We kicked off summer in Toronto, Canada by chatting with Karishma Manji, a friend and family doctor with a passion for politics! Karishma shared her personal and professional journey towards politics and what we can all do to be more politically engaged in our communities.

A culture of political engagement has the power to transform health care systems! This means that You have the Power to take control of your health and wellness, as well as the health and wellness of your community. Wow, that's Progressive!

Follow Karishma on Instagram or Facebook. Check out our Toronto political resources below if you are interested.

Resources

Instagram @drmanjiprogressive

Facebook Dr Karishma Manji Progressive

No jets Toronto https://environmentaldefence.ca/nojetsto/

Progress Toronto https://www.progresstoronto.ca/

Today we’re re-welcoming Demi Yoo, a marketing professional with a passion for health and wellness. Demi returns to update us on her health and wellness journey, and her latest passion project, The Spiritual Self Company.

To paraphrase Demi, “this is our first time living this life, so we’re all just figuring this out!”. If you relate to this episode, please leave us a comment and rating on your favourite podcast platform. You can find and follow The Spiritual Self Company on Instagram.

Resources

Instagram @thespiritualself.co

Culture and age both shape how we experience and talk about mental health, for better or for worse. Culture and age influence our beliefs about mental health, how comfortable we are in asking for help, and how others treat us when we disclose mental health challenges.

In this episode, Nita and Sylvia explore how culture and age shape mental health based on our personal and professional experiences.

Mental Health IS Health and we conclude with an emphasis on awareness of this concept and how we might support our own mental health.

Mental Health is Health campaign: https://www.camh.ca/en/driving-change/mental-health-is-health

Social prescribing: https://www.socialprescribing.ca/  

Nature prescribing: parx.ca

To kick of 2026, we spoke with Kiki (Kajal) Kamdar, a health and wellness advocate who shared her past experience as a caregiver for a partner experiencing mental illness.

Kiki turned to hiking as a way to combat stress, connect with nature and develop her community. Through hiking, Kiki learned to "live a bipolar life" on her own terms, with self compassion.

If this episode resonates with you or someone you know struggling with mental illness, please pass it along!

Resources

Kiki's instagram is kiki_pura_vida or you can reach her by email at [email protected]

NAMI - National Alliiance on Mental Illness

https://www.nami.org/

This month, we highlight Aideen Carroll, Advanced Practice Nurse Educator and champion of mental health nursing!

Of note, Aideen shared her love of the history of mental health/health care and provided examples of the design and evolution of products and processes towards improving experiences for both patients and providers.

Aideen’s key takeaway was challenging future generations with normalizing mental health as a part of our overall health. We hope you loved this episode as much as we did! 

Aideen's email: [email protected]

https://hospitalnews.com/nursing-hero-award-first-place-winner-aideen-carroll/

CAMH - Mental Health is Health campaign

https://www.camh.ca/en/driving-change/mental-health-is-health

Mental health commission of Canada app assessment framework⁠https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/app-assessment/

In this summer recap episode, your cohost, Nita shares her personal reflections following her recent Heritage Journey to Kenya, Africa.

Nita revisits the concept of Designing your Life and shares how her own Indian, African and Canadian heritage shapes her current quest to find communities of belonging.

Are you looking for your community? Feel free to reach out to us with comments, questions and reflections of your own.

Resources

Episode 30: Design your Life with Demi Yoo

Episode 31: Breathe into Balance with Manjit Hansra

Book: Breath by James Nester

Design concept: Iterative Inquiry

This month, we spoke with Manjit Hansra, a pharmacist, breathwork facilitator and entrepreneur.

Manjit shared his personal story of burnout working as a pharmacist and pharmacy owner. After attending wellness retreats in different countries, Manjit became certified as a breathwork facilitator and founded Rx for Renewal, a company focused on helping healthcare leaders live a life of joy through balancing their work and wellbeing. We invited Manjit to demonstrate a breathwork technique for us - watch our episode to learn it!

If you’re interested in breathing with Manjit, feel free to reach out to him on social media and/or subscribe to his newsletter. Details under Resources below.

Resources

Upcoming Somatic Breathwork Sessions (July 18 and Aug 10) - ⁠https://rx-renewalmentalfitness.my.canva.site/copy-of-breathing-events-landing-page⁠

Rx Renewal Services - https://linktr.ee/rxrenewal

Manjit on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/manjithansra

Substack Newsletter - https://manjithansra.substack.com

Mental Fitness Training - https://rx-renewalmentalfitness.my.canva.site/

This month, we chatted with Demi Yoo, a marketing professional who is also a self-described health and wellness junkie. Demi discovered meditation during a dark period in her life and found that this helped her mental health. Demi shared her most challenging meditation experience to-date, a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat that had her meditating for a total of 100 hours! In Demi’s words, this experience changed her life! She’s happy to share the details of how to register for this in Ontario, Canada (see our Resources below).

Finally, Demi created her personal virtuous cycle of positive reinforcement that has helped her redesign her life. How might you do this yourself? Listen to our episode to find out!

Resources

Vipassana sign up: https://torana.dhamma.org/

Email: [email protected]

Designing your Life (book) Bill Burnett & Dave Evans 

Think like a Monk (book) Jay Shetty - host of On Purpose podcast 

Manifest: 7 Steps to Living your Best Life by Roxi Nafousi 

In our May episode, your cohost Nita shares her recent experience with working night shifts in a healthcare setting.

According to the Institute for Work and Health (non-profit organization based in Toronto, Canada), there are several adverse health effects associated with shift work, particularly with long-term exposure to working night shifts. Mitigation strategies are recommended at both organizational and personal levels to optimize the health and wellbeing of shift workers.

Do you have experiences with night shifts or other forms of shift work that you'd like to share with us? What made the experience better? What could be optimized to support your overall health?

We invite you to post a comment, or email us at [email protected].

Resources

Institute for Work and Health

https://www.iwh.on.ca/

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

https://www.ccohs.ca/

This month, we spoke with Ju Eun Lee, a geriatric psychiatrist based in Toronto, Canada. Ju Eun is a passionate advocate against ageism.

She highlighted the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of ageism, which refers to stereotypes around how we think, feel and act towards older adults. Globally, one in two of us are ageist! Ageism is associated with poor health, social and economic impacts. The WHO identified three types of ageism - self-directed, interpersonal and institutional. These provide key opportunities to leverage when designing ways to combat ageism. 

Ju Eun’s key takeaways included recognizing that we all age and making efforts to understand different generations.

Ju Eun invites our listeners to join her as a volunteer with the Canadian Coalition Against Ageism, a social change movement to end ageism. 

Resources

Canadian Coalition Against Ageism - https://ccaageism.ca/

World Health Organization’s global report on ageism - https://www.who.int/teams/social-determinants-of-health/demographic-change-and-healthy-ageing/combatting-ageism/global-report-on-ageism