The Wellness Connection with Fiona Kane

Episode 80 The Healing Power of Community: Lauren's Inspiring Path to Vibrant Living

• Fiona Kane • Season 1 • Episode 80

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What happens when a high-stress corporate career leads to a life-changing path in holistic wellness? Lauren Short, founder of Heart of the Hunter, joins us to share her incredible journey from credit management in London to holistic health in the beautiful Hunter Valley.

Inspired by her grandfather’s dementia journey, Lauren turned to nutrition, low-tox living, meditation and essential oils during the COVID lockdown to manage her own health and mental health, she was really struggling at the time.

Lauren’s story showcases the power of resilience and the importance of making wellness accessible. We discuss the tools she used to recover from a time of much grief and loss; and some of what she teaches and shares within her community.

Community and connection stand at the heart of wellness, and Lauren’s experiences highlight this beautifully. Finding joy in simple practices like grounding and gratitude, Lauren demonstrates how we can all move closer to living our best lives. Tune in for an episode filled with heartfelt stories, practical tips, and a deep commitment to vibrant living.

Warning suic&dal thoughts and infant death/miscarriage are mentioned briefly in this episode.

Lauren photo credit: Photographer: Ingrid Photography

Contact details for Lauren Short:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heartofthehunterhealthandfitness
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/heart_of_the_hunter/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/9ZurtwjVPQbc53TV/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-short-b7203330/

Website: https://www.heartofthehunter.com.au/


Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

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Credit for the music used in this podcast:

The Beat of Nature

Music by Olexy from Pixabay



Fiona Kane:

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast with Fiona Kane. I'm your host, Fiona Kane. Today I have a guest. It's been a little while, so it's good to have another guest. Her name is Lauren Short.

Lauren Short:

Hi Lauren, Hello Fiona, Thanks for having me today.

Fiona Kane:

You're welcome. Would you like to introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about you.

Lauren Short:

Sure, my business is Heart of the Hunter, holistic, holistic health and fitness, and I'm a yoga meditation teacher and um it's haven't always worked in this field. Um, I used to work in corporate credit management, so I had a career change. I've been studying for the last three to four years and, through my own healing journey, now helping people in all different areas and different groups of people.

Fiona Kane:

Yes, great, great, yeah. That couldn't be more different. And that's the same. I was working in the building industry and the mining industry before I started doing sort of health and wellness. So there's a lot of us, I think that you know we start off in different industries and end up here, and often in my experience it often is. It is the wounded healer, the person who has had something happen to them or maybe happened to someone close to them and they've got an interest in health or nutrition or whatever aspect of health, and then eventually, this is what they end up doing. It's a really, really common story, but you know a great transition for you. So give us a little bit more of the background, of kind of what got you?

Fiona Kane:

from doing that to doing this.

Lauren Short:

I'm from the Hunter Valley originally and I moved to London when I was 21, so lived there for eight and a half years working over in credit management, and the last company was a top tier law firm and I moved back to Australia. So I moved to Bondi and was lucky enough to have three months off work to enjoy a summer, which I hadn't done for a long time, and while I was living in Bondi I sort of loved yoga, being outdoors, exercising, so I actually enrolled in a PT course while I was working in corporate. I came back to Australia and pretty much landed a job straight away with my experience working for other top tier law firms in credit management and always had that passion around health and wellness. I was always active, used to be a ballet dancer and I did netball and things like that, so movement was always something that was really important to me as a child. So, living in Sydney, working in that corporate space, I actually, when I met my partner and we moved to Botany Bay, we used to do sailing around Botany Bay.

Lauren Short:

So we moved back to the Hunter five years ago, primarily to be closer to my grandfather who was pretty much diagnosed with dementia when I moved back to Australia, so that was over 10 years ago and unfortunately, seeing him being a healthy man and then unfortunately he's passed now he passed nearly two years ago. But it actually broke my heart to see my pop. He was an influence and a role model in my life. So seeing him going from a healthy man to a tub chair, which was just so hard to see, and the more I researched into dementia. So nutrition, so I'm very passionate about nutrition, low-tox education. So he was a painter, so he was heavily exposed to chemicals with painting and through my own grief of losing him. So with dementia you're losing that person not just once but I guess different times. They change with their limited how they can talk.

Fiona Kane:

It's bit by bit, by bit yeah, little by little, it's like a thousand paper cuts kind of thing a million paper cuts.

Lauren Short:

Yeah, it actually broke me and it all happened during the COVID lockdown. So my partner and I actually moved up to the Hunter in a converted coach home, in a tiny home. So we, you know plan was to buy a house and everything like that but it didn't happen. So I struggled to get work when I came up here. There was no credit management roles up here but sometimes, you know, different doors open. So I was actually a wedding coordinator for 18 months and then led up to the COVID lockdown and while I was working there I was studying the PT course so I managed to get that certificate and then I was teaching boxing and circuit training for a singleton area, for a not-for-profit charity, so four nights a week. So that was my sort of first fitness opportunity. So it was free for the community. So, again, the movement. It was quite a rewarding, um, you know thing to do. I always had a lot of families there, so just teaching them the skills that they can do this kind of thing in their backyard as a family or if they go on holidays of boxing and circuit training. And then, um, so with the COVID lockdown happening, I've been in the wedding industry.

Lauren Short:

I had no work, work because everything got shut down and I ended up, most you know, I chose to use the time wisely. So I actually enrolled in a NICE program through the government, so New Enterprise Incentive Scheme. So I was mentored for 12 months. I did a Certificate 5 in Small Business in five weeks. So every day I sat on the bus while I was studying this course and yeah, and then I ended up going on to do my meditation, holistic counselling.

