S1E17 · Anna Janssen and Fit With Georgie

Hey guys, welcome to the Virtus Performance podcast. Today I was lucky enough to sit down with two of my least favorite humans, Anna Janssen and Fitch with Georgie. We spoke about what they do for work. Anna is a paramedic and Georgie is a nurse. We spoke about yoga and how our chakras are currently being aligned because the universe says so or something, I don't know. Yeah we spoke about lots of cool stuff. We spoke about social media and how it has a negative, can have a negative effect but we look to have a positive effect on all of our lives and Anna also sang a song so I'm gonna stop this intro short so that we can listen to that.

Enjoy. [Music] [Music] My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day. I believe everyone, especially normal people, have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Georgie, Anna, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thanks. So first question for you guys, what gets you out of bed in the morning or afternoon depending on which shift you have. I'm normally pretty hungry when I wake up so food, coffee, starting a new day.

Good. Yeah breakfast for me otherwise I would stay in bed all day. Good, very very good. Tell me Georgie, tell me about your journey and that is the most ambiguous question ever but talk to me. Where do we begin? What kind of journey are we talking about? Just life, growing up, getting into nursing and yoga and and yeah everything. Oh okay well the first thing that would pop into my mind would be a lot of people ask me why I'm a nurse or how I got into that job and my simple answer has always been that I just want to help people, how people feel better and it sounds kind of corny.

Lots of people laugh when I say that and they're like oh but deep down that's like the main drive. I like it and it's good that you're aware of that, that's your why, that's why you do it. Yeah and without realizing like retrospectively I can look back now but I didn't realize at the time I guess I've always known that I just wanted to be able to use myself to help other people and to facilitate them with their lives. So yeah nursing was a great choice. Were you always going to be a nurse or was it helping people and then it moved into nursing when you realized?

Yeah I would stumble across sort of my the course I studied nursing and paramedics I stumbled across that when I was probably in year 11. So all the way up until then I didn't really know. But yeah I came across that course and I thought that sounds really cool I want to drive an ambulance. Speaking of driving an ambulance Anna, how did you get into paramedics? I actually wanted to do medicine but I wanted to work as I was told I wasn't smart enough essentially, no seriously. I still owe you 50 bucks actually. You do because I got a higher end to score than you.

True I feel about that. Add that to my pay. I actually really did want to do medicine in school when I was sort of approaching year 11 year 12 I spoke one of my motivating teachers said to me look you should be aiming quite high you should be you know don't set any limits for yourself whatever you want to do you should aim for that and you'll get there and I thought okay cool I'll talk to the careers teacher and go alright I think I want to do medicine not paramedics and she said oh look

I probably wouldn't aim that high yeah thanks and so I didn't get sort of told about any pathways I had no idea about pathways into it through biomed etc so I went oh okay cool. I did want to do there was part of me that did want to do paramedics after seeing them help family and I thought actually that'd be pretty cool rather than being in a hospital all day every day but yes applied for paramedics I think I only applied for Peninsula because I decided I wasn't gonna drive to St Albans or anywhere else

so I applied for paramedics and all my other preference was for outdoor ed teaching actually motivated by that same outdoor ed teacher and then yeah I got into paramedics and loved it since pretty much it's super cool hmm that's really really cool where'd you go to uni Georgie? Ah Frank's in Monash I think so yeah yeah awesome how'd you two meet? Well that's a funny story. Where did you already start? I was a final year I was in my final year nursing placement and I was in emergency and I was on night duty it's the first time I've ever done night duty and it was like 3 a.m.

and I was this fourth year student with attitude like walking around cracking the shits because I'm here at night buddy not getting paid or anything and I was just grumpy as and this paramedic walked in and this girl kept staring at me in the hallway and I was like quit it and I was just not in the mood it was 3 a.m. I was like why is this girl staring at me what is she doing and I just kept eyeballing her and she kept looking at me and I was like what is going on and

at the end she came up and she goes I just want to let you know um I follow your Instagram and I started yoga because I follow your Instagram and I was like what the hell we've been friends since. For those playing at home Anna is bright red at the moment. No. Slightly embarrassed. No. That's good. Basically stalked me. I think I said to my partner I fangirled into friendship. I fangirled hard. I think I had said to my partner I was working with that month I said oh my god that's fit with Georgie and

she's like who and I said fit with Georgie and I just we were going through her Instagram while we were standing there at hospital and like it's her like she's I love her I want to meet her I want to be her friend I want to force my way into her life and I thought look I've got the advantage of having the paramedic card like I'm not just some like random person like I'm like oh maybe she'll want to want a bit of me you know because she she's doing paramedics so I'm I'm like alright

I'll play that card and yeah just didn't realize I was staring at her the whole time I was like nervous to go up and talk to her because I'm like oh she seems so nice but it could all be fate. I'm surprised you actually approached me because I probably was being a massive bitch face. They say you should never meet your heroes but are you happy you did? Oh so happy. I wouldn't say I'm your hero. I'm just your everyday girl. Yes but anyway I worked my way in very very well. Was the goal to do a podcast a couple years down the track together?

We actually spoke about that 3 a.m. when our shock was alive. Yeah well that's how I knew I could go up to her because I just sensed that her third eye was gonna be in line with mine and from there it started. Stop it. It was probably a full moon as well. It was a full moon. Not a thing. I remember. And we charged our crystals both before going to work that's how I knew that I could really really approach her. So there's been a significant amount of study on whether the moon affects behavior and

the overwhelming scientific community and I'm sure you can both enjoy this because you're in the field there's no correlation between full moons and crazy people. Every paramedic will disagree with that. Yes 80% of emergency personnel believe there is something. 40% of the general population. I've done my research. But there is no correlation so I'm sorry the moon does not make people crazy. It's a cognitive bias. Geez there's some angry looks I'm getting at the moment. Moving on Georgie. Fit with Georgie. How'd that all start? And I guess that's probably your alter ego now? Or one of?

Yeah yeah no um no it's just me. It's just you? Good. No so Fit with Georgie started off as like my online my social media side started off as a different account actually I started a fitness account when I first discovered yoga. So I went through a stage of between finishing high school and going through uni where I sort of stopped all my formal exercise and I didn't really do much I was not very healthy and I was like you know just be regular kind of teenager. I realized I wasn't like very happy and I wasn't really I wasn't really living the way I wanted to live.

And then I discovered yoga just online just got into social media and I was like oh my god so I started doing yoga at home loved it and I was like I'm gonna take pictures of my yoga and so then I created a social media account so I could post those photos without annoying all my regular friends with photos of me doing handstands and you know in all different places. Yeah. And pretty soon after I started that Instagram I don't know if people start asking me questions and I would answer and I kind of snowballed

from there and what started off as a yoga account for me to post my own pictures soon became a platform for me to be able to use myself as a tool to help people. Was that the goal from the start or was it just to? No no literally I never I don't think anyone starts or I never started my social media with the idea to become successful or famous you know or anything like that with it and I think if you did you'd be starting for the wrong intentions. I started it just for myself and

yeah it's what developed like what started off as your little account where I could just post my own pictures of me and sort of track my progress you know follow my journey. Like progress poster. Yeah progress flashback Friday. No it then turned into yeah a platform where I was able to reach people all over the world and share my experience and my knowledge with what I already knew and what I was learning to help other people and I love like as I said that's what I love doing so it was just another opportunity for me to reach out.

