Joanne Lockwood: Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your
Joanne Lockwood: sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm
Joanne Lockwood: Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the
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Joanne Lockwood: So just your earbuds and settle in. It's time to
Joanne Lockwood: ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites.
Joanne Lockwood: And today is episode 112 with
Joanne Lockwood: the title dancing with vitality.
Joanne Lockwood: And I have the absolute honor and privilege to welcome Celynn Morin.
Joanne Lockwood: Celynn is an holistic well-being advocate for the
Joanne Lockwood: workplace. That's easy for me to say. And when I asked Celynn to describe her
Joanne Lockwood: superpower, she said that she helps enrich the quality of
Joanne Lockwood: people's lives through holistic and practical workplace
Joanne Lockwood: based well-being training and inspiration.
Joanne Lockwood: Hello, Celynn. Welcome to the show. Hi,
Celynn Morin: Joanne, and to all the listeners. It's really, really a pleasure to be here.
Joanne Lockwood: Fabulous. I struggled a bit with the intro there. I don't know what my brain's
Joanne Lockwood: doing today, but anyway, it's great to have you here. So Celynn,
Joanne Lockwood: Dancing with Vitality, tell us a bit about your mission
Joanne Lockwood: and where you've come from. Well, I guess I can tie that into the introduction
Celynn Morin: because, like, you've just authentically shared, how we are is how we are
Celynn Morin: regardless of where we are. So our mental health or how we're thinking and
Celynn Morin: processing things, some days we can have lots of energy, some days not.
Celynn Morin: And in the past, it's almost like we expected the workplace to be purely
Celynn Morin: professional, and anything that was happening in our personal space wasn't
Celynn Morin: there. But, of course, we know that that's changed. And with the pandemic and
Celynn Morin: developments in workplace well-being and the trends around stress and burnout,
Celynn Morin: it's really wonderful to see how now everyone understands how
Celynn Morin: important it is to look at holistic well-being, even if it is a
Celynn Morin: mouthful. So I always knew I wanted to be a
Celynn Morin: healer of some kind. I thought I wanted to be a doctor or a pharmacist.
Celynn Morin: But when I was looking into what I could study, I discovered
Celynn Morin: something called dietetics, which was a degree
Celynn Morin: with doctors and other health practitioners that
Celynn Morin: focused on food and nutrition. And I thought, you
Celynn Morin: know what? My love of food because of being French, so my
Celynn Morin: entire family are French. I was born in South Africa because my
Celynn Morin: parents went there, and they ended up spending 53 years
Celynn Morin: there. They're now back in France. But the idea of linking
Celynn Morin: food and nutrition to health and well-being and vitality,
Celynn Morin: I just knew that was what I wanted to do, so I studied to be
Celynn Morin: a dietitian. And after 5 years in clinical
Celynn Morin: practice, I had an opportunity to work with a
Celynn Morin: workplace insurer, and that was way back in 2006
Celynn Morin: where I started doing workplace well-being initiatives.
Celynn Morin: And so my ideal day is when I'm with a group of
Celynn Morin: leaders or any high performing team and speaking about how they can
Celynn Morin: better manage stress, increase resilience, manage their
Celynn Morin: head, heart, and gut so that they they do enrich the quality of their
Celynn Morin: lives. That's fascinating. I I think you need you need to expand a
Joanne Lockwood: bit more how your diet can impact your overall
Joanne Lockwood: well-being, but not only that, but also your stress levels. I'm really
Joanne Lockwood: intrigued to find out about how this this link between
Joanne Lockwood: intake of food and stress. How how does that play out? Tell me
Joanne Lockwood: more. Well, I guess the most important link, there are multiple ones,
Celynn Morin: but the most important one would be the fact that our gut is so much
Celynn Morin: more than just this tube that Diversity what we decide to
Celynn Morin: put into our mouths and chew and swallow. Everything that we
Celynn Morin: eat will affect the gut and
Celynn Morin: specifically the gut microbiome, which is this universe of bacteria and
Celynn Morin: viruses and all kinds of organisms without which we can't survive.
Celynn Morin: They're incredibly important for helping us manage stress because they help us
Celynn Morin: with our mental health and many other things, immunity,
Celynn Morin: digesting foods, hormone regulation, detoxification, producing
Celynn Morin: vitamins and minerals. Yeah. So everything you eat
Celynn Morin: has the ability to either upregulate your gut, which means it's going
Celynn Morin: to help you better manage stress, or potentially it's gonna add to the level
Celynn Morin: of stress because it might produce compounds that can
Celynn Morin: then switch on what we call inflammation, and that can
Celynn Morin: drive more stress within the body.
Celynn Morin: So I would say the main link there is through the gut. Everything's connected when
Celynn Morin: it comes to the body, how we think, how we feel, how we move, how
Celynn Morin: we breathe, which is good news because it means you can
Celynn Morin: take various routes to helping your well-being. There's no one
Celynn Morin: size fits all or one solution for everybody. And we're also
Celynn Morin: unique. The more I do this work, the more I realize how we each
Celynn Morin: need a unique individual approach to enhancing our well-being.
Joanne Lockwood: What what sort of foods have an impact in that way?
Joanne Lockwood: I I appreciate it's a bit of a generalist sub yeah. What I've just said
Joanne Lockwood: is a bit generalization, but are those foods that specifically
Joanne Lockwood: help calm us and some foods that will maybe cause us more stress? Or
Joanne Lockwood: is it down to the impact of digestion of that food and how it
Joanne Lockwood: impacts the as you talk about the the the the culture of
Joanne Lockwood: all the microorganisms and things in our gut. Is it how that
Joanne Lockwood: interaction occurs that causes the the changes in our body?
Celynn Morin: Yeah. So context is everything. Right? So depending on age
Celynn Morin: and activity levels and medication and your exposure to stress and
Celynn Morin: even your emotional state can affect how a meal is digested. You know, if you
Celynn Morin: eat a particular type of food while you're feeling
Celynn Morin: highly stressed or very angry, it's going to digest
Celynn Morin: differently to if you ate that same meal when you were
Celynn Morin: completely calm and relaxed and serene. You know?
Celynn Morin: So, yeah, it's I wanna say it's a
Celynn Morin: complex picture, but there are some fundamental guidelines. So for instance,
Celynn Morin: the research shows that eating more plant based foods
Celynn Morin: generally is good for us. A lot of us don't eat enough plant based foods.
Celynn Morin: We have a lot of processed refined foods, high sugar, high
Celynn Morin: flour, a lot of animal products. But if we
Celynn Morin: make a point to include what I call it eating like an artist, so
Celynn Morin: having a lot of color from nature, that can help you
Celynn Morin: paint better health because we know that if you eat the more
Celynn Morin: of a variety of foods that you eat, the more of a variety of microbiome
Celynn Morin: you Happen, and the more exposure you get to all the vitamins, all the minerals,
Celynn Morin: all the antioxidants, and the chemicals that can do good. Bites
Joanne Lockwood: I know, but I'm stressed or focused or
Joanne Lockwood: really got my head down. I I lose my appetite. Is that is
Joanne Lockwood: that all part of it? Because because my brain is so busy thinking about
Joanne Lockwood: stuff. It's not thinking about being hungry. Yeah. That
Celynn Morin: that's part of the stress response for some of us when we're feeling
Celynn Morin: particularly perhaps not stressed, but focused on something. It's not
Celynn Morin: important for your digestive system to digest your breakfast if you've got
Celynn Morin: a clear outcome and your mind has now decided you've got to finish that article
Celynn Morin: or record that podcast or, you know, work through the client list.
Celynn Morin: And so a lot of the blood will then move away from the internal organs,
Celynn Morin: the digestive system towards the brain. However, some of us
Celynn Morin: may find that we have an increased appetite, especially for sugary foods,
Celynn Morin: because when we are feeling stressed, we release more cortisol
Celynn Morin: and glycogen and glucose into the blood, and so you can then crave sweet things,
Celynn Morin: which is why when people are stressed, they often say, I have to eat more
Celynn Morin: cake or I really feel like alcohol or I need stimulants.