Lauren Short:

I was in a really dark place actually because I never thought I would see my pop again being in the nursing home and it actually just broke my heart because of the separation and I just found myself spiralling down into depression, into a really bad like depressed state. And how I got out of it? I turned to meditation and yoga. Always loved yoga, so meditation was the first thing that I sort of studied and I could actually start to see some changes with the meditation.

Lauren Short:

So I had, you know, from conditioning from a young age with negative thought patterns. I was starting to reprogram the subconscious mind and starting to, you know, really believe in all the things that I wanted to do and just started manifesting these amazing opportunities. In time I could see the results. So, starting the meditation, I thought this would be amazing to help children like always have this motto be the person that you needed when you were younger. So you know being a teenager, like those early years of teenagers when I really struggled with you know self-confidence and even went through depression when my other grandma passed, and I felt that it was just such a powerful thing to learn for children. So I studied meditation for children.

Fiona Kane:

Also to truly understand that this, too, shall pass that saying. It's just because it does. Things move on, things change, and the thing about being a child and being a teenager in particular, is I don't know about you, but my teenage years felt like they went forever, and the thing about being a child, and being a teenager in particular, is I don't know about you but my teenage years felt like they went forever. The age of 14 felt like it went for 20 years.

Lauren Short:

Oh, I can't do anything.

Fiona Kane:

I'm not allowed to do it Because you feel like you've grown up, but you're not. You think you are and then you know, since I've hit 25, then it's gone super fast, like Every year feels like it goes a couple of weeks kind of thing, but when you're young it goes on forever and you just feel like nothing's ever going to change, you're never going to have agency, you're never going to be able to get out of the situation you're in, and the truth is it all changes and in the end you look back in the rear vision mirror and I don't care less about my school or you know, like all the things that are so big then all your results. Like you know, no one asks me when I see a client. They don't ask me what score I got in anatomy and physiology or if I got a high distinction, or if I did my HSC, which I didn't do, my HSC, which is kind of what do they call it these days?

Fiona Kane:

They call it, but anyway, it's the higher high school graduation thing that helps you get into university and all that kind of stuff. I didn't do that at all. I left school when I was 15. So, anyway, it's just I always kind of like with younger people it's like it's not the end of the world. We think it's the end of the world, it's so not. And also just the other thing I'll, just before you continue your story, which is really interesting, I I living on the bus up in the hunter valley.

Fiona Kane:

I know I I think it's worth for because I do have uh people who watch and listen who all over the world, and it's worth explaining where the hunter valley is. So it's kind of north of sydney about two hours north and it's very well known as being a wine country, so a lot of vineyards, so there is a lot of tourism and weddings and those kinds of things as anything else you could add to the about what I haven't included.

Lauren Short:

No, um. So the hunter valley. We also have some beautiful wellness retreats here, so I was really lucky um, after the lockdown lifted, I actually um was able to um secure a job at one of um well-known wellness retreats here in percolbin and that's where I've gained my experience in the health and wellness um. Um, that's the field of the health and wellness. So I sort of started working out um in the spa area and while I was studying my meditation studies and finishing that off, when I finished I was able to secure my first opportunity with one of the top accounting firms in Australia and then I did sort of six weeks of meditation teaching all the new stuff that came in. And then the year after once, I was qualified as a yoga teacher.

Lauren Short:

I did yoga as well, so just teaching entrepreneurs how to meditate and to introduce a yoga practice, which was great.

Lauren Short:

And I, after working in the spa and wellness center, I was asked to come onto the programs team, having that PT background but teaching primarily yoga and meditation teaching, and when guests would come into the wellness retreat I would be a first point of contact for a wellness consultation. So going through talking about what was happening for the guest health concerns, giving them suggestions of different practices, whether it's naturopathy or nutrition, to have those consults with practitioners that specialise in that field, and encouraging them to come to my yoga meditation classes to help with stress. And yeah, I've been really lucky because I've been surrounded by other holistic practitioners and learnt so much from being there. So, continuing on my, you know, time on the bus when I was studying, so I sort of been studying for the last four years and after the meditation, holistic counseling and then the children's meditation, I did my yoga teacher training for 200 hours and then went on to do restorative, trauma-informed yoga for 50 hours. So explain what that is for anyone who doesn't know what that is.

Lauren Short:

Yeah. So we store a lot of trauma in the body. So through my learnings from yoga, coming back to the breath and we store emotion in our body which can fester into disease and illness. So it's really important to let go of those emotions through holding poses, and it's particularly yin yoga is really great to help release those emotions to the surface. And you know, just by doing it myself it was.

Lauren Short:

You don't realise that you're holding on to stuck emotions and I did through my training of the restorative trauma-informed yoga. It's a lot of yoga that's still. You're holding poses for a long period of time. You might be doing a class and may only do one or two poses. So really beautiful pose that I like to incorporate is Supta Baddha Konasana, so using the bolster and a couple of blocks as well. So I had to do 21 days through my training of restorative trauma and you don't realize that there's emotions that may be coming up from your childhood and it's a really powerful way to release those emotions. So I actually teach a Goya class once a week in here in the community for rehabilitation for drug and alcohol addiction. So also just trains you to have the right language with dealing with people with post-traumatic stress and people that have had trauma. So you're giving people those options in the classes rather than telling them what to do. So you're just changing your language to adapt to somebody who has been through you know some hardships and being understanding and just giving them options in the class and wording the language to suit the class. So back to coming up on the bus.