What's that like I guess having the responsibility for lack of a better word to all your followers and all the people that that look at you for inspiration and motivation and and I guess you've got a fan in the room with Anna what's it like having those kind of people following you and and the I guess the need or the want to satisfy them daily or weekly or however often you post? I find it really empowering to know that to know that I can I have the potential to reach people all over the world literally. I just like the touch of a button I think that's awesome.

But what did you say to the responsibility? Yeah how do you how do you how do you deal with I guess having that I guess there that little what that world there inside your phone all the time. Yeah it's I guess that's social media for you it can it's tough to tell you you gotta find the right balance and for what works with you. My rule with social media has always been that when I do things I'll do them for myself and I happen to share it online. I never do something for the sake of

posting it or for the sake of putting it online or looking cool because it's online and so I think that's one thing that people really relate to me for and why they enjoy my account is because I do just show my everyday stuff and I'm nothing special I'm not a fitness model or I'm not I don't work in the fitness industry I'm just your everyday shift worker who shares her fitness side as well so yeah it's I never do stuff with the idea of trying to be someone or show something that I'm not. You're just doing you?

Yeah you do you. What about you Anna from the other side what's it like having people like Georgie that are just regular people in a similar profession to you to follow and kind of look up to? Yeah I think I related to Georgie because of her you know doing nursing to paramedics and I thought well you know once she finishes uni and starts in that field we're gonna be in a sort of similar sort of pathway of you know shift work yoga and I thought there's gonna be a lot of like everything she was posting

I could relate to essentially because like she said it's just sort of that relatable everyday stuff there was I think pretty much from the start I didn't see some sort of big glossy filter over her life and was pretty real and I think there's probably been a little bit more change with that more so in the last sort of few months or six months where you've even I think focused on that a lot more. So for me I look for that if I am you know for people that I do follow on social media that's

something I can relate to a lot more but you know when I first started following Georgie I was like oh my god that's a really cool photo of her doing this handstand or whatever and I just for me I thought oh okay that that's yoga that looks that looks cool I'd like to try and do that and thought oh it sounds like there's some benefit for you know shift work and that sort of relaxation meditation thing so I thought oh I'll try this yoga and I'll be able to do what Georgie can do and then

I'd be trying to do this post and why can't my hand reach that like so part of me I was like what she's doing is a little bit inaccessible for me but it made me want to you know start on a journey where I could you know have that sort of progression but for myself you know so yeah. You had a little head start though with movements and body control. Yeah and I think that's why I was able to build the platform that I have is because yeah I used to be a gymnast and a

gymnastics coach and so people would look at me and say like oh you only started yoga six months ago like how are you already so good so maybe yeah yeah so it probably looked like I'd done a lot of progress in a short amount of time but um yeah I was lucky in that with that regard and then I also with my knowledge from gymnastics I was able to understand like what goes into a yoga pose and how to break it down and then when people would ask questions I had advice and I had like a sound knowledge base of what to share and how to help people with that.

What was the draw of yoga? Why yoga? Why yoga? So one of the main things for me like I missed my gymnastics I loved like the strength and the flexibility the handstands the balancing the just in general like training your body and like disciplining it to be able to to do to do these kind of things but what I loved about yoga that is completely different to gymnastics is that yoga is not a competition and that you're not losing you know you know you're not getting judged and you're not losing points and you know there's

you know you know getting a score out of ten if you've got pointed toes versus flexed toes or yeah there's no medal at the end and it is all focused around you. I remember you saying that when I designed that gymnast class for my teacher training and you said there's no there's no points taken off for you know if your toes aren't pointed or you know it was that sort of resonated with me that that's why you know you as coming from a sort of elite athlete background had found that and that's why you know you really enjoyed it.

So for me everything yeah as a gymnast everything was always competition and it was always with the idea to win to come out the best on top and then to improve every single day. Whereas with yoga yeah some days you know I can you know get my foot to touch my head and some days I can't and that's you know it doesn't matter. It's probably it's probably pretty humbling and like and that's four weeks deep into yoga. So I'm thoroughly enjoying it and it's it's humbling to be able to do something one day and then

to kind of be put back in yeah to put back into your place the next week when you just can't move the same way because yeah you've done something different that day you've been sitting down or you haven't been moving as much and yeah that ability to for me get like one of the things Anna said that last last night or the night last week while you were teaching was it's just what it's just you and the four corners of your mat. Yeah and way too spiritual for me but I really enjoyed it because it

was something that kind of like resonated straight away I was just like cool I don't have to worry about any of the other stuff going on and I tend to burden myself with a lot more things to think about than I probably should sometimes yeah and we'll talk about that with your work you guys work in a second but yeah that was that's something that really resonated with me and I can see why so many people love yoga because it's just it's just you and the mat and especially in terms of social media and like

the online world I think what draws people in initially is like the aesthetics and you see like you know perhaps like skinny girls in little crop tops doing like amazing things and that's what draws a lot of us in but what and that's what drew me in as well I'll admit but what I soon discovered was like the the mental and the spiritual benefits of yoga as well and whether you believe in that kind of stuff or not even just attending a class you still come out with a different mind frame or you'll be able

to glean little things that you know resonate with you that's it you just take what is relevant to you you take what you need and you can leave the rest behind so you don't have to it's not about religion or praying to a god or anything like that yeah the the mental side of it is what sort of kept me going what it's been like the main focus of my journey my journey that's something that yeah comes over years and years and you'll always develop with that yeah what I guess from a social media point

of view that like Instagram is created to to be that perfect snapshot of your world and your life and I guess we're we're all on it we all use it like I use it for work and I use a personal one and you both use it for for both those things how can we going forward as a society big question how do we turn it into more of a positive than a negative because obviously there's connotations both ways but how can we and how can we change it and what can we do to make it

more of a positive thing I think what Georgie said about not posting something for the sake of or not doing something for the sake of posting something so the way that I look at it when I upload and like I'm you know as a yoga teacher and sort of using it as a platform to sort of I guess gain exposure and sort of say look this is what I'm offering this is where I'm living and to sort of gain a platform to teach at other studios etc but I think when I post something or when

