host, Mark Randall. And it’s a wonderful opportunity to meet with you today as a guest, to have a conversation around the heart of connection and what that means to you.  By us by way of communicating. Would you mind giving a brief introduction of yourself? Please?

[0:19] Hi, Mark, thank you so much for having me today. I’m Rebecca Gardiner. I’m am a myotherapist.  Born in Melbourne.  Live in Ocean Grove grew up down there and that is me.

[0:33] That’s you and what got you, what’s is the story to be a Myotherapist. How did you, where and what is your story to that for you?

[0:44] The story to me becoming a myotherapist, well myotherapy wasn’t even known when I began.  It was very, very new.  When I was 19, I got quite sick and I was sort of in the system and couldn’t, couldn’t see a way out.   I needed to be well, wanted to be well, and I thought that if I put myself through university, maybe I could learn how to be well.  If I got well, I might be able to help other people become well, and that’s the story and how it happened.

[1:20] Through your occupation as myotherapist, I would imagine there would be lots of connection?

[1:26] Lots of connection, yes.

[1:27] Can you describe how you connect through your work?

[1:35] Connection is really such a big subject.  It’s a connection on every level really so, compassion, kindness, and empathy to begin with.  People who come to me need help.  They are only there because – that’s what they need.  They need me to listen and hear their story.  Once I know you the story, we then can work out how to help them the best I can – to get them the best quality of life.

[2:07] Is it a disconnection from their bodies that are creating the need to come to see you?

[2:16] Not all the time, but it definitely plays a huge factor in it, disconnection.  We do live in a world that’s quite disconnected. Yeah, we do live in a world that’s disconnected. So, connecting to self is really the key to health and wellness.

[2:35] Can you describe how you’ve connected to yourself to improve your health and wellness?

[2:42] That’s a loaded question.  I listen to my body.  My body has all the answers inside it.  I just have to be willing to listen and actually take the steps and have the courage to listen and do what it needs.

[3:03] The word that came to my mind as you sharing your story just then was the word, trust.

[3:09] Yes. Trusting self.  Trusting in, trusting life?

[3:20] When you listen to your body, is that listening to it intuitively?

[3:24] Absolutely. Yep.

[3:29] In our western world, what’s happened to the intuitive knowledge that our bodies and our beings carry?

[3:43] I think we’ve become so disconnected from our own truth and our trust at listening to what we need.  That we rely on people’s opinions.  Because everyone’s is literally, we are all just opinions.  You can take an opinion or you can leave an opinion.  Sometimes we listen to opinions that aren’t actually sitting in in alignment with the truth.  That might be part alignment with the truth but we tend to not listen because the experts told us.  We listen to that, without listening to ourselves.

[4:24] How do you align to that inner a k

[0:00] Debra Mittler from Living In The Loving, thank you for being a guest on the heart of connection podcast. I’m your host, Mark Randall. And I’m looking forward to having a conversation with you regarding the heart of connection to self, others. And all that is. By way of introduction, would you mind sharing a little about yourself?

[0:22] Thank you so much for having me.   What I do is, I assist people in going deeper, in their healing and going deeper in their loving.  How I do that is by healing, the unresolved issues that we’ve picked up along the way.  They can be masked by the addictions, our fears and anxiety and, and moving through that energy so we can move into the truth at the core of our being.  My Facebook page is Debra Mittler.

[0:49] How much of the unresolved stuff have you found stops us from connecting to our hearts?

[0:55] A lot of it.  And most of us don’t even know what’s really going on.  As a lot of its subconscious, meaning when we have like issues in our lives today, it’s not really about what’s happening today, it’s actually triggering an old memory.  However, we think it’s what’s happening today. And a lot of times, we try to control the outer, we try to change the circumstance, we try to change the person, we get mad or whatever. What is really happening is we’re reliving an old wound or a past experience that we haven’t yet resolve.  That’s why it’s called unresolved issues.

[1:23] The only reason really why we get angry, upset, or any of these, they call it lower level vibrations. But it’s just our inner being saying, hey, you know what, something inside of me is asking for loving.  This is the time, to take a deep breath and take a step back and just be with that energy.  Many of us don’t know where it came from.  And that’s a process and from my own healing I learned that and now I can take my clients through it.  On the same token, we can see what’s going on inside of us by how we’re feeling and what the upset means.  Also what we’re saying it means about ourselves.  Doing this is how we start to clear some of those unresolved issues and the conditioning that is in the way of our true essence, which is the love of who we are.