Lauren Short:

It was such a difficult time because I lost my job. I didn't think I'd be able to see my pop again. Through the stress it caused relationship problems with my partner, so you can imagine living on top of someone for such a long period of time. We were really fortunate because my partner worked for one of the top wineries here in the hunter and with his line of work he is a carpenter and a project manager and he was a maintenance manager. So we were asked to caretake a vineyard for nine months during the lockdown. So it was quite bittersweet. So you know, it's not every day you get landed to live on a vineyard. Um, you're the only ones. There had a pool and tennis court and things like that. We would just see the business owners coming in and, um, it was really beautiful. We were very well looked after in that sense. But it was still difficult in the sense that I wasn't sure if I'd see my pop again. So, um for me, um, I that's when I was introduced to essential oils.

Lauren Short:

So I attended a Zoom and part of a beautiful community I'm a part of NOW, based in Sydney, so I work quite closely with Zula Chamberlain she's the owner of Star Anise Organic Broth Bar in Sydney and I started learning about essential oils and their benefits and I always loved essential oils, probably more so for the smell of them, but not to learn about the therapeutic grade behind them. So once I started researching into them, I actually bought some myself and, to be honest, I don't know what I would have done without them during the lockdown for emotional support, things like lavender, beautiful blends for stress I just used them, I diffused them, put them on my body and it was just something that really helped me. And also incorporated them into my yoga meditation practices. And the more I learned about it, I thought after when I became a yoga meditation teacher, I started to use them in my classes. After when I became a yoga meditation teacher, I started to use them in my classes so I could see the power behind the therapeutic traction of them.

Lauren Short:

So an opportunity I had in the Central Coast I was asked to teach meditation for a disability, respite company, and the majority of the people were in wheelchairs and with high mental health. So I thought, you know, I'll ask if it's okay for me to use the essential oils. And I did, and I made an inclusive seated chair movement class and I was just blown away by the concentration and I had people coming up to me to say like I can't believe how attentive they were in the class and how inclusive you'd made it. And yeah, that's when, after that, I thought Heart of the Hunter really needs to have a big mascot to help bring joy to people that necessarily can't speak, because there was a lady in my class was not able to speak verbally, so I'd incorporated bubbles for her. So then I went out and ordered a giant heart from China as a mascot for Heart of the Hunter, which my partner wears.

Fiona Kane:

A giant heart. Exactly, I like my little heart. I've got a little heart over there, I know.

Fiona Kane:

The Awkward Yeti is the name of the cartoonist who created these characters, so the heart and brain. A lot of his stories are around heart and brain kind of kind of fighting with each other because like heart just wants to do everything it wants to do and brain's kind of like no, no, we've got to be sensible. And they're kind of like you know, we're playing off against each other and there's a mouth and tongue and teeth and and stomach and all of the different characters and irritable bowel over here as well. So if anyone's sort of like they're great the awkward Yeti, look up the awkward Yeti. I just want to mention that.

Lauren Short:

Yeah, I've never heard of that.

Fiona Kane:

So for you it's the heart, the heart of the hunter. So you've got a giant heart.

Lauren Short:

That's right, and I guess for me as well to create a brand that people would remember.

Fiona Kane:

Yes.

Lauren Short:

And you know you don't think that you're making an impact, but I guess I've been a part of quite a few charities. Two years ago I facilitated a campaign around mental health called Kick Fear in the Hunter. I collaborated with a lady from the Central Coast and I had quite a lot of involvement with the community here in the Hunter. I ran a free meditation, I had practitioners from the wellness retreat come and talk around mental health specifically and it was all free for the community. I had over $5,000 worth of raffle prizes from mostly wineries but also other businesses here in Percolvin and one of the charities was actually today's Awareness Day. Actually, coincidentally, was RUAK for Suicide Prevention and you know from that our local newspaper came to the event and then she asked us if we would like to go to a festival and they would donate their stall to us to be at the Stomp Festival, which is a big event here in the Hunter, and we had a stand with all the merchandise and myself and the lady who run the campaign and my partner we handed out I think it was around 1,000 affirmation cards that were strong. A thousand affirmation cards that were strong. Um, yeah, just motivating, um, you know, affirmations basically and having those conversations around mental health and my friend so beautiful, um, she donated some art pieces as well. So, um, little story about manifestation.

Lauren Short:

So it was pretty much one year to the date I was in such a dark place that I'd done some art and I basically colored in a lion and I just remember being such a horrible space, like actually to the point that I didn't want to be here anymore. And I remember sticking up the line in my bedroom and putting it on the the glass and close the blinds because it was during winter. And anyway, I eventually remembered that I did it and it was actually I'd been asked if I'd collaborate with the lady that ran the kick fair in the hunter and the logo was a lion for inclusion, equality and kindness. And then when my friend, I told her what I was doing, she said look like I'd like to donate some art. And it was a lioness and a lioness and a cub. And I've just my jaw just dropped with this synchronicity of you know, I knew I wanted to help people, but the synchronicity of the lion was just unbelievable and especially sometimes there's clues along the way, isn't there?

Fiona Kane:

you know something's. There's something coming up for you and you don't always know what it is.

Lauren Short:

But you get little clues along the way yeah, so that was.

Lauren Short:

I basically facilitated the campaign in one month's time. So you know, I had Percolban Hall donated and it I had so many beautiful people come together to make it happen. And I look back now I think that was such a big thing for me to do, but I know that it did make a difference. I remember having a conversation with a lady that had lost. She had twins and she lost one of the babies. She had one of the babies on her hip and when one of the charities that we supported was Bears of Hope for Infant Loss. So just remember having that conversation and that she was so thankful that we were raising awareness around that.

Lauren Short:

And just one thing I haven't added so when the lockdown happened, it was not long before that I had a miscarriage and, um, that was pretty much five years ago and I really struggled with that.