I do something I go would I do this if I couldn't take a photo of it if I couldn't put it on my story if I couldn't put it on social media would I still be practicing yoga would I still be sitting and meditating would I still be just sitting and being or you know that's for me an important thing and as long as I keep doing that then then I'm happy but I think that's not something that's necessarily done in the social media world and that's what I respect to Georgie for because I truly

believe that that's what what she does yeah for me I guess one thing about social media is is the idea keeping in mind is that it's it is what you want to make of it so some of us use it for leisure some of us use it for business some of us use it for both stalking students it is and how you want to use it is completely up to you and how you interpret it but I mean even even myself like I know I have a lot of people that look up to me as

inspiration and I myself have people that I look up to for inspiration yeah and the main thing for me it's very easy to get caught up in with social media and as you said a lot of people just post their highlight reels and you know we all know that now it's no secret that people only want to show their best on social media of course of the time but for me it is always about not comparing myself and especially making or to be able to differentiate between is this person posting this for work I mean

and like for business like are they doing it to make a gain yeah they're being paid for this or you know all of this or is this just them doing it because they want to yeah and trying to figure out motives is kind of a tough one because like everyone's gonna do things for different reasons and have a different view on why they've done something and it's really easy to be super negative against everyone that posts all these different things because like that's your opinion of what's happening and that's what you feel as though what's

happening so yeah I think if we can stop judging and and comparing that's kind of the big one one of my favorite quotes is comparison is a thief of joy I think as soon as we start comparing ourselves to what we see in the whole I real like you said and we start to yes and we start to look at that for all of our inspiration then we start to kind of fall in a hole and we go this isn't helping anyone and it's just kind of creates that that vicious like negative feedback where we're

we look for it for validation and things like that and then it yeah it just spirals out of control but it's one of those things that I'm a big believer that it's like it's not going anywhere so it's we've got to figure out as a as a yeah how to use it for good it's great power comes great responsibility but just realizing as well as like the people that you look up to and recognizing that you're like two completely different people and I'm guilty of look like the guests that I you know the other counts

that I look up to a lot of them are like fitness models or you know professional athletes and things like that and I get down because I compare myself to myself to them yeah and then I still realize like wait a minute like I'm a full-time nurse why am I comparing myself to this girl who is paid to be a fitness model or paid to be an athlete like we are two completely different people so this yeah there's I shouldn't be comparing myself to them have you always been able to kind of check yourself and

say no I don't need to compare myself to these girls or is it something that you're getting better at I think it's takes practice yeah I think um you still do it yeah not you personally but I think it's something that a lot of us still yeah still doing you pull yourself up on because you're going on reality check or when we look at something that we admire online it often makes us think about what we therefore lack you know and see it's yeah it takes practice and conscious effort to yeah to keep keep yourself

in line of what you're doing and understanding that you're a different person see awareness oh yeah this is an issue or this is something that I'm not great at how do I get better yeah but we also have complete control over what we want to see on social media as well so on who we want to follow like I can choose to alright that's not something that resonates with me or yeah for whatever reason I'm looking at this account and they might be incredible but it's making me feel you know click that unfollow button yeah

I don't I don't need this and the same as you know wanting people to follow you it's like well at the end of the day I don't care who follows my account because if someone's just on my account so that they can go leave some weird random emoji and be like DM me for this I would rather have one follower that I can actually that connects to what I know the message I'm sending or you know that goes oh yeah when are your classes here I'll follow you then have you know a hundred thousand people

who basically couldn't care less what I'm posting but just think oh yeah that's pretty that's nice yeah and I guess all followers probably aren't created equal you got a lot of people that are like follow people to bitch and whinge and and kind of throw that negativity at it where a lot of people are genuinely looking for that motivation that inspiration the positivity that comes out of it and I guess yeah it'll be good it'd be nice world if we all did it for the right reasons but yeah that's really cool probably all you guys

can do I think is just one post at a time trying to share the message you want to share and we go from there and share like I guess yeah as I said I never do things for the sake of social media so there'll be days where I won't post it all for days and days and days because one of my one of my key focuses is always like what am I putting out and why and I'll never put something out just for the sake of I need validation or I want someone to look at

my body or you know I feel like I need someone to tell me how good I am today like my whatever I put out is always for a purpose and it has a reason and something meaningful to me it's not just for the sake of yeah needing needing this social media validation because I'm gonna come and stalk your hospital yeah yeah I have that I'm waiting yeah I'm waiting for a very wealthy surgeon to stalk me that's what I was missing yeah manifested ride it in yeah October intention yeah I will actually yeah me surgeon

how'd you get into teaching and why did you start teaching rather than just practicing um I think when I first started yoga I thought it was more you know purely physical and I thought you know physical a bit of relaxation that's gonna be amazing for my shift work it's you know I wasn't practicing any sort of physical activity and then pretty much from the first time I stepped onto the mat I went to a class I was I was hooked and I realized that in the physical aspect of yoga is one of I guess the

eight limbs or yeah eight limbs of yoga so physically is one aspect and that's pretty much the majority of what we do see on social media or the rest of your bathroom oh my goodness so we have asana which is physical practice meditation we have shavasana so these there are different names so darana dharma we have your yamas and niyamas which are your I guess internal and external values that you can live by we have what we got we said precious on is drishti one I've heard of that isn't that the breath that is yeah

just use your point of focus yeah okay breath is pranayama yeah breath work so huge component that's yeah massive component what else have we said don't look at me no no I don't know yeah yamas nothing that's alright how many other hey there's eight links sorry I'm sure those playing at home can Google it and see what they can find now it's gonna annoy you remember if I've said seven or eight anyway we can always really is one one component but it's pretty much all that we all that we see and then basically from when

I stepped onto the map I was like wow there is so much more there's this beautiful philosophy behind it and it is a very ancient practice that essentially we've bastardized it in the West through I think social media in a way but if that didn't happen we would probably never I would never have accessed it so I can't you know I've got a sort of balance that I had a good with the bad but I absolutely loved that there is always more more to the practice and I pretty much from the first few classes I

thought I would love to be teaching this and I want to know more about the philosophy which I figured I can I can look into that online I can sort of you know read text but at the end of day I want to have a teacher I want to sit with a teacher and learn from them who you know they themselves have learned from another teacher and another teacher it's all essentially being passed on so I yeah basically looked at my teacher Cara Gillespie who was from live-life studio where I started practicing and she was

running a teacher training and a few of the teachers at the studio approached me and said I think you should do the teacher training and yeah I wanted to do it with someone I resonated with and I really had a good connection with Cara so I am yeah started the 10-week journey of teacher training and it's a big step for me because I think sort of family sort of thought what are you doing are you going to be a yoga teacher now like what you're a paramedic though what why do you want to be a

yoga teacher and I think they were probably scared that I was gonna stop vaccinating and you know but I knew that it was something that I had a real connection to and figured that I could use this in the future not only for my own personal journey but to help connect with other shift workers I wanted to bring it into and I still want to bring it into my work community so yeah I started from there and yeah each day I just love exploring more of that sort of philosophy philosophy behind it and then incorporating

meditation pranayama so breath work into every day basically so for me that's pretty much how it all got started but there's so much more than just the physical practice which I'm bringing a little bit more and more into vertice each time as you said we're getting there if that was that was what you thought was spiritual then you ain't seen nothing yet but yeah it's cool what's the what's been the biggest surprise about teaching so you didn't expect teaching that no - just like no two classes that you practice are the same no two classes

you teach are the same I'm surprised that how I can walk off the mat and think oh that was a horrendous class I feel like I you know feel like the students were just looking at me utterly confused the whole time and I thought you know felt terrible after some classes that I've taught in one class I actually halfway through wanted to walk out because I thought I don't have this I don't know where I'm going and I was a bit blank got through it but then at the end of the class I had several

