By Mary-Jo Dionne: Writer-slash-Speaker-slash-Performer
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The podcast currently has 71 episodes available.
What we cover: In this moment, we are safe.
Today's guest is Dr Russ Kennedy – someone I have known since 2004, when I launched my brief stint into the stand up comedy world. Russ was a fellow comic, and I got to know him then, and I always really liked him. I eventually set that aside as I evolved as a writer and instead focused more on my foray into the world of one-woman shows – but Russ remained in my orbit because my brother Julien Dionne and his girlfriend Jennifer Grant are comics and so I continued to see Russ perform over the years. The thing I dug about Russ is that he wasn’t just a comic, he had this whole other side to him. He was a neuroscientist and a medical doctor as well. It’s not everyday you meet someone so robust in background. But that’s who Russ is. As a physician, and someone who very openly speaks about his own struggle with anxiety and his father’s battle with mental illness, he has recently launched a fantastic course and online resource called The Kennedy Method. Which you can learn more about by visiting MJDionne.com and clicking on the podcaster tab. There are so many of us – I would venture to say the majority of the population – who at one time or another experiences some form of at least temporarily debilitating self-doubt, fear, worry, anxiety. And so this is a conversation for us all. Russ isn’t just a doctor, he’s been the patient. He gets it. He knows.
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What we cover: "I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference." -- Robert Frost
Today’s guest is Stacey Shand. If there is a woman more easy to have a Girl Crush on that Stacey Shand, I have yet to meet her.
Stacey is an ultra-extreme endurance athlete and adventurer. She is affectionately known as ‘Racey Stacey’, and she has been keeping a promise she made to herself from her hospital bed following a near tragic auto accident a number of years ago. When she was faced with the realities of what could have been, she vowed never to take her physical abilities -- her physical and mental strength -- whatever that might look like, for granted again. She went from being virtually inactive and even skipping gym class… to giving her first 5km a try at the age of 25… to the woman she is today – someone who has done approximately 100 marathons, and a woman intent on completing what are known as the toughest races on the planet. I’m not just talking about Ironman, I’m talking about Ultraman and Marathon de Sables and Badwater.
One of the things she and I talk about is the idea of "the road not taken” – a concept popularized by the poet Robert Frost. So for this episode, I dug out my copy – a copy I have cherished since the mid-1980s when the dad of my best friend Erin – his name was Gordon Simons – was dying and he knew I wanted to be a writer and he shared that his favourite writer was Robert Frost, and he gave me two of his collections. The following year, this poem was read at his funeral. I have it here – so if it’s been a while since you’ve really considered the words and the message, here it is:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
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What we cover: "Take the past for what it is. And then, focus on moving forward." -- Kevin Reynolds
Today's guest is Kevin Reynolds. He is, of course, the Canadian figure skating super star who won silver at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, as part of the mixed team event.
According to the official Olympics athlete site, he is the first skater in the world to ever land a quad-triple-triple combination, and in 2010 he became the first man ever to land two quadruple jumps in the short program – and we talk about all that goodness.
But this is by no means just a talk about skating. You don’t have to be up on your figure skating lingo to follow along – despite the fact that many of us will be up on it on account of we Canadians following the recent success of our own ice dancers, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. This is a conversation about getting up after we fall – figuratively and literally. It’s about recognizing what Kevin calls that “glimmer of hope” in order to set the wheels in motion and turn a dream into reality. It’s about harnessing the adrenaline we’ve all felt at one point or another, and turning that into something positive. It’s about learning to replace the question: “What if it all goes wrong?” with “What if it all goes right?”
It’s a peek behind the curtain of the present-moment focus that is required to compete and perform at this elite a level.
And, it’s a conversation about the Top 5 skating movies in pop culture, and I’ve posted that complete list at MJDionne.com, under the podcaster tab. So there’s that.
