Join Liv as she interviews herself and answers the most common questions about meditation and mindfulness such as: Why do you do it?, What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness? How many different types of meditation are there? How do you find time to meditate? What are some of the benefits of meditation?
I hope you enjoy this candid chat between me, myself and I!
In this episode, Liv is the interviewee talking about her great love - mindfulness of course! She is interviewed by the funny and charming Karen Gately from Corporate Dojo. They debunk some myths about what mindfulness is and what it isn’t and they explore what a mindful organisation might look like. They cover the importance of attention management for leaders to help their teams to feel engaged and valued and share stories about mindful listening (or unmindful listening really!). We hope you gain some practical tips and insights from this discussion and have a laugh or too on the way!
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In this episode, Liv is joined by the sublime Zoe Kanat. Zoe is a trained psychotherapist and incredible meditation teacher, passionate about helping people to rest deeply. You will learn about Zoe’s journey to become a teacher, how she believes nature is our greatest teacher and that it is because we are no longer listening to our natural rhythms that many of us are exhausted, and the magic of yoga nidra as a deep rest practice. She takes Liv though a mini-nidra on the spot which you might like to try too. Zoe is keen to honour her teachers: Tracee Stanley, Jana Roemer and Karen Brody
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Liv and Anna chat all things self-compassion and Anna shares some wonderfully practical tips about how to bring this approach most meaningfully into our lives.
They refer to a lot of experts in thier discussion, some of them are:
Kelly McGonigal - http://kellymcgonigal.com/, Kristen Neff (AKA self-compassion guru) https://self-compassion.org/ Pema Chodren https://pemachodronfoundation.org/, Tara Brach https://www.tarabrach.com/ Shauna Shapiro https://drshaunashapiro.com/ Rick Hanson https://www.rickhanson.net/
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Tammy Sollenberger (also known as IFS Tammy), is a wonder!
She is a licensed clinical mental health counselor and an Internal Family Systems (IFS) Certified Supervisor. She has all the training and experience one could need to be working authentically in this space but above all, she is a kind and generous and funny human. I so loved my conversation with her.
In this episode we learn more about the model of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and how we can apply it both formally and informally in our daily life. Tammy takes us through quite a few practical tools and generously shares a bit about her own “internal family” family dynamics as she explores her own “parts” for us.
She has her own fabulous podcast called The One Inside https://tammysollenberger.com/podcast/ which is how I discovered her work), a great website https://tammysollenberger.com/ and has recently published her first book https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_One_Inside.html?id=nyGpzgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y
In this episode I am interviewed by my old colleague Gen Ward who hosts a radio show on mental health called “Mind Ya Head”. This is a copy of the interview which Gen has “gen”erously let me share. We specifically talk about polyvagal theory and my understanding of it and how it relates to my dad. My Dad has lived with bipolar disorder his whole life and is probably the reason I became a psychologist. I passionately discuss how we largely neglect the language and intuition of the body when we diagnose and treat mental illness. I share some of my all time favourite mental health tips, one being The Cloud Perspective. Finally, like a broken record, I go on and on that, at the end of the day, love, compassion and connection is the greatest healer.
In this episode, we chat about Growth Mindset, what it is and how we can apply it both in our lives and in our parenting. I love the way Em teaches about growth mindset because she also LIVES IT! She shares her remarkable story of how she went from having “musician” as a pipe dream to founding her own record label (Wye in the Sky) and becoming an active player in the music scene in Australia. During our conversation she shares practical tools about how we can invite adopting a growth mindset into our lives and my favourite quote from the episode is “It is impossible to know what we can achieve through regular daily practice and effort if we never try”. Em makes me feel like anything, with the right effort, is truly possible.