students come up and say alright that was my favorite class I loved that and you just said never know how someone else is going to feel at the end of your class and that's a beautiful thing but it's a very humbling humbling experience to teach yeah I always I think when I was practicing it's very easy as we do in everyday life it's very easy to judge someone and judge a teacher and go what are they doing why why can't they pronounce this why are they telling you to turn left instead of right and then

you get up there and you know oh my goodness this is so you know but I think as a teacher you are still forever a student and that's what I love about it and it doesn't surprise me but it's something that I love love about it. Awesome. Georgie do you want to get into teaching at some point or are you happy being a student forever? Lots of people ask me that. The question is like oh so when are you gonna become a teacher or why aren't you a teacher? Just expected. Yeah um so I go

through phases where sometimes I'm like yeah yeah I want to be a teacher and then I go through phases where I'm like no I just want to be a really good student but at the moment like I'm a nurse and I've only been nursing for one and a half years and eventually I'm gonna become a paramedic in a few years as well so I've got I'm at a point in my my actual everyday career as a registered nurse where I've got a lot of opportunities to progress in that and that is my job and that's

my key focus so yeah when I want to do really well in that and I want to excel with that first and I feel like if I'm doing that I don't have enough to be able to dedicate to yoga as well yeah quite now yeah quite now right now um that is not to have it by the way the senses that what if I miss and then yes Shavasana comes on to Samadhi but anyway go on yeah no I think I do think I actually have plans maybe putting it out into the universe that I

think I'm going to go to India next year to do some teacher training yeah awesome and then after that I will probably jump ship and be an ambo with Anna are you stalking you but um yeah so I think I think I because I'm at the point where I'm really interested in learning more about more than just the physical asana of yoga and I I'm really falling in love with all the other aspects of all the other limbs of yoga and I want to I want to learn more about that to benefit myself but then

so I can use it to benefit others it's really cool yeah all right we're gonna shift a little bit let's talk about work for both this is a question for both of you paramedics and nurses what's what do you wish everyone the general population you about your job or knew about what you do because like for me first of all thank you for being awesome and for choosing a career that's purely based on helping other people I think it takes a very special person to be a nurse a paramedic a fire a policeman and all

of these different emergency services and health services yeah what do you wish the general population knew about what you do I wish the general population realized what an emergency services in the nicest possible way but it's hard because when people do call triple zero they feel like they're in a time of crisis and a lot of people genuinely feel like they've done the right thing they've called the men's service yeah and that's fine because we do we do educate people but you know we go to people all the time that call us and quite knowingly

sort of abuse the system and call us because you know they want a taxi ride they feel that they are entitled to our service because they pay membership or or what have you but then on the other hand we go to people that for example a guy the other night who had dislocated his shoulder and was in so much pain and they driven themselves to a GP yeah further back like going in the opposite direction because they thought that was the right thing to do like oh well just didn't want to bother us and then

you know I was in absolute agony this poor bugger and I'm like oh you you could have just I mean I know I figured you feel that with your shoulder injury like you you could have just called us but you've you know the people that should call often don't know isn't it we have health education behind us so we we know that so we do have a tool to educate people but there is a lot of abuse of emergency services and I guess health care in general like people can just go to the pharmacy or

the GP especially now at the moment I think our health care system is under complete strain so I think a lot of the challenges within health care and emergency services could be I guess helped if people were using it for the right reasons or you know when they should be but again it is a lot of people would have the best intentions and they would think that they're doing it for the right rate though for the because they need it but they might not it comes down to like health literacy and absolutely understanding what options

are available to them and yeah I think some people don't we're not very well educated in in health yeah it's interesting one like I split my hand open on a big bit of glass maybe you cut off would've been late last year now but I didn't want to go to hospital I didn't wanna call an ambulance I called mom like can I just go to a GP and get him stitched up she's like go to the hospital so I went to emergency and sat in emergency for a while but like even someone I guess I

mean within the health sphere to a point with being a performance coach and things like that I wasn't sure and I can only imagine that so there's there'd be a lot of people that would have no idea where the line is and where to draw the line but I assume things like gastro and stuff like that would be very frustrating to get people in yeah it is because at the end of the day we look at it from a point of view of what is the best outcome for the patient what is the best outcome

for I guess the hospital but I mean first and foremost the patient but sort of looking at it as what is this going to achieve so I always sort of have to look at that and like you said you know gastro things like that it's hard because the hospitals are just so chockers and you know you what you look in the waiting room like last night I was at Monash Hospital and the waiting room weights were 11 hours so that is 11 hours from when someone walks in and says they want to see a doctor

many of those people don't need to be there could go to a chemist could go to their GP yeah and then we go in with someone and they're extremely unwell and we're waiting on stretching with them for three hours because there are just no beds absolutely no beds in the hospital and it's it's really hard because at the end of the day there are people that yes still need to go 100% but you know we are in a very very lucky country and we still have these issues with our health care system so yeah it's

one of those things who are you Georgie talking about nursing what do you wish we knew I guess sort of bouncing off what Anna's said but sort of in like the opposite direction is that like health and illness and even like pain and all that is unique to the individual and so I might look at someone and say you don't need to be in hospital you're not that unwell but to them this could be their crisis you know this is the worst I've ever experienced they don't know what else to do they might be health

illiterate they might just not know and and to them right now that is their crisis and that is to them what you know in their opinion they need to be in hospital so yeah working through that can be really hard as well as you know everyone's got a different interpretation and you know just because I might look at someone and say you know they don't look like they're in pain really yeah pain is pain and you know things like that so yeah I know it can be really hard with both of those ways but in

terms of what I wish someone knew about nursing speaking for myself I guess I would say that we are always trying our best and more often than not we are putting besides our own we're putting we're putting our own health and well-being aside yeah and pouring ourselves out to help other people and to help you or your loved one so oftentimes we're skipping our meals and we're skipping our toilet breaks and we're not sleeping enough and we're you know doing all those kind of things and putting our bodies on the line and our physical and

mental well-being to help you and sometimes it's still not good enough or sometimes it's fantastic but nonetheless I know that I always give 100% to my job so yeah yeah I guess like one of the things for me knowing like knowing you guys and having a lot of friends who are other nurses or paramedics or doctors and things like that we like I realized that we we get the people who are gonna look after us and then don't really look after them very well like this for me like from the uni is a start like

we smash all of our like doctors and medical students and stuff like that at uni and I've just one of our best mates is just finishing up now and you see like how much I guess pressure and things like that he's been under the last couple of years and it's I think it's necessary to a point but to get through that you kind of stop looking after yourself and I think it's like I'm sure you guys see it all the time with your colleagues and yeah and the people you work with and around not looking

after themselves it must be really frustrating yeah well there's that quote that says you can't pull from an empty cup and sorry yeah if we're not functioning at our best then how can we expect to give our best and that's one of the reasons why I love my yoga and my exercise as well because I don't like the term work-life balance because I think if you if you truly love what you do your work is part of your life and you don't necessarily need to have a nine-to-five or like work time and then play time

