The Diverse Minds Podcast

Welcome to the 124th episode of the award-winning Diverse Minds podcast.

This month’s theme is mind-body connection, how our physical health supports our mental health and how our mental health supports our physical health. 

So, in today’s episode, I talk about how to have wellbeing conversations where physical health may help to open up the conversations about mental health.

• Why I decided to make an episode on this topic. [00:53]
• Some statistics about stress in the workplace. [03:39]
• How stress can manifest itself in our bodies. [04:40]
• Some emotional symptoms of stress. [06:24]
• How to have conversations with someone showing stress-related symptoms. [11:32]

• Stress is a very physical sensation.
• Unfortunately, stress is really seen as an integral part of day to day life. But the ongoing physical impacts are very significant indeed.
• Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension, resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.
• Stress can be super helpful to enable us to perform or to meet deadlines and motivate us to do our best.
• Chronic stress can contribute significantly to physical problems such as heart disease, hypertension, high blood pressure, and bone density issues, 

• Podcast Episode #97: The art of listening to support someone
• Podcast Episode #4: Do you wear stress as a badge of honour?
• Podcast Episode #62: Mindfulness and Managing Stress
• Podcast Episode #114: Identifying and Combatting Burnout
• Blog post: How to Handle Stressful Thoughts
• Blog post: How to address your stress

Welcome to the 123rd episode of the award-winning Diverse Minds podcast and a very happy 2022 to you all. I hope you had a good break and feel ready for the year ahead.

This month’s theme is mind-body connection and how our physical health supports our mental health, and how our mental health supports our physical health.

So, in today’s episode, I’m going to be reviewing the book Wintering (The power of rest and retreat in difficult times) by Katherine May.

• Why I decided to review the book Wintering (The power of rest and retreat in difficult times). [01:03]
• Some statistics about mental ill-health. [02:24]
• What I really loved about this book. [05:54]
• About the epilogue of this book and why it resonated with me most. [06:15]
• A look at some of the reviews of this book. [10:31]

• we all have mental health and that there are steps we can take all year round to protect it.
• We know that mental health problems impact upon people all year round, and many people struggle to ask for help or seek that help.
• The connection between physical and mental health is significant.
• The man who has everything has everything to lose.
• I can't hibernate like a dormouse, but the analogies and the science behind it, I think is really useful

• Wintering (The power of rest and retreat in difficult times) by Katherine May.
• How Blue Monday sparks conversations about mental health

Have a look at my online work-life balance course on Thinkific. You can access it here: http://bit.ly/DMMHPONC

On today’s episode, I’m going to be giving you a round-up for 2021 and the reflections from the year.

In today’s show

Why I'm not a fan of setting new years resolutions and what I prefer doing instead. [01:07]
How 2020 was much harder for me than 2021. [01:42]
Why I like to do a round-up at the end of the year. [03:38]
What I've learned in the year 2021. [04:40]
A tribute to Sandra Brown. [20:29]

Quotes
The end of the Gregorian calendar is often a time for the West for reflection for many people.
I don't know about you, but I found 2021 Much harder than 2020.
This is my fourth full year of business, which has been great. But it's been a really tough year for me personally.
I think being grateful for those tiny things, and taking it a day at a time from someone pre-pandemic, who was a super planner has been a really big achievement for me.
I do feel incredibly lucky to be alive for so many reasons.

Welcome to the 121st episode of the award-winning Diverse Minds podcast.

This month, the podcast has focussed on access and accessibility. Thinking about how certain groups have access to certain careers and others don’t.

In today's episode, I am so excited and delighted to be speaking to an award-winning burgeoning fashion designer Parastro Qalandri. 

Shamsher is one of the founding Directors at Communities Inc and has worked with a range of diverse communities experiencing discrimination for 30 years. She is passionate about tackling inequalities, empowering people and creating opportunities for people to make better choices.

Shamsher developed the Stand by Me project to tackle bystander apathy in responding to hate crimes and incidents which are unfortunately increasing across the UK. 

Stand by Me goes some way to tackling the barriers people have to help others when they experience hate and hostility (they don’t know what to do and are concerned about their own safety).

It has also been adapted to tackle prejudice and discrimination in the workplace with a focus on those that witness this rather than those that experience it. This approach has gained much attention and has grown from a pilot project in Nottingham in 2018 to a national rollout across England, Scotland, and Wales, supported by Google.org.

Through this project, Communities Inc are offering a free one-day training program at no cost to participants.

• About Shamsher Chohan and Communities Inc. [02:16]
• Her thoughts on how South Asian women are looked at in the workplace. [03:21]
• What do the terms "active bystander and upstander" mean to her. [07:21]
• How we can all build stronger communities by calling out inequalities faced by the most disadvantaged groups. [11:07]
• Her top 3 tips for looking after her mental health. [26:42]

• Every time I watch the news, my brain is engaging in work mode.
• It's important to do the right thing, even if it means going against the social norms and being ostracised.
• Everyone is entitled to respect and dignity, including those we disagree with.
• When people do complain and raise issues, take them seriously and take action so that everybody else in the organisation sees that it's worth raising these issues.
• If somebody intervenes, within 10 seconds of an incident starts, then 50% of the time, they can de-escalate or stop that situation.

