Find Your Feet Podcast

My mother, Julia Hutchinson, has not just been 'Mum', but my friend, role model and most avid supporter... through every mad idea I have embarked on. I can still remember her grasping hold of my infant-sized hand as I toddled up the gravel road next to her, blonde piggy tails bobbing. 'Hanny, please never grow up.' This is my first memory of my mother and it must have left a lasting impression on me for I don't think I have ever truly grown up! Mum has always been unbelievably strong and fit, both mentally and physically. However, it is what she has achieved in the last 12 years that I find so inspiring. After my parents parted ways, my mother moved to a small 'treehouse' at Fern Tree on the slopes of Mt Wellington and it was from here that Mum became even more adventurous. To everyone's amazement, she taught herself to mountain bike, pursued trail running, ran a marathon in Ledhak, cycled toured through China, Iran and Europe, participated in 6 Find Your Feet trail running tours, and all the while worked as an emergency medical practitioner. She has renovated two houses, made a plethora of quilts and has just brought herself a baby grand piano as an 'investment' in her retirement... whenever that begins! Each and every day she lives two days in one - beginning the day with adventures & exercise, and concluding the day with work until 10 or 11pm at the hospital. Competitive with herself and driven to realise her full potential, I know where a lot of my innate mojo comes from. Mum is not a public speaker and does not strive for the lime-light. So, this conversation is a rare glimpse into her world. It is about raising a Type A achiever and the young athlete, assisting children to pursue their truth, adjusting personal expectations as we age, overcoming adversity, the risk of modern sedentary lifestyles & how to approach our big goals, especially as adults. Some of the topics covered in this podcast: - My mother's experience as a young swimmer - Raising a wilder, competitive child – me! - Parenting to allow our children to find & live their truth - Maintaining fitness, health, wellness & goals as we age - The scary rise of the sedentary lifestyle - Embarking on new pursuits - Love, parenting and remaining true to oneself My new memoir can be downloaded from: http://www.hannyallston.com.au/findingmyfeet.html

My father, Simon Allston, has been a pillar of strength, support and wisdom to me for the last 34-years of my life. Raised in England and a child of the British boarding school movement, my father moved to Australia for Law School. It was here, on Aussie soils that he found his greener fingers… and my mother. A proclaimed farmer on his marriage certificate, my mother and father moved to Tasmania to establish a greener life and family – including me! Mum and Dad raised my brother, James Allston, and I on a small organic hobby farm to the south of Hobart. Here they encouraged us to explore ‘The Valley’ and that I did, causing varying degrees of chaos with my impish spirit. Meanwhile, my father dug in the alluvial soils morning, night and weekends, and in between, he practiced law, first privately and later in the Government sector. Here he worked on many complex environmental cases, both for the Government but also charities such as the Wilderness Society. For the remaining years of his working career, he was the Tasmanian Ombudsman. As you will hear on the podcast, my father is a deep, compassionate thinker. We are oh-so-alike and yet oh-so-different. Where I played wildly and pursued competitive sport, I had lovingly thought of my father as a yoga-loving, green-fingered hippy! Is it Karma for these judgmental thoughts that I now find myself loving nature, plants, yoga, meditation and deep thinking!? My father is a life-long learner and forever, at his heart, a farmer. He now lives on Bruny Island in southern Tasmania where is he aiming to bring 70-acres of run-down land back to full health. His garden grows, his mind explores new learnings, and he is always ready to hold space for James and I as we, too, continue to grow. This is a rich conversation and I hope that you fall in love with it as much as I did during the recording process. Some of the topics covered in this podcast: • My father’s love-affair with gardening • Raising a wilder, competitive child – me! • A caution note about success • The need for us to live locally and conscientiously • The science of soil and how repairing soils can assist the reversal of climate change • Living on an island in Tasmania • Love, parenting and remaining true to oneself Visit the show notes at: http://www.hannyallston.com.au/simon-allston.html