What we cover: “Addiction is the body’s way of telling you that you’re not listening to your soul.” – Sherry Strong
Today's guest is Sherry Strong – and strong she is. She is a woman who, after 35-years of playing the “victim”, which so many of us are guilty of from time to time – and who also struggled with an addiction to sugar to numb the sadness, took a good look in the mirror and said enough is enough. She was, as she puts it: “sick, obese, tired, and wanted to die.” Today, she is a professional chef, a nutritionist, and a food philosopher – and she can fit her entire body into one leg of her former pants. She has some really wise insights in terms of what it means to have a healthy relationship with food. And it’s all about looking to nature and our relationship to nature – look to the natural abundance of whole foods; what nature intended. She can also help you get off of sugar in as a little as 8-weeks with her famous online program. And if 8 weeks feels too daunting for you, she’s devised a new 7-day plan as well. Surely, we can all give a clean, sugar-free lifestyle a try for one week out of 52 this year. Because, despite our best efforts, sugar is everywhere. In a typical grocery store that carries 6,000 products – sugar is in 80% of what’s available. You can find all that amazing info to get you started on a sugar-free lifestyle at MJDionne.com – click on the podcaster tab.
I started this series as a gift to my two daughters so that they will have a library of resources to turn to when they are in need of a new way of seeing things. Because so often, that’s all that we need to get us out of a funk. So if you’re listening to this from far off into the future, JouJou and Birdie, whatever it is you’re going through, just know that your mom believes in you and loves you and knows you’ve got the world in the palm of your hands. And that my biggest wish for you, is that you will make all your decisions from a place of self-love – and Sherry and I talk about that today.
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What we cover: In the interest of full disclosure, I have been ridiculously spread thin – as we all can get from time to time – and completely run down, wrapping up deadlines before I shut the office down until the new year. I have been up late into the night with a sick 2-year-old. And I have been going through this incredibly heavy sadness on account of learning that someone I cared for very much in my high school life, died – but the thing of it all is that he died many years ago. Nearly 25, in fact. And I only just found out. Grieving after-the-fact is a strange and lonely thing. If you’ve ever been there, have found out news in a delayed fashion and have had to grieve alone, I feel your pain – the solitary sadness. Long story short, I have felt anything but titan-y the last couple weeks. More sloggy than titan-y. A friend of mine once said to me: As achievers, we need to learn to cut ourselves some slack. To let ourselves off the hook just every once in a while. And so, as we near the Holiday season, that is what I am doing. I am popping in quick-like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a very Happy Holidays – wherever you are, we have listeners in 80 countries now and whatever the traditions are in your home, so long as they are centred around love and gratitude and giving and memory-making and kindness, that’s all that matters right?
We will be back in January 2018, with a host of awesome guest titans – I promise, it won’t just be me with my semi-stuffed nose. It is my most sincere aim to be refreshed, and renewed, and ready to play my A-Game once again. To focus on that which truly matters – and for each of us, the answer to that will be different.
Happy New Year!
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What we cover: “The most important things I’ve learned in life, I’ve learned on the badminton court.” – Anna Rice
Today’s Guest Titan is two-time Olympian, Anna Rice – a woman who admits that, as far as life goes, everything she’s learned so far, she’s learned on the badminton court. This is a woman who is ripe with insights, and who possesses a calm wisdom that I found quite intoxicating, really. I know you’re going to love her.
This isn’t really a conversation about badminton, so much as it is a conversation about our own thought processes, the stories we make up about ourselves, our relationship with ego and Self, and even what it means and what it takes to do those things that we legitimately love. It’s also a chat that just happens to be bursting with goodness as it pertains to the way we are raising our kids and the things to take into consideration when it comes to our own desires for them and for their own achievements – like the gift of letting them fall, for one -- for those of us who have small humans around the house.
I adore this woman -- she is wise, wise, wise.
MJDionne.com
For those of you who listen to the show on a regular basis, it’s not news that I am a huge proponent of perspective shifting. And of gear shifting. Of being adaptable and of having the ability to readjust as needed. As we were planning our recent trip to California, I had a couple leads with amazing LA-based Guest Titans, both of which didn’t end up panning out at the last minute. Because we couldn’t get schedules to align. At first I was a bit disappointed, but that feeling didn’t last long when I reminded myself that it meant I would, instead, get two full days, and not just one, at Disneyland with my 2-year-old and my 4-year-old daughters. Time that, one day, when they have left home to create their own adult lives, I will pine for. And, since this podcast started as a gift to them, so that they will have an inventory of conversations with paradigm-busting perspective-shifters to draw from at various times whenever they feel stuck, I want to tell you now, JouJou and Birdie, that while there is much to be said for achieving and pursuing your big beautiful goals, there is also much to be said for achieving and pursuing big beautiful memories. And our second day together, a day we wouldn’t have had if my two interviews had materialized, saw us instead having breakfast with none other than Princess Ariel, and we were able to squeeze in a live performance of Frozen – two events, two memories, that, seen through the eyes of two special little kids – that were well worth all the delayed goals in the world. I share that story today because I needed the reminder to get out of my own way – to take the headphones off, to back away from the mic, to throw caution to the wind. I needed to, as I heard Elsa belt out on stage… “Let it go!”
