Leadership Longevity: Lead Well Live Well

Meet Author and Dr Cate Howell of The Flourishing Woman

• Dianne • Season 1 • Episode 7

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In this episode we get to meet Dr. Cate Howell and learn ways we can better take care of our health.  
Many practical tips to wellbeing are shared and you will walk away with some actions you can take to begin shifting your own health.
The first action would be to get the book:
The Flourishing Woman : A mental health and wellbeing guide 
Available here https://www.drcatehowell.com.au/product-category/books-audios/

You can find Dr. Cate here:
URL: www.drcatehowell.com.au

Products and services offered by Dr. Cate Howell:  
See https://www.drcatehowell.com.au/product-category/workshops/

Thanks for listening. Feel free to follow the Leadership Longevity conversation on LinkedIn as well.
Just click here

Dianne Flemington:

Welcome to The Healthy Ageing coach podcast. I'm your coach, Dianne Flemington. Hello tribe. Welcome to the podcast. Very excited today to introduce to you author, Cate Howell, Dr. Cate Howell. She's gonna be joining us shortly. But she has a very influential and grand presence in everything that she's done. And I really wanted to value her presence with us and her taking time to share time with us. And me doing that would ensure that I get you to hear everything that this woman has been up to in her in her career in her health career. So though today we'll be talking mostly about her book, I want to share with you just what this woman's been up to. So Dr. Kate has been working in the health industry for over 40 years now. Her career began as an occupational therapist, and then she studied medicine and became a GP general practitioner. And from there, she trained in various psycho therapies and worked in the community and university medical practices and as a defense GP. So and it's usually been around the mental health focus. Dr. Cates studies included, again, the Occupational Therapy medicine, a masters and a PhD. She's also trained in hypnotherapy, couples, therapy, CBT, which is cognitive behavioral therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, you may have seen it as AC T, something that I've also been trained in interpersonal therapy, life coaching, wellbeing, mental health first aid. She has also been involved in research and has been published in academic journals. So Kate was also awarded the conspicuous Service Medal, Wilson in the R W. F, which is the Royal Australian Air Force, a year 2000 Churchill fellowship, and in 2012, the Order of Australia medal for services to medicine in mental health. That's impressive, though Dr. Kate has written six books now. And they are in the range from anxiety, depression, counseling, intuition, even men's mental health, and now women's mental health. The flourishing women mental health and wellbeing guide was published in October. So currently, Dr. Kate has a focus on teaching and writing in and she's winding down her clinical practice. But I think she's still got a lot to get up to in the world today. So I'm really happy to have her here. And I hope that you can remove all your distractions and sit with us and have a listen. All right tribe, here she is, here's the magical moments, the flushing woman in her flesh is here with us now. It's this is a real gift. Thank you so much, Kate, for showing up for our tribe. I've talked a lot about this book. And it's anticipation since it's been released in October. And they're looking forward to having meet you and find a way to get in connection with you. So I'll make sure tribe that you get all access to Kate's details that she's given me. So each of you can find your way to her and work with her or whatever relationship you want to build with her. But for now, I have her attention. So I'm going to make the best of it. So let's welcome Dr. Gates. How would you like me to refer to you aCate is fine. A lot of people call me Dr. Kate. But Kate, I respond to Kate. Well, I had shared with the tribe a little earlier, your best CV, it's very impressive. And I'm really quite curious to know can you share with us now what you're up to these days?

Cate Howell:

So these days, I'm actually winding down my clinical practice because I I've been drawn more to teaching and writing and I have been doing that for a number of years but I really want to focus on it in in this stage of my career, basically it gives me great joy and you know, always my aim has been to help people. And I've done a lot of work, you know, one on one or in groups, but I really want to get the messages out far and wide now. Nice.

Dianne Flemington:

Do you have an audience that you really feel from your experience can be served best from this message?

Cate Howell:

Well, I think my audience is mostly women, but not exclusively, mostly women. And it's mostly women in their 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s. I'm saying that because, you know, my clinical practice probably was like that. And also, when I go and speak at events, that's probably the main audience. But having said that, a lot of the messages, for example, that I talked about in the flourishing woman, they're very applicable, you know, to all ages, so across the lifespan. And so at a recent at the launch, where we had about 150 people come and listen, there were you know, there were young mums there, for example, and then what 85 year olds there. So, yeah, I think that message isn't there for everyone.