Lauren Short:

So that was a part of, I guess, a grief in itself, and I didn't really have any friends that had been through miscarriage before. So another reason why I went lowx with the essential oils and started reducing the chemical load in the home because the more I researched around environmental toxins and a lot of the products that we have have harmful chemicals in them. So it was really just something that I found that I needed to do for myself. So it took me four years to swap everything over. But now I've been low tox for four years and the grief of a miscarriage is something that is not really talked about. So I found there was a beautiful charity called Pink Elephants in Sydney where I did some counselling through that, which was really lovely, which was free. So I kind of felt that pop back up again in the campaign called kick fear in the hunter when we're raising awareness around infant loss just some of the conversations.

Fiona Kane:

It's not really a topic that gets spoken about for women and I feel that it should be, because even for the men as well, um, it is a process of grief that they're yeah, and I think that sometimes people don't acknowledge that if it's not a baby that was born, they don't acknowledge that there's a grief around that and I think we're getting better these days at understanding these things.

Fiona Kane:

But, yeah, grief is grief and that is very definite and very common grief in our society. So it's surprising that something so common is something that's so little talked about but that is slowly changing and that for you, you know, that sort of leading into the whole COVID time and your grandpa and lockdowns and all of those things you could see that sort of spiral down for you, the things that the compounding of the different griefs and and worries and and and stresses in your life, that's right and that's why the yoga and meditation was just life-changing for me and the more I learned about it through my studies of yoga and meditation, I just I thought this is just so powerful.

Lauren Short:

You don't get taught this in school. So it really just encouraged me to keep learning and diving deeper. And I've been so fortunate to get my experience at a wellness retreat with other holistic practitioners and learning from the best in the industry. So you know, starting a new business it takes time, it takes. You know, know, I've spent my last four years of studying and, just, you know, luckily I don't have any huge debts or anything like that, but I felt like a student. So I've just literally been teaching my classes, I work, do yoga, um retreats and and, and you know people are coming up for a weekend away. Then I'll get approached for doing women's retreats and birthdays and hen's do's and things like that.

Lauren Short:

I just recently finished teaching a program in Broke. So Broke is a little town just outside of the Colburn, a very, very small population, and while I've been studying, for the last couple of years I've been working at a place called Windmark in Broke, which is an art gallery and sculpture walk, which is very much ties into health and wellness and from working there I've managed to meet a lot of people in the community because I was part of a festival coordinating that. So anyway, I was approached to run a wellness program in Broke which was free for the community through flood relief they had some really horrible floods there and for mental health and well-being they had some money and I taught um yin yoga once a week and kids mindfulness and games for 5 to 12 year olds and taught meditation and stress management at a venue called the starline alpaca Farm in Broke and beautiful little space where they can do weddings and functions there. But they also have alpacas and animals and they have a sunflower farm, which I love sunflowers. So for nine months I had that amazing opportunity where I got to meet the community.

Lauren Short:

They could come, it was free and just providing that education, um, and I know a lot of the people. They really appreciate it and I got to form some great friendships from learning from the students coming and getting to know them from the community, um, so unfortunately the funding ran out so we're reapplying for more funding, but those are the opportunities that I find to be really rewarding. Yeah, definitely, I'm grateful from the experience at the wellness retreat. Unfortunately, not everybody has, you know, disposable income to spend on a couple of nights or a week at a wellness retreat. So I find that the skills and education I've learned I like to give to people that don't have that opportunity always.

Fiona Kane:

Yes yeah, and, as this host who forgot to mention that topic today, we actually did have a topic I've been living Later. Just drop that in. Look, there's a couple of things I do want to certainly talk to you about more, about the different holistic methods that you use, because obviously you went through a really dark time and there's some things you used and you hinted at. One of those was essential oils, so the things that helped you to get out of that. But I would also like to, just just from observing and just talking to you and talking about all the things that you've been doing, I'm guessing that one of the things well, once lockdowns were over because, anyway, keeping humans apart from each other for lengths of time is, you know, we can see what the outcome of that is. There's so many tragic stories and so much trauma and so much, you know. We could talk about that for hours. It's just terrible what happens with the lockdowns. But anyway, what I've noticed, though, at least since you've been able to, is that a lot of the themes here I see, are a few things. One is the theme of art and beauty, like having kind of beauty in your life, or art or just expression in some way or other, whether it's, you know, the lion or the you know, or just the beautiful surroundings and the gallery and that kind of thing. But the other thing I see is a sense of community and it's a sense of okay. Well, one thing I can do right now is I can give back. One thing I can do right now is connect with community and there's something to be said for being needed somewhere, being expected somewhere, making a difference, being part of a community and feeling like you're making a difference, I think all of those things are really healing and really important. And when we look at all of the studies they do on it because, as a nutritionist, everyone goes on about the mediterranean diet and you know the mediterranean diet is great, but they fail to include the part of the mediterranean diet, what makes the mediterranean diet so good? So, yes, it might be the olive oil and you know, and you know fresh, fresh produce and all of that, but it is actually also the fact that these people have community, they have connection, so they're part of a community that you know where, as people get older, they're respected, they're part of the community, they're included. They usually have extended families and, as you've been talking about up until now as well. You've been talking about the movement, moving your body. So they usually have lifestyles that require them to move their body, whether they sort of tend into the crops or the rice paddies or the olive trees or the cows, or they just live somewhere where they've got to walk up hills and up down hills or whatever, and they're having these slow, slow, real food meals with their family and they're connected, they're part of community.

Fiona Kane:

So I just really feel for you a big part of your story, that there's a few aspects here, but there's definitely the movement which is consistent in there. There's definitely kind of, it seems like being present and gratitude practices that you've been including in here, but there's also this whole sense of being part of something, being part of community. Because sometimes when we, rather than just looking in all of the time, oh my god, this, that, the other when we look out, uh, we, it takes that pressure off, worrying about ourselves, it take, it distracts us from worrying about ourselves, but it also gives us something to focus on and, you know, something positive to do. So does that feel?