Perspective shifts happen when we twist the kaleidoscope on our traditional way of seeing things.
Nearly 20 years ago, when I was a mid-20-something-year-old junior copywriter in Toronto, I was in the throes of ending a 5-year relationship with a person I knew I shouldn’t be with. The relationship had long run its course, but it was familiar. It was what I knew. And leaving, despite the mundane rut and the repeat betrayals, wasn’t easy. I eventually took a job as a copywriter with the same ad agency but in its Vancouver office, figuring that if I couldn’t completely end the relationship, then at the very least, geography would give me a push, as he finished his post-graduate studies in Toronto. However, even in Vancouver, old habits died hard – there were still phone calls and emails and even short visits. I had 9 toes in Vancouver, but still had one toe in Toronto. In those early months, when I was getting my Vancouver bearings, meeting new friends and colleagues -- a client who would go on to become a dear friend and a bestselling author and even, in fact, a Guest Titan years later, recognized the self-sabotaging pattern I was creating and said something that changed it all for me. She gave me that kaleidoscope twist. She told me: “Mary-Jo... you have to lose sight of the shore, before you can discover new lands.”
I had to let go entirely. I had to let go of what I considered a life preserver, despite the fact the relationship was, in actuality, more of an anchor keeping me from the discovery of new lands. I had to sail into the great unknown. And that night, something shifted – my perspective. And I allowed myself, psychically and emotionally, to chart new waters. All I needed was to hear Gina Mollicone-Long (episode 19) remind me that it was time for me to lose sight of the shore. It was time for me to discover new lands.
Of course learning to let go certainly isn’t relegated to unhealthy relationships. It can be a negative relationship with food or addiction. It can be moving on from a stagnant career. It can be the desire to pursue a whole new field, a whole new passion, a whole new hobby. Regardless, we have to lose sight of the shore, before we can discover new land.
I mention this today for two reasons. One, to remind JouJou and Birdie of this, when they might be hanging on to something a little too long, despite wanting so desperately to seek out the freshness, the excitement of a new opportunity. And, secondly, I mention it because I find myself faced yet again with the decision to lose sight of an old shore – an old way of doing things -- in order to discover a new land.
Mark Twain said: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
MJDionne.com
Part One of our conversation delves into these years – the "before years" -- who she was and what was going on in her life. Part Two takes a look at the “after years” and how things began to shift for her from January 1, 2008 to today, -- ten years later. She admits freely that there was no trauma she was sedating herself from, there was no form of self-medicating, in those years when she chose to live her life on the couch – this is just who she was, this was the definition of herself she chose to believe. And similarly, she admits that there were no trumpets, no lightening bolts, no big ahas when she finally made the decision to strive for more. Today, 120-pounds lighter, she is a 3-time ironwoman, a soon-to-be 6-time marathoner, and is as vibrant and joyful and active a participant in life as they come.
With an estimated 1 in four North Americans living in and around the obesity mark, Karin’s story is certainly not unique. While the details may differ from person to person, the feelings are so often the same. She’s not special in that regard. As an obese woman, she juggled a career, two young children, and the demands of daily life – just like we all do. But eventually -- and this is why she is special -- she incorporated a slow commitment to gradual massive change, inch by inch, month by month, year by year. So if you think you don’t have the time, or if you’re waiting for your big a-ha – you just may be denying yourself your best chance to live a vibrant life. My friend and mentor Sharon Shales says: “If we wait until we are ready, we will be waiting for the rest of our lives.”
This is not a conversation about following a specific diet. I have no idea if Karin is vegan or paleo. That’s not what this is about. And the food plan that works best for you is of course entirely your business. This is an open conversation about the feelings and the events that come with living unconsciously, and the gradual transformation that occurs when you instead live with your eyes wide open. When you chose to love yourself more than you love – in Karin’s case and in Karin's words – the pizza and the chocolate and the wine.