Celynn Morin: And so we can get end up being caught in that spiral where it can
Celynn Morin: be quite difficult to break it. I mean, if all this stuff was easy, right,
Celynn Morin: Joanne, we would all be doing it. We would be healthier, happier, fitter, and I
Celynn Morin: wouldn't have a job. So it's not that simple. Even if we know
Celynn Morin: everything we need to do, a lot of what I talk about is the psychology
Celynn Morin: of behavior change and understanding neuroscience and also
Celynn Morin: understanding our psychological makeup. Like,
Celynn Morin: different personality types have different habits, and and I don't
Celynn Morin: think we give consideration to our uniqueness enough when it
Celynn Morin: comes to well-being. Yeah. So I'd say that I think yeah. Because we have
Joanne Lockwood: this sort of concept of comfort eating, don't we? We as as you see, when
Joanne Lockwood: we're feeling sad, upset, stressed, whatever
Joanne Lockwood: it may be, we turn to something generally
Joanne Lockwood: Safety, and, you know, the chocolates go out, whatever it may be,
Joanne Lockwood: or the glass of Bites, potentially. And that's all
Joanne Lockwood: about the brain chemicals, the pleasure sensors, and things. So we're
Joanne Lockwood: we're rewarding ourselves, aren't we, effectively, by by boosting our
Joanne Lockwood: brain to to think in a happier way. And we, I guess, that
Joanne Lockwood: becomes kind of addictive or or or
Joanne Lockwood: a cycle that we can't break out of because we associate
Joanne Lockwood: eating this with feeling better. Therefore, if we're not feeling great, we want
Joanne Lockwood: to eat something to feel Bites. That that's kind of the the addiction cycle of
Joanne Lockwood: the sugars and chocolates and stuff, isn't it? Absolutely. And it gets so
Celynn Morin: reinforced and embodied through our upbringing because our parents'
Celynn Morin: parents' parents did that, you know, you know, to make us feel better, they would
Celynn Morin: treat us with food often. It also gets deeply, deeply embedded
Celynn Morin: and advertised and marketed by our environment, you know, the food
Celynn Morin: industry. We don't particularly live in a society that
Celynn Morin: encourages well-being, you know, so I don't wanna go down that route. It's a bit
Celynn Morin: too Psychological, but, you know, the health care pharmaceutical industry is
Celynn Morin: massive, and it's in their best interest that we are not healthy and well and
Celynn Morin: dancing with vitality. And so for many of us, it really
Celynn Morin: means investing in ourselves and not relying on
Celynn Morin: the greater society to take care of us. It's about taking
Celynn Morin: accountability and responsibility for yourself, asking questions,
Celynn Morin: trying things, getting the right advice from the right places, because there's lots of people
Celynn Morin: giving advice out there. It doesn't mean that it's the right advice for you. Yeah.
Joanne Lockwood: So I'm I'm I'm just casting my mind back to Christmas as a
Joanne Lockwood: as an example of just thinking my own my own cycles
Joanne Lockwood: of of eating and alertness. You know, we we the chocolates
Joanne Lockwood: come out because we're we're bored. We're watching telly. We're having family time. We're feeling
Joanne Lockwood: happy. We're sharing. We have our massive Christmas dinner, and, of course, we
Joanne Lockwood: wanna be like the lions on the Serengeti. We eat a big meal, and then
Joanne Lockwood: then we wanna go to sleep for 2 days. It's kind of so
Joanne Lockwood: overeating, again, pulls all the blood, I suppose, from
Joanne Lockwood: your brain into the gut to process all this stuff, and it it caused that
Joanne Lockwood: sluggishness and that Yes. Gluttony response, I
Joanne Lockwood: guess. Yeah. So that's also another direct link between how we eat and what we
Celynn Morin: eat and how it affects our energy levels. Yeah. So
Celynn Morin: I think it's wonderful. I always say start with awareness, like, become more
Celynn Morin: aware of how your body is when you're eating, when you're not
Celynn Morin: eating, when you're drinking, when you're not drinking, when you're out in nature, when you're
Celynn Morin: not, when you're at your desk. If we just ask ourselves a question every
Celynn Morin: now and again, how am I? That self awareness
Celynn Morin: can start to lead to being able to make more conscious decisions. Because
Celynn Morin: sometimes, you know, in the afternoon, you could be tired. You could have a
Celynn Morin: headache. You could you could think you're hungry, but maybe you're just dehydrated.
Celynn Morin: And if you checked in with yourself before you reached for a packet of crisps,
Celynn Morin: you may see, okay. Yeah. Gosh. I've had only 2 cups of coffee. Let me
Celynn Morin: get a glass of water or some tea, and then I'll make a decision whether
Celynn Morin: I'm actually hungry. So that self awareness can lead to
Celynn Morin: better choices. Yeah. I I found that when I if I have a
Joanne Lockwood: a large glass of water, half yeah. 500 milliliters,
Joanne Lockwood: something like that before I eat, it means that I'm I'm full
Joanne Lockwood: quicker as well. It means I'm not tempted to finish
Joanne Lockwood: that dish or have the 2nd course or go on from well, maybe
Joanne Lockwood: I always do go for dessert, but, it it it makes you conscious about
Joanne Lockwood: your your level of hunger. Whereas if you just eat on an
Joanne Lockwood: empty stomach, your brain doesn't realize you're full until you've
Joanne Lockwood: eaten too much. And then you get the, oh, I've eaten too much feeling rather
Joanne Lockwood: than the sufficiency feeling, which is probably more healthy for us.
Celynn Morin: Exactly. Exactly. It's I I find it so difficult
Joanne Lockwood: to to snack healthily. Yeah. And you should say that the whole
Joanne Lockwood: industry is around feeding our our addictions
Joanne Lockwood: to whatever it may be. You know, if I if I'm on a long journey,
Joanne Lockwood: I wanna stop off to fill up with petrol while I'm in there, pick
Joanne Lockwood: up something to snack on. It's not easy to snack on something
Joanne Lockwood: light and healthy. It's it's all pastry based or fat Bites.
Joanne Lockwood: And I'd I'd I'd grab a bag of carrots and a batons and
Joanne Lockwood: and and snack on carrots or something, but it's you you just don't
Joanne Lockwood: find those around, do you? No. It isn't easy. I mean, you can make
Celynn Morin: some choices. Like, you know, you may not be able to find carrots, but you
Celynn Morin: could find maybe a tub of hummus or some other dip and maybe
Celynn Morin: some cornstons, raw and and perhaps even some what we
Celynn Morin: call, you know, like small bite sized pieces of
Celynn Morin: vegetables. Ideally, when you have the opportunity
Celynn Morin: to eat well, eat well. And if you can, stock up your environment with some
Celynn Morin: options. So, like, for instance, later this afternoon, I'm going to be driving
Celynn Morin: 2 hours to go dancing. I go once a month to this beautiful place in
Celynn Morin: Oxford. And I know that I'm gonna be starving when I drive the 2 hours
Celynn Morin: home at midnight. So I'm gonna take snacks with me in the car because
Celynn Morin: otherwise, I'm going to end up at a garage and be like, okay. Do I
Celynn Morin: buy Doritos again? Because that's what I always go for if I don't have snacks
Celynn Morin: in the car. Yeah.
Joanne Lockwood: No. I I yeah. You're right. It's it's it is about I mean, we're
Joanne Lockwood: adults. We we we know this. We know the game. We know the situation. We
Joanne Lockwood: know what's gonna happen, and we can plan ahead. And when my wife and
Joanne Lockwood: I, we go to the cinema, we we take our own coffee now and our
Joanne Lockwood: own little flask because we know that it's £3.50 per per cup of coffee
Joanne Lockwood: in the cinema. So we take our own thermos cups,
Joanne Lockwood: and we we take our own little snacks, which is generally grapes or
Joanne Lockwood: crudites or something like that. Or if it is lunchtime, we'll we'll make our
Joanne Lockwood: own sandwich or something so we know what's in it. Because I suppose you get
Joanne Lockwood: there, and it's hot dog or popcorn, which neither are are gonna
Joanne Lockwood: actually do anything for us. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. It's the planning
Joanne Lockwood: ahead and and and and being an adult, really, isn't it? I
Celynn Morin: like that. I've never heard of it as a term of being an adult. Yeah.