Lauren Short:

100, 100 and that's what I want to create more so here in the hunter. So I've been doing a little bit more networking over the last month and I've met some really beautiful souls. Just on Saturday I collaborated with four women in Newcastle for Newcastle Wellbeing and Mental Health Expo. So a nutritionist, a counsellor and a life coach. So the four of us went to that in native suicide prevention and we did a gratitude wall it was all free for everyone to be a part of and we then had a stress kit. So we had some lavender, some marbles don't lose your marbles and some little bubble wrap for stress so they could make their own kits and it was just really beautiful to be a part of.

Lauren Short:

I think collaboration is so powerful so I could have went there by myself, but I was approached by one of the ladies to collaborate and we just got so much out of it.

Lauren Short:

We ended up putting a prize together which was free to enter and we put um a voucher from each of us which worked out to be over a thousand dollars, and the, the lady that actually won it, um, owns a taekwondo studio in being a part of that in newcastle, which they've just initiated a charity. So, um, yeah, you just never know those conversations around mental health, um and community and connection, just knowing what's available and even being at that expo um, I couldn't see too many other places from where I'm from, so it was now getting in contact with other health and wellness um companies that maybe you, you can't, you're not, you don't specialize in that area, so you're knowing who you could refer someone to. So that connection and community there has been amazing. And I know, being part of the broke wellness program, I coordinated myself plus another health and wellness lady who did ice baths and breath work. So through that I, you know, I came into it nine, did it for nine months, but there was another teacher before me but I could just see the essence of the community in connection by being involved with that. And we had another lady doing yoga through another funding scheme, but we all put it together. So, even though it was separate, just so people knew that we had what was happening for wellness in the broke community.

Fiona Kane:

Yes.

Lauren Short:

And I just always come back, especially during COVID, I think, when I became involved with essential oils and low-tox through that particular community. I actually don't know what I would have done without it, because I was in such a vulnerable and low state, but it's what helped keep me um accountable and and and just learning. It was just such a learning and um like a rebirth, I'd like to say, just because I I guess I was discovering what was working for me to help with my wellness. But it always comes back to um community. I know where I'm at at Winmark when I work a couple of days in the gallery I. You know Karen the owner. She's a really inspiring lady. She brought Pandora to Australia and New Zealand and what she's creating for Winmark around the art and sculptures is community.

Lauren Short:

So I really feel that that's what people need as part of you know the pillars of health is. That's what people need as part of um. You know that the pillars of health is. You know things like breath, work, movement, um, low tox, um and nutrition is massive in there, as you know and play, connection, community. These are all beautiful ways. It's not just one thing and I I offer holistic counseling, um, and I'm actually doing, um some work at. It's a place called the wild learning center here in sesnok and it is around arts and creativity. So, emmy, the owner, um, she's also incorporated a choir, like in there as well, and I just hire a little space there to do private sessions.

Lauren Short:

And um, the community that she's created, um, because my partner and I went to the choir practice one evening and it was just so beautiful with everyone singing in harmony. It's creating that community and connection. So I really do feel the power behind art. Incorporate that into the mindfulness classes for the children and I must say, out of all the modalities breath work, yoga games they're obviously all effective, but I find the true essence really comes out when the children are. You know, I put music on. I do use the essential oils in the kids' classes. Things like orange essential oil is really great for concentration and anxiety. So I can just see that they start opening up and talking because they feel comfortable. So I think, knowing that there's not one modality to help somebody, everyone's prescription of healing one person is going to be different to the other.

Fiona Kane:

So, whether it be dance, art, therapy, whatever it is, everyone um prescription is going to be different to what resonates with them yeah, a friend of mine started a choir in brisbane and, um, she's been running for several years now and I think now she's taking on another role, now a higher role, running some bigger choir, but she's, she's started this uh other one and it's been really healing for that community as well. And there was I don't know if they still exist, but the choir of hard knocks. Are they still around?

Lauren Short:

I'm not sure, but I saw them once.

Fiona Kane:

they were great and I think a lot of the people in that choir were people who were recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction and that kind of thing and uh, and it's amazing how healing it was. And and that is the thing, it's everything always comes back to community. So whether it's your community, the people that you dance with, or the people that you do yoga with, or the people that you go to church with, or the people that you sing with in your choir, or maybe you become a volunteer somewhere, it could be the community in your job, if you like, the people that are in your job. But there's lots of different ways to find community and it's just really important. I just can't emphasise enough how important that is, because even I would say for myself, you and I chatted last week and we were both talking about because we have both been through a really tough time over COVID with various issues around stress and grief and those kinds of things, and I would say for me the bit that was missing a long time and it took me a long time to start to sort of get back into WAS community was to really kind of.

Fiona Kane:

I had a little bit one thing that kept me going is I'm a member of a women's networking group that's called Women With Altitude and I found that they were the ones that kind of reached out to me and kept me sane initially.

Fiona Kane:

And also I found I'm also part of a member of the Sydney Hills Business Chamber and we have a my Board group, which is a small group within that, and some members there that actually kept me just kept contact with me, kept me as part of the world.

Fiona Kane:

I know it sounds really really weird, but when we go through all these we tend to detach from the world and tend to start to you start to feel like you're not part of it. You're not, you don't matter or you I don't know, but when we're, when we're lonely and when we're in our pain, we tell ourselves all sorts of stories that are just not helpful at all. And so having a community, whatever that looks like, but someone in your community who kind of just reaches their hand out and just reminds you that you're part of the community, reminds you that you're human, reminds you that you matter, all of those things. The more I've stepped out and got back into community, the more healing I've had. So yeah, what you're describing I can really relate to as being connected and being part of the community, and how healing that is.