The conversation today is a ‘Hanny solo conversation’ about the stress response, and what I am doing to combat this as best I can. It is also an introduction to my new book which will hopefully arrive into our online Find Your Feet store, as well as all major eBook distributors, such as Amazon & Kindle, in the first few weeks of May. In this podcast episode, I share with you just a couple of small snippets from the book, some teasers if you like, and I hope that you enjoy them. ​Topics covered in this podcast: - ​Excerpts from my new book which is to be released soon. - The importance of Dreaming Wilder during this time of uncertainty. - The impact of today’s stressful environment on our reproductive hormones. - Why stress impacts our female and male hormones. - The new routines I am experimenting with and which are helping to mitigate the stress response, including the addition of yoga. - How I am focusing on separating work, ‘training’ and my home environments, so as to avoid conflict and anchoring work & training at home. - How to avoid anchoring to hard training on the days when you really need to be able to focus on recovery. - How to consider ourselves like a micro-business, using this time for self-innovation and maximizing our own agility.

Patricia Bowmer’s mission in life is to, ‘help us to live life fully, passionately and purposefully’. When I first discovered Patricia and her purpose in life I just knew that I had to have her on the podcast. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have now spent just over 2-hours in her company, bouncing our approaches to self-growth and personal development off one another. A psychologist and life coach, personal trainer, instructor of powerful group exercise classes, author, past radio presenter and an avid enthusiast of trail running and adventure racing, I knew I was in for a treat. Topics covered in this podcast: ​- Patricia’s journey and how this has led to her outlook on life - The heroes journey - Archetypes and values, and how you discover yours - Avoiding the trap of adding values into your life ‘because you should’ - Gaining rapport with your unconscious mind - The mind-body and body-mind connection - Stress - Raising a family - Juggling parenthood with personal careers and a desire to play wilder - Patricia’s writing and her books

My conversation with Helen today focuses on the upstream practices of global partnerships and organisational responsibility for the growing trend of climate change and power necessities of our world. Dr. Helen Locher has won multiple awards and most recently, the Women with Hydro Vision Award, at the International HydroVision conference, USA. Working for over 25 years in the Hydropower Industry and in her words, her main focus is on how she can solve environmental problems in an industry that undoubtedly has a stigma for creating environmental impacts. Some topics covered in this podcast are: - How can hydro be used sustainably to meet the growing power needs of our world? - Social licensing of businesses - How businesses can ‘step-up’ - The four types of thinking Helen uses

Heart Meditation. We don’t really talk about things like this in our western culture. More and more of us are accepting the notion of meditation and mindfulness. However, in these practices, we are using the mind to calm the mind. That’s really hard. Ivan Zwart is the founder and facilitator of Happy Ground Wellbeing and author of ‘Finding Happy Ground’. I read Ivan’s book and knew I needed it in Find Your Feet and have him on the Podcast. If you are seeking fulfilment and have never dropped out of your mind and into your heart, this podcast will simply offer the personal differences that practices have made in Ivan’s life and the lives of those he teaches. Prior to creating Happy Ground Wellbeing in 2013, Ivan started out as a social scientist and gained over twenty years’ experience as a trainer, facilitator, researcher. While Ivan’s professional career had been very successful, since 1998 he continually battled with his mental health due to personal circumstances in his life. In order to improve his wellbeing and make better decisions in life, Ivan visited counsellors and psychologists, read a large number of self-help and psychology books, and learnt to meditate. But one of the most profound changes to his life happened in 2010, when he first learnt about heart meditation. Practicing heart meditation changed his life and now he passionately shares his knowledge and understanding through speaking, programs and his book. ​Thank you so much Ivan for sharing your story and journey with us. I hope our conversation is just as valuable to you, the listener, as I found it to be. “Our brain and our heart are connected essentially. When our heart is open and feeling peaceful and light, then our mind naturally becomes more still”