Dianne Flemington:

Yeah, when I read through your book, I have a plethora of post it notes. That's kind of how I read books. But I have to tell you, it's a good thing that I got a wind of you and your name and what you're up to way back, well, a couple months ago, when that book launch, because from how I work is I'll get books from the library as much as possible, see if they're going to support my tribe, or community or what leaders I work with. And if they do, they're fantastic, then I'll order them. So I snuck in there, while I got it right from the get go. I read it originally from there, and I'm halfway through going. This is too much like I've had like tons of post it notes all over the place from your takeaways and your tips and how you write the book is fabulous. And I thought I just gonna have to keep it so I can write my own notes in it, right. So I'm just gonna tell the tribe right now. First of all the library has on backorder. I don't even know how deep that is, because I saw three reservations even up to today. So I know I wouldn't even get it until February next year from my local library if I wanted it. So just go ahead and order the book. And we'll leave those details in the comment section on YouTube, if going there or on the podcast, we'll make sure that you have the link that Kate wants to supply you to purchase the book from. But so many note taking opportunities. And I just want to share for me personally, is the clarification you gave me on self self belief and self acceptance. That was, you know, something so simple, has was so magnanimous for me. So I want to thank you personally for those two. And I'm looking down right now, because I'm looking at them on my post it notes if I could, here, I could just show them to you, just for proof. There they are like I just have them in front of me because there's such great distinctions and I share those with my leaders. So those are, that's just one little tidbit that Kate shares, and it's really phenomenal. So the book addresses a lot of topics, right? Like you cover some ground in that book, which is why I feel like it's one that belongs in our bookshelf. And we keep going back to right. It's one of those resourceful ones. But what inspired you to write that book? There's lots in there. Yeah,

Cate Howell:

there's a lot. So my mind, as you probably will have worked out is always reflecting, pondering. And I tend to be I'm a curious person, and I am fairly intuitive. And I just respond to what comes in front of me, basically. And so I wrote a book for men a couple of years ago, because I was doing a lot of work at that time with in defense. And obviously, there's men and women there. But I saw a lot of men who were struggling with PTSD. And they had not reached out to anyone for years and years and years. And so I thought, gosh, we should be able to do more than this. So I wrote a book for men. And as I was going around talking to people about that I did a lot of talks in rural areas, because I live in a regional area. And I like to get out of the cities and and talk to people. A lot of women turned up and many were, you know, running farms with their partners, their husbands. They were working, they were raising children. They were all of the pressures financially. And so they came to the talks and I said, you know, do you think I should write something for women? And there was a resounding yes. So then, of course what you do as a writer, you don't want to write something that's already out there. So I went and had a look. And there really wasn't a book there for women, generally about mental health and well being there might be a book about a niche topic. out there. We're textbooks, but that's that's not appropriate for everyone to read. So I thought, okay, there's a gap there, and I better write something. So that's what happened.

Dianne Flemington:

Well done, very well done. And you fill that gap nicely with such a book tool resource, like it covers all of that. So you can jump in and out of it or kind of go through it and pick a topic or an area that you want to work on, which I thought was beautiful. Yeah, that's right.

Cate Howell:

That's right. So each that the first few chapters are fairly foundational, as you would have gathered. But once you've read those, you can literally dive in and out to the topics that irrelevant because some won't be relevant. And each chapter can stand alone on those topics. Yes.

Dianne Flemington:

And I also want to say the tribe, this is a generational book, like you buy it for yourself, maybe right now, depending on what your age of 54. So there are certain chapters to Kate's point that were I was really curious about to get your perspective on. And, but also, I say, it's generational, because, you know, I think of my mom who's no longer with us of the tribe knows. And my learning from some of the tools that you talk about was nil, right? So I really feel like this is a great tool to hand down or create conversations with, you know, our children with as well, our adult children or wherever we're at with our kids just to make sure that they have these fundamentals in their in their toolbox.

Cate Howell:

Absolutely. And it's interesting, people are doing that they're buying one for them and one for their sister or one for their daughter, or daughter in law that it's naturally happening, which is lovely.