like you actually enjoy both sides of it but apart from yoga what are the things you guys do to manage that work-life balance for me meditation is becoming more and more of an important practice that I'm still like you know I'm still learning I don't do it all the time yeah but yeah I think that's been a big discovery and learning about the mind the power of the mind and just what's the word mindfulness and yeah working on that it's been a big thing to help me yeah but also for me I don't like the

word balance that's a big that's a big thing for me and I get a lot of people messaging me on my social media saying like oh how do you how do you always seem to balance nursing and and everything and life and food and exercise and my answer always is I don't and my life is not about balance for me I choose to live a prioritized life rather than a balanced life and so sometimes my priority is sleeping because I haven't you know I've worked hard and I haven't had enough sleep or sometimes my priorities

exercise or sometimes my priority is doing my washing or you know preparing my food or you know and so sometimes I might spend you know all my day working and buying groceries and that's all I've done in the balance world that is completely off balance and you know it'd be meltdown oh my god I'm so fat now I haven't worked out today but for me it's all about priorities and sort of zooming out of life and taking a sort of more bird's-eye view rather than focusing on like this week I need to balance you know

you know cut into four and four perfect quarters but that allows you to be present and get the most out of what you're doing yeah so prioritize life and I always use this nursing analogy enough I've written about it before is that I've got four patients and I have an eight-hour shift so if I wanted to live a balanced life I would dedicate two hours two four six eight two patient I spent two hours on my first patient move on to the next yeah so say I've moved on to my next one the first patient

I've already spent the two hours but all of a sudden they've got chest pain I'm not going to turn around and say sorry I'm balancing here yeah you've already had your time I'm not gonna help you anymore like I'm moving I've got to be balanced no it's all about priorities and so you know then my focus my focus is constantly reshuffling when I'm at work I'm always analyzing reanalyzing what's my top priority what needs to be achieved and how can I best do that and I use that same mentality at work in life as well

as what's what's most important today how can I do the best best you can at that one thing and then whatever something else will come up yeah I like that always reshuffling it's really cool yeah yeah I for me yoga is a big part of when I'm not at work and if I need to have some sort of release if I'm you know feeling stressed if I'm trying to you know get out of that sort of alright work head but for me sort of getting in the kitchen cooking reading Harry Potter it's little little things

like that I have a really really great group of friends work work colleagues for example that pretty much every week we'll we'll have a coffee catch-up yeah normally with dogs as well coffee and dog catcher TV and I shout out to Evie pause I look forward to that every week you know we talk a little bit about work we talk a little bit about other stuff but that's you know a big big thing for me when I you know you can just go and sit in a cafe and just sit down have a coffee be

that weirdo who might not be on the phone just sitting there and you know having that sort of mindfulness checking in with myself and going all right I'm not at work I'm not at yoga I'm not at home I'm just here with me and being present and going all right how am I feeling you know and then you know just spending time with family and loved ones and Ryan and yeah I think me time is really important and like true me time mmm without your phone and without any of those distractions I think that's yeah

that's a really key one and and being able to be comfortable being alone and doing things just for yourself and by yourself and really checking in with you is a really important thing I find it very hard as and I yeah I find it very hard to take time for meditation funnily enough and I don't know if you're the same Georgie but yeah if I have things to do in my day and I'm like I know I need to sit 15 10 20 minutes and just sit meditate and I'll go oh no but I'm running

short of time so I'll just do this instead cut it out you know and it's like okay I've now just spent half an hour on my phone mmm and that has had absolutely no benefit to me whatsoever and so when I go on sort of teacher trainings yoga retreats and there's a high like really heavy meditation focus sort of twice daily I come back from those and I'm like oh my gosh I'm feeling incredible and then life gets in the way from the day I get back and it's my own fault because I'm not prioritizing

so I can't I can't blame it on you know my day-to-day life but okay I feel so much better when I'm prioritizing that time and I yeah I don't do it as often as I should but every time I do it whether it is just five or ten minutes that's a huge deal for me so I try to at least ensure at least ten minutes every day whether I'm actually sitting and meditating properly where you know completely completely zoned out or whether I'm just sitting without any other stimulus and just taking that time to just

be completely present is one of the questions that everyone else spoken to and asked hey do you have any questions for Georgie and Anna it's been around how do you guys deal with all the stuff that you see and I guess it's it's a maybe a perception that you see a lot of horrible things I'm sure you see a lot of really nice things and really good things as well but how do you deal with I guess the horrible things that happen and how do you best cope with it what are the things you do

to and it could be the same answer but what are the things you do to not dwell on it and yeah I think for me you have to depersonalize situations the moment I start to relate a job or a case to something within my family life or my personal life I draw connections to it and I sort of get into this mindset of all if that was me how would I feel in it that's how it went when jobs affect me so I try not to do that you never know each day what job you're

going to go to that might be a trigger for you and so for me it could be just going to you know an 85 year old who's passed away at home and you know for some people that's just you know normal progression of life and death but you know that's a 65 year marriage that's now just ended and that for me I'll relate that to my nanny and grandpa Omar and I'll you know to get me in the fields and I'll feel a bit crap as opposed to I on the same day could have gone

to say a 30 year old for whatever reason who's who's died and have absolutely no connection to that because it's not something that I necessarily can personalize and draw any connections to so I think for me it's being aware and having that self-awareness of I guess on the way to a job and after a job going alright how am I feeling am I dwelling on anything what's not sitting right and for what reasons is it just because that's normal or is it because there's something that okay that didn't go well or you know so I

think making sure that after each job I sort of check in with how I'm feeling how my partner's feeling because you just never know on the day what what might affect you but I feel like we from the start and I you know was lucky that on my first few shifts and days as placement I never saw anything completely horrific that made me go oh I don't want to do this I think you get almost gradual exposure most of the time there are people that unfortunately see horrific things on day one and that that's the

straw for them and they they can't do it and that's fair enough that could be the same but any one of us but for the majority I think you get this gradual exposure to what reality is and so for us I think we have this very real perception of what happens in life and that life and death is normal and it's sort of you know you never get used to it but we're just more aware than the general public of that these things happen like yeah they happen there's no rhyme or reason so you're not

you know dwelling on that and they were you know blaming yourself or thinking what what could I do but it's very very hard to do yeah and I think like Anna you've probably got more of a challenge in with that regard than than me because as a paramedic you're often like first on the scene and you're the people that they call when people don't know what to do and when shit goes wrong and so there's massive pressure and expectation of you I guess so the other way that you guys deal with it it's probably a

little bit different because once the people have arrived to hospital and it's yeah it's a little bit different with us but how do I go with with dealing with with what we see I just remember like whenever I'm nursing what one of the main things for me is I don't know if it sounds selfish but it always makes me thankful for my own health and my own well-being and it really makes me stop and consider you know I'll be looking after you know a 50 year old who's in renal failure and a 85 year old

who's in renal failure and they're both at the same stage and you know in that way it doesn't discriminate them you know no matter where you are in your life you know you can be hit with terrible illness but you can also be thriving and it makes me really happy that that I've got my health and well-being that I can walk out of hospital and run and jump and you know it'll be happy and healthy probably gives you perspective more than anything yeah definitely like shows you that well things are pretty good and like I