Celynn Morin: I think it's about taking responsibility for yourself rather than it's so easy
Celynn Morin: to blame and shame and point outwards. But there's some people that are getting
Celynn Morin: it right, and we're all living in the same communities in society. So
Celynn Morin: maybe find people that are role modeling better behavior or something you
Celynn Morin: would like to aspire to, and then make it possible rather than
Celynn Morin: Bites too difficult. It's too expensive. It takes too much time. I can't do it.
Celynn Morin: Yeah. I think you said a bit earlier about being conscious
Joanne Lockwood: of what you consume. And I'm on a
Joanne Lockwood: journey this year, and I I'm not sure the word journey is always appropriate,
Joanne Lockwood: but to try and lose weight. So I'm not I'm not trying to go on
Joanne Lockwood: a what I call a diet, you know, in in real terms. But
Joanne Lockwood: my objective is to be a lot lighter by the end of the year through
Joanne Lockwood: some of Bites through fitness. I have a personal trainer. I
Joanne Lockwood: go to the gym twice a week. I'm starting to do more walking. I wanna
Joanne Lockwood: get back on my ebike Bites sort of things. But the other thing that my
Joanne Lockwood: wife and I are doing is we're keeping a food diary. Mhmm.
Joanne Lockwood: And we we scan barcodes into it. We take photographs of
Joanne Lockwood: it. We record everything we're eating, or even down to the just
Joanne Lockwood: 2 shakes of black pepper we put on our dinner. We put in that in
Joanne Lockwood: there as well. And just the act of putting into the app
Joanne Lockwood: and recording it makes you really conscious about what you're
Joanne Lockwood: gonna eat. It also makes you conscious about your next choice. Because
Joanne Lockwood: if we're trying to hit a a calorie target, let's say, 1750
Joanne Lockwood: calories a day, when we're sitting there, when we've got 1300
Joanne Lockwood: spent and we've got 400 left. We're thinking, how do I wanna use that
Joanne Lockwood: 400? What do I really wanna do with that? And it's like, if I have
Joanne Lockwood: that now, I can't have that. So yesterday, we were out and have in a
Joanne Lockwood: coffee shop, and there was a a chocolate muffin staring at us. You know,
Joanne Lockwood: like they do. They they Bites on the counter saying, eat me eat me. And
Joanne Lockwood: we we kind of looked at it and said, we can't afford a whole one
Joanne Lockwood: each in terms of our intake, but we can share it and have half.
Joanne Lockwood: And that's what we found. We found recently that we we end up eating meals
Joanne Lockwood: that are too big, but we end up finishing it because it's there.
Joanne Lockwood: And we we were I think we were at the Safety Sart Museum in London
Joanne Lockwood: the other see, and, we we realized what we could have done was shared
Joanne Lockwood: that one meal between us and be perfectly happy for lunch
Joanne Lockwood: rather than force that extra bit into your mouth. So this
Joanne Lockwood: food diary is really making us, you know, that word you say, conscious
Joanne Lockwood: about our intake and then making smarter decisions
Joanne Lockwood: based on the investment we wanna make into the food
Joanne Lockwood: we're putting inside us. And it it I'm not saying we're we're
Joanne Lockwood: necessarily healthy in terms of carbohydrates and fats
Joanne Lockwood: and sugars. And we're not necessarily reading the label, but we are kinda
Joanne Lockwood: looking at the gross calorific, if you like, value,
Joanne Lockwood: whatever that's worth. So, yeah, very conscious about it now. So that's a
Celynn Morin: great example of how being more conscious can drive awareness, and it's driving
Celynn Morin: choices. Even if you do still decide to have the muffin, I think that's wonderful.
Celynn Morin: And now that you've shared it, how many other future desserts and snacks
Celynn Morin: might you share with your wife because of that one piece of
Celynn Morin: information? Yeah. It was a conscious realism
Joanne Lockwood: reality that we we when we were at the say the countryside, we sat there
Joanne Lockwood: and thought, we should Happen shared that. A, it's cheaper, because
Joanne Lockwood: it's not cheap. And and, b, we didn't need it.
Joanne Lockwood: And, c, we then occupy we we then consume more calories than we
Joanne Lockwood: wanted to on a meal snack rather than a main meal
Joanne Lockwood: that we would have enjoyed better later. So, yeah, I we've
Joanne Lockwood: we've made a conscious decision now that to buy 1 and
Joanne Lockwood: share it and get an extra plate, get a knife, cut it in half. So,
Joanne Lockwood: yeah, we we are more conscious of that. And the objective, we're both trying
Joanne Lockwood: to get to this weight target without without calling it a diet. It's it's
Joanne Lockwood: conscious eating. I think it's probably the way that that dovetails
Joanne Lockwood: into what you said. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, I always say the first three
Celynn Morin: letters of the word diet give you an idea of what it is. It's
Celynn Morin: usually about the deprivation, denial, and we don't get very
Celynn Morin: excited about it. So, yeah, my approach has never been about dieting. It's always
Celynn Morin: been about lifestyle and joy because food is
Celynn Morin: meant to nourish us, and it's a wonderful opportunity for us to engage the
Celynn Morin: senses, you know, sight and smell and taste
Celynn Morin: and texture. So, yeah, I think it is
Celynn Morin: meant to be part of that holistic enjoyment of life.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. And the color and the and also the social element.
Joanne Lockwood: Because one thing I noticed, you know, way back in the past, I
Joanne Lockwood: used to smoke. I gave up smoking because it's bad for you.
Joanne Lockwood: It didn't do anything for me. And, yeah, it was a it became clear it
Joanne Lockwood: was just an addiction. The topic of food is you can't avoid eating, can you?
Joanne Lockwood: You you have to eat to live. Yeah. It's just the choices of the food
Joanne Lockwood: and the amount you you you consume, that you have choice over. But it's
Joanne Lockwood: I think I when I see my GP about this, he he said, the body
Joanne Lockwood: is not designed to lose weight. You lose weight, and the body is
Joanne Lockwood: designed to keep a certain healthiness or build
Joanne Lockwood: up fat stores or, you know, we go back into our prehistoric time. Human
Joanne Lockwood: body wasn't designed to to be skinny. It was designed to burn energy
Joanne Lockwood: and store it when needed. And we haven't forgotten that we don't need to store
Joanne Lockwood: energy in the same way we used to, But our bodies still want to do
Joanne Lockwood: it, and it it's a really hard thing to overcome that that desire. Because when
Joanne Lockwood: we're putting on weight and eating and eating and eating, it's
Joanne Lockwood: fun. We're social. It's it's it's Bites feeding our
Joanne Lockwood: chemicals. When we're denying ourselves, we feel
Joanne Lockwood: empty and sad and kind of it's it's trying to just change that
Joanne Lockwood: relationship, isn't it? Yeah. And perhaps it's true that a
Celynn Morin: vacuum or a void is never enjoyable and bad habits
Celynn Morin: always then get sucked back in. So if you are going to make a
Celynn Morin: change to see the way that you eat, it's important to think about what you
Celynn Morin: can add in. So I speak in my workshops around, loss
Celynn Morin: aversion. We have an aversion to loss and losing out. So
Celynn Morin: knowing that, let's say you want to drink less alcohol because you know it's high
Celynn Morin: in calories and you, you know, you're wanting to perhaps lose a bit of weight
Celynn Morin: or you wanna see better at night. Instead of coming home and
Celynn Morin: thinking, I can't drink. I can't drink. What can you add
Celynn Morin: in that might help you displace the fact that you
Celynn Morin: were going to drink? So an example, I love to drink
Celynn Morin: a good quality wine. I used to enjoy drinking wine while I
Celynn Morin: cook. However, as I've gone gotten into mid middle age
Celynn Morin: Joanne I'm definitely, you know, going through the perimenopause, I just can't drink as much
Celynn Morin: alcohol as I could before. I don't tolerate it well. So I can't drink
Celynn Morin: while I'm cooking and drink wine with my meal. So what I do is I
Celynn Morin: use a wine glass and I fill it with sparkling water, maybe a slice of
Celynn Morin: lemon or lime or maraschino cherry, and it feels like I'm
Celynn Morin: drinking at least something special while I'm preparing my meal, and then
Celynn Morin: I have a glass of wine with my meal. So I don't feel like in
Celynn Morin: that moment that I'm denying myself because I've added something
Celynn Morin: in. And let's say you're feeling quite stressed and you're used to eating
Celynn Morin: chocolate or something else to de stress. What if you
Celynn Morin: taught yourself some breathing techniques? What if you taught yourself
Celynn Morin: particular types of movements that you could do, or maybe
Celynn Morin: there's music that you could listen to that can help change your states, that can
Celynn Morin: lift your spirit? So you end up doing something
Celynn Morin: in place of the eating the chocolate instead of just saying, I can't have chocolate.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. I'm I'm a great advocate for sparkling water. We bought ourselves a
Joanne Lockwood: SodaStream, and, I gave her back a whole
Joanne Lockwood: 780 days away ago. I mean,
Joanne Lockwood: rather than record it at the end where I say I didn't drink. No. I'm
Joanne Lockwood: not gonna drink. So it's a very positive affirmation about my my drinking.