Lauren Short:

I love that. Definitely it's helped me so much, I know. When I lived in London I was previously married for six years and when I went through a separation and divorce I had no family. So my friends became my family, and one friend in particular she introduced me to some volunteer work called Street Souls. So every Friday on a fortnight we would go out to one of the main parks in London on a Friday night and we would give out sandwiches and hot drinks and I just remember going through such a hard time. I felt really lonely and just felt like my whole world was coming down.

Lauren Short:

But to put the focus on someone else was the most healing and also just it felt so lovely to be able to give back to someone who just wasn't able to have everything that you have and you take for granted. So I never forget one night it was freezing cold and we'd always have our beanies on, and I made so many beautiful friendships through this, and even the gentleman that founded um the the place um, I never forget. Actually he had a charity shop in in aid of um the street souls for homelessness and I remember bringing back my old wedding dress to give to him, to donate to his store and he said to me Lauren, a lady just bought your dress and she was just so happy. So, like you, just kind of try and turn something that was difficult into a positive thing for somebody. But I remember one evening I was out talking to the people, so in the beginning a little bit more reserved, but once you get to know the process and knowing how it works, come a bit more comfortable to go and talk to the people coming. And I remember speaking to a guy that lost his wife and two twin kids in a car accident and he just never recovered. So he found comfort in living on the streets and the homeless was a community within itself. So I just I think sometimes you can't fathom what people go through and that grief in itself I can't even imagine that. So that always stuck with me.

Lauren Short:

And again when I came back to the Hunter and I had no work for three months, you can have all the qualifications and experience, but if there's no work there's no work. And rather than feeling depressed and sorry for myself, I volunteered for three months. It was called Hunter Hands of Hope here in Cessnock, not far from where I live, and I would go weekly and do the same thing. So just helping with hot beverages and, you know, just having conversations, cleaning up and doing that and it just feels so good. So I encourage anybody that's struggling to volunteer. You know, when I'm coaching clients, if they're going through difficult times, I always encourage them to volunteer because if you have never done it, it is so rewarding, it can help build confidence and you create a new community within that volunteering service as well yeah, definitely.

Fiona Kane:

And there's nothing like, uh, get going out into the community and talking to other people to get some perspective. When we think that our life is tough, uh, we only have to have a few conversations to sort of think, okay, not as tough as I thought it was or compared to what some other people are going through. You know, no, definitely not. And I actually, when I left school I was 15 when I left school and I went to what's now called TAFE, but it's just like a secretarial training, and I was doing that for a year and every Friday we didn't have TAFE or TEC, it was called in those days. We didn't have TAFE or TEC, it was called in those days. We didn't have it on Fridays.

Fiona Kane:

And so I went and volunteered at what was then called the Sydney City Mission and so I was a receptionist in their office, one of their offices, and in a place called Mount Druitt, which, for those of you, overseas, a place with quite high unemployment and that kind of a lot of social issues related to that. And boy oh boy, what I didn't see there. I can tell you it was an interesting experience. I was 15 and I worked there for most of the year. But what happened besides the fact that I loved it and I learned so much and I got to be doing something, a part of something and I learned about human nature and I learned about being a receptionist is that I was the first one to get a job out of everyone at my college.

Fiona Kane:

Because I had experience and I obviously had get up and go. I was willing to give up. Everyone else was going to the beach on Fridays and on Fridays I was going to Mount Druitt and working as a receptionist and getting abused by people in the reception area and, interestingly enough, my very first paid job after that was actually working for the Volunteer Centre of New South Wales. So they also. It was a paid job, but they appreciated that I understood all about volunteering and then I got the role as a paid and by the time I was 16 I was managing a team of volunteers at um on the reception at the volunteer center in New South Wales, which is in the city at the time. They still exist, but I think they might be called volunteering Australia or volunteering anyway. Uh. So yeah, volunteering has been a big part of my life as well me too definitely.

Fiona Kane:

I'm aware of time time, but there's a few things I still think that are worth us talking about Now. First of all, a couple of times you've talked about low-tox living. Can you just explain a little bit about what that means?

Lauren Short:

Yeah, sure. So there's a book called Low-Tox Life by Alex Stewart and she started a movement of reducing the chemical load in the home. So it could be starting from personal care products right through to plastic, and I actually met her which was absolute dream of mine in Singleton at a workshop that she did. So I've been following her since the lockdowns and yeah, so basically reducing the chemical load in the home and on the body. So we have a lot of chemicals in conventional products. Unfortunately, candles a lot of people just because they smell good. It's really important to make sure that they're good quality. So, like beeswax candles, yeah.

Lauren Short:

I only use beeswax candles. Yeah, so I used to love candles I just use a diffuser now. Yeah, so I used to love candles, I just use a diffuser now. So the air fresheners, like the Glen 20, all these things. So now, after being low-tox for four years, going on five years actually I get a headache as soon as I come in contact with any fragrances.

Lauren Short:

So personal care like it's been a gradual process. So the first thing I swapped out was like I got rid of perfumes. I actually didn't give them, I threw them in the bin. I didn't want to give them to anyone once I realized what was in them A lot of hormone disrupting chemicals. So anything you spray on your thyroid goes into your bloodstream. So really important not to do that. So I replaced them with essential oils.