said before we live in a pretty lucky time and place and and things like that so we are for lack of a better term lucky most of the time but yeah yeah when those bad things do happen it probably allows you to just enjoy that your health and your friends and family's health and yeah all the good things around yeah and I take a lot of pride in knowing that I've been able to contribute to that person's journey through their their health for whatever reason you know whether you you've been stroking their their hair as

they're passing away or whether you've been the one that's provided cup of tea to the family or you know yeah it makes me really proud and it's really humbling to know that that we're there and we're able to provide that care to people in their greatest time of need and yeah I'm not really privileging privileging but it is a great privilege yeah to have to have a job like this I think some of the best moments as well in in the job for me it just sitting down and having a cup of tea with someone

at home you know you we've gone for whatever reason we don't need to go to hospital or we fixed them or whatever and you sit down and they'll be telling you these amazing stories and you're sitting there and it they're the moments where you go this is a really cool job and I get them pretty much on every shift that's cool so yeah I think we're in a very very unique I guess as paramedics a very unique situation that I can't compare it to any other job in the world where we go into people's homes

we see I guess a little bit more than what I guess nurses or doctors see yeah and we have to try and portray that when we get to hospital and sometimes you just absolutely cannot but we see the absolute innermost aspect of these people's lives and homes and families at their worst and at their best and I think that's a pretty unique position to be in and for me like yeah like Georgie was saying whether you're just sitting there holding someone's hand or whether you're you know doing CPR and trying to you know what's that

whole spectrum there's so many different ways you can help exactly but for me I always just try to remember and I think it is one of my strengths in the job and I hope that I never get jaded to the point where I lose it and people will say to me how are you just so nice to them you know yes just on the inside I might be absolutely fuming but at the end of the day and we spoke about it for people a lot of people don't have that education and you just you get

nowhere generally from being an asshole and there are times don't get me wrong where I'll flip and it's I find it's warranted I'm not gonna be a doormat but I find it so much easier just put that smile on and like okay yeah no worries and at the end of the day people turn around girl thank you thank you yeah but yeah I think as well just one factor the tough things one of the hardest things for me is we often don't get closure we'll go to very unwell patients or patients that might not be

that unwell but we've sort of gone I think it's this I'll treat them as this yeah and we take them to hospital and then we don't ever hear again you don't get a problem okay this is what happened no unless you sort of know someone in the hospital or for whatever reason they're still in there in a few hours if you go back and you can find out but you know you really seek patients that you might take in and they may go to ICU or surgery or whatever often we we don't find out and

I find that that can be a really difficult thing yeah even if it's just closure that okay yeah they did pass away and we probably assume that that was going to happen or they survived I think that's a huge a huge thing that I know a lot of paramedics struggle with and it's something that I know there are some things that may be changing I don't know if I'm talking shit or not but I swear I heard something where we might be able to access that information in a it's still a confidential way you know

you're not what about like the other way if patients who you've helped significantly want to seek you guys out like really different for you being that person not there like there for a long period of time but for you and I like can patients who have been helped by you contact you and I guess it's it's a tough one yeah they so what often will happen is they'll just send an email or a letter into like Ambulance Victoria and say oh this crew that came and then we'll get like a letter in the mail so

that's always really nice to get those and I've had them from patients that I normally write complaints about people and you know patients that I've turned and said look I'm sorry I'm you don't need an ambulance we're not going to take you to hospital but I've treated them with dignity and respect and they've written a letter and said look I've really appreciated the services and or one really really sick kitty that we did with meningococcal and he was so unwell we thought there's no way he's going to survive and it was a really you know

crappy job and the end of the day I felt awful and for a while afterwards and I just assumed yet he he's not going to survive and we didn't sort of get any follow-up we couldn't sort of find out because he'd gone off to the children's I didn't have any contacts so I think maybe two months later I got a letter in the mail from the mom saying you know thank you so much he's recovered he's out of hospital he spent you know however many days and it's like I that's closure yeah and that I

wish I had that from you know early on because it's one of those things that I went I assume that's gonna be a bad outcome so yeah people can we do often get nice little letters and I've had people drop yo-yo is that the branch door and things like that which is always nice yeah we can get complaints in the mail yeah so yeah there is a way that people do it and it's it's one of those things where you you often get them from people and you go I have no idea like I have

no recollection of that job it's not one of the ones that stood out where I feel like I went above and beyond it's just one of those normal ones I yeah we turned up we you know and then there's jobs where you think oh gosh I absolutely did so much for this patient yeah and then you don't you never expect anything I'm like you never expect anything but they're the ones that if someone's gonna write in and you'd go oh yeah it's probably gonna be them and then something comes in the mail and you're like

I have what I swear I was a bitch to this person why why are they doing this yeah Georgie like you're in being in the hospital you're kind of in part of the machine like for lack of a better term like you're part you're one of the cogs that keeps it all ticking over and you're probably a little bit separate from it because you're kind of the taxi that takes people to the hospital what's what's the hardest thing about being part of that big organization and kind of big organism in terms of patient care yeah

in terms of getting like the whole point of it is to get the best outcome for the patient yeah what's the hardest part um the hardest part from my experience um like some of the thing like some of the cases that I've had lately is you can't always achieve what the patient wants or what the family wants yeah and a lot of the time that's just because of the stage of their illness or you know just the way that their health and well-being is is that yeah you can't always a lot of people think that

because they're in hospital they're gonna get fixed and they're gonna go home but with a lot of the patients that I deal with sometimes they come and we and we know as nurses that they'll never get out and they are actively dying in front of us and the family saying no treat treat treat fix and fix and fix and it's like we're gonna take them home and one of the things that I've really struggled with is nursing patients and advocating for them and helping them day after day when they're actively dying in front of us

and they're getting worse every hour every day and you see the family coming and saying why aren't they better you know why is this happening why can't you fix them and you're trying to explain it I'm always very honest and I never like I never build things up and I never say oh you know you know they're great they're great I'm very honest and realistic because I think it would be horrible to tell a family member or the patient that they're fine when they're not so yeah I find that really hard and especially sort of

prolonging life or making for lack of a better word making them suffer a little bit longer because that's what the family wants they're not ready to say goodbye or the you know a lot of the time the patient is ready yeah there and I've had patients say to me like please let me die like yeah I've had enough it's my time like and so and then there's us going and the family's going yep yep yep fix them fix them fix them and yeah it's it's a beautiful moment when they do finally realize and you know

the patient is ready and the family is ready and they make those choices to choose that comfort care or to withdraw some some treatment and an aggressive treatment that yeah so so finding that balance is one thing that I find really hard yeah is um yeah a lot of the time with our knowledge and our experience we know then we can see the pathway that the patient's taking yeah the family's got to go through that yeah those stages of grief I guess yeah and sometimes people aren't ready for it and and if for us as