[2:05] Is the connecting to our own trauma, own woundedness.  Is that building the sense of connection to self?

[2:14] It is part of our experience of being here.  In order to actually clear that we need to go into it.  A lot of people say you just move on or whatever but that energy is stuck somewhere.  This is what our triggers are coming from.  In order for us to heal, that we need to go into that with love and shift that energy because energy is a vibration.  This vibration that stuck in our system somewhere, whether it happened when we are 5, 6, 7, 8, it doesn’t

[0:00] Hello Trish, welcome to the heart connection podcast. I’m your host, Mark Randall.  It’s great to have you here for a conversation today. I really appreciate you taking the time to come in and have a conversation about what the heart connection to self, others and all that is means to you. Welcome.

[0:18] Thank you for having me.

[0:20] Trish, by way of introduction, just give a quick intro of your life? Were you a Geelong girl born and bred?

[0:33] Yes, I am.   So I lived in Geelong and was born in Geelong.  I did live in Melbourne for my early 20s.  I was wanting to escape this place, it was sort of boring in my 20’s at that particular time.  Lived in Melbourne and came back to Geelong as I met my husband Pete.  We went on a trip around the world with my husband now, but boyfriend then, Pete. It was a great adventure.   We had a great time traveling and, feeling really free and happy and based ourselves in London and worked and traveled.  We went over to Canada and did a ski season and kept traveling.  It was there we got engaged.  After which we decided to come back home.  We did a bit more traveling and then we were sort of right, we are back in Geelong and it was a bit scary.  Yeah, it was a bit like, where do we fit in now?  And how’s that all going to work out for us?

[1:40] When you move to Melbourne and came back to Geelong was it the connection to Geelong that brought you back to Geelong?

[1:48] Yes it was.  It was actually Pete again because he was living here and we got together.  I came back to live with him and my family and friends.  It just made sense at the time.

[2:04] When you think about the conversation, the heart of connection, what comes to your mind and into your being, as you think about the heart connection? What came up into your mind?

[0:00] Welcome to the heart connection podcast. I’m your host, Mark Randall. And it’s lovely to have you on board tonight to have a conversation about how you connect to yourself, others and all that is.  By way of introduction would you mind giving some background of yourself?

[0:30] My story, it’s, it’s a long one, obviously, I’m 46 these days and I spent 20 years growing up in a garden centre. It was a gradual process where I started as a gardener and handyman and ended up owning or had a part share in the business.  So, quite a transformation through a number of years.  It got to a point where I started to get really connected with my own values.  And that’s where that first sense of heart connection really came from.

It really started to stand out for me that, where I was going didn’t really suit the job I was doing and the partnership I had.  What came out of that was my wife, Loretta was on a similar journey and having similar sort of “aha” moments. And I saw that it was time for a change.

So we sold our share and took some time off.  Took the time, and had a really nice time brewing beer, baking bread, getting into the garden and growing some fantastic veggies and really connecting to me again.   I had really after that time at the garden centre, had become the guy from the garden center and not really who I was.  In a sense, it was those expectations around who I was in that role.  How I would be and what sort of behavior I would exhibit.  I spent that time after that rediscovering myself.

[2:29] What was it like to reconnect yourself?

[2:35] It was a pretty special time. A lot of it was spent gardening, really getting my hands in the soil and connecting to the simple aspects of life.  That was the really nice part of it and in this time I was in solitude in my backyard.  Without having to go away.  It was a really nice space to be and to let my thoughts just go and wonder and become creative again.

[3:17] When you connect yourself you pointed to your heart, your hand was over your heart.  The values you described.  What happens to you when you do get in contact with your heart?  What or whatever that is for you?

[3:33] I think of it (heart) and almost can’t help touching my heart at that point.  I enjoy my closeness to it. When I’m really connected to something that I value I can feel that swelling in my chest.  It is something that then becomes the driver, rather than a mental decision. There is definitely a heart connection to what I’m wanting, or what I’m going towards, or staying away from potentially.

[4:20] Do you listen to your heart?

[4:23] Yeah, I do.

[4:28] When you listen to your heart, is there a deep inner guidance that mind doesn’t like listening to?<

[0:10] Hello, Venita welcome to the heart of connection podcast. I’m your host, Mark Randall. It’s lovely to be here in this beautiful environs to have this conversation with you. Thank you for the invitation. You’re welcome. How are you Mark?