Dianne Flemington:

It is. So share with us what does flourishing mean? It's a unique word, right? For a lovely word, yet,

Cate Howell:

it sounds lovely. And it's fascinating. I'm hearing it more like even though I wrote this book started a couple of years ago, because obviously you've got to research and write it, and then there's a year with the publisher, and then it's out. And I'm hearing that more at the moment. It's about thriving, basically. And so it does incorporate our well being. But it's also about our sense of meaning in life, and sense of purpose and our way fulfilled, you know, well being is, you know, we can have our physical well being and mental well being which incorporates our psychological and social well being. And, you know, obviously, that covers a whole range of territory. So that's, that's there. But, but flourishing has a particular meaning about feeling like you are on track and aligned with a life that's fulfilling and that you're flourishing. thriving.

Dianne Flemington:

Yeah, yeah. It's like a nurturing word to me. And I, I use that word with teams in my leadership, whatever good leaders and their teams, and I was using thriving, and it felt very ambitious. But I wanted to take that edge off of the thriving. And I was saying, Well, if your team was flourishing, and then when your book came out, I think that's what really caught my hand like, Oh, this is interesting. Now, that's not showing up in another place. Yeah, it's funny how that. So I take it as a very nurturing because and the book really showed up for me like that, if the you know, for some of us women who no longer have mothers in our lives, that, you know, were, this was a great, that helped me that way. That helped me in a motherly kind of nurturing way, that way, you wrote the content demon. And to take out the academic, you know, really made it a nice, easy read with lots of stats still, like lots of the information that we need in order to make valid decisions. So well, beautifully done, really for them. So I think flourishing really works for that book. That's a great match. Yeah.

Cate Howell:

Yeah, thank you, Anna. Again, when you write, you want to find the voice, and I really, when I write, it's like I'm talking to a group or a client. So just bringing in that, that that voice and it was interesting, I, I used to do radio for a number of years with a particular person and I and we spoke Saturday night on the radio, generally about Christmas and stress. But we we talked a little bit about the book. And at one point, he said he was almost a little bit hypnotized by what I was saying isn't like, normally he's trying to stir you up a bit and get a conversation and he said, Oh, I just sounds like this wise. This, you know, I was gonna call the father Kate, like, you're a wise priest. And I said, Well, you know, I guess when we are helping people, you know, that's, that's in a way what we're doing. We're trying to be compassionate and supportive. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington:

that's great. I really am thrilled that this is even still reaching into the men, you know, there's they also needs lots of support. So that's super impressive that you've been working in that arena as well. Even talking to women about the book, what do you notice any common themes or threads? What issues? Are they raising conversations with you? Yeah,

Cate Howell:

so there are some common threads. And one woman expressed it beautifully at a library talk. And she and the same things come up at other talks that the weight of the responsibility that women carry on their shoulders, and how that weighs them down and impacts them. So that's one thing the other is hearing for, you know, part of that is caring for everyone else, rather than ourselves. So if criticism often comes up, you know, and feeling really thinking, like, I'm not enough in some way, at tiredness, whether that's stress related, whether it's that responsibility related, whether it's menopause related, new mother related, you know, whatever it is, they would be the sort of common ones. And I guess, you know, for some, you know, women are talking to about the particular areas that I also focus on, like anxiety or depression. In particular.

Dianne Flemington:

Yeah. What some? Do you have any quick tips, you can offer any woman right now, who might be listening, going? Oh, my gosh, that's me, like, one of those is me, is there anything you can offer them that they can just listen to this podcast and go and do and maybe achieve a little bit of? I hear I have the exhale happen, you know, and the relief? Yeah.

Cate Howell:

And one of them is actually that, that sort of pause and brave, you know, take take a few moments to sit quietly and breathe, and, and reflect and become aware of what's going on? For you. I think that's the first step really, you know, recognizing, you know, is, am I feeling like that? Am I tired? am I carrying all this responsibility? And I've been reflecting on where does that come from in life, and, and we often make an assumption that it's just us or that somehow, there's something not quite enough about me that I'm feeling this way. Whereas it's, you know, for example, kept feeling that sense of responsibility, having a self critical voice, you know, it's very common for women, if not a universal phenomenon for women, partly because of our socialization. So how we're raised, and a lot of the influences are subtle, and some are not so subtle, you know, the messages about a big kind, look after your friends first, you know, care for this family member. Even to the point of self sacrifice. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and then we go through, and for example, for mothers, you know, becoming a new mother, for example, no one actually prepares you or trains you for that, particularly, you may be fortunate and have a parent to thinks to do that, or, you know, some other way that that happens, but for a lot of women there, they find them, they may be prepared for the birth, but they're not prepared for, okay, what are the changes? How do I care for this infant? And so there's this, again, this assumption, well, it's natural, you know, you'll know what to do. So there's all of these societal sort of influences menopause, as well as the classic example of, oh, well, you know, this happens and it's, it's natural, and let's not talk about it too much. Whereas it's, you know, it's it for many women, it's, it's huge, you know, very significant symptoms and issues. And they can often feel quite alone in managing it and even when they present to a professional for help, sometimes the professional buys into those assumptions and biases as well. Yeah, true

Dianne Flemington:

that as a woman who has moved to a different country, so Canadian now living in Australia in well into my menopause, it do gay if you haven't been that tribe of closeness around you just to kind of you feel I can feel those days where I'm like, Oh my gosh, am I actually going crazy? This is No, it's just menopause. It's about hormones. So reading things like your book really do help that go, okay. It's normal, right? give myself permission to have an off day or to you know, just rest, sometimes just rest. Yeah. So that's beautiful.

Cate Howell:

And I guess the reason for talking about all those things, influences is to, is to recognize, okay, it's not, I'm not flawed. Yeah, this is how we've been raised. This is what's happening in society. And so I've got to find, learn these ways to, perhaps take some weight off my shoulders to learn to say no, rather than people please, to set some boundaries, to do some self care, to be compassionate to myself, you know, so there's lots of things that we can, then once we've got that awareness and insight into, you know, why we're dealing with these things, we can go okay. This, I can now do something with this. Yeah.

Dianne Flemington:

Yeah. My 88 year old father is now staying with us for a few months here in Australia. And when I was thinking about you, during this book, I thought, so do you notice in your audience that it kind of just drops off? In terms of the age of people that you're working with? Or that come to you? Do they kind of just stop worrying about any of these things at a certain age do you notice, or as seen in the research at all?

Cate Howell:

I think there's a few things there potentially. So certainly, in clinical practice, we still say paid at 60 7080 on. And, in fact, I was just talking about this with someone yesterday, you know, retirement, for example. It's not unusual in the couple of years post retirement for some people to really struggle. So they may come to see a doctor or therapist around feeling low in mood and grief around, you know, not listening or recognizing their experience of loss and grief. But also, then, you know, as time goes on the, you know, a partner may pass away, there may be chronic illness. So there's a lot relationship issues don't disappear. You know, they're there when you're, you know, in older relationships to so clinically we see it, whether there's less probably that come to talks. But there's still there's still, you know, there's still interest and no doubt people are, you know, borrowing slight mine from the library or going into talks locally, or listening to podcasts. They're just not necessarily right in front of you.

Dianne Flemington:

Yeah, I'm, I'm looking there. Because I'm wanting to support other people who are about to move into those arenas, like my father, and I find that for him, it's, the world becomes a little smaller, right? So mindset has become something really important. All right.

Cate Howell:

Can I just mention one thing, interestingly, when when my mum died, which was some time ago, now I went, you know, me and my sister went through her things, working out what to do. And I found my first book, which was on depression. She had it and she'd bit like you written things in it, sticky notes. And she also had a little notebook with that. And she had written down some of the quotes that I used at the start of the chapters and some key points, I was so touched. She never told me she was doing that. But clearly, she was thinking, reflecting, you know, what's useful for me? Yeah. Which I love

Dianne Flemington:

eautiful. I love that story. I think that's amazing, speaks into the legacy work that I do with leaders. That's why you know, any of those leaders who are listening right now, to Kate's point, it's so important that we build our legacy for our generations forward like, noting moments, whatever those tools and resources that we used as we went through the ages that supported us, I really think they're great to note and share with our younger generation. You talk about keys to positive aging in the book. Can you elaborate on some of these?

Cate Howell:

Yes, I'm actually going to turn to that page because they're very specific. So by not words.

Dianne Flemington:

And for any the listeners that have the book already that might have that handy. Kate will share the page number with us.