Joanne Lockwood: And I've now got an investment of 780 days in not
Joanne Lockwood: drinking. Why would I want to start again? I
Joanne Lockwood: don't. So it's I've I've I've kind of got this momentum now, and
Joanne Lockwood: I'm now proud, not not outwardly proud, but inwardly
Joanne Lockwood: proud of of that number that I wanna protect it.
Joanne Lockwood: So, yeah, it means more to me to not drink than ever will
Joanne Lockwood: to want to drink. And I hope my whatever happens in
Joanne Lockwood: my life, I maintain that. I don't I don't ever fall back on it. But
Joanne Lockwood: yeah. And I I agree with you. The sparkling water, I bought SodaStream. I said,
Joanne Lockwood: just that that buzz in your mouth. And I noticed you in the show
Joanne Lockwood: Bites, you talk about champagne and, how that the the metaphor
Joanne Lockwood: around Change, but that dancing of the bubbles on your tongue
Joanne Lockwood: and the way it makes you feel is very invigorating, isn't
Joanne Lockwood: it? Absolutely. Yeah. And, how
Celynn Morin: wonderful that we are so unique, Joanne, because I just last night opened a bottle
Celynn Morin: of champagne and posted about it because I live on my own, and my
Celynn Morin: mind was saying, you can't open a bottle Change. Who opens a bottle of champagne
Celynn Morin: on there? Wait till you've got company. And I'm like, if I wait, I might
Celynn Morin: not be around tomorrow, and I am not gonna have guaranteed of
Celynn Morin: company anytime soon. So I posted about why,
Celynn Morin: for me, I and I will just have one glass because I've got really good
Celynn Morin: quality stoppers that keep the bottle for days days. And for me, it's
Celynn Morin: about quality over quantity. And I also
Celynn Morin: my whole family come from the champagne region in France. So I have this
Celynn Morin: deep understanding of how Change works, and one of the workshops I
Celynn Morin: offer is, around the champagne
Celynn Morin: or sparkling wine making process as a metaphor for well-being.
Celynn Morin: And I always see, I'm not advocating that we should drink alcohol. We know alcohol
Celynn Morin: is really not good for us. We would probably all be better off if we
Celynn Morin: were more like you, Joanne, and not drinking alcohol, that
Celynn Morin: is because, yeah, I don't think we fully appreciate the effect it
Celynn Morin: has on us. But if we are going to drink, to do it in the
Celynn Morin: same way that we would eat a muffin or a slice of cake or a
Celynn Morin: bag of crisps or any meal is to do it with consciousness and joy
Celynn Morin: instead of doing it maybe to reduce stress or, like I
Celynn Morin: say, don't drink to forget, Drink to celebrate.
Celynn Morin: So if you are going to drink alcohol, come from a good positive place
Celynn Morin: rather than I've had such a hard day, my boss and my managers drive me
Celynn Morin: mad, or I just wanna have this drink and then I can face the kids.
Celynn Morin: Yeah. Then it's used as a crutch rather than something to uplift and
Celynn Morin: leverage joy. Yeah. And that that goes back to the the chocolates, the cream
Joanne Lockwood: cake, and the other things that we we we comfort
Joanne Lockwood: eat. Actually, we're we're trying to mask and cover the
Joanne Lockwood: underlying reality of what we're going through, using food or
Joanne Lockwood: alcohol as a, as you say, a crutch to to boost us
Joanne Lockwood: up. And I do feel that if we taught
Celynn Morin: ourselves to be more still more
Celynn Morin: often, It would be easier to manage any of these,
Celynn Morin: I don't know if we should call them vices, but any of these other
Celynn Morin: behaviors. And what I mean by that is often,
Celynn Morin: we have a form of so stress is a form of agitation. It's a
Celynn Morin: buildup of the need for the body to to fight or
Celynn Morin: to flee or to do something. And so we often end up doing something,
Celynn Morin: be that talking, driving, working,
Celynn Morin: eating, drinking. And what if we learn to
Celynn Morin: sit in stillness and just be with
Celynn Morin: our breath, with ourselves, with our thoughts, with the feelings?
Celynn Morin: And I find the more that I do that lately, the easier
Celynn Morin: it's becoming for me to not automatically reach for something to eat or
Celynn Morin: drink or to keep on working because I tend to go to workaholism if I'm
Celynn Morin: quite stressed, and I'm feeling fearful or guilty. So
Celynn Morin: that's something I haven't spoken a lot about, but I'm going to this year, is
Celynn Morin: how can we cultivate more stillness and comfort with just
Celynn Morin: being in the moment without having to do anything? And
Celynn Morin: what helps with that is to also be able to regulate our breath. So a
Celynn Morin: lot of what I teach is around being mindful breathers,
Celynn Morin: being conscious breathers, knowing how to breathe correctly, because we get
Celynn Morin: very tight and constricted when we're stressed and end up almost hyperventilating.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. Again, I I've got I've I've got see of relief on that.
Joanne Lockwood: I've I've I don't know if it was an Apple Watch update I got recently,
Joanne Lockwood: but all of a sudden, it's now asking me every so often to do
Joanne Lockwood: a a a mindfulness exercise, a 10 minute just
Joanne Lockwood: consciously breathing. And you you get a voice over from the
Joanne Lockwood: watch sort of saying, listen to your breath. Listen to how it
Joanne Lockwood: sounds. You know, bring yourself into a place that your mind wander,
Joanne Lockwood: and then be conscious of your breathing all the way through. It's a fascinating
Joanne Lockwood: 10 minutes, and I'm I'm surprised how quickly that 10 minute passes
Joanne Lockwood: just by focusing on it, on your breathing. And towards the end, it says
Joanne Lockwood: right now, now see more conscious about your breathing and bring it back.
Joanne Lockwood: Become aware of the surroundings, and it's like, and it's a really,
Joanne Lockwood: really deep experience. I've until recently, I'd I'd never explored breathing
Joanne Lockwood: in that way, and it's it's a fascinating thing for self awareness,
Joanne Lockwood: self care, and just relaxation. Yeah. That's wonderful. Because
Celynn Morin: when you regulate your breathing, when you slow it down, and that can happen in,
Celynn Morin: in as few as, you know, 2 or 3 breaths,
Celynn Morin: you reduce your blood pressure, you increase what we call heart rate variability, which
Celynn Morin: is an important predictor for well-being and stress management.