If you are new to the podcast, I think this one is a really great introduction to what we are all about. In this episode I am bringing back Darryl Griffiths… and with good reason! Darryl is the founding director of Koda Nutrition (formerly Shotz Sports Nutrition) - An Australian sports nutrition company. In this episode we talk nutrition and hydration specifically for the biggest trail running event in Australia - The Ultra Trail Australia. Darryl has been on this podcast twice already, but this one is our next level up and definitely reflects Darryl’s growing expertise in ultra running nutrition and hydration. This conversation is perfect for anyone taking on the challenge of the Ultra Trail Australia next year, or for anyone just curious about the physiology of shaking up a tummy for a prolonged period of time! Please continue to reach out and share your stories with me. I absolutely love to hear from you. I really hope you gain a few really strong take homes from this episode, and can feel more supported to be wilder, play wilder and perform wilder. Explore the full range of my resources at: http://www.hannyallston.com.au

“ The greater the repertoire you have and understanding of your archetypes and what you need in your world to execute to peak performance, the more you’re going to rule your world.” Our recent podcast episodes have had a real focus on climate change, meditation and really exploring our place in the world. But today I wanted to bring in my recent studies of neurolinguistic reprogramming. Specifically the role Archetypes and the Hero’s Journey plays in our lives. Before you think, ‘that’s a bit out there for me’, I promise we keep the conversation very rooted in the practical implications for having a deeper understanding of these metaphorical stories. We welcome Jess back in this episode, after took the year off to explore her passions for the arts and focus on her degree in psychology. She helps me to dig us deeper into the psyche to unravel the details of how these topics are applied to our daily lives and performance goals. ​I really hope this conversation is are able to help you recognise where each of the archetypes are showing up in your life. Also how cultivating an awareness of when each one is active in our mind, can help us to lean into life even more. Asking ourselves things like, 'Am I being in Warrior mode?' 'Does this serve me right now?' 'Yes' or 'No'. Now I have the choice to keep thinking and acting into this archetype or choose a new one. Also to notice the patterns in a heroes journey, see that we are all on it at different stages, and develop a greater level of compassion for ourselves and those around us. That’s all from me! Enjoy!​ “ The reason I ‘retired’… is because I thought Hanny was an athlete… only an athlete... and I thought that there had to be a point that athleticism needed to end and the next evolution of Hanny needed to begin. Because all I thought, was that there was one archetype ‘athlete Hanny’ and ‘athlete Hanny’ needed to mature… so she needed to die…but I realise that underneath that... are all these other other archetypes… and I’ve walked away a richer person…”

My guest on The Find Your Feet Podcast is Micah Visoiu. Micah currently works for the Natural & Cultural Heritage Division of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. In his words, he is a ‘non-specialised specialist’ contributing work to provide context, advice and scientific grounding for the management of the Tasmanian Reserve estate managed by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service. His overarching area of interest is Tasmanian biogeography and ecology in the wholistic sense. Today we discuss the impact that climate change is having on our natural values, specifically in the World Heritage Area of Tasmania. The threat of climate change terrifies me and it is into this fear that I have leant, using it to motivate me to understand what the risk is of climate change on our lifestyles, our food sources, the futures of our children, and now, our pristine natural values. I wanted to tap into Micah’s extraordinary knowledge and respect for Tasmania’s living species, to understand what we have to gain but also to lose. Topics discussed in this episode are: - Micah’s childhood growing up in Northern Tasmania and how he uncovered his calling - The complexity of defining climate change - The uniqueness of Tasmania and what is at stake with the onset of climate change - The timeframes that we have to make change - The severity of where we are at now and what the climate change models are telling us - What needs to be done, by individuals but also by policy & change makers - The predicted changes we are likely to see in Tasmania’s climate and natural values - What Micah is focussing on in the face of all this knowledge