Cate Howell:

That's actually good. I think I've got the wrong version without the sticky note in it, navigating later life, it's chapter 12. So page 315. Here we go. So, first first one is lifestyle related. So you know, healthy nutrition, basically. And I think that's really important because again, with my mum, you know, I used to, as she got older, I visited more and more often. And I found she was narrowing her, what she was eating was significantly. So that's important, keep moving, very important. So whether that's gardening, walking the dog, whatever it is, staying hydrated, avoiding alcohol, too much of it, smoking, etc. And then it goes more into the psychological side and social side. So having maintaining a positive mindset around aging. And I think, again, we have to put this in the context of whatever society you're living in. But certainly here in Australia, we're still a pretty ageist society. Unfortunately, you know, I think it's getting better, but there's a long way to go. So we have to recognize that but within ourselves, maintain positive ideas around what getting older might look like for us. And get working on managing negative thoughts negative thinking. And the book covers many strategies around that we do have to adapt to change as we get older, because it might be less work or retirement might be changing where we live, you know, whatever it is staying connected, so that we know from the research, that's absolutely key. And we don't have to have a lot of connections, it's about quality of relationships. And even now, it's wonderful if you've got supportive family, or a partner or good friends. But even if we don't have some of those things, even the connections we make locally with people at the community center, or the shopkeepers, where we go frequently, you know, those things are still really important. Having a routine, and that, you know, I'm not an overly routine person myself. But you know, routine does mean we eat regularly, we do exercise, you know, a bit regulate those sorts of things, sleeping regularly, sense of purpose and meaning, keeping your brain active, managing stress, and there's lots of ways to do that. Working on sleep, practicing gratitude, helping others where we can regular medical checkups, and a regular laugh, Seamus,

Dianne Flemington:

good for us. Yeah, laughing. Let's move on to the top of the list, right. And so many of these, that you mentioned, are not to get into the, I guess the physiology of all of these. But so many of these have just helped the body repair itself heal itself producing hormones or chemicals that are good for us and help us sustain ourselves in the aging. So that's fabulous. And just so the tribe knows each of these tips, you'll learn so much more about inside her chapters in the books. So you'll really can kind of pick and choose you know, some you might notice that you've already been doing and the book really allowed me to kind of do a tick Yep, that one's good. Oh, no need to do that one highlight highlight. So it's a great inventory to for ourselves as we are looking to into longevity, which I hope all the tribe members of this community are looking to live a long life healthy, long life. Yeah, absolutely. So what helps you maintain a positive outlook as you get older?

Cate Howell:

Yeah. So as I said, I think I'm a curious person. So I am often reading and watching things and listening to things and reflecting. And though, you know, I might hear things that inspire me. So I like that stimulation. I, I've learned a lot myself through my career, about how to manage my own thoughts and feelings. So I think having those tools and using them, you know, and sometimes I'll have to give myself at talking to like, I'll be feeling a bit grumpy or a bit down. And I know what to do. And it's like I say, I've been a bit like the petulant child and I'm not, you know, I just want to sit in this for a minute, you know, and part of my brain goes, Okay, well, when you're ready, you know, like, just do this. You know what to do? I

Dianne Flemington:

love it. That's like a little bit of self care

Cate Howell:

and self care. Absolutely. And, you know, this year, I've really focused on better, better eating habits, but you know, better nutrition. I have two dogs, and they're jet Russell's. And they're active. So I have walked them twice a day. And the walks are probably 45 minutes. So mind, you know, and I do like to swim, I don't get to do that as often. But I have a membership so I can go swimming, when it fits in with the schedule. Yeah, talking to my friends I live in, as it said, a regional area. So sometimes it's a phone call, on a weekend and a chat. I've just made arrangements to catch up with a number of them pray Christmas to have a coffee and swap prezis and say hello. And I think for me, that sense of meaning and purpose is really important. And still, I'm very inspired and driven around that. So that there's always something to do because of that. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington:

I love it. I want to tap into something a little deeper, when you mentioned talking to your friends, some of the leaders that I work with, have asked me that, since they don't have large community of friendships. Now, how would I suggest that, especially when they're moving into older age, where it seems a little more everyone seems settled into their communities or under their friendships? Have you seen any great ideas or tips that we can pass on to our leaders that are listening if they're looking to create new friends?