Emily Toner is a clinical psychologist and musician. She is also the founder of an online meditation platform offering daily live practices called Creating a Safe World within - learn more about her work here: https://emilytoner.com/
Dr Carrie Hayward is a clinical psychologist , ACT therapist and author and is passionate about providing practical tools to support us to show up and connect more authentically with ourselves, other and our lives. In this episode, she explains how we can develop psychological flexibility - meaning we can choose how we relate to our thoughts, feelings and behaviours by connecting to our core values. When we do this we can live a richer and more purposeful life as we are living anchored by a solid sense of self.
Her first book “The Woman Who Lost the Sun” is a short but beautiful parable exploring how we can weather all the storms in our life when we connect to something that is deeply within us - how we want to live. She shows very clearly that by aligning our behaviours with our core values, we can once again find our smile. Her book can be purchased at her website https://www.carriehayward.com/ , on the online stores or directly via her publisher, Ocean Reeve Publishing.
Clea Wallage is a Registered Psychologist who worked within a clinical practice at the beginning of her career before working in the Corporate space for 15+ years. In 2019, Clea had her own experience of burnout and now her life’s purpose is supporting others going through a similar experience. She is also passionate about providing preventative education and training to both individuals and organizations.
In this conversation, she and Liv reframe stress and our relationship with it as well as with the big hairy emotions we all face as part of this human life. They explore the personality characteristics that can make us more susceptible to burn out (ouch!) as well as the tendency many of us have to be even harder on ourselves when we are struggling. Clea shares pearls of wisdom when it comes to preventing and recovering from burnout and lays the responsibility for our wellbeing fair and square in our laps - ouch again!
Fleur Chambers is one of Australia’s top meditation teachers, with her own app named The Happy Habit and thousands of followers on Insight Timer. She has helped many many people learn and maintain thier own meditation habit and does so with grace, warmth and humour.
In this chat, Fleur opens up about her own struggle with pain and how building a deep understanding of how her body communicates has been key in her ongoing healing. She shares with us many tips for navigating our own pain, some of these include: shifting our mindset around rest and our contribution to life, building self-compassion to sooth and support our body and getting to know our thoughts and how we speak to ourselves.
We dive deep into what meditation can really feel like when we first start (hint: it ‘aint always pretty!) and how meditation doesn’t always have to be a “quiet mind and back straight”. We explore the lighter side of our personal and spiritual development through cultivating joy, play and gratitude. She brilliantly highlights that while these things are lovely, in order to maintain and grow them, we need to first do the deep work of building our self-awareness and uncovering the “weeds” in our thinking. He motto is: “pull the weed then plant the seed”.
Nikki Smith https://www.nikkismithcoach.com/ is a friend and a registered Psychologist with a focus on performance and career coaching, including career change. She sees opportunities and connections between ideas where others’ don’t. She elevates the vision and confidence of others through strengths coaching. And, she helps individuals to value their strengths and see them as their superpowers and give them the knowledge and tools to use them every day. Nikki coached me when I was at a career crossroad and, I can honestly say, she changed my life for the better. You can find some awesome free resources to help you to uncover and play to your unique strengths on Nikki’s website which is https://www.nikkismithcoach.com/?page_id=2991
Caroline is a Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of experience working in mental health across a range of sectors. She specialises in working with adolescents and adults experiencing the challenges that can come with being a deeply feeling and thinking human - ranging from stress at work to clinical anxiety and depression. Liv and Caroline have known each other for over 20 years and thier conversation centres around how it is OK to feel uncomfortable sometimes - we just need to learn to ride the waves of life and Caroline shares some tips to support us all to manage the constant change we are all experiencing during Covid19. We hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as we enjoyed recording it.
Marike Knight is one of Australia's leading teachers in Mindfulness and Meditation. An ex-lawyer, Marike has traveled around the world learning from our modern masters. She brings a great depth of experience to her work and talks openly about her own journey navigating grief, feelings of unworthiness and the ups and downs of being a deeply thinking and feeling human. Liv and Marike explore the stories women tell themselves, using explicit examples from their own lives.
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