#50 A wink from a guru with Aaron Schultz by Find Your Feet

Today's episode features James Allston of New Energy Ventures and is a discussion on the important changes that need to occur in individuals, business and politics to help slow the tidal wave of climate change fast approaching. As an engineer and strategy expert, James Allston uses his extensive experiences to support businesses to create new revenue streams by tapping into new technologies and business strategies that can improve their bottom-line financial performance and enhance environmental sustainability. He has worked within energy distribution, energy retail, property development, embedded networks, new energy start-ups and technology companies. His expertise extends to business development, product development, energy regulation strategy and new energy technology, including in solar, batteries, embedded networks, microgrids, energy efficiency, energy management and data analytics, demand aggregation, virtual power plants and peer-to-peer energy. So, on this podcast episode, brother and sister - Hanny & James Allston - come together to discuss their greatest fears, their greatest wishes, and how they believe that we need to step up to do our bit for the planet, our communities and our children.

In July 2019 I embarked on a dream to run the French Pyrenees Mountains, predominantly following the GR10 hiking trail from Hendaye on the Atlantic coastline of France to Banyuls-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean Sea. This is a conversation of how I overcame injury, setbacks and the occasional doubts to run 700km through the mountains of France. It is how I leant on both my closest relationships but also my own strength mastered through years of pursuing my athleticism to the very highest levels, as well as more recent 'deep inner work', to find absolute confidence in my ability to complete this expedition. This conversation is a ramble with myself for my listeners in the hope that it will help you to also play wilder and listen to when your toes are tingling. Topics covered in this podcast: - The importance of self- discovery, -empowerment and -acceptance - When you know the goal is the right goal for you - The transitions that occurred during the 19-day adventure - Overcoming guilt - How to turn spontaneous and impromptu into a strength - Leaning into the challenge and anxieties associated with it - How it has challenged and strengthened me as an individual - Using injury to shed new light on our growth potential You can read the full transcript of this episode on my website - www.hannyallston.com.au

Paulo de Souza, scientist, ultra runner, father and just general all-round inspiration returns to the Find Your Feet Podcast for a second time. On the eve of yet another 100-mile race and a move to Queensland for employment, Paulo picks up the conversation about running, fatherhood, work and most importantly, the global plight of the honey bee. This is a must-listen podcast! Topics covered in this podcast: - Bee decline and the impact that human civilisation is having on this - The impact that bee decline will have on our future food security - The causes of global bee decline - Consumerism and how bee decline will affect produce prices - How we can support honey bee health in Australia - Striving for excellence in fatherhood, relationships, running and research - Moving beyond the numbers and running with mindfulness - Setting big goals and executing with professionalism and playfulness - Finding mindfulness on the run and practicing meditation at work

I have been blessed to run with some incredible individuals over the years and Ruth Wilson is one of them. Born in Hobart and an active individual from her early school years, Ruth has moved herself onto the pathway to elite distance running. However, like many athletes, Ruth’s story is convoluted and she has certainly not taken a straight line. Thanks to a ‘high-achiever’ personality and weight conscious, Ruth began to struggle with body image issues from a young age. It was in Adelaide during her university years, a student of radiography, that Ruth began to use dieting and running as a method to control her weight and to also assist her soccer performances. Somewhere along this journey she found a deep connection with running, going longer and faster until in 2013 she ran her debut marathon in a quick 3hrs15mins. Returning to Tasmania, Ruth joined a local running group and continued to immerse herself in her running and new career in radiography. Whilst she climbed quickly to prominence in many road racing and cross-country running events, for me, it was Ruth’s record-breaking run down the length of Tasmania’s spine on the Tassie Trail that pushed her into the ‘absolutely phenomenal’! However, Ruth’s restricted nutrition, increasing mileage and heavy racing schedule began to catch up with her. From niggles to some serious stress fractures, she was eventually forced to face her nutritional demons, entering a period of personal challenge and yet eventual reward as she fought to get her menstrual cycles and health back on track. Ruth is now coming back stronger and healthier than ever. An ambassador for Find Your Feet and a phenomenal role model for women and young girls in the sport of distance running, I know that Ruth will continue to inspire and empower us all with her story, attitude and humility. For me, this is a must listen podcast for any woman striving towards high endeavours, especially in the sport of distance running. It is for all high-achievers, male and female, as well as our parents and supporters. Finally, it is a fascinating insight into how we can overcome adversity and rise with resilience… to chase big dreams after setbacks.