Celynn Morin: You help the the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the
Celynn Morin: part of the nervous system that brings on digestion,
Celynn Morin: healing, resting, restoration, and we also help our brainwaves
Celynn Morin: to slow down. So we go from, like, beta brainwave, which is when we're super
Celynn Morin: alert and quite stressed, to perhaps more alpha brainwave,
Celynn Morin: which can help us be more creative. It encourages more whole brain
Celynn Morin: thinking. And that's why I don't know if you found that already or
Celynn Morin: perhaps as you sit more still and have these moments of mindfulness
Celynn Morin: that you problem solve, that you remember something that you would have forgotten or
Celynn Morin: all of a sudden you're like, oh, that's what I need to do with that
Celynn Morin: issue. And that's because the brain is more creative and able to think
Celynn Morin: more holistically. Yeah. That that reminds me of the story I've got. Jo I
Joanne Lockwood: was I I have high blood pressure, jo I'm on medication. And
Joanne Lockwood: every so often, I have to go to my GP and have my
Joanne Lockwood: blood pressure taken. And when I sit in the chair, then the I I decided
Joanne Lockwood: to just give me a second. And I I center myself and get
Joanne Lockwood: myself to a position where all of that car journey, all of the waiting room,
Joanne Lockwood: all of the stress I had before I went into that room, I just bring
Joanne Lockwood: myself down. And she says, what are you doing? I said, I'm just trying to
Joanne Lockwood: center myself to get my blood pressure down to 18 120 over
Joanne Lockwood: 80. And she says she looks at me like I'm crazy. And
Joanne Lockwood: she says, my blood pressure. She said, wow. Yeah. 122 over
Joanne Lockwood: 76. And I go, there we are. Right right over now. Because I know if
Joanne Lockwood: I sit there, it's gonna be 140 over 110 or something if I just
Joanne Lockwood: go into it without that. But literally, as you say, within a few breaths, within
Joanne Lockwood: a few moments, I can literally just almost pull my hand over my face,
Joanne Lockwood: down my body. Oh. And as I do it, I just let that calmness
Joanne Lockwood: take over, and I go, okay. I'm now ready. Go for it. And I
Joanne Lockwood: also find that when dealing with problems,
Joanne Lockwood: yeah, because we we're very quick to react to things. If we're not careful,
Joanne Lockwood: this you know, the parasympathetic.
Joanne Lockwood: Some have you spoke? The vagus the vagus nerve kicks in, doesn't it?
Joanne Lockwood: And drives all these adrenalin and the the brain chemicals fly. And if
Joanne Lockwood: we're not in the right state of consciousness, we we don't
Joanne Lockwood: communicate effectively. We don't listen effectively. And it's about bringing
Joanne Lockwood: ourselves centering us. And sometimes I found when I'm in that stressful situation, I need
Joanne Lockwood: to just put my hand over my face, down my body, breathe, and see,
Joanne Lockwood: right now, I'm ready to communicate. I'm now
Joanne Lockwood: centered. I'm now my mind is alert for for you.
Joanne Lockwood: Whereas before, it was it was somewhere else. I think my my my work as
Joanne Lockwood: an inclusion specialist, it's trying to press pause on
Joanne Lockwood: things to slow down thinking rather than people being hot headed and
Joanne Lockwood: diving straight in. And that that's that's exactly what you're advocating here, isn't it?
Celynn Morin: It's the same. I mean, we both know as professional speakers, I know that if
Celynn Morin: I walk onto a stage or a platform and I don't take
Celynn Morin: that one deep breath and mindfully ground myself before I speak,
Celynn Morin: I give a very different presentation. You know, I can start off feeling
Celynn Morin: a bit rushed and hyper alert, almost like I've had too much caffeine. I can
Celynn Morin: maybe stutter because as a child, I had quite a a I had a bad
Celynn Morin: stutter, and it comes back when I'm stressed or tired. So, yeah, those
Celynn Morin: little moments and often the people I work with feel like they're just too
Celynn Morin: stressed or too busy to take time out. They're like, yeah, but I can't do
Celynn Morin: that. I'm too busy. I've got, like, 7 back to back meetings every day.
Celynn Morin: And then when they try, you know, one mindful minute or understanding how
Celynn Morin: to use what you just spoke about in anchor, like moving your hand down your
Celynn Morin: face, how powerful it can be and how it makes us more productive and gives
Celynn Morin: us clearer mind and thoughts jo we actually get more done in less
Celynn Morin: time, we make those mistakes, that we can
Celynn Morin: gain time by doing that. Yeah. And you see we've got back
Joanne Lockwood: to back meetings, and you can always turn the camera off for 30 seconds
Joanne Lockwood: and just say, one moment. I'm just I'm just sorting something out. I'll be with
Joanne Lockwood: you in 2 seconds. see to yourself, and then say, right. Now I'm
Joanne Lockwood: ready. Bites we don't have to be minute perfect. As
Joanne Lockwood: long as we connect, as long as people know we're there to say, sorry.
Joanne Lockwood: I I see the bathroom. One moment, please. I need to get a glass of
Joanne Lockwood: water. Whatever it is, those are genuine human
Joanne Lockwood: interactions that people don't, no problem at all. Take your time. It's fine.
Joanne Lockwood: Then you realize you don't need permission. But by
Joanne Lockwood: interacting, you buy yourself that time to create
Joanne Lockwood: that that distressing, that, calmness you
Joanne Lockwood: need rather than feel like you're under this demand pressure
Joanne Lockwood: of having to be then Mhmm. Probably fine. The person you're talking to
Joanne Lockwood: goes, oh, that's great. I could do it a second as well. Thank you.
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. And it's off on the way. Absolutely. Do you mind if
Joanne Lockwood: I dive into some of your past? You know, you put it in the show
Joanne Lockwood: notes, and I'm I'm I'm curious about you say you're single now,
Joanne Lockwood: but you weren't always single. You you've been in relationships. Do you do you wanna
Joanne Lockwood: are you are you willing to share a bit about that that past?
Celynn Morin: Yes. Yes. When I was 18, I had, for the
Celynn Morin: past few years before then, done some searching. I wasn't very happy
Celynn Morin: with the Catholic church, which is what I grew up with, and it
Celynn Morin: brought me to I went to a few churches, and then I discovered a conservative
Celynn Morin: Christian community. Some people may know them, the Jehovah's Witnesses,
Celynn Morin: and I decided to join them because they really provided what it was that I
Celynn Morin: was searching for at the time. And then I also met my
Celynn Morin: husband, and so we got married when I was 23,
Celynn Morin: and we were married or well, we were together for
Celynn Morin: 18 years, married for 13 of those. And then at the age
Celynn Morin: of 36, I decided that that community was no longer
Celynn Morin: where I wanted to be, and so I left. So that's a little bit
Celynn Morin: about my past. I have been married, and I thought
Celynn Morin: that that was going to be it for the rest of my life, that I
Celynn Morin: was going to be in this monogamous relationship. But as we know,
Celynn Morin: life isn't always as we think it's going to be, especially not when we're 18
Celynn Morin: years old. I think at any time, really, we can't predict what's going to
Celynn Morin: happen tomorrow, let alone in a week or a year's time.
Joanne Lockwood: How did you find leaving because it the community.
Joanne Lockwood: Because it it is a community where you
Joanne Lockwood: live by like see do in in in society, we live by a certain
Joanne Lockwood: rule base, but you must have been living in a in a in a
Joanne Lockwood: a less open rule base, more restricted sort of,
Joanne Lockwood: lifestyle. How did you find coming out of that in
Joanne Lockwood: into the the wider world again? Was that a a shock to the system? It
Joanne Lockwood: was something you craved or had did you take an adjustment at the time?