• Email: [email protected]
• Communities Inc website
• Communities Inc on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter
• Shamsher on LinkedIn

Welcome to the 120th episode of the award-winning Diverse Minds podcast. This month is Disability History Month 2021 and in today's episode, I talk about how to support staff who may need reasonable or workplace adjustments to help them thrive at work.

In today’s show
Why I decided to make make an episode on this topic. [00:46]
The definition of disability according to the Equality Act 2010. [02:28]
Some examples of conditions that are considered a disability. [02:42]
What workplaces can do to support staff with a disability. [10:55]
How workplace adjustments can enable and empower people to do their job. [13:51]

Welcome to the 119th episode of the award-winning Diverse Minds podcast. This month is Disability History Month 2021!

In today's episode, I am going to talk about universal design and why it’s so important.

Welcome to the 118th episode of the award-winning Diverse Minds podcast.

This month’s focus is on managing adversity, and grief is a huge part of it. With the CV-19 Pandemic, grief has been at the forefront perhaps more than in the last 70+ years.

It is usually incredibly challenging to cope with the grief and the bereavement of a loved one, a friend or someone you knew. Suffering a loss during shielding or lockdown restrictions may have prevented you from being able to spend final precious moments with them before they passed away or being able to say goodbye in person, perform religious ceremonies or attend a funeral.

Grief also spreads beyond bereavement and into any kind of change and in fact even joyous moments. It is essentially a part of everyday life, but do we acknowledge this. 

To join me in talking about this more is grief expert Dipti Tait.

If you enjoyed this episode, then consider subscribing on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you access your podcasts from.

Dipti Tait is the author of Good Grief and Planet Grief, she is a Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist, Sleep Expert and Mental/Emotional Health Lecturer.  She has over 15 years of experience as a therapist and runs a very busy online hypnotherapy practice and sees around 100 clients a month.

She has founded her own Hypnosis system called Free Flow Transformation Therapy™ and uses this powerful system with all her clients. You will find Dipti sitting on the Breakfast TV Sofa as well as a regular guest on BBC Radio. She is a Relaxation Ambassador and is known for her powerful demonstrations in Free-Flow Trance / Deep Hypnotic Relaxation.

Dipti has helped thousands of people with all aspects of grief and mental and emotional health, specialising in helping people with sleep disorders as well as supporting people to cope with all aspects of loss, cancer and terminal illness.

Dipti is truly passionate about the human mind and helps people successfully navigate emotional overwhelm. Dipti teaches her clients how to manage their minds well, so they can manage their lives better.

There’s no easy way to manage grief, and there is no one “right” way but you can do things to avoid making your suffering worse.

• About Dipti Tait and how she became a hypnotherapist and a grief expert. [03:06]
• Her process and thoughts around turning grief into fuel. [15:06]
• How we can all have conversations about grief and loss. [26:00]
• What businesses could be doing to acknowledge grief in the workplace. [28:07]
• Her top 3 tips for looking after her mental health. [32:43]

• I became a grief expert purely because I went through grief.
• Hypnotherapy is teaching people to reconnect and revisit with their imagination in a positive way rather than a negative way.
• We can't force anybody else to like grief or be comfortable with it.
• I think books, podcasts and YouTube videos are really useful because people can get the help they need without having to go to a therapist and talk things through if that's not what they really want to do.
• So I basically practice what I teach.

• Visit her website
• Dipti on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter
• Download her app

Welcome to the 117th episode of the award-winning Diverse Minds podcast. This month’s theme is all about challenging adversity and adverse circumstances.

Friday the 19th of November was International Men’s Day. It celebrates worldwide the positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities.

So this month, we highlight positive role models and raise awareness of men’s well-being. One of the six pillars of International Men’s Day is to improve gender relations and promote gender equality not only for men but for women too. In this light, our theme for 2021 is “Better relations between men and women.”

A key part of creating better relations between genders is recognising and discussing Toxic Masculinity. Coined in 1980s men’s movements, “toxic masculinity” spread to therapeutic and social policy settings in the early 21st century, coined by Shepherd Bliss an academic and leader in the mythopoetic men’s movement.

To join me to talk about this in further detail is Kevin Brazant Founder and CEO of Daddy CPR limited.

• Kevin J Brazant on Twitter
• Daddy CPR on Twitter and LinkedIn
• Daddy CPR's Newsletter
• Lounge Akademics

 Work with me

Have a look at my online work-life balance course on Thinkific. You can access it here: http://bit.ly/DMMHPONC