Nurture & Nourish: Recent Episodes
anna@annaandersoninc.com
A Brand New Podcast from Anna Anderson (formerly from the Warrior Journals Podcast- all episodes of which are still fully available).
Anna believes in the power of storytelling to heal - something humans have done over the eons.
Nurturing and Nourishing and honest conversations.How do we nourish ourselves, not only with food, but with love, with self talk, with self care and what that really looks like.
To give us permission to give ourselves what we really need when we truly, truly, slow down.
Anna speaks with Master Level coach and kindred spirit Holly Toronto. Holly works to reunite women with a sense of love, respect and ownership of their own bodies. She shows women they have inner value, completely separate from society’s beauty norms, and the emphasis placed on appearance, and teaches them to believe in that inner value on a deep level. She and Anna discuss the fascinating, sometimes enraging connection between how women restrict and limit themselves, and the history of how women have been vilified for taking up space, and sharing knowledge.
In this episode:
- How we can move away from seeing our value as linked to our physical appearance
- What nature and nurture mean for our self-worth
- Why Holly calls refers to her own body a ‘her’ rather than an ‘it’, and gets her clients to do the same thing
- What Intuitive Eating is and why restrictive eating always backfires
- How we can rebuild trust in our bodies
- What ‘compliant woman programming’ is
- The five signs or manifestations that you’re a ‘compliant woman’
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to life and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson.
Find Anna on Facebook, Instagram, or visit Anna’s website.
More about Holly Toronto
Holly Toronto is a Certified Master Level Coach who has 5 years of experience helping women stop prioritizing other people’s expectations of beauty, belief or behavior so that they can live their life from a place of Wholeness, fully aligned with the truth of who they are.
She uses an intuitive and spiritual approach that is constantly guiding her clients back to themselves, helping them fall in love with their own, unique and powerful voice, build partnership with their wise and beautiful bodies and embody a spirituality that guides and directs the bold lives they desire to live.
Quotes from this episode:
On self-evaluation
It's like we're trained to relate to our bodies as a separate thing. It's almost like we are moving through the world as the eyes that are watching us, versus actually seeing out of our own eyes.
On respecting our bodies
So like, let's stop calling our bodies vehicles, vessels, temples – this objectifying machine-y type language – and actually talk about our bodies as the human beings that they are
Quote from The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
“A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”
Links and resources:
Free Body Gratitude Meditation: https://hollytorontocoaching.lpages.co/body-gratitude-meditation/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holly.toronto/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/143221746427796
Website: www.hollytoronto.com
In this episode Anna shares a heartfelt and illuminating conversation with inspiring coach Sedruola N Maruska. They talk about Sedie’s incredible work speaking and working with organisations who are authentically striving to address racism and social injustice. Sedie’s own journey stems from difficult experiences – the cancer recovery that triggered her move into more meaningful work. She found herself reconnecting with an event much earlier in her life, a deep loss that she trained herself to bury beneath guilt and shame.
In this episode:
- ‘It didn’t come to kill me’ – how Sedie was driven to take action by her illness
- The moment in her training when she learned her decades-old grief was a huge part of her story
- Anna’s own drive to address and educate herself on racism, and fears about misstepping
- How to have a constructive conversation about addressing inequality
- What action to address social justice means on an individual level
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to life and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson.
Find Anna on Facebook, Instagram, or visit Anna’s website.
More about Sedruloa Maruska
Sedruola Maruska is a speaker, business consultant and personal discovery coach on a mission to help businesses cultivate cultures of equity and inclusion that lead to social justice and more diversity. She’s the host of the Diversity Dish podcast where she talks to guest about their lived experiences with social and racial inequities. Shes also the founder of the Discovery Den group where she coaches individuals, and entrepreneurs on social justice issues.
Sedruola is a second-generation Haitian-American who prides herself on having an amazing extended family and being a citizen of the world born in Queens, New York
Quotes from this episode:
On authentically seeking social justice:
A lot of people spend time pontificating, but not communicating. We think the thoughts; we put them out there; but we don't really feel open to the ideas that may challenge those thoughts, ideas and feelings... or what we've internalized along our journey.
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A lot is changing, but what I want is for us to become complacent. So, okay, great, we're all talking about it. But what are we doing about it?
_
People have sometimes the best of intentions, but when someone pushes back ...they feel like someone is saying that they're not a good person. But that person is saying, that's not what I need right now. What I need right now is this.
Links and resources:
Sedruola’s website:http://sedruolamaruska.com/discovery-dates
Sedruola’s instagram and Facebook:
http://instagram.com/sedruola
http://facebook.com/sedruolamaruska
Sedruola’s Patreon page:
http://patreon.com/sedruolamaruska
Anna speaks with Elliot Rae, speaker, writer and founder of MFF, MusicFootballFatherhood which has been called the ‘dad’s version of mumsnet. After a traumatic experience following his daughter’s birth, Elliot suffered PTSD and found he was forced to confront unspoken issues around fatherhood, masculinity and mental health. He’s now created spaces for other dads to explore their own conditioning and find more helpful ways of dealing with difficult emotions and experiences, in a way that supports families and society as a whole.
In this episode:
- Anna and Elliot talk parenting from a new dad’s perspective, especially when the birth and its aftermath have been traumatic
- They discuss how far we’ve come in being able to talk about dad's mental health since Elliot’s experience in 2016
- They talk redefining masculinity in a way that supports both men and women better
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to life and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson.
Find Anna on Facebook, Instagram, or visit Anna’s website.
More about Elliot Rae
Elliott founded MFF after suffering from PTSD after the traumatic birth of his daughter. Elliott is one of the UK’s most prominent speakers and writers on topics around fatherhood, masculinity, mental health, equal parenting and gender equality and he regularly hosts webinars and workshops with organisations about how they can support working dads and create a family friendly workplace. He has held senior D&I leadership roles, most recently as Head of D&I delivery at HM Treasury and the United Nations recognised Elliott’s work and he is now the proud recipient of the UN Women UK’s #HeForShe ‘Changemaker of the Year’ award.
Elliott’s first book, entitled ‘DAD: untold stories of fatherhood, love, mental health and masculinity’ is a deeply moving and inspiring collection of 20 stories that represent the diversity of modern fatherhood and seeks to start a conversation that challenges the traditions associated with masculinity. DAD was published on Tuesday 1st June and is an Amazon Top 10 bestseller.
Quotes from this episode:
On his orgnisation, MFF:
We represent dads who want to be engaged fathers who are very aware of their role as dads and the society they're living in now. Who wants to raise children to be socially conscious, who are socially conscious themselves
On the unspoken challenges of new fatherhood:
I would start with trying to understand that they are also going through a massive life change...just yesterday I was talking to someone about a friend who was really struggling as a new dad ...At home, he would get on with it. And he was fine. But he would cry on the drive to work every day... I think ultimately, it's about being patient with each other.
Links and resources:
Elliot’s website & further information on his book, Dad:
www.musicfootballfatherhood.com
Anna speaks with mind and money mentor and Chartered Accountant Laura Powner, who after years of success in the corporate accounting world suffered quietly with acute anxiety for many months before she discovered the deep need for gentleness and self-care. She now helps other business owners to tap into their own needs, not only for health and wellbeing, but also to help their businesses thrive. Laura and Anna talk about ideas around work, abundance, harnessing feminine energy, and receiving the messages your body is giving you.
In this episode:
- Why ‘energy’ is worth thinking about (even if you think it’s ’woo’)
- The mistaken beliefs we have about masculine and feminine energy
- What those energies have to do with success at work (it’s not what you might think)
- How Laura discovered that her own nurturing, calm demeanour could help struggling businesses recover and succeed
- Why the mind is just as important as money when it comes to succeeding at work
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to life and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson.
Find Anna on Facebook, Instagram, or visit Anna’s website.
More about Laura Powner
Laura is a Chartered Accountant , Mind & Money Mentor and the founder of Get REAL.
She works with online business owners to establish their emotional and financial freedom goals and transform their mindset, energy and strategy so that they are in alignment to achieve them without the struggle.
Quotes from this episode:
On feminine and masculine energy:
It isn't as simple as saying men should be masculine, and women should be feminine. Everybody, regardless of how we describe our sex has masculine and feminine energy, we have both. And both need to be used.
On mindset in business:
I started to see, it's not about what a person knows about finance, or what they know about business. It's about where they are sitting emotionally? Right? Where are they energetically?
Links and resources:
Laura’s website.
Laura on Facebook.
Anna meets Ben Bidwell for a refreshingly honest conversation about what it’s like to be a stereotypical ‘successful’ man – and where stereotypes let men and women down.
Traditional masculinity was not serving Ben. At 30 years old, he was doing great on a surface level, but he felt empty and alone. A lucky encounter with a hypnotherapist led him to realise he wasn’t empty. He was just disconnected from his heart. Ben didn’t have the vocabulary or experience to reconnect with himself alone – it took guidance, and the courage to be vulnerable. But he got there, and he now helps other men do the same.
Ben and Anna found many parallels in their respective journeys to living more authentic, fulfilling and joyful lives, and helping others look again at the stories we tell ourselves about who we should be.
In this episode:
- The ‘gift’ Ben had with women (it took him until age 30 to admit it was actually a problem)
- Why the act of sending flowers to his mum was a major symbolic step in Ben’s journey
- How myths male strength led him to ignore his own dysfunction and emptiness
- Why asking ‘How are you?’ is so often a missed opportunity
- What manliness feels like to Ben now
- What he’s gained, and what he’s sacrificed in order to connect with his own heart
- What men and womenstand to gain from challenging stereotypical ‘male’ and ‘female’ traits
- What it means to harness the male and female energies within us all
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to life and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson.
Find Anna on Facebook, Instagram, or visit Anna’s website.
More about Ben Bidwell AKA
Ben Bidwell, AKA the Naked Professor, is a mindset and purpose coach, writer and public speaker who is living his own purpose by inspiring others to achieve their deepest potential. Having been on his own journey from a masked man drawn to "toxic" behaviours, to an awakened and open soul, his story is deeply authentic & relatable.
In 2021 Ben launched the widely applauded platform for connection and personal growth, Heart Space - www.heartspacecommunity.app
Ben is also the host of the number one podcast show ‘The Naked Professors’, which embraces conversations about mental health in a vulnerable but relatable way.
From this episode:
QUOTES
On the missing piece for ‘masculine’ men:
A big challenge for masculinity and men is that connection is missing, but they don't know what connection is because they never experienced it. They don't even know to go and search. They can feel up to a certain point, but there isn't the true depth of real, real intimate connection.
On why it’s worth doing the work:
if you're disconnected from your heart, there's always going to be emptiness. It's as simple as that. So many men are disconnected from the heart. And without connecting to the heart we're not getting into the truth of what really matters to us.
Links and resources:
Follow Ben on Instagram.
If you’re not someone who drinks green smoothies and has a daily yoga practice, is ‘self-care' out of reach for you? In this episode Anna speaks with the perfect person to answer this question: success coach Rachel Letham, whose first yoga class (including chanting and a giant gong) was a shock to the system! When Rachel hit burnout via a high-stress job, she had to look for her version of self-care, and eventually discovered a love of affirmations, and a seasonal approach to movement for her wellbeing. Along the way she learned to embrace her softer, more intuitive side (without taking away any of the fire or focus she had before).
In this episode:
- Specific practical approaches to what self-care can look like for different people
- Free tools for self-care we all have at our disposal 24/7
- What a ‘joy jar’ is, and how to use one
- The simple secret to the ‘soul’ part of caring for mind, body and soul (even if you’re not spiritual)
- Why you should work with the seasons when thinking about self-care
- How to use affirmations and why they work so well (even if you feel silly at first)
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to life and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson.
Find Anna on Facebook, Instagram, or visit Anna’s website.
More about Rachel Letham
Rachel Letham is a success coach working with successful yet stuck women and corporate teams.
Rachel helps clients build a positive mindset for success, gaining clarity in their direction and purpose in their business or career. Working with women who are already on their personal development journey but need help getting unstuck, boosting their wellbeing, and feeling more supported on their journey. Her debut book, Self Care for the Seasons launched in 2020 in ebook with a supporting workbook of practical yet engaging strategies to help you bring self-care into your day-to-day life.
From this episode:
QUOTES
On being intuitive about exercise:
Sometimes I’ll be like, you know what, I don't think I should do a spin workout, I don't think I should get my heart rate going, I don't think I should raise my cortisol levels. Actually, I want to do a stretch. Or maybe I want to go for a long walk. Tapping into what I need in that moment, being quite forgiving… Give yourself a bit of grace and space and just try to have movement in your day.
On the power of practicing affirmations:
I now tend to have a positive mindset. I've used them so much that sometimes those phrases just come to me naturally, I don't have to really actively practice them. The more you do it, the more you build it up.
Links and resources:
Sign up for Rachel’s emails.
www.rachelletham.com
www.rachellethamcoaching.com
www.selfcaresurvivalkit.co.uk
Book recommendation:
Self-care For The Seasons
Anna speaks with perinatal therapist and coach, Sophie Burch AKA The Mamma Coach, in this very honest conversation about motherhood. From going through difficulties with her own fertility, to challenging pregnancies and birth experiences. Sophie went from being a party-loving career woman working in film (who believed she couldn’t have children) to a mother of four on a mission to bridge the gap in mental-health support for parents.
In this episode:
- How traditional birth education skips the most important preparation for becoming a mother
- Why Sophie is on a mission to bridge a gap in mental-health support for parents
- The moving story of Sophie’s twin boys and how they arrived in the world
- A practical list of things everyone can do to nourish themselves – both during pregnancy and years into being a parent
- Why being a new mum is like being a caterpillar in the chrysalis
- The messy – and incredible, beautiful – reality of the work that goes in to emerging as a gorgeous butterfly
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to life and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson.
Find Anna on Facebook
And Instagram
Anna’s website
More about Sophie BurchA perinatal therapist and coach, author of Beyond Birth: A Mindful Guide to Early Parenting and mum of 4 boys including twins.
She has lived experience of PTSD, Birth Trauma, Pregnancy Trauma and PND.
Sophie’s work is about bringing simple, effective mental-health awareness and wellbeing practices into the lives of parents in the perinatal period, for their families, for life. She believes mental-health support for parents is essential for children to mirror and learn their own emotional regulation and thrive.
From this episode:
Sophie on the human need for connection:
We are designed 100% for connection on every level with our environment with other human beings and with animals of all sorts.... if you prepare in pregnancy to show yourself simple, easy, really effective ways of connecting with self, it helps to smooth the ride.
Sophie on birth and becoming a butterfly:
I often use this analogy with clients: talking about the caterpillar’s transition to the butterfly. But that process is really kind of barbaric as well… it's not just a rebirth… And along with that, of course, comes acceptance, complete acceptance from that caterpillar, acceptance that this is happening… you're going to be able to fly once you've gone through this.
Links and resources:
www.themammacoach.com
IG:
@themammacoach
@beyond_birth_guide
Book recommendation:
Beyond Birth: A Mindful Guide to Early Parenting
Anna and creative coach Kia Cannons talk through Kia’s journey to better wellbeing, one that will resonate with so many women. Kia was once a stay-at-home mum with a lot on her plate. She found her joy in soul-led living and mindset work, and a career as a painter and creative coach. But it came via a bumpy road of chronic pain, stress and adrenal fatigue. Her story, work and energy are a light in the darkness for any woman feeling disconnected from their body and their purpose.
In this episode:
- How to shed the belief that to progress we have to be busy all the time
- Kia’s unusual obsession and what it taught her about her goals
- How to feel safer being our true selves
- Why it pays to realise you’re not in a hurry
- Anna’s concept of non-negotiable rituals for self-care
- The enormous healing power of loving your own body, and how to tap into it
- What Kia did to turn her negative self-talk around – fast
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to food and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1782720
Find Anna on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/410152999576493
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iam.annaanderson/
Anna’s website: https://www.annaandersoninc.com
More about Kia Cannons
Kia teaches creative women how to do what they love via talks and her online group coaching membership, Untold Happiness. Deeply interested in mindset mastery, habits, inner-soul work, and purpose, Kia coaches women how to step into their potential, do what they love, and live truly happy and fulfilled lives.
From this episode:
Kia on vulnerability
I quite often thought of vulnerability as being an outside thing. Oh, I've got to be super, super honest. I've got to tell people my secrets. But actually it was being brave enough to have these conversations with myself.
On trusting the process
The greatest results always seem to come from taking messy courageous action and leaps of faith.
On opening up and listening for answers
What I found is that when I started looking up and saying in my head ‘I'm open and ready to receive, I'm listening’[...] I was amazed by the amount of wisdom that would just drop into my mind[…] And so you don't need to worry about what the route’s going to be. You just need to open up, listen, and get really quiet. And just notice. The signs and the pings and the nudges appear. And they guide you.
On the starting point for any kind of deep shift:
Have enormous compassion. Start with: I'm going to treat myself nicely.
Links and resources:
Kia’s website: https://www.kiacannons.com/
Kia’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiacannons/
Kia’s column in Psychologies magazine: https://lifelabs.psychologies.co.uk/users/333177-kia-cannons
Book recommendation:
Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life https://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Can-Heal-Your-Life/dp/0937611018/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Book:
The Surrender Experiment
Could you just love me like this?
In this episode Anna talks with Course in Miracles teacher, student of the enneagram, interfaith minister, poet and writer and Mother - Hollie Holden. She lives with her husband and two children in London and is passionate about practical, earthy ways to bring Love to all areas of life.
Hollie is the author of a poem on self-love that will resonate with most women on a journey to greater self-acceptance. She opens the episode by reading those powerful words. You might recognise them – they’ve been shared by thousands online, and, as Hollie puts it, ‘have taken on a life of their own’. She captures the essence of the struggle so many of us know too well: trying to fix ourselves, and reacting to cruel self-talk and outside influences. And yet, as Anna teaches in her own coaching, our bodies want nothing more than love and acceptance. How can we get back to that?
In this episode:
- How to work with ourselves, to make big changes and still feel safe
- Why bad self-talk can be like a terrible song that gets stuck in your head
- The reality of what we need for personal growth (it isn’t pushing ourselves harder)
- The role of honesty and being vulnerable
- Are you hearing a harsh inner voice? Or a supportive, truthful one? How can you tell?
For more conversations on a healing and nurturing approach to food and self-nourishment, subscribe to the Nurture and Nourish podcast with Anna Anderson https://www.buzzsprout.com/1782720
Find Anna on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/410152999576493
And Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/iam.annaanderson/
Anna’s website : https://annaandersoninc.com
More about Hollie Holden
Holly is a Course in Miracles teacher, student of the enneagram, an interfaith minister, a poet, writer and mother.
From this episode:
On the importance of honest conversation:
We release each other from the spell, you know, by telling stories… that's why we need to have these conversations to tell new stories; to tell honest stories; to undo on the collective conditioning that we're all swimming in.
On coaching, therapy and community:
We expect to get ourselves out of the hole we're in. And it doesn't work like that… Wouldn't it be great if somebody could just give us the recipe or answer? But we have to hear it in other women's voices.
On the superego:
I've heard that voice say things to me that I would never in a million years say to another person.
On listening to the Nurture and Nourish Podcast!:
If you're listening to this, then you're already on the path, you're already stepping outside of your your natural thinking.
Links and resources:
Hollie’s Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hollieholdenlove
Hollie’s instagram https://www.instagram.com/hollieholdenlove
Hollie’s website http://www.hollieholden.me/
Hollie’s poem https://www.facebook.com/hollieholdenlove/photos/a.652449231538953/1968882349895628/?type=3&theater