Whilst our heritage is tied up in the stars, linked to stories and our ancestors, our future health and that of our planet is too. Light pollution is creeping further and further into our wild spaces, increasing at around 2% per year. This impacts not only our own health, but that of wildlife and plant species too. As I discovered through my research for this podcast and from my guest, Landon Bannister himself, the problem of light pollution extends far wider than I thought. For example, 99.5% of all stars are invisible to the inhabitants of Singapore. In other examples, 99% of all of the USA and Europe is affected by light pollution; and one-third of humankind cannot see the Milky Way. These are scary facts indeed! Whilst some of the clearest skies are found in Chad, Central African Republic and Madagascar, Landon and his team are united in striving for Tasmania and other regions of Australasia to lead the way in both the prevention of light pollution as well as the restoration of our night skies. This podcast is empowering. It will change the way you think about flicking a switch and filling spaces with light. Your heart will reach out to the turtles of Florida and the disorientated migratory birds. You will begin to critique your use of bright, white LEDs and begin to understand how they can both help and hinder your wellbeing. Finally, you will never, ever take the night skies of Australia for granted again. ​

Professional coach and world champion athlete, Hanny Allston, dives deep into her new understanding of self-identity and the powerful role that it plays in our well-being and ability to perform with excellence. She also discusses the difference between self-compassion and self-acceptance, and how one must precede the other. This episode is essential listening for anyone striving for optimal well-being, vitality and performance. For more information visit: https://www.hannyallston.com.au/hanny-allston.html

Kate Bown and I first met back in our teens when we worked as casual retail assistants in a local Hobart outdoor store. Since then we have both been on huge journeys, with Kate's being one of a heroine leaning into adversity and coming out the other side flourishing. At 27 year's of age, having lived an incredibly active, healthy lifestyle as a young adult and with an impressive elite climbing career behind her, Kate began to develop severe headaches, only to find out that she had a large and aggressive brain tumour. Within 3 days she was wheeled into theatre and facing a whole new wall to climb. With the support of her husband, Anders, an equally well credentialed individual and anaesthetist, Kate not only recovered with only a mild facial palsy, double vision and balance challenges, but found herself pregnant with their first child just nine months later. Leaning into this unexpected challenge, Kate and Anders adopted the lifestyle that they dreamed of living - spending time in the mountains with each of their 3 children soon after they were born. From overnight hiking to recently buying a tiny camper van to trip around Australia, Anders and Kate do not see parenthood as a reason to stop doing what they love the most. I am blessed to now have Kate working in our team at Find Your Feet and it is her positivity that had me reaching out to her for this podcast episode. I know you are going to love her and find inspiration in her story! I hope you enjoy this episode! ​I know that what I am taking away from it is that we all have challenges... they are part of our human experience. However, when they strike we have two choices - to lean in or to lean away. As Kate shows us, leaning in provides an opportunity for substantial personal growth, connection and reward. As a mother, she is still continuing to explore the things she loves the most and this is a great lesson for me that no matter how full or chaotic life can be, we must still all pursue and be grateful for the things we love the most in life.

Amy is a medical practitioner and, as she classed herself in her own writing, a "wandering soul". Amy is an Australian-trained medical practitioner, specialising in the delivery of health to complex populations in austere and resource-limited settings. Amy's interest is in the optimal delivery of health care to complex populations in great need, and in the ethics of the delivery of this care. Her particular focus is on conflict regions, and on the underlying structural violence visited upon vulnerable populations. Amy has worked in regional Australia and also with asylum seekers, but she spent the last four years working overseas with the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières in places like Lebanon, South Sudan, Syria and Iraq. In this podcast episode Amy explains how she deals with the complex emotional situations of not only what she goes in to face and to see as a medical practitioner, but also how she reconciles what she's seen when she returns home. At the end of the podcast Amy discusses how to keep your chin up and maintain your health and well-being when you have very limited resources available to you for your exercise and personal release time.