Cate Howell:

Yeah, so you know, I think I think relationships, you know, sometimes we will need to build them. And, and so there may be people already there where there's acquaintances, or there's some sort of connection. And I suppose, the, you know, one of my good friends, for example, I met on a course, and over the, that course, we connected a bit, and then we did a little bit of work related activity together. And we gradually built that friendship. So I didn't give there are people there, you know, maybe worth connecting more with them, if you feel that connection, are not an incredibly social group person. I know some people are more extroverted and and would enjoy going and doing that. And so if you are, that's another way, obviously to meet people in, in activities, that mean something to you, whether that's more career focused, or whether it's interest focused. And I know from people moving to this area, regional area, some have retired, some haven't. And from talking to them, they do tend to get involved with, you know, the Dragon Boat Racing groups, or the Tai Chi groups, or the the rotary or whatever it is, and they don't make meaningful connections there. That's, yeah,

Dianne Flemington:

the thread underneath all that, for me is you kind of make an effort, right? It's not just gonna show up, you got to find some avenues that feel like they'd be a fit for you to try and don't give up on the first go keep going. And the tribe that we have here is, I mean, we're not in the 1000s. We're a fairly small tribe still, but I do get a lot of requests, hey, do you know anybody in the tribe that you know, might be interested in this or my so I'm already hearing, you know, into your find a community or a learning, or course where you can find commonality and make an effort to create friendship? I like that idea. So what do you want people or specifically women to hold on to, from having read the book the flourishing woman take into their lives?

Cate Howell:

Yeah. Well, I want them to take into their heart, probably a message that they are unique and full of strengths and resources. And to really love on themselves a bit, you know, be compassionate towards themselves recognize those things. And, you know, acknowledge and sit with that and feel compassion towards themselves, like they might do a loved one. And with their, with their body, you know, to take those those basic sort of lifestyle things on board because it's very easy for women in careers, to be so busy that they drop self care of their bodies. Often it's low down on the priority list. may not be for everyone, but just a little reminder. about that, and for their minds to to take on board some of the things that we're talking about in the book about how to deal with that self critical voice and how to grow self belief. And how to raise themselves up a little bit on the priority list, or to deal with specific issues that they may be dealing with. In life. So many. It's really hard to pick one thing, but I guess the word that's that summarizes it probably is hope.

Dianne Flemington:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we know that. We want to keep that alive. Bare minimum, right? Yeah. And if gets, we could just give ourselves permission, get our get out of our own way. And look for these little support tips, right? Whether it's a book or coach or a doctor, or just be okay to ask for help, is really what I want the tribe to hear ya ask for help. It's okay. We got you. Let's help each other this world of humans are here for I love it. Yeah. It's been a very nurturing conversation over here for me just listening to you, and you're calm and holding this space between us really lovely. So thank you. I have three fire. See questions for you. Are you ready? Yeah. So what age do you want to live a healthy life too

Cate Howell:

long, too old. I'm not going to pick a specific age a long time. I am really enjoying life and what I'm doing. And so I want to be around for a long time. So I am a bit of a believer, on one level about what we put out there to the universe is important. So I don't want to put a specific age but a long time.

Dianne Flemington:

All right, got it. Sounds like there's some karma in there. If you gave it a number, then that might manifest into something. Okay. Got it. All right. And so I heard you say that living a long time, because you're having such a great time. Now you want to keep extrapolating that right? Because my next question is, you know, what will that have you be willing, be do or have for living a long time? Is there anything that you're wanting to create and all of that? Well, I,

Cate Howell:

I have already to a degree, and I'm still going along this path of creating, doing a lot more from home. That is, you know, my my teaching and talking even some of the university things I do now, it's, you know, online courses. So that gives me the opportunity to be able to walk the dogs twice a day and or go down to the beach here. So that flexibility is important where I'm, but I'm still able to be very active and creative. In what I'm doing. There are there's there's more things that I want to teach, I've got about half a dozen online call offices almost finished, that will be up next year. There's more, you know, the ideas for books. And there are a number of them. So I want to keep writing and and also that flexibility gives me the chance to say okay, I'll be able to write today for a couple of hours, as well as during the Olympics. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington:

well, I like you to stay around for a long time as well, there's so much goodness for you to contribute to this world and the world needs you. The world needs more. Kate. Thank you. What is something that scares you about growing older?