The reason I started this series, is so that my two daughters, Majella (who we call JouJou) and Burgess (who we call Birdie) will have an inventory of inspiring conversations with paradigm-busters to draw upon for those times in their lives when they feel stuck. Each conversations give me the gift of at least one perspective shift – a new way of looking at the situation. And I want to thank Karin for reminding me that if we want temporary results in our lives – then commit to something temporarily. If we want permanent results, then we must stick to something permanently.
MJDionne.com
Part One of our conversation delves into these years – the "before years" -- who she was and what was going on in her life. Part Two takes a look at the “after years” and how things began to shift for her from January 1, 2008 to today, -- ten years later. She admits freely that there was no trauma she was sedating herself from, there was no form of self-medicating, in those years when she chose to live her life on the couch – this is just who she was, this was the definition of herself she chose to believe. And similarly, she admits that there were no trumpets, no lightening bolts, no big ahas when she finally made the decision to strive for more. Today, 120-pounds lighter, she is a 3-time ironwoman, a soon-to-be 6-time marathoner, and is as vibrant and joyful and active a participant in life as they come.
With an estimated 1 in four North Americans living in and around the obesity mark, Karin’s story is certainly not unique. While the details may differ from person to person, the feelings are so often the same. She’s not special in that regard. As an obese woman, she juggled a career, two young children, and the demands of daily life – just like we all do. But eventually -- and this is why she is special -- she incorporated a slow commitment to gradual massive change, inch by inch, month by month, year by year. So if you think you don’t have the time, or if you’re waiting for your big a-ha – you just may be denying yourself your best chance to live a vibrant life. My friend and mentor Sharon Shales says: “If we wait until we are ready, we will be waiting for the rest of our lives.”
This is not a conversation about following a specific diet. I have no idea if Karin is vegan or paleo. That’s not what this is about. And the food plan that works best for you is of course entirely your business. This is an open conversation about the feelings and the events that come with living unconsciously, and the gradual transformation that occurs when you instead live with your eyes wide open. When you chose to love yourself more than you love – in Karin’s case and in Karin's words – the pizza and the chocolate and the wine.
The reason I started this series, is so that my two daughters, Majella (who we call JouJou) and Burgess (who we call Birdie) will have an inventory of inspiring conversations with paradigm-busters to draw upon for those times in their lives when they feel stuck. Each conversations give me the gift of at least one perspective shift – a new way of looking at the situation. And I want to thank Karin for reminding me that if we want temporary results in our lives – then commit to something temporarily. If we want permanent results, then we must stick to something permanently.
MJDionne.com
What we cover: “If you want something badly enough, you don’t make sacrifices. You make choices.” – Rhian Wilkinson
Today’s Guest Titan chat is a wee bit of a deviation from the norm – and I am so glad about it. Today, I have a guest co-host in the form of 12-year-old Alex Vietch, herself a serious athlete – she’s a track star and a soccer freak, in a good way. She asked me once if I ever were to interview one of the women from Team Canada, if she could maybe come and say hi, but we did one better. When I found out that Rhian Wilkinson, 3-time Olympian and today’s Guest Titan was up for it, I asked Alex if she wouldn’t mind being my co-host. And, because Alex is one of those kids who personifies carpe diem, of course she was in!
The impact of women athletes on the positive self-image of young girls and boys – because they too get to see another definition of what it means to be a powerful, strong woman – cannot be understated. To that end, I want to give a shout-out to two of my young friends on the east coast of Canada as well – a big hello to Elle and Lauren Davidson, sisters who themselves are so into the game of soccer in the province of New Brunswick. It was a bit of a coincidence really, on the day I interviewed Rhian – who is the aunt of one of my daughter’s friends – she was on her way back east to run a camp with teammates and today business colleagues within the scope of their incredible enterprise called iS4 -- Christine Sinclair, Karina LeBlanc, Diana Matheson. Well, turns out, one of my oldest and best friends, Alison, had put her two rock star daughters in the camp – and Alison told me that as a mother, she was moved to tears. That our girls are so privileged to have exposure to these resilient, accomplished women – women who teach girls that they are not to be relegated to the sidelines, that to be strong and powerful is the only option, that to work one another – our sisters on the field and off – is a surefire way to build a network and a life of support and love and memories and empowerment. I was so thrilled to have Alex join us for this important conversation. If you are a parent, this is one for the kids too. If you’re going on a road trip, or running errands, have this one on in the car.
MJDionne.com
The podcast currently has 71 episodes available.