[0:25] How are you going?

[0:27] How is life in your new environment?

[0:32] Life in my new environment is beautiful. I love living here. Every time I drive into the place, I think it is the most beautiful spot. Just kind of, I just feel relaxed. Soon as I kind of into the area, there’s something about the whole fields, all the trees, it’s the changing seasons, its everything about it.

[0:54] Is there a connection to as you drive in the feel – Is there a connection to it?

[1:04] Yes. But I think it’s a connection not to the just to nature maybe too, you know, to the natural environment. And we all have different connections to that. And you get that in different places. But there’s something about I think, any environment that has a lot of nature in it. That gives you that feeling wherever that is.

[1:32] Where do you feel that feeling in your body, what does it to your body what do you experience?

[1:40]  I do a big exhale. And so I become lighter.

[1:51] That would help with your work life. Being a fellow social worker, does it help with your work life?

[2:06] It does. I think there are times when I dislike immensely being a social worker, because I think that it is exhausting.  And that you carry so much of everyone else’s stuff. And there are other times I love it. And I think I’m doing something that is useful and meaningful with my life. I feel the connection to people and the community. But maybe it’s those times when you are not feeling so robust yourself that you hate it because you can get into a spiral, I think of constantly giving, giving, giving, and never kind of replenishing.  So coming back to a place or somewhere that is a really nice, natural environment, I think, helps replenish that, kind of enables you to live in the world.

[3:03] Is it a set process, of self-care coming back?

[3:06] I think it’s more than that. Yeah, because self-care is a bit of a nothing word. You know, it’s like, you know, we can all take a walk and eat better.  And, you know, we all know what we need to do. I think it’s a bit of a deeper thing than that.  So it kind of gives you a bit

Brad welcome to the Heart of Connection podcast.  It is wonderful to have an opportunity to have a conversation with you about what the heart of connection means for you. The idea is to have a free-flowing conversation on the heart connection means – how do connect yourself at a heart level to others and all that is, whatever that might mean you.  By way of starting would you mind introducing yourself?

[00:00:47] Thanks Mark it’s great to be with you.  I am Brad Clarke.   I have a management consulting firm called Better Communities Consulting.  I am a Geelong raised product.  My story is quite unusual I suppose.  I came out of high school really one of those kids who didn’t have an idea of where I was headed.  Not sure of what I wanted to do and I stumbled into Deakin University into a computer science degree.  That did not last long as I managed to move across to biological sciences and completed my degree after four years.  My working life started after the degree at Werribee zoo for about 10 years. That was a great experience and I learned a lot about the world and how the world works from a biological point of view. I became really passionate about environmental conservation and that sort of stuff.

[00:01:51] Towards the end of that time I was invited to spend some time in Nepal and do some work chasing arachnids around the Himalayas which was a really fascinating time and whilst on that project I got to work with some young people who were completing the Duke of Edinburgh’s award.

[00:02:11] When I came back to Australia and about to start a young family I decided to change vocations and become a youth worker.  Back then 20 years ago you didn’t really need any qualifications to be a youth worker.  You just had to have some intent and commitment to having a go. So whilst I made some mistakes in that world, I very quickly through effort and perhaps also attrition ended up in a senior management role.  But the system took its toll as I think it does on a lot of care workers.  It was about the same time that I started to feel something was not quite right.

I had a young family, a house, a mortgage with the picket fence all that sort of stuff but I felt that something was it wasn’t quite right.  I didn’t have the language around what it was, just a feeling of not being right and of course I met with you about 10 or 12 years ago.  I think that started me on a journey of discovery and of healing. And I’m at a place now where after a long journey and I think that journey doesn’t have a destination. It’s a bit like the old Monkey Magic TV series from the 80s, I just think the journey is what it’s all about.

[00:03:45] I’m at a place now where I can talk about heart and heart of connection. I am in a fairly comfortable position on where that is and what it is and what it means to me.  I’m really keen to share my story and what it means as a male to be playing in the sandpit (Symbols and Sand-play Therapy) so to speak, where there is a degree of perhaps uncertainty and vulnerability. But that’s where I’m at at the moment mate.

[00:04:12] For men, is there a difference for men and our journey around the heart of connection?

[00:04:21] I think we’re enculturated to believe that we shouldn’t be playing this in this space. You know whether you come through a