a nurse you know we're we're not always as emotionally invested in we are I yeah we become invested in our patients but we don't have the whole 85 years of knowing our honor to mourn before we ready to let go you know we've known them for you know a week or a month and you know of course we do become involved and we you can become caught up in in looking after the patient so figuring out how to draw that line it's really important but yeah I find that's one of the things that I found

really hard yeah it's tough one like it thinking back to when I was in hospital and was part look passing away I guess it's for those like first like four or five days like yeah we'll get better he'll be out and then you kind of like for me it wasn't it was kind of like a little light bulb moment for like a better term I was just like this is it and it was yeah it took me probably longer to realize that and like I'm sure the nurses probably knew well before but you kind of

have to let let the family go through that process yeah definitely point yes yeah it's hard it is it's a tough yeah now in our culture that we don't deal with grief and death very well no it's interesting reading and watching things about other parts of the world and how they deal with death it's completely different yeah but yeah and yeah I always just find that hard with sometimes we are what what's best of the patient is not always what you're doing for them sometimes to make those decisions when you're looking at the family saying

what treatment do you want for them and you know what what pathway you're looking for and when they're saying well last time this happened they went home last time they got better and he said this is very different this time yeah yeah so just yeah working through that with them but as I said before as well it's a great privilege to be able to work through those times with with the family and the patient yeah yeah let's try and build a mood up a little bit what's what's your best story from being a nurse and

paramedic and I say best because I was gonna ask funniest or craziest or something like that but I'm gonna let you guys know and be your special what's the best story well give me a couple of stories is that appropriate to talk about the time the patient masturbated with their showerhead in front of me look sure why not maybe maybe we'll skip that one it's been mentions it's probably pictures already in everyone's head just just let that remain in your head lucky this is an audio podcast or visual podcast yes we don't need to yeah

we don't need to give any visual no I am and it's a tough one because obviously there's a lot of things happen daily and every shift but yeah oh actually my favorite story favorite story so this was around Christmas last year I was working with a good friend and wins our at Chelsea and it was when we had that sort of heat wave 40 degree heat and it was around New Year's I think and we got called to a job like new Chelsea Beach and we work at Chelsea so we're right near the beach so

we got called to a job near there at a house on the beach and the patient didn't need to go to hospital yeah so we um no worries we thought oh let's do our paperwork down on the beach the Sun was setting so we take our back as computer and sit down on the beach and we're sitting at the Chelsea PR Sun setting it's lovely and this group of I think three Asian ladies came up to us and was super excited to just see us and asked us oh can we oh can you take a

photo for us I'm like oh sure so now I'm I'll just take a photo of them and I thought that was going to be it and then like oh can we take a photo with you I'm like okay sure no worries and like a very big sort of language barrier there as well and then they said oh it's my mom's birthday come and have some birthday cake with us and we're like oh no no no it's okay like no no no we insist and basically dragged us over to their picnic rug so this was probably five or six p.m.

or 8 p.m. I don't know and they'd been at the beach all day as we evidently found out and so they dragged us over to their picnic run like oh birthday cake birthday cake and it's like oh okay lovely and so we sat down and Emma and I sort of smiling at each other and then they get out these plates not paper plates like actual you know glass ceramic plates and open up this cake and it's like a ice cream sponge cake and I don't eat dairy and they've dished I'm like oh no no no

no thank you no we insist and then they've dished up a pic just a small place piece oh no no no he's a big one so they just just both up this huge piece of this cake and they were like no you must eat it and like no no no and we couldn't smell it at the time like it smelled okay and looked okay and it was getting dark and so I just put a bit of I didn't want to eat the cream so I just like they're watching our reactions so I like I'll be

saying happy birthday and then I put the sponge in my mouth to try not to eat the cream and I was just like and then Emma starts hoeing into it she's like oh this isn't bad and then we're sitting there going please give us a job like can the ambulance Lord's give us a job we're going to die of food poisoning and then surely enough the cell call goes off like oh we've got to go I'm so sorry here's the cake that no no no no take it what no no no your plates like take

the plates so we took these people ceramic plates without with our cake and when we like run into the ambulance and we're like oh my god and then we get into the ambulance and we're like oh that cake stinks and it was off because they'd been at the beach all day in 40 degree heat and I ate all that cream so we put it we put the plates and the cakes in a biohazard bag and drove to our next job and the truck just stank like off cake and Emma's laughing because she's like oh you

can go have to eat the cream and the sponge and yum yeah good story funniest for me oh that's tough I've got like we've got we have lots of funny stories about just weird stuff that patients do yeah poo jokes are always funny not even good stuff is always funny yeah if we want to go down that line what else one of my best ones I guess is I was back to out like death and dying but not really um but I helped nurse a man who he tried to commit suicide and was unsuccessful and

sort of got to follow him through his journey of recovering and watching him from he's obviously been in that stage where he wanted to take his own life and he was with us for months and months and months and I got to be the one that helped him out the door at the end and go home that was a really cool journey it was quite an elderly man as well so it was beautiful seeing him and his wife and all of that was it was really nice yeah yeah but um one of our one of

our poo jokes it was not even a joke but one of that one of my pretty stories I just I thought it was hilarious but we had I had a we work with a lot of elderly confused patients in hospital and I once looked after this man who was very confused for whatever reason we're still trying to figure out why he was so confused and one time the nurse it wasn't me but one of my colleagues walked into the bathroom and found him in the bathroom and we've got bins in the bathroom with a plastic

bag in them so he put all your rubbish in and he had emptied the bin taken all the stuff out taken off all of his clothes got the plastic bag from the bin and put his feet through it so he's popped holes in it and pulled it up like a nappy and did a huge poo in the plastic bag and was just holding it good for him yeah and it's your job really oh yeah it's quite tidy but um the plastic bag was clear and see-through yeah I need to fix of the job it's things

like that we just walk in you think how do I explain this to anyone else as well how do I what do I do yeah it's things like that we just wouldn't you wouldn't read about it yeah but that's just like a normal occurrence or like crazy things like that regular care yeah yeah and that's the kind of stuff where you just think like people are like oh gross like how do you do with that but yeah I mean you get over that kind of stuff and it's I mean everyone laughs at poo it's funny

this is very true last question about work how do you how do you guys mitigate the effects of shift work and like for me routine is that term why that is important and for all of our clients we talked to in here about sorting things out routines a big thing yeah how do you mitigate that that shift work especially things like your circadian rhythm and cortisol and and all these kind of things I think you need to put yourself first and feel the bucket and for me yet routine I find to be important but it's

really hard to achieve that with shift work my roster at the moment's horrendous and I'm fine I can't get any routine I can't get any sort of good sleep pattern but normally I manage it pretty well we do like a 1014 roster so 210 hour day shifts to 14 hour night shifts and ideally at the start of the week before my first day shift I'll be able to prep my food so prep my lunches my dinners or you know at least have a clear idea about when I get home what am I gonna do in

an ideal week I'll be able to go to work maybe after my day shifts go to a yoga class and then then before my first night shift ideally I'll sleep till about midday my worst part of the job is that I can't take naps like I can't nap in the afternoon I need to if I'm preparing for a night shift I need to sleep in for as long as I can and then have my day so ideally before night shifts what puts me in the best state of mind and mood for night shift is get