Celynn Morin: Yeah. That's a great question, actually. I
Celynn Morin: it wasn't an easy process for me because I I I take
Celynn Morin: I still do my spirituality quite seriously. So for
Celynn Morin: me, it was more than just the community. It was really I had
Celynn Morin: identified so strongly with that belief system that, you know, I would have
Celynn Morin: called it my truth. And so the biggest lesson I've had from that
Celynn Morin: experience is I will never call anything my truth again
Celynn Morin: because I don't know if it's going to change. So at
Celynn Morin: that time, I was convinced this was it. I said my marriage vows that I
Celynn Morin: would stay with my husband till death do us part, and I really believe
Celynn Morin: that I had found the answer to my
Celynn Morin: spiritual questions. However, now I completely you
Celynn Morin: know, I don't agree with that thought process at all. And so I had some
Celynn Morin: shame around that, a lot of shame actually, and guilt around
Celynn Morin: I felt like I had let people down, family, friends, people
Celynn Morin: in that community. So it's been a very
Celynn Morin: sacred and delicate journey. You know? It's been almost 10
Celynn Morin: years now and 7 years since I've been in the UK, and moving
Celynn Morin: to the United Kingdom was one of the best decisions I made because I
Celynn Morin: had to move I had to create distance between that part of my
Celynn Morin: life. And so being in the UK enabled me to
Celynn Morin: almost have a fresh start and discover who
Celynn Morin: am I if I don't have a religious body
Celynn Morin: telling me how to be or the patriarchy or a
Celynn Morin: husband even. You know? And so it's Belonging a
Celynn Morin: very adventurous 7 years discovering who am I at my
Celynn Morin: essence, and I'm not quite there, I can still feel there's parts of
Celynn Morin: me that are still to be discovered, but there's much less shame and
Celynn Morin: guilt, there's much more curiosity and joy and
Celynn Morin: love and love. I have so much more love for everyone
Celynn Morin: if you are Jehovah's Witness or not. I think what we need is much
Celynn Morin: more unconditional love. Bites huge for life is is a
Joanne Lockwood: Wellbeing the time you you left at 36, it was half of
Joanne Lockwood: your life. All of your adult life, and the
Joanne Lockwood: formative years in your twenties. It must be really
Joanne Lockwood: difficult because, presumably, you you you have to break
Joanne Lockwood: almost completely. You don't necessarily pop back and say hi or keep in
Joanne Lockwood: touch as as you would because Bites kind of a
Joanne Lockwood: complete separation. Is that is that how I'm interpreting it?
Celynn Morin: Yes. Yes. There are people that were considered my best friends that I've never
Celynn Morin: spoken to in a decade because I've left. Yeah.
Celynn Morin: But you know what, Joanne? I I understand it because, you know, we were all
Celynn Morin: playing, let's say, football, you know, and then I
Celynn Morin: decided to play hockey. So you can't play hockey on a
Celynn Morin: football pitch or field, so you've got to leave. Otherwise, you're gonna upset the other
Celynn Morin: players. It's not fair because the rules are Diversity, you know, and then
Celynn Morin: it's confusing. And so that's how I looked at it. I just wanted to play
Celynn Morin: a different sport, and that doesn't make me right and them wrong
Celynn Morin: or the other way around.
Celynn Morin: Yeah. And the more I learn about myself and the world, the
Celynn Morin: the less I believe any of us have got the answers. And I truly
Celynn Morin: believe I'd love us to come to a place where and this is from
Celynn Morin: doctor Zach Busch. He's a health practitioner that I'm Wellbeing following a lot at the
Celynn Morin: moment, who speaks about how ideally we should get to a place where we don't
Celynn Morin: have any titles. You know, so it doesn't
Celynn Morin: matter if you're he, her, she, him, or what you believe,
Celynn Morin: or what your age is, we're human. Having this human
Celynn Morin: experience, and that's a beautiful thing that should be respected,
Celynn Morin: and ideally, we should always treat each other from a place of
Celynn Morin: love and respect. I completely agree, and
Joanne Lockwood: I I think the boxes we we create for ourself or given
Joanne Lockwood: to us by other people limit our potential.
Joanne Lockwood: But society is kind of built around
Joanne Lockwood: certainty and definitions, and our brain is designed to
Joanne Lockwood: have stereotypes. And, Pat, we like to better say, well, you're one of
Joanne Lockwood: these and you're one of those, because that makes me feel comfortable knowing who I
Joanne Lockwood: am as well. It takes Joanne enlightened mind to step out of those
Joanne Lockwood: constructs and and call it out for the BS
Joanne Lockwood: that it potentially is. I mean, when I to use your analogy, when
Joanne Lockwood: I gender transitioned, I stopped playing football Joanne started
Joanne Lockwood: playing hockey. And I I walked away from a
Joanne Lockwood: large chunk of my life because they're football players. And
Joanne Lockwood: I we we haven't got anything to talk about anymore because I'm more
Joanne Lockwood: interested in shooting the, the the ball into the back of the net with
Joanne Lockwood: my stick. And it's it's a and it and it is it's it's
Joanne Lockwood: sad sometimes that I've broken away from a lot of Belonging
Joanne Lockwood: standing relationships. But in a way, it's also very cathartic and
Joanne Lockwood: very empowering to find, as you
Joanne Lockwood: my current truth, my current sense of self, my my who I am
Joanne Lockwood: today has evolved. And I allowed myself to
Joanne Lockwood: reshift my thinking about myself. And I I I think you're right. I'm
Joanne Lockwood: always evolving myself on a micro level. I'm always learning,
Joanne Lockwood: always growing. So day by day, I do a lot of self reflection
Joanne Lockwood: about who I am, not to judge myself, but just to sort of say, it's
Joanne Lockwood: okay. Just figure it out. And having conversations like these, and this is why I
Joanne Lockwood: love recording this podcast, is I meet so many fascinating people.
Joanne Lockwood: It allows me to have a network micro growth, if you like,
Joanne Lockwood: every every conversation I have. Yeah. One of my values is,
Celynn Morin: curiosity. So I always want to stay curious about myself,
Celynn Morin: about others, about the greater world at large. And
Celynn Morin: also for me, it's joy. So joy and freedom are possibly the 2
Celynn Morin: things that matter the most to me. And I think, you know, I don't know
Celynn Morin: if everybody can answer that question. Like, what are your 2 or 3 top
Celynn Morin: values? You know, what is driving your your behaviors and
Celynn Morin: thoughts and actions? And that alone can be really enriching.
Celynn Morin: So I've done a lot of work with many coaches, many therapists. I
Celynn Morin: use different systems like the Enneagram, and currently, I'm using see
Celynn Morin: keys. I'm very interested in mysticism
Celynn Morin: and shamanism at the moment and connecting more with nature.
Celynn Morin: And I think if we just always stay curious and ask questions and never accept
Celynn Morin: the status quo because we don't have control. We're we're
Celynn Morin: our infinite energy having a finite experience.
Celynn Morin: And I think we want to keep things the same, especially if we're Happen,
Celynn Morin: you know, if we're in a certain relationship or we've got a certain job and
Celynn Morin: the kids are doing well and we're about to go on vacation or holiday,
Celynn Morin: then we allow ourselves to be Happen. We don't want anything to Change. But that's
Celynn Morin: not what life is about. You know? The weather's always gonna change, and
Celynn Morin: things are gonna come up that's gonna take a big chunk out of your budget,
Celynn Morin: and you might lose your job, and there might be war. And
Celynn Morin: does that mean we can't be happy? And that for me is maybe the difference
Celynn Morin: between happy and joy. So joy is an internal job.
Celynn Morin: How can I manage my own joy despite what's happening around
Celynn Morin: me? And that's really my focus, or it has been for the
Celynn Morin: last few years, but currently is how can I just be me and
Celynn Morin: joyful? And that might not please other people, but I'm not here
Celynn Morin: to please other people. So I wanna
Celynn Morin: be able to be even in a state of suffering, you know,
Celynn Morin: be really sick or be mourning. You know, I I've lost people to
Celynn Morin: death, but that doesn't mean that I can't keep my inner sense of joy.
Celynn Morin: And I think when we realize that we control very little and that we
Celynn Morin: have everything available to us, so we can drop this idea of scarcity
Celynn Morin: and fear of lack, and there won't be enough. I
Celynn Morin: truly believe that there's a benevolent collective consciousness that's guiding
Celynn Morin: us. And the more we connect to that, the more we allow for
Celynn Morin: this the the feminine archetype, you know, of
Celynn Morin: nature to to rise, because that's what we need. I mean, we are so
Celynn Morin: letting the earth down that the more we do this work within
Celynn Morin: ourselves and then that can impact our close friendships and
Celynn Morin: relationships, then we can create communities that start to think about these
Celynn Morin: things because the system that has been is clearly not
Celynn Morin: working. Yeah. It's not working in the way that I would like humanity to
Celynn Morin: live in a place of joy and abundance and freedom.
Celynn Morin: Yeah. If we look at the way society, commerce,
Joanne Lockwood: scarcity is kind of the model that's being pushed, isn't it? see marketing,
Joanne Lockwood: it's it's always about trying to this offer only
Joanne Lockwood: lasts today. You've got you've got to make a decision now.