Lauren Short:

So the first thing I started doing was educating and showing mostly women how to make their own perfumes and colognes from essential oils. And then I reduced out the cleaning products and shampoos, conditioners, makeup, what I'm trying to think, so anything that I put on my skin and my body. So yeah, it's been a gradual process, but I used to actually have when I was younger, I had acne, I had really bad skin and I've just got like getting compliments all the time about how healthy my skin looks and it's just like a natural regime incorporating the essential oils and not putting any chemicals on my body, and that comes to nutrition as well. So just being mindful and checking labels so it's this app out there that you can get to check things. So it's really educating yourself about checking the labels and looking for any ingredients that are synthetic, like SLSs and PEGs and plithates and all things like that. So, general rule if you can't pronounce a word, you shouldn't be putting it on the skin.

Fiona Kane:

So I say the same thing for food. If, if you need a biochemistry degree to understand what it is, you probably don't want it. And just for those of you out there who because people like to comment on videos and things like that when you said not putting chemicals on your skin, you you mean toxic chemicals.

Lauren Short:

The environment is full of chemicals.

Fiona Kane:

There's a type of element that's in oxygen and water and all those Everything's a chemical.

Lauren Short:

I know that.

Fiona Kane:

So I know the feedback that people like to give about these things. We're specifically referring to things that are endocrine, which is hormone-disrupting chemicals.

Fiona Kane:

There's a lot of those and others that are damaging. And there's a lot of those and others that are damaging, and look, there's a lot of that. Look, there's a lot of stuff in the world that we can't avoid. But we can start to slowly change those things and I did that myself over many, many years and you don't have to just suddenly go out and throw everything in your cupboard straight away, but you can just choose one place to start. So you can start maybe on the things that you put on your skin is maybe a really good place to start, any things you eat or the things you put on your skin.

Fiona Kane:

For me it's like the things I cook with. I don't use Teflon, that sort of thing. I just use stainless steel. That's right, and I store everything in glass or ceramic or that kind of thing as well. So it's just kind of that sort of. But as you don't have to do it, the load of toxins that our body has to deal with, that's not a bad thing to do. So if you're able to do that, you know, then look into it. It's worth doing.

Lauren Short:

I've been running workshops on low-tox education for the last four years and a lot of people are not aware of it, especially at the wellness retreat. People just weren't aware of this and you know people are counting calories. They should be counting nasty chemicals, even things like you know what I always think of.

Fiona Kane:

It's funny because people like the smell of things, that smell really. They smell really toxic to me, and people are, oh, doesn't that smell good? And I'm thinking, oh, I'm getting a headache. You know, I've just booked into a hotel for a couple of days in the school holidays with my husband and the hotel we really like, and they pump out smelly stuff in the lift well, in not the lift, well, but the outside of the lift on the floor, you know, and one time we were there we had really bad sinus for about three days. So I actually last time they did this for me, I've requested again this time I said the length of our stay can we have the smelly thing turned off on our floor? And they have done it before. Hopefully they'll do it again, because I take one whiff of it and it's I get ahead of it. Oh, it's funny, and I used to be, you know, I used to spray all the perfume before I got on the train. Now I feel sorry for all those people that used to sit next to me, and now I'm kind like someone does that and I'm choking.

Fiona Kane:

The other thing, though, is things like tea bags. First of all, we used to have kind of well, the tea bags are usually kind of got bleach and all that kind of stuff in there. So I still use tea bags a lot of the time but I get ones that are unbleached. But then they went to using these plastic ones. But because I think they call them silk or they use the term, they insinuate people are like oh so people actually believe they're silk tea bags, like they're not silk, they're plastic, and it tastes really weird and people and what's happening is I even see this at sort of like health type places, uh, where they they or at some sort of a fancy hotel or whatever, and they get the ones that are in the plastic over the ones that are in the paper because they think the plastic ones are superior. Wow, what good marketing for those people.

Lauren Short:

Oh I know, it's terrible.

Fiona Kane:

It's like oh, we're going to just put a whole bunch, because I mean pouring hot water over us, anyway, just to get me started on that. But yeah, just the marketing around this stuff is.

Lauren Short:

That's right. There's a lot of greenwashing on products. So just because it has fragrance-free or botanicals, you actually really need to turn the product over and look and to see what.

Fiona Kane:

And you know like natural. Well, petrol's natural. There's lots of things that are natural. It doesn't mean it's good for your skin or whatever. So there's lots of things it's the same. Within food. Sugar is natural. I mean you grow sugar cane, so sugar is natural. Doesn't mean that you should be eating foods that are chocobot full of sugar, no. So I mean natural doesn't necessarily mean anything. They put pictures of farms on the front of things. That's right. It's terrible. It really is Health washing, greenwashing, all that sort of stuff. Be aware, the more claims probably they make on the front of stuff, the more they're probably not true and the more that you know that they've got a really big marketing budget to do that. And if they've got a really big marketing budget, they're probably not a health-based company.

Lauren Short:

Yeah, that's true.

Fiona Kane:

Just a bit of a general thing there anyway. So, again, aware of time, but if we could maybe summarize a little bit, because obviously you went through a really dark time and you've sort of come out the other side of it, and if you could sort of summarize for people some of the things that you know, if they're thinking okay, I'm in a really tough space right now. Where are some things I could focus Maybe? Where are some? It might even be just some starting points, because they don't have to again.

Lauren Short:

It's no one has to do all these things tomorrow. No, that's right, one thing at a time. So maybe what some starting points are in terms of I was just sort of thinking about these. Um, I've seen, you know, two grandparents. I've got one that's 88 in a nursing home and it has been so challenging to see them in a nursing home, like just it's been hard.

Lauren Short:

I like to have a thought around vibrant living, so living your best life and you know, I've just turned 40 in June, so I feel you know the best I've felt in my whole life. So it really isn't about age. So for me, like it's really important to be out in nature, so things that don't cost any money, so grounding is so powerful. So taking your shoes off and going out into the earth, start with 10 minutes a day. You can work up to an hour if you can. So being out in nature around trees is so healing, incorporating gratitude, so grabbing a journal and just coming back to three things that you're grateful for each day. If you have more, that's fantastic.