up go have a coffee or go have some food normally at a cafe or just at home and then I will come back home and then for about whether it's just 15 minutes whether it's an hour ideally meditation and a yoga practice. So it's putting those little bits of routine in the chaos. In the chaos so I try to fit them in and when there's when life doesn't get in the way and that that's pretty much my routine is to you know after a day shift at one or both of them I'll try and do

a class whether it's yoga Pilates or teach and then yeah before my night shifts if I can get in just some form of movement whether it's just doing a few sun salutations a few rounds of cat cow moving on the floor doing some pretzels good and just taking that time and I do make sure whether it's doing a proper seated med for say 20 minutes I will just sit there as soon as I sit there across my legs on the mat hands to chest hands to knees whatever I close my eyes I'm there I'm grounded

within the four corners of my mat and I can have that time even if it's just checking in for a few minutes that for me is huge to mitigate sort of just how I go into my shifts but yeah just ensuring I try to eat well lots of water yeah trying to tick all the boxes tickle the boxes I find it hard to you know I often find like the family gets a bit neglected sometimes that there'll be weeks where you know I haven't haven't seen mum and dad haven't you know you've gotten down to

the country or haven't had time to get them up and visit and I feel really guilty by that but at the end of the day I also have to go know like it's been a horrendous week I need I need sleep I need you know I need to go and sit in the cafe with friends or I need to you know it might be doing five yoga classes a week but that's that's what I need yes so I think it's really important to remember what what do you need versus what do other people need of

you so that's a big one for me well back to that filling your bucket up with water analogy if you can do those things first then you can't see friends and see family exactly if you need to neglect them short period of time while you're recharging and regenerating that's fine the crystals yeah yeah crystals and stuff chakras yeah yeah chanting and whatnot hey yeah yeah I thought yoga was just a bunch of chanting before I started and I actually love love that aspect of it so don't don't don't mock the chanting how do you deal

with the shift work and and I guess keeping being able to give to other people but being a give give to yourself as well hmm for me it always comes back to what I was talking about before and that's priorities yeah getting rid of the balance yeah getting rid of the idea of trying to find the perfect balance because I honestly don't think it exists good and with regards to balance you know like who defines balance and what is balanced to me is different to what's balanced to someone else and I just think it's unattainable

so priorities and and making sure that most of the time I'm my top priority yeah I had a bunch of questions for you guys they can be short answers they can be medium answers let's not go as long answers okay so I want you to think the first thing that comes into your head that's what I want your answer to be first thing what are you grateful for everything in my life I'm very content right now so I'm grateful for every aspect um yeah yeah I was just gonna say life mm-hmm living what is success

to you happiness success to me would be realizing your true purpose for lack of you know we are sending to you like woo-woo but realizing and accepting your true purpose and living it passionately and wholeheartedly and unapologetically and just being you yeah if you could give teenage you one piece of advice what would it be stop caring what other people think yeah mine would be that just because you feel like you don't fit in with what people around you're doing doesn't mean that what you're doing is wrong awesome like that it's the nicest thing you've

ever done someone come in this sat down for a podcast with you I don't know it's a tough question like any profession we do nice stuff yeah but you know what it's probably not always not out of obligation as well like when we're being treated like shit and you're still nice to them that's for yeah yeah yeah it's been a contentious question so it's one I've kept in there for I think pretty much it's hard to compliment yourself as well yeah I mean it's hard to say yeah I was a great person I did this

for something you need to be you like yeah your own hero and biggest fan sometimes yeah that's really important mm-hmm yeah I think if we sat back down and looked at all those things you could name list all these things that you've done for people you know in the last week one yeah you know but we just yeah we don't think about those things that I think I'm doing it without expecting something in return it's probably one of the nicest things have you ever tried to burn a house down 60 seconds tell us the story

no my dishwasher caught fire that's pretty much the story I was cooking all day in the kitchen put a lot of dishes on went out you've got to call your houses on fire the dog is fine your house is on fire and was homeless living out of a car for two months but you bought a house I bought a house hey ten minutes from bedding yeah that's a win that's a win at you didn't do that on purpose good very good both of you what was the last book you read and what did you learn

from it the last book I've finished is finding ultra by rich roll and what did I learn from it is that no matter what stage of your life you're at and whether you're at your highest or your lowest you can always make the choice to do a complete flip and change direction and that you should not be afraid to do that um Harry Potter half blood Prince Oh Draco Malfoy is a very very damaged damaged character and I feel for him I feel for him yeah that was who are your biggest influences this might sound

really weird for me but I guess it's like my past self is a huge influence for me I'm looking at like where I've come from and you know that kind of stuff because that's played a huge role in my health journey yeah yeah that's a huge influence on like what I do where I am today and what I'm doing and I don't know I don't know I don't have like anyone that I worship or any Pete Evans gonna culture I now can't air this podcast those names are mentioned it's all gonna be a kook but

anyway agreed yeah so one would be that after I teach I had Mike shown back in year 12 yeah always look back when I think oh and I can't do this I don't know like he's you know a big one for me and mom and dad they're just the happiest people and they're just legends legends legends they're um yeah I'm very lucky to have you know good supportive parents that allowed me to just be content with what I have and not ever want anything more this is a great question which a great question a great

man it's not an assignment so don't try and read my page in quiet times of reflection where do you draw your inspiration for me it is all of the people that I have met along my sort of yoga teachings and retreats that I've done so I've had a number of I guess teachers that I've sat with and I have little gems from all of them so for me I find you know I draw a lot of inspiration from like nature and being outside and yeah kind of stripping things back and being out in the elements

and then yeah also from from people that I've come across like yoga teachers or experts in the field and hospital and all that and so I'm really excited to be able to talk to them and yoga teachers or experts in the field and in hospital and all that yeah they're words of wisdom and very cool if you could be remembered in one sentence what would it be I'm not Asian Wow and I didn't start the fight a couple of favorites to finish off favorite quote oh okay my favorite quote um for a long time has

been that there is beauty in everything just not everybody can see it oh people will not always remember what you did but they'll remember how you yeah I am post night shift even gotten two words together that one for me is a big one and I always think about that every movie I'm not a movie person ah how to lose a guy in ten days I thought you said Harry Potter book book person book person don't okay favorite recording artists Oh Lin-manuel Miranda that is he's the guy who wrote Hamilton the musical which I'm helping

on Hamilton it's not a recording artists but he's been I really like Angus and Julia stone and one of her good good movie movie yes I'm a movie in the moment favorite resource for new information and it can be to do with work anything learn something where do you go people around me good first and foremost and I really like YouTube cool I have all the answers yeah in inside so I just open another pocket of my brain last last question for the podcast favorite way to spend a day off eating eating in the gym

yeah outdoor beach yoga filling your bucket fill in my bucket with all the things we've spoken about pretty much maybe a bit of pastimes always nice but what I'll pass Ryan gotcha good awesome that's it love your work guys thank you very much for coming on yeah if you you got any more for any more anything else you'd like to say no and on that note namaste [BLANK_AUDIO]