In this podcast episode, David Bowman explores the relationship between fire, landscapes and us, the human population. Co-author of the book 'Fire on Earth – an Introduction', David is now leading the pack globally in this very complex field. Tasmania has just had the most unprecedented fire event and whilst these large-scale fire emergencies are not new to the State, the increasing frequency is what is shaking our confidence & safety. In 1967, a huge fire event destroyed vast regions of Hobart and its surrounds, then in 2016 another dramatic fire event wiped out large areas of Gondwanan forest & pencil pine populations in the central plateau. Now, three years later, we faced fire on an unprecedented scale, where multiple vast blazes created a ring around Hobart and once again burnt deep into the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. This event scattered resources and made protecting assets, such as lives, property & our wilderness, a huge challenge. Months on and the fires are actually still smouldering today. Fire is fundamental to life. However, bush fires seem to be happening more frequently, with each fire increasing in intensity. I knew that I needed to beg and grovel with the highly demanded David Bowman; to sit down with him to once-and-for-all understand what is at play here. What do we know about the impact the climate is having on fire behaviour around the world? Why was it so hard to fight these fires and what can we learn from this? What can I do, as an individual who loves our wild regions, to help? This podcast was a series of amazing monologues. It is essential for you to listen right through to the end, where David turns the tables, transforming what was personally becoming a deep sense of doom & gloom into something so powerful and uplifting that I have come away even more sure-footed about how I can make a difference on this planet. This is powerful listening at its finest!

Eric Philips is a polar adventurer dedicated to exploring the vast and varied ice-scapes that typify our polar regions. His outdoor career spans more than 25 years during which time he has worked professionally as an IPGA Master Polar Guide, outdoor educator, film maker, motivational speaker, team facilitator and musician. As an adventurer, he has visited every continent on Earth, often leading lightweight and self-supported expeditions to remote areas. Eric has explored the world's four largest icecaps and was the first Australian, together with companion Jon Muir, to ski to both the North and South Poles, locations that he has since visited many times as a polar guide. Eric has assisted wounded soldiers, Prince Harry, actors and everyday individuals - with their common ground being a desire to see these remote polar landscapes. Eric is the founder and director of Icetrek Expeditions and Equipment, and is also the founder and lead guide of the International Polar Guides Association. In 1991 he wrote the book, Icetrek. The Bitter Journey to the South Pole and his expeditions have produced four internationally-screened documentary films, most notably, the Emmy Award-winning Greenland production, Chasing the Midnight Sun. Eric lives in Hobart with his wife Susy and son Kip. His daughter is now following in his footsteps, and as we discussed on the podcast, is fast becoming his polar playmate. It was such an honour to dig deep and beneath the ice with Eric, uncovering what makes him tingle, and how we can learn from Eric how to follow our truest pathways. Put the heater on for this one! MAIN POINTS - Finding our 'thing' - how to live with purpose and guided by what you absolutely love - Parenting as an explorer - raising children to be their truest selves - The art of guiding, and what it really involves - Using adventure and exploration to reset ourselves, to not just endure but to evolve - The importance of leadership and self-awareness - The importance of values and using these to guide our individual as well as business pursuits - Our work should not define us, but rather lead us - Using fear to guide us to new heights​ I hope you enjoy this episode! ​I know that what I am taking away from it is a complete willingness to succumb to my journey. To stop 'shoulding' and start believing in the art of pursuing what I love to its heighest levels. It is a new year heralding an opportunity to turn over that leaf, uncover what you love, and not waste any precious moments.