Joanne Lockwood: Websites, interactions, signage, whatever it may see, is all around trying to
Joanne Lockwood: create this scarcity mindset that I have to have something.
Joanne Lockwood: And you're right. The the essence here is joy. What brings
Joanne Lockwood: me joy? And one of the things that brings me joy is sufficiency.
Joanne Lockwood: I have sufficient for my needs. Sufficient may
Joanne Lockwood: Wellbeing to that I I need sufficient plus
Joanne Lockwood: a bit for the rainy day, but I don't need
Joanne Lockwood: double what I need. I just need enough to to last me
Joanne Lockwood: and to and to see me out. And I think the other side of that
Joanne Lockwood: is freedom, freedom of choice. And jo if you have
Joanne Lockwood: sufficient, you can make choices. If you have insufficient,
Joanne Lockwood: then you you you you don't you lose the power to decide over certain things.
Joanne Lockwood: You you lose agency. But, yeah, if you're constantly
Joanne Lockwood: found fed this gluttony model
Joanne Lockwood: of of of deficit, then you're always trying to strive for more, and
Joanne Lockwood: that that doesn't bring you joy, does it? Always wanting more. No. And, I mean,
Celynn Morin: I work with a lot of very successful leaders,
Celynn Morin: business owners, you know, when I'm doing either 1 on 1 consulting or group work,
Celynn Morin: and they share a lot around their emotional and mental health with me, which is
Celynn Morin: such a privilege. But there's you know, the more they
Celynn Morin: seem to have, the less happy they are because there's a sense of,
Celynn Morin: well, you know, I could lose it all. And I'd feel like if I just
Celynn Morin: get one more client or if the business just grows and merges with that one
Celynn Morin: more division or if I just work a little harder, but then
Celynn Morin: we end up with burnout and fatigue. And, you know, this isn't
Celynn Morin: easy. The reality is is that we need to go out and buy groceries and
Celynn Morin: pay our mortgages. Right? However, I do feel
Celynn Morin: that there's a way to soften and not
Celynn Morin: compromise our health while we're building this wealth
Celynn Morin: and to also approach everybody
Celynn Morin: as equals, regardless what titles or belief systems we
Celynn Morin: have. So that's something I learned in my journey of transitioning and
Celynn Morin: leaving a country and a marriage and a religion,
Celynn Morin: yeah, is to try not to make judgments about anybody because we don't know what
Celynn Morin: other people are processing. We have no idea when you go to the post office
Celynn Morin: what that person behind the counter had to deal with that morning or the person
Celynn Morin: who's driving behind you that feels like they're trying to get around you too quick
Celynn Morin: quickly. They could be rushing to pick up their sick child at school. And if
Celynn Morin: we just come at it from a place of, you know, assume people are
Celynn Morin: doing the the best they can with what they have and where they are. And
Celynn Morin: if we did that, perhaps then this this life that is quite tough and hard
Celynn Morin: could just be a little bit more joyful, and that could be a great place
Celynn Morin: to start. Yeah. More consideration, compassion,
Joanne Lockwood: understanding. Yeah. I I could relate to that. And I was I was I think
Joanne Lockwood: I was reading something, and as you do scroll through your phone sometimes, and
Joanne Lockwood: I I asked her, I was popping up on one of the, news Change, was
Joanne Lockwood: around the Beckhams, David Beckham and Victoria Beckham.
Joanne Lockwood: And and I think the interview was with Victoria saying that she
Joanne Lockwood: sees very little of David these times. She misses the the family and the
Joanne Lockwood: home or the kids have moved out. They've got this massive house.
Joanne Lockwood: David spends a lot of his time in America now, and she spends a lot
Joanne Lockwood: of time in London doing her business. And I just thought,
Joanne Lockwood: why can't or why couldn't they step off of that
Joanne Lockwood: conveyor belt and say, we have sufficient. We've got more
Joanne Lockwood: money, more wealth, more assets, more status than we we can
Joanne Lockwood: ever use. Why do we need more? And, actually,
Joanne Lockwood: we if if if our core value was around having that family time
Joanne Lockwood: in our home, they could make that decision if they wanted to.
Joanne Lockwood: They have they have freedom. They have choice because they have
Joanne Lockwood: sufficient and more. And I think you often
Joanne Lockwood: see famous people, actors, who have done very well
Joanne Lockwood: suddenly disappear. Mhmm. And they they step off of that that rung, and
Joanne Lockwood: they they retire. They do whatever they do. You see them on a beach
Joanne Lockwood: somewhere, or or they they take a different career. And you think
Joanne Lockwood: that sometimes what you need to say to yourself is what is gonna bring me
Joanne Lockwood: joy? Am I am I still chasing something
Joanne Lockwood: that I'll never achieve because there's never an end to this status,
Joanne Lockwood: wealth, having more, getting bigger? By just trying to
Joanne Lockwood: feed the monster inside me all the time? And how can I just
Joanne Lockwood: whack the stop button on the escalator and say, this doesn't bring me joy? I
Joanne Lockwood: have sufficient. I could do things differently and and get off. It's a
Joanne Lockwood: it's a tough thing to do when you're from your teens, you're
Joanne Lockwood: almost programmed to grow and and grab.
Celynn Morin: Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean so I've been asking myself that question over the
Celynn Morin: past year and a bit. And so in my way, what
Celynn Morin: I've done is, do I need to start as early as I do? Because once
Celynn Morin: I start work, I find I just get so pulled into it because I love
Celynn Morin: what I do. And I've been gifting myself, you know, 2
Celynn Morin: hours in the morning, maybe 3, where I do my own thing, look after me
Celynn Morin: first, and I take more time off now
Celynn Morin: than I ever did. And interestingly, I am making
Celynn Morin: more money with more ease. You know, there was a transitional
Celynn Morin: phase where it wasn't that clear cut, but I find
Celynn Morin: that the more I authentically connect to me and find my
Celynn Morin: joy, my sense of freedom, my sense of enoughness, you know, I've simplified my
Celynn Morin: life. I recently moved into an apartment from being in quite a big house.
Celynn Morin: It's not that great. I mean, I can hear the kids upstairs and downstairs, and,
Celynn Morin: sure, I'd love to be in a big country home in the middle of nowhere.
Celynn Morin: But right now, having the joy and the freedom, you know, I'm going away
Celynn Morin: next week for a few days to catch the sun because I can.
Celynn Morin: So in my I'm doing I'm making small declarations to myself, and
Celynn Morin: I'm noticing how the more I do that, the more there seems to
Celynn Morin: be an abundance of everything. You know? I'm not starving. I am paying my bills.