Lauren Short:

But coming back to gratitude, find movement that you love. I think there's no point joining a gym if it's not for you, whether it's walking, hiking, swimming, dancing, running, whatever it is. Everyone's idea of joy, um movement will be different for each person, but I really believe find movement that you love, so it doesn't feel like a chore um work. So taking five, ten minutes a day, whether it be like a morning ritual where you're going to just take the time to breathe, so it always comes back to the breath when we come into this world, we start breathing and when we leave this world, we stop breathing. So when I come across clients with anxiety and just really anxious, just training them how to come back to the breath, which is something so simple.

Fiona Kane:

Yes.

Lauren Short:

And I think, following your passion, I think like I change careers later in life and like I wouldn't want to be working in credit management until I'm 60. So I feel like if you find something that you love, you don't feel like you're working a day in your life. It's more of a joy and rewarding if you're helping people. So finding your purpose, I think that's a big thing.

Fiona Kane:

And even if you can't do that for your job, it doesn't mean you can't do it somewhere. That's right it might be something you do as a sideline or something like that that's right. Not everyone has to leave their career. There's a whole bunch of reasons why people might want to stay in it, but it doesn't mean you can't still do some of the thing that brings you joy as well.

Lauren Short:

Yeah, I just want to share. So when my grandfather was in the nursing home, he would almost be in a vegetable state and I would put him in his wheelchair and take him outside and they had a rose garden outside with a water feature. So I would always pick roses out of the garden. Not sure if I was meant to, but I would pick him roses out of the garden. So roses are the highest vibrational plant on the planet, vibrating at 320 megahertz. So when people say stop and smell the roses, it really is true.

Fiona Kane:

So picking the rose. So that's kind of lifting your vibration, lifting your exactly, we're all energy.

Lauren Short:

So, as a community and as the world, we want to try and raise our vibration, like smelling roses.

Lauren Short:

So much yeah so I would pick them, he would smell them, I put him in his pocket he was just surrounded by roses, and then I would put his music on. So he loved Slim Dusty. So within 10 minutes his whole persona would change. He would be singing all the words, he'd be laughing, and just the impact of being out in nature and having his music and the the rose. He was a different person, he was back to his normal self. And that's when I would get the glimpse of my pop with the dementia and um.

Lauren Short:

Unfortunately, I never had rose essential oil. Um, it's. It's expensive because there's so much rose petals incorporated to one tiny bottle. It's so much appreciation for a little bottle of um essential oil, the amount of work that goes into it. But I never had it. Um, but my partner gifted it to me after my pop passed. So anytime I smell rose it makes me think about my pop, um. So now I'm doing the same to my nan always take her outside, um and really just getting her in nature and, and it's the little things that when you start taking those things away from people, it it can affect your health. So you know, getting people out in nature, grounding so, healing, they don't cost anything. It's so powerful and I've recorded a couple of meditations myself.

Lauren Short:

It's something I'd like to extend in the future, but there's so many meditations that you can listen to and there's so many different types. So boxing is a form of meditation as well. So one of the first courses I did and taught the boxing, so the science behind the boxing. So I feel like meditation. A lot of people have a perception that you need to be a guru to do it, and it's so not true. That's why I've taught so many different groups of people how to meditate and it's finding the right way that works for you. And what's important when you're meditating is to getting the body relaxed. If the body's not relaxed, you're going to be quite anxious and moving around a lot. So getting the body and the mind primed with relaxation is really important. That's when the real magic happens. That's why I love Shavasana in yoga, because it's when you're all relaxed and the healing and the magic works, when you're not stressed and your whole body is in that relaxed state.

Fiona Kane:

Yes, yeah, okay. Well, I think we're out of time. We might have to leave it there, but is there anything else that you'd like to leave us with?

Lauren Short:

no, um, I think I think I've covered everything. It's we've covered a lot today, haven't we? I think?

Fiona Kane:

it's really important. People know that they they can just start small with things and there's more than one way to do things. Like you're saying, you do boxing or you can do dancing. So it's kind of don't get caught up in. The only way I can do exercise if I go to the gym or the. You know, I think we tell ourselves stories to limit our opportunities and really there's a lot of different. This is more than oh, there's an old-fashioned saying, but I won't say it in regards to a cat, but there's more than one way of doing these.

Fiona Kane:

That's a better way of saying it. I got all these old sayings in my head and I say them these days. I'm like, oh, okay, then no, I don't think that works anymore. Uh, if, I will obviously put your details in the show notes, but if people want to get in contact with you, where can they contact?

Lauren Short:

you yeah, so I've got my web page. It's wwwheartofthehuntercomau and heartofthehuntercomau that's right and it has all my details and different modalities that I do on there and you can reach out to me via the website. I've also got Instagram and Facebook, but all those details are on the webpage.

Fiona Kane:

Well, thanks so much, Lauren. Thank you so much for sharing your story. It's been really great having you on today. Thank you so much for having your story.

Lauren Short:

It's been really great having you on today. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I'm sending you a little heart for Heart of Hunter. Oh, thank you.

Fiona Kane:

Back to you. I don't know if I do it right.

Lauren Short:

It's my logo.

Fiona Kane:

So thank you everyone for listening and for those of you who are watching on YouTube and Rumble, you can comment on YouTube and Rumble. You can comment on YouTube and Rumble and please like, subscribe and share and all that it makes a difference to get my podcast out there. I really appreciate your support and I will talk to you all again next week. Thank you, Bye, Bye.

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