Cate Howell:

I think the the thing that I have to work on not going into fear about anxiety or fear about a some of the physical problems, the changes that occur. And so for example, if I don't move, keep moving, walking, swimming, then my back or neck will get sore. And so I did it's it's probably those the physical discomfort. And so again, I have to remind myself, Okay, well, that's telling me get back to the pool, you know, et cetera go walking. So I think that's more the physical issues. That probably Yeah, I would put it as the answer to that question. Yeah. Great.

Dianne Flemington:

So how do you manage that fear?

Cate Howell:

I've sort of learned to be my own therapist, you know, so I can recognize that and go okay, that's where you're going, come back. You know what to do so I can challenge it. Or, you know, when we deal with those thoughts, At snap more negative thoughts, we can either challenge them and reframe it. Okay, it's just telling you to get moving again, go to the pool. That's what you need to do. Or I can let the thoughts go as well, you know, detached from them. Also, I have a very friend I mentioned, who I met on a course is a psychologist. And we've done a lot of work together and teaching together and become very good friends over the years. And she and I talk probably once a week, often it's been about work related stuff, but also our own things. And we know it's confidential. So we are a support to each other, as well. That's

Dianne Flemington:

beautiful. Yes, great. And so who's the coolest older person that you know, that are alive? Like, feel like a mentor may be a little bit right, but I'm using the word coolest, just because there's a little bit of an affinity for this person for some reason. Yeah.

Cate Howell:

There's so many of them. You know, you know, they're, I guess, fulfilling different aspects of my life. You know, I love some of the older actresses like Judi Dench and and Helen Mirren and, you know, just so vibrant and so beautiful and contributing so much. A Colet on a spiritual. You know, I've got a spiritual interest and marry not Mother Mary, but Mary, who was partner of Jesus. In a she faced a lot of the societal things where women were not allowed to say things be recognized. And, you know, people spread rumors about her. And, and she wrote a lot, and it's only in recent years, those teachings have come out. So I think I can feel for her. I've had some teachers myself, who have been inspirational people who've taught me at different times. So that's more on an intellectual level. I guess. I love Brene. Brown, you probably love Brene. Brown. Yeah, there's many. That's good. Can't give you one. Yeah,

Dianne Flemington:

that makes sense to me, because you're really steeped in the world of it all. And I was super curious, if you had just kind of like a go to high for me, when I was reading your book, there was this image because I hadn't developed a relationship with you that so you know how your brain just kind of fills in like, you meet somebody, and you're going to be going over to their house for coffee or something. And your brain kind of fills in what the house might look like, and what the environment. So reading your book was like that. And what it took me back to was a woman that you still live across the street from me, and when I lived in my 20s. And she was so inspirational, because at the time I knew she was 69 or 70. And I was in my early 20s. And she would go out for a run, she'd be routine, go to the gym, she looked fabulous. And I remember the day when I thought that's going to be me, I am not going to have like that's, and it's it rears up every now and then. Right. So when I'm not doing well, or being, you know, promoting self care for myself, that image will show up. And it was her who was with me when I was reading your book, it was quite amazing to go right. That was the vision of self that I wanted. So I was curious if you had someone or something like that, but you've got a database of them, which is. That's awesome. All right. Well, first of all, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy clearly schedule and book writing career as seems to be you are all going to be keeping an eye down. For those of you who haven't got a book yet, we'll make sure we have that put on the podcasts and the YouTube to get access to it. And we'll be looking forward to anything else that you're going to put out into the world. I find you incredibly inspirational. I can't imagine the tribe not seeing you any differently than that. And you have influenced many 1000s and 1000s of people around you. I mean, being part of the uni and all of those communities that you were embedded in while you were doing any of your medical or psychotherapy or even your course I can only imagine you have a massive ripple effect across the world. So that's super gorgeous. I think that's gorgeous. And for those of you who you know, maybe you heard something about Kate and you want to reach out to her we'll make sure we have that. And for those of you who might be looking for some additional coaching you hear these podcasts, you go oh, you know what I need to work on that. Don't hesitate to reach out to the Diana motion for that CEO. And for all of you I wish you all nothing but a healthy long fulfilling life with passion and love and kind kind connections. And thank you, Kate, you take care and I hope to see you really soon. Bye for now