Celynn Morin: I'm my my friendships are enriched because I'm more relaxed and I have more
Celynn Morin: time with them. I think we don't know what we don't know, Joanne. And when
Celynn Morin: we give ourselves an opportunity to try something new, even if it feels
Celynn Morin: a bit woo woo, like this breathing technique or taking a mindful
Celynn Morin: minute or reading a book that somebody tells you about that you think you may
Celynn Morin: never have engaged with, we can make space for magic to
Joanne Lockwood: Yeah. Magic never happens when you're stressed. Magic happens when you
Joanne Lockwood: your mind goes clear, that that blue sky thinking, you know,
Joanne Lockwood: phrase or we just ideate. But your your brain
Joanne Lockwood: needs spare Joanne capacity and cycles to be able to ideate
Joanne Lockwood: and let let things flow. Opportunities happen when you're, when you're, when you're
Joanne Lockwood: relaxed. And, you know, we have research to back up what
Celynn Morin: you've just said, you know, there's wonderful work being done by people like Doctor. Jo
Celynn Morin: Dispenza and the HeartMath Institute that are showing
Celynn Morin: when we're relaxed and we're taking slow, deep breaths and our
Celynn Morin: brainwaves slow down, we literally create a different electromagnetic
Celynn Morin: field around us, and we attract different people and
Celynn Morin: opportunities. I know this sounds out there, and we can't go into the detail of
Celynn Morin: how that works now, But quantum physics is a
Celynn Morin: is a science. It's it's what holds atoms and life together in the
Celynn Morin: whole of cosmos and space. And we're realizing now that when you are
Celynn Morin: relaxed, when you're not stressed, you literally open up your field
Celynn Morin: around you, and you act like a magnet in a different way to when you're
Celynn Morin: stressed and closed down and super focused on your life and your bills
Celynn Morin: and what's wrong, you know, which I think is very
Celynn Morin: exciting. I mean, even in the space of health care and healing, you know, we're
Celynn Morin: seeing spontaneous healings taking place, which back in the day, we would
Celynn Morin: have said Belonging to the times of Jesus and miracles, but they're happening
Celynn Morin: now with people who are deeply relaxed, have a daily
Celynn Morin: meditative practice, who are using techniques that help with their heart
Celynn Morin: and brain coherence, and their autoimmune conditions are going
Celynn Morin: away, and they are improving their mental
Celynn Morin: health, and they are healing conditions that doctors
Celynn Morin: have said, well, that's, you know, chronic. You'll have that for the rest of your
Celynn Morin: life. So once again, if this strikes a chord with anyone who's
Celynn Morin: listening, be curious. Be curious. Maybe look at
Celynn Morin: heart math or doctor Jo Dispenza and see, you know,
Celynn Morin: what is out there that you don't know, and then practice it and let your
Celynn Morin: body show you if it's something that you could use. I always say that to
Celynn Morin: people. Like, don't listen to me or anybody. Practice these things, and
Celynn Morin: let the intelligence of your body and your mind and your soul tell you whether
Celynn Morin: it's a good thing for you. Do you have a a Wellbeing calculator
Joanne Lockwood: assessment, and you take people on this sort of, like,
Joanne Lockwood: journey of Yes. 10 steps or something to,
Joanne Lockwood: assess someone's well-being foundation. Yeah. Do you want to
Joanne Lockwood: just give us a little summary of how are those 10 steps or
Joanne Lockwood: maybe, yeah, the pathway you take to and the and the foundations there?
Celynn Morin: So the Wellbeing calculator is, I guess, it
Celynn Morin: is a calculation of how well you are based on some fundamental habits. So
Celynn Morin: there's 10 areas that the world calculator looks at, and I always start with the
Celynn Morin: world calculator with all my clients. It doesn't matter who you are, what you
Celynn Morin: do, what your current health status is, where you are in your well-being journey.
Celynn Morin: And it's 10 statements that you answer yes or no to, and they look at
Celynn Morin: areas like sleep, mindset, positive
Celynn Morin: outlook, exercise, breathing, posture, gut
Celynn Morin: health, refueling portions that you
Celynn Morin: eat, mindfulness, hydration.
Celynn Morin: You can access the Wellculator on my website, which I can always share a bit
Celynn Morin: later, and I take you through it. I have used the
Celynn Morin: Workulator for 16, 17 years. So
Celynn Morin: myself, I do it maybe 3, 4 times a year. I just kind of take
Celynn Morin: a check, and so it's an incredibly helpful tool. It's it's
Celynn Morin: not the only thing to look at when you look at well-being, but as a
Celynn Morin: foundation, because that's the work that I do with teams, is looking at building
Celynn Morin: a solid foundation. Because when you have a good physical base,
Celynn Morin: then it's easier to self actualize or to find energy for
Celynn Morin: managing your emotions or, you know, processing thoughts. But
Celynn Morin: if you're sleep deprived, dehydrated, and you have a headache because you're not drinking
Celynn Morin: enough water, it's gonna be really hard for you to manage your emotions
Celynn Morin: or regulate your thought processes, which is why I always go back to
Celynn Morin: the fundamentals. Yeah. I I can relate to that. I I definitely
Joanne Lockwood: feel more in tune when
Joanne Lockwood: I'm going to the gym. I'm not by any means
Joanne Lockwood: saying that I'm fit, but just the act of going to working out, having
Joanne Lockwood: a good hour of of of of intense
Joanne Lockwood: exercise, plus focusing on my diet, what I'm
Joanne Lockwood: eating, thinking about what I consume, and and distressing about
Joanne Lockwood: things that don't matter, you know, letting things go, having more
Joanne Lockwood: positive outlook on things. It it's uplifted my whole sense of well-being. And I
Joanne Lockwood: think probably over the last 7 or 8 years since
Joanne Lockwood: my life Change, I've been a lot more in touch with
Joanne Lockwood: that side of me, that femininity and that inner core. And it it
Joanne Lockwood: brings me joy. And I I think that's the only thing I can say is
Joanne Lockwood: that I never knew that joy could exist in the old
Joanne Lockwood: model. The new model embraces that that sort of sense,
Joanne Lockwood: and I'm I've got a smile on the inside, and it's
Joanne Lockwood: it's a genuine smile. Well, you do. I mean, the Jo I know
Celynn Morin: definitely has this twinkle and a smile that comes
Celynn Morin: Decaf from within, for sure. Thank you. Celynn, we could talk all
Joanne Lockwood: day. We've wrapped it off for just over an hour and
Joanne Lockwood: a little bit off before that in the greenery when we've we've met several times
Joanne Lockwood: and had conversations as well. How can people get a hold of you? It's to
Joanne Lockwood: find out more. I think the best place is to go to the home page
Celynn Morin: of my website and sign up for the calculator and then take it yourself. You'll
Celynn Morin: because you'll get it immediately as a PDF, or you Joanne go through 2
Celynn Morin: short 5 minute videos where I take you through it myself. That that is
Celynn Morin: kind of fun because then I can help you negotiate whether you answer yes or
Celynn Morin: no or half points and that kind of thing. And, my name is, of course,
Celynn Morin: is spelled Diversity, so please take a look at the show notes. It's celinemorin.com.
Celynn Morin: see e l y, double n, morinsaleenmorren.com.
Celynn Morin: I think that's the best place, and you can find me under Celynn Moran on
Celynn Morin: Facebook, on Instagram, and on LinkedIn. Fabulous. And I will
Joanne Lockwood: put a link to the calculator on the, on the show notes.
Joanne Lockwood: And, honestly, it's been a fascinating talk, and
Joanne Lockwood: it's it's sometimes when you a conversation like this, it
Joanne Lockwood: it resonates so deep inside. You think, kind of I've
Joanne Lockwood: I've discovered this, but now I've discovered that it's a thing as well. It's not
Joanne Lockwood: just me. It's it's Bites a state of being as well. And I
Celynn Morin: think what's interesting is, you know, we started off talking about the gut and nutrition
Celynn Morin: and food. And a really easy way, if I only had a few
Celynn Morin: minutes with a group and they asked me, well, how do I take care of
Celynn Morin: my well-being? I would say, well, think of head, heart, and gut. So I'm
Celynn Morin: thinking of your hand when you put your hand in front of your face. Head,
Celynn Morin: heart, and gut. So the gut we've spoken about, you know, eat a lot of
Celynn Morin: plant based foods, like see your microbiome. Because when you look after your gut, your
Celynn Morin: gut will look after you. And then in terms of your head and your heart,
Celynn Morin: the head, I would stay curious. Keep thinking and asking questions. Don't
Celynn Morin: assume that you know anything because you might think what you know today
Celynn Morin: is truth, but in 5 years' time, you'll be looking back and maybe feeling guilt
Celynn Morin: and shame around that. So stay curious. And then with your
Celynn Morin: heart, I would say, yeah, just come from a place of love. Like, tell
Celynn Morin: yourself that you love yourself as often as possible. I tell myself that all the
Celynn Morin: time. I love you, Selene. I love you, Selene. And then love others.
Celynn Morin: Just assume that the person at the traffic light, at the counter,
Celynn Morin: everybody, everybody is actually worthy of love, head, heart, and
Celynn Morin: gut. That's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. As we
Joanne Lockwood: bring this conversation to a close, I want to express my
Joanne Lockwood: deepest gratitude to you, our listener, for lending
Joanne Lockwood: your ear and heart to the cause of inclusion.
Joanne Lockwood: Today's discussion struck a chord. Consider subscribing to
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Joanne Lockwood: is Joanne Lockwood signing off for the promise to return
Joanne Lockwood: with more enriching narratives that challenge, inspire,
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Joanne Lockwood: one episode at a time. Catch you on the next bite.