podcast

It's All Up From Here, Season 4: empowering women, empowering families...

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Season Four is in full swing on the podcast, I can’t quite believe it, we are already up to episode 5! We have gone deep on lots of fantastic topics already like finding your purpose; the importance of self-belief; healing through connection…unless you’re dealing with a narcissist (funny but not funny! we’ve both had quite some dealings with it this year!); and feeling lonely. It’s such an incredible season of conversation, there is so much more to come. As usual Shona & I are raw, unscripted and honest. Here is a little snippet from the first episode of Season Four so you know what’s happening this season…

Shona: “Season Four has a new tag line!  This season we are getting to the core. Our tag line was ‘helping bring the joy back to families’. First, it was ‘helping bring the joy back to parenting’, now it’s still about the joy, but we’ve decided that our new tagline is ‘empowering women, empowering families’. Really what we’ve been talking about all this time is supporting women to a point where they can be more whole; emotionally healthy; be themselves; and feel inspired & empowered which then in turn they pass on to their children, their families and their partners and friends.”

Pia: “As women we birth the next generation, and we need to be empowered to support that, that sense of thriving and learning – if we don’t give it to ourselves, we can’t offer it to anybody else. So it’s the core of what we are doing – bringing out that female energy and empowering it, for everyone’s sake. Some of the topics are going to be: intuition; a journey with self belief – a deeper exploration from self-acceptance which we spoke about last season, and also what external validation has to do with it; creativity; feeling not good enough and unworthy – we are going to work a little deeper with that because again we end up reacting from that place without realising it, without being conscious of it; and we will be talking deeper about intimate relationships….”

If you are interested in living intuitively and are eagerly awaiting my next book then I encourage you to take a moment to listen in as every topic we open up in discussion this season is part of the book, The Alchemy of Intuition. So by listening in on the podcast, you’re getting a glimpse of my creative thought process in conversation with Shona as I write the book.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been listening, sharing, reviewing and messaging us about each episode, we are so thrilled you love it and are looking forward to a live event early next year! Details to come soon.


Pia xx

When I was nineteen...

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When I was 19, I thought of myself as a worldly feminist. It was 1997. I was halfway through my university degree in Sydney, and already by that age I had travelled the world and lived in more countries than most people visit in a lifetime. Between the ages of 13-15 I lived in a village in northern Italy and was appalled by the sexism that ran rampant in the culture…why did that old man just pinch my bum? Why is it ok that those boys are whistling at me as I eat ice cream with my parents? And why does that newsreader on TV have her body squeezed into that tiny dress and her breasts pushed up to her chin? When she speaks, why is she trying to seduce her viewers? What I saw and experienced felt very strange to me. I struggled to integrate. And it was this reaction that defined me as a feminist.

As I grew into this label, it made me feel different to the other girls around me, like I must be less naïve, less vulnerable than them. After all, I was worldly, and I was apparently a feminist because I believed women deserved the same rights as men. It made me feel strong.

On top of being worldly and a feminist, I was also experiencing deep love with another human, my boyfriend. And although we had our ups & downs as young lovers do, fumbling our way along the paths that others had paved for us to walk, I knew what it was to be in love, and this made me feel not just worldly, but also, mature. So here I was at age 19: a worldly, mature feminist. In the cocoon of this understanding of myself, I felt safe.

Then something happened that shattered my world…

……………………………………………..

This is an extract from a very personal piece I wrote on Monday, August 12 & Tuesday, August 13, which, as it turned out, was the beginning of the full moon phase. I have never had the words to express what happened at this time in my life, and in the early hours of Monday morning, I had a beautiful dream. During the dream, the words formed. Although the nature of the event is traumatic, I followed my intuition and took the time on Tuesday to write it all out. It is incredibly personal, and after writing it I realised my website is not the place to publish it. I may, in time, consider publishing this piece in a publication as I know it is powerful and needs to be read by as many young women as possible, in the hope they may understand how to listen to their intuition. For now, it is available to read in full in my patreon collective. And I’ve also made it available on my new password protected journal, for those who are on my mailing list.

“Does your family have secrets? Or maybe you have a secret from your own life experience that you have never shared with anyone? Today Pia and Shona talk about the undeniable link between secrets and shame and how this can stop us from being truly ourselves and also from becoming the strong, powerful women we were meant to be.”

Secrets & Shame is the latest podcast episode on It’s All Up From Here! Click here to listen xx

Season 2 Ends - It's All Up From Here! podcast update...

Laly exploring in Lane Cove National Park, during the full moon, 2018

Laly exploring in Lane Cove National Park, during the full moon, 2018

Wow Season 2 of It’s All Up From Here flew! The last episode was uploaded a couple of weeks ago, and features Shona’s beautiful parents Al & Sheryl, chatting openly about some of the things they learnt as parents and what wisdom they gained along the journey. It’s a sweet episode, a lovely way to end the season. I loved listening to the recordings of their interviews and I admit, I did feel a little emotional to know I can’t interview my mum too. I wonder if she were here, would she let me, if I asked her? I wonder what she would say? Those were the thoughts going through my mind. And as far as my Dad goes, I wouldn’t even dream of asking him, so that also made me a little melancholy. None of which takes away from the openness of Shona’s parents though, in this last episode, so if you haven’t had a listen yet, please do.

A run down of our most popular listens so far: Season One’s most listened to episode was “Setting Boundaries”. And Season Two’s has remained strong with “How to Know When To End A Relationship, Part One”.

It’s so interesting that these episodes have been the most popular - it shows that there are some major shifts going on in our society, shifts that I know are so crucial to our growth and evolution. It’s exciting, but I understand how challenging these times can be when we are in major life shifts. Both Shona & I have been through a lot these past 2 years, and we’ve been as open as possible on the podcast, with respect to the people we love in our lives, I’m sure there is more to come as we each process these changes and find the jewel lessons in these experiences.

The break between Season 2 and Season 3 will be extended as Shona has just embarked on a 6 week adventure to America and England - a trip with great significance, which she will be sharing some of the details with us upon her return. I’m super excited for her - for those who have been listening to us on the podcast, you’ll know why this trip is such a big deal, but there is much more to be revealed, all in time!

Both Shona & I are pumped for the next season - we’ve already recorded a few of the episodes so they will be ready to share as soon as she returns. We will be covering some big topics, creating space and shedding light on things that are so often taboo in families. Often we don’t realise what we don’t talk about with family members until someone else shares their story with us, and that’s our intention - because both us know how powerful it is to shed light on dark areas in our lives. So get ready for season 3!

If you’d like to catch up on episodes in the meantime, you can head here, to my podcast page. I upload all episodes there, and you’ll also find the occassional show notes, with resources to explore certain topics further. We’d love you to put a review in on itunes! It will help others to find the podcast too, thank you! And if there are episodes that resonate with you and you’d love others to listen (but you don’t feel confident to bring up the topic yourself), let them know about the podcast so they can listen in - it’s a great way to open discussion on things you otherwise feel timid to bring up yourself.

Any topics you would love discussed? Don’t hesitate to email me or Shona or let me know in a comment below. See you soon for Season 3!

With love,

Pia

It's All Up From Here, Season Two...

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Shona and I have been busy recording and uploading Season 2 of our "It’s All Up From Here” podcast and boy, does this season pack a punch! The podcast is now all about family - not just parenting, because we realised that family relationships are at the heart of it all. We’ve had many incredible comments and responses to the topics covered so far - our most popular has been the recent two part episode titled How to Know When It’s Time To End A Relationship, where both of us talk openly about our recent, very personal experiences. Other topics so far include understanding Family Culture, How to Cope with Change, and managing Screen Time. Let us know your thoughts, we’ve loved opening conversation and sharing our passion for family and relationships because we know human connection is everything. If you have any topic ideas that you’d like us to chat about, email me or comment on this post! And if you love what you hear please subscribe and tell your friends and family, and review the podcast so other people can find it too!

Shona and I will be opening the opportunity to become a sponsor of the podcast for Season 3, so if you have a family-related business that you feel would be beneficial to our listeners, don’t hesitate to email me to find out more.

xx