Why Smart Women Podcast
Welcome to the Why Smart Women Podcast, hosted by Annie McCubbin. We explore why women sometimes make the wrong choices and offer insightful guidance for better, informed decisions. Through engaging discussions, interviews, and real-life stories, we empower women to harness their intelligence, question their instincts, and navigate life's complexities with confidence. Join us each week to uncover the secrets of smarter decision-making and celebrate the brilliance of women everywhere.
Why Smart Women Podcast
Spiritual leaders, healers or hucksters?
What happens when spiritual practices cross the line from helpful to harmful? In this eye-opening exploration, we pull back the veil on the sometimes dangerous world of spiritual retreats and self-proclaimed healers.
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And it was a charismatic spiritual leader who was taking them through the processes.
Speaker 2:And so 50 of them went into the sweat lodge and three died. From relationships, career choices, finances to faux fur, jackets and kale smoothies, every moment of every day, we're making decisions. Let's make them good ones. I'm your host, annie McCubbin, and, as a woman of a certain age, I've made my own share of really bad decisions. Not my husband, I don't mean him, though. I did go through some shockers to find him, and I wish this podcast had been around to save me from myself. This podcast will give you insights into the working of your own brain which will blow your mind. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land in which I'm recording and you are listening on this day. Always was, always will be, aboriginal land. Well, hello, smart women, and welcome to this week's episode of the why Smart Women podcast.
Speaker 2:As usual, today, I am broadcasting from the northern beaches of Sydney, new South Wales, australia, and it is another absolutely stunningly perfect winter day. It's midwinter here now and it'll get up to about 17, 18 degrees, and every day in the past week I have been swimming in the ocean. So I'm like some sort of Olympic champion. I get in, I splash about for four minutes, it's freezing cold and I get out and spend a lot of time congratulating myself. Then I have a coffee and I come. It's wonderful. Anyway, not talking about swimming today. What we're going to talk about is spiritual retreats retreats in general and, I guess, spirituality in general. What it means and is it actually helpful? Because there's a strong level of societal acceptance that if you're spiritual, you're probably superior, calmer, more generous and have a better perspective on life. That is not my experience, because the people that I have come across in my life that have called themselves the most spiritual in my consideration have been the most annoying.
Speaker 1:That's unforgivable.
Speaker 2:They've been annoying and superior and often really mean and misguided. Anyway, I'm sure there's a lot of people who have spiritual beliefs who are delightful, but there are some spiritual beliefs which are just plain dangerous. So today I am joined by David who is going to interview me. Well, we're just really going to chat about it.
Speaker 1:Look, I actually did have a question. I mean because I know that the spiritual and the pseudo-spiritual and the sort of the oomy-goomy world has been a course of irritation for you. I think it's funny that you just find people annoying. I mean, you know, our sort of slightly dangerous flirtation with the pseudo-spiritual was a couple of decades ago.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think it's worse.
Speaker 1:Really, oh sure. Well, you think that it's still a?
Speaker 2:Pervasive force for bad.
Speaker 1:Pervasive force for bad Sure. Well, where might people encounter it?
Speaker 2:All right, this, this was sent to me today. I won't say where this is, but this is, this is women's wisdom sacred circle. Oh, it sounds. It sounds wholesome, a soul nourishing fireside gathering of connection, cacao and release. Hang on cacao, apparently.
Speaker 1:Apparently, cacao isn't cacao, just chocolate isn't that what cacao is some people have a spiritual experience with chocolate.
Speaker 2:I see right um, step into a soul nourishing half-day women's circle, held in a warm private home nestled in I won't say where, in case they me. This sacred experience is a space for you to let go of emotional weight, reconnect with your inner self and receive the support of a heartfelt sisterhood.
Speaker 1:What you lose weight in the nicely nestled home. Do you Emotional weight? Emotional weight, oh okay.
Speaker 2:Together, we gather by the fire to sip ceremonial cacao. Okay, I've got a real thing about the word sip. I can't stand it.
Speaker 1:I can't stand it in a book. It's intentionally taking a small amount into your lips.
Speaker 2:As soon as I read that in a sentence in a book, I just have to stop reading and can't stand it.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you that that sounds very, very similar to the all-male ritual that I have every Saturday afternoon after the football game.
Speaker 2:Hang on, we'll get back to that. Can I just finish this, and then we'll get back to your all-male ritual. So I have to go back now so I can really get into the flow of the sentence together.
Speaker 1:I'll be quiet.
Speaker 2:We'll gather by the fire to sip ceremonial cacao, receive healing, sound therapy big red flag for me, me, there and gently reconnect with the parts of ourselves we've forgotten or hidden another red flag. So ceremonial cacao to open the heart? I don't know what that even means. Sound healing and guided meditation, sound healing what is that? Um, letting go and calling in. What is letting go and calling in, letting go? Well, you know what am I calling in. You're calling in the dogs, calling in, calling in the good and calling in what is letting go and calling in Letting go?
Speaker 1:Well, you know what am I calling in. You're calling in Calling in the dogs Calling in the good stuff, calling in the oh God, no, I'm exhausted reading it.
Speaker 2:Nourishing soup and winter treats by the fire oh my God, what are we? Five Therapeutic oh here we go. Another, oh here we go Another. Red flag Therapeutic grade essential oils for release.
Speaker 1:What makes them therapeutic?
Speaker 2:grade.
Speaker 1:Correct Essential oils, so what, like lavender and yang? Yeah, but why are they?
Speaker 2:therapeutic. Why do they have a grade what's therapeutic around them?
Speaker 1:Probably makes them more expensive.
Speaker 2:Sacred sisterhood and connection. And there's two guides, and I'll tell you what. It won't be cheap to sit in someone's lounge room, and that's what it'll be. You'll be sitting in someone's lame lounge room and they'll probably have a heater. Then they'll go into the kitchen and they'll get some chocolate and they'll pretend that it's some sort of sacred cacao and then they'll put it in small ceