Author Archives: Emily Facoory

 

Let’s be real, how much of your closet do you actually wear? 30%? Do you know that you are clogging up your heart along with your hangers? Getting rid of those clothes you won’t wear or that need to be ditched will not only free up your closet space but free your soul as well. Things that you didn’t even realize could be taking effect on your conscious mind. Taking you back a few steps instead of pushing you forward into the wondrous future of your new and improved closet.

First and foremost are the ex-boyfriend’s items, whether that be his comfy hoodie that you bring out on occasion just to smell and reminisce about the good old days, or his old hat that you wear down to the shops to hide your unwashed messy hair. They are coverups and reminders of a relationship that ended, and you need to break up with the items as well. Even though you might not realise it, items can influence your moods, covering your messy hair with his hat, can bring back memories of how you thought you weren’t good enough for him. Ugh, you don’t need that kind of negatively in your life. Now, it’s up to you whether you post them back peacefully, throw them in the trash or burn them. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Your old high school cheer skirt that has seen better days, or your middle school sweater that you put on every winter just to take pride in the fact that it still fits. These are unnecessary items, sure if the memories they hold are dear to you then keep them, but if they aren’t that important then throw them away. You are looking towards the future and you don’t need the validation of high school cliques or your skinny middle school self anymore.

You lost ten pounds. Yes girl! But somehow your clothes don’t reflect your amazing figure. You still bust out those old trackies and sweatshirts that fall down to your knees. Don’t hold onto them for comfort’s sake, throw them out and relish in the fact that you can buy brand new clothes that will help you embrace the new you.

Sometimes the things we love the most must be set free, that includes those heavily scuffed, well-worn boots with the missing buckle that you are holding onto in the hope that they will magically repair themselves. Sometimes it’s best to let go as you never know what is waiting around the next corner or in the next shoe store window.

Published on September 28, 2017 on TotalMeTox.com

 

Cultivating our brainpower to enhance our leadership skills will be the next big thing in the self-help development sphere and neuroscience leadership coach Michelle Loch is on the forefront, helping businesses and organisations create better work environments.

“I had found that using neuroscience as a foundation for leadership development just explained so much for people, it puts the hard science behind what we used to call soft skills, emotional intelligence, getting along with each other and how to connect with people,” she said.

After studying under David Rock, founder of the Neuroleadership Institute in New York, Michelle said that she caught the bug and started doing further studies around neuroscience, “I guess I was in the right place at the right time.”

Michelle now delivers a range of programs that aim to enhance employee engagement and create more useful and beneficial communication skills and conversations.

“Most people think they are pretty good listeners and communicators but interestingly it’s the most common aha moment that people have when they do my program, they end up saying they didn’t realise they were such bad listeners.”

“We tend to be listening for all the wrong reasons, and we need to understand that the way we can best help others is to listen in a different way,” she said.

Good quality conversation is key and according to Michelle “there is value in investing and developing that as a skill, to really listen and to support the creation of insight. Unless we have insight, we don’t really change behaviour, insight only comes when we stop, we think and we reflect.”

Creating a substance mindset is also important and is Michelle’s real passion, “I think we are living in a shallow world and I feel like we are floating on top of the water.”

“It’s about stopping and thinking, what do you really want, what’s really important in life? We live in a what and a how world, what do I need to do and how do I need to do it. But we often don’t stop to think about the why. As a result, we end up doing a lot of things that are quite unfulfilling, that leave us feeling depleted and wanting more.”

“Another coach told me the best piece of advice, to simply be bold, I’ve never forgotten that and I think that we’ve become far too politically correct. I think that we manipulate, we avoid, we skirt around issues and it’s all such a waste of time,” she said.

Michelle strongly believes that neuroscience can change us as a society, “I’ve been really concerned about who we are becoming, living in this western world and I think we are potentially on quite a destructive path. It’s because we have become very me focused rather than we focused.”

“We are going into protective mode and we don’t really know how to engage anymore, social media and smart phone devices have sort of fed into that,” she said.

Throughout her 11 years working in the neuroscience leadership space Michelle states that her biggest achievement is “being able to conquer some of these skills for myself and applying it to my family. I’m very conscious in providing a substance grounding for my children within this shallow world, so they have the better capacity to cope and that they are able to stop and make really insightful decisions.”

“I guess I’m also proud of my ability and I think it’s my strength to take what is relatively complicated neuroscience and translate it so it’s useful for us. That’s where I put my energy, how do we take all that wonderful work that is being done by neuroscientists and how do we use it to better ourselves and our society,” she said.

Find out more about Michelle here!

Published on September 27, 2017 on SheBrisbane

 

#SheBrisbane caught up with singing maven Greta Bradman to discuss her performance in the show From Broadway to La Scala coming to Brisbane in December. According to Greta, audiences can expect “a lot of laughs and hopefully a few teary moments, but in a good way.”

“I think that we love to welcome people in a way that hopefully makes them feel like for that time when they are in the audience, we are all just one big family. It’s a really good time to enable people to kick off their heels and relax and not have to worry, they can be swept up in another world.”

Greta described it not only as a tight and professional show but with genuine, heartfelt moments and amazing music. “Our director does a great job in creating conversation in between songs and there are some hilarious conversations between Teddy and David, paying each other out.”

She said that working alongside Teddy Tahu Rhodes, David Hobson and Lisa McCune was the highlight of the show for her, “they are such incredible artists and we have such a great time together, it’s a real pleasure making music with them.”

Greta’s album Home is due to release early next year, inspired by all of the songs of her childhood. “Singing with my grandma and my dad, songs that remind me of really happy times surrounded by people I love and who love me.”

After having surgery on her neck last year, Greta wasn’t sure if she would be able to sing again, having to bow out of for any singing for 6 months. Missing it terribly, she said that, “I sing all the time, in the shower, when I’m doing the dishes, when I’m preparing breakfast for my kids, let alone when I’m rehearsing or performing and I found it really bizarre not being able to sing.”

“It was really horrible, but at the same time I guess it’s one of those situations where I focused on other things which I was so grateful for, such as my family and all the singing I had done already. It brought a lot of that into sharper relief and showed how much it really meant to me, and luckily everything turned out fine,” she said.

Greta is also on the advisory board of the Arts Wellbeing Collective and has a Master’s degree in Psychology. As an advocate for the better care and understanding of mental health and wellbeing, she shared her advice on the practice of mindfulness. “It’s such a great tool for busy lives, either in helping performance whether that be in stage, sport or work or even just talking with strangers.”

She said that it’s just like doing a rep of an exercise in which you need to constantly practice to become better at it. “The power is in those moments where you thank your mind, where you see your mind wander and gently guide it back over and over again,” she said.

Greta said that she loves walking to the train and tries to focus on green things in nature like grass or leaves. “Even sitting on the train like a curious scientist casting no judgement and observing my surroundings helps, it provides a sense of calm and focus as I carry on throughout my day.”

Published on September 15, 2017 on SheBrisbane

 

With one in six children in Australia starting school behind, it’s important for parents to have a role in the development of their child’s early maths skills. Just in time for National Literacy and Numeracy Week (4-10 September), the Lets Count at work program is helpful in supporting parents in recognising the importance of not just reading to their child but using everyday games and activities to develop their early maths skills.

Let’s Count at work is a program for parents which is delivered through their workplace. An experienced educator from The Smith Family runs a one-hour workshop with practical tips and resources parents can use to help their child develop numeracy skills during those critical early years.

As well as giving parents the confidence and skills to support their child’s learning, Let’s Count at work is a fun and unique way for an organisation to engage their employees.

Let’s Count at work is a growing social enterprise delivered by The Smith Family – making the workshops an easy way for businesses to support the charity. The workshops are paid for by the business with the funds channelled back into The Smith Family’s education programs for children in disadvantaged communities across Australia. The Smith Family are also working on options for stay at home mums and parents who work from home as well.

The workshop is based on the principles and activities used in the Let’s Count program, which was developed in particular to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds and has been shown through a three-year evaluation to increase the maths skills and enjoyment of preschool-aged children, their parents and carers.

There are numerous ways that parents can help their children develop their numeracy skills in everyday life scenarios, for example by cooking together, measuring ingredients or even at the park, by identifying shapes and examining heights and lengths.

Published on September 21, 2017 on SheBrisbane

 

 

FashionAble has become one of Brisbane’s premier fashion events, celebrating ability and diversity all the while helping to support people with disability in Queensland to achieve their dreams. Organised by Multicap, all funds raised will go towards providing disability support for people all over Queensland.

This year’s show will be headlined by Models of Diversity ambassador Jason Clymo. A former medical student, Jason turned his attention to modelling after an accident in 2014 left him paralysed from the waist down.

The former medical student from Victoria has since featured in various campaigns and catalogues, and is now an ambassador for Starting with Julius and Models of Diversity, organisations that promote diversity in the fashion and model industries.

“I am excited to have this opportunity with Multicap,” he said. “Not only because it will be my first runway experience but also because I love that FashionAble is all about inclusion and diversity. I am campaigning to change the fashion and modelling industries. My huge end goal is that it will no longer be exciting that someone in a wheelchair is on the runway – it will just be normal. We deserve to be recognised.”

Multicap Chief Executive Officer Joanne Jessop said Multicap was delighted to have Jason on board. ‘FashionAble is all about celebrating ability and diversity so to have Jason involved is wonderful,’ she said.

Hosted by Channel  7 personality Kim Skubris, The event will showcase some of Queensland’s best and emerging designers such as When Freddie met Lilly, Sacha Drake and Maiocchi.

Published on September 18, 2017 on SheBrisbane

Back on the grid after sometime away, Australian singer Casey Donovan has just released new music after seven years off the scene. Her EP, Off the Grid & Somewhere in Between showcases a range of emotional and highly personal songs.

The 2004 Australian Idol winner has restarted her musical career after a long period of time away from producing her own songs. She has slowly but surely regained the spotlight this past year though, being crowned Queen Of The Jungle on the 2017 season of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, along with appearing in a range of stage productions.

But in regards to her music, Casey found that after constantly performing covers for people, she knew that she was capable of creating her own music and had to prove to herself that she could still do it.

She’s hoping that listeners get worthwhile messages from her songs.

“Music these days are losing story lines with most of them not having that anchor to what they really mean,” she said.

Casey’s EP was created using money raised by a crowdfunding site. “It was an interesting experience, but very daunting asking people for help. I’m a very independent person, I had to take a breath and go you’re not giving up, you’re just merely asking for help.

The crowdfunding process was very stressful because I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it, but then on the last day it started to jump and luckily we got there,” Casey said.

Starring in theatre productions such as The Flowerchildren, The Sapphires and We Will Rock You, Casey said that she also loves being on stage.

“It’s a challenge for me, it takes me out of my comfort zone and I just enjoy it so much, it’s such a different anxiety.

I’ve taken something away from every character, I loved playing the Killer Queen in We Will Rock You. She was a great villain and she just had this gutsiness and this sexy and sassy image about her, at some points I was like, why can’t I be a little bit like this,” she said.

Looking back over the past 12 years since her initial rise to stardom on Australian Idol, Casey said that she would give her younger self the advice to just breath and know that it’s all going to be okay.

While her advice to other creatives and women in general is to get out there and enjoy life and love what you do.

“There are a lot of people out there that are going to tell you no, and that’s when you turn around and you go, yes I can do this!”

Published on September 11, 2017 on SheSociety

 

Another day and another body shaming incident, this time in its birthplace of Hollywood. Just recently British actress Gemma Arterton revealed on a podcast by The Guilty Feminist the terrible remarks she received while on the set of one of her movies. Where a producer considered Gemma’s weight an emergency and flew out a personal trainer straight away to ‘fix’ the problem.

Gemma was understandably shocked at the comment, “You know when it’s like ‘Is it that f—ing bad that I need an emergency?’ … [it was as if they were] like on speed dial, ‘Get that trainer out here now’. It was so traumatic at the time.”

“They’d measure me and they’d call up the personal trainer at like nine at night going: ‘Is she in the gym? And if she isn’t why isn’t she in the gym?”

One of her producers also told her not to eat some dried apricots on set, to which she responded with, “Do you know what? I’m going to eat about all 20 [apricots], then I’m going to go home and eat all the stuff in the mini bar.”

An ongoing and demoralising issue that is always cropping up throughout film sets and on red carpets, the continuous pressure is setting more absurd standards and creating more body hatred and insecurities. Words can actually hurt and can impact a person’s mindset and their perspectives on themselves, creating unhealthy fixations. Considering that these comments are made in such an environment like Hollywood where you are judged wholly on your looks, it makes unwarranted comments like these so detrimental.

Game of Throne’s star Sophie Turner spoke to the magazine Porter about the unfairness of the constant judgement last month, “I was consumed with thoughts on weight and the idea that you have to be skinny to be an actress, and that I wasn’t skinny enough to get jobs.”

“There are times when I have done jobs and they’ve told me that I have to lose weight, even when it has nothing to do with the character:  It is so f—– up.”

By having more actresses share their own experiences, this can hopefully become a starting point for change in the industry, it may be gradual at first but any progress is worthwhile and can help towards installing a greater sense of acceptance. From that, change can be affected beyond the narrow minds of Hollywood and out into the broader population.

Published September 11, 2017 on SheBrisbane

 

Sophie Payten is certainly rising up the ranks of the Australian music scene, going by the stage name Gordi, she has established herself as an upcoming artist to watch. Her folk electronica sound is a refreshing change from the heavily saturated market of pop in today’s music scene. Instead Sophie said that her music aims to try to “push through the kind of boundaries of those normal styles and combine it with beautiful instrumentation.”

In Brisbane last week to support the band Gang of Youths, SheBrisbane chatted with the artist about her newly released album, and her hectic life on tour as well as being a medical student with exams just two weeks away.

Discovered by Triple J’s Unearthed music platform back in 2014, Sophie signed a record deal with American label Jagjaguwar early last year. Travelling to the United States and Iceland among other countries to create her album, she had a range of musical talent play on the record, including S. Carey from Bon Iver and Tim Anderson (Solange, Banks).

According to Sophie, “compared to the EP I put out last year it’s a richer, bolder sound and uses a lot of light instrumentation. The kind of themes and lyrical content are of a personal nature and reflect on the whole idea of reservoir, which is sort of like a figurative innermost place where you contemplate everything.”

Coming from the small New South Wales town of Canowindra where the population is only 2,258, Sophie said she gained a lot of support from the community growing up.

But in establishing her musical career in Sydney, she said that “moving to a big city always helps, kind of just playing live and getting on that live circuit really opened up my life to a lot of different people. A lot of great musicians started playing with bands and I think that was kind of the beginning of it all for me.”

Sophie also got the chance to perform backing vocals for Bon Iver on the Jimmy Fallon show, an experience which she called incredible. “It was a pretty surreal moment just meeting Justin Vernon and meeting them all, I rocked up for the first day of rehearsal and I was so nervous, but they were so kind and welcoming. I actually finished the album in their studio and they’ve been real great support in getting me over to do all those things.”

In between recording her album and touring both nationally and internationally she is also currently in her last year of her six-year medical degree.

“That for me was a bit of a hurdle, getting the album out, but I kind of learnt how to balance it with my hospital placements,” Sophie said.

“If I had national tours I would just try and schedule them so I wouldn’t miss my placements and get a red eye from Perth to make sure I was there by 8am the next day. If I had to do international tours I would ask faculty for time off and then renegotiate my schedule so I would meet all the basic requirements. It’s been a logistical nightmare.”

In regard to her future in medicine, she said, “I don’t really know what I want to do with it, maybe go into general practice or do another speciality. To be honest for the moment that seems quite far off, my plan is to just do as much as I can to not totally forfeit the degree and to focus on music for the foreseeable future.”

The advice Sophie wished she could give to her younger self was to “just be patient, I think you always want everything all at once and you kind of wonder why it’s not coming.”

“Even though from the outside of the music industry it looks like things move quickly, but it really moves slowly most of the time. So, I think just be patient and actually just enjoy the ride because I think when I look back on it all that will be the best part.”

Published on September 8, 2017 on SheBrisbane

 

Our emotions are one of the hardest concepts to wrap our heads around, especially as women, as we are considered to be the more ‘emotional’ species. While we are always thinking of improving our overall intelligence to become more knowledgeable and insightful human beings. What we often neglect is that our emotional intelligence (EI) also needs to be worked at so we can become better equipped with our emotions and how we are displaying them to others. Harnessing our emotions to work in positive ways will help in all areas of our lives, allowing us to become more empathic and understanding human beings, and in this day and age, it’s definitely a much-needed attribute.

Josh Freedman, CEO of Six Seconds, The Emotional Intelligence Network observes, ”the bad news is emotional intelligence continues to decline globally. I hypothesise this is due to growing stress and chaos in the world. In our study, we found people with higher-than-average EQ are dramatically more likely to be high performers — it means that essentially, EQ is a requirement.”

1. Observation

By observing the great achievers, or just people that you know who seem to be in check with their emotions will be beneficial in changing your attitudes. Allowing you to see how others are using their EI to its highest advantage. But also, by just observing everyone in general and taking note of how others react to adversity or how they cultivate meaningful relationships, will help determine whether you should either learn from their mistakes or try and emulate them if they are successful.

2. Reflection

By reflecting on your own emotions and how you reacted in certain situations can help you gain more self-awareness and control in how you use your feelings. Reflection is a great tool in everyday life, as it allows you to constantly grow and seek out better options to create a more fulfilling existence.

3. Positivity

When faced with a difficult challenge you will need to gather up your courage and become resilient, facing whatever comes your way head on and putting a positive spin on the situation. This will allow you to better anticipate and react to any challenge that may pop up.

4. Empathy

By putting yourself in someone else’s shoes you can see a whole other perspective in which your own emotions can adjust to better receive the other person and how they are feeling. A simple example is that of a customer service situation where even though the customer is frustrated, by practicing empathy you will have a better hold on the situation and may come out of it unscathed.

5. Repetition

By constantly practicing these steps, you will gain a better understanding of yourself and how you relate and communicate in the world.

Published on September 7, 2017 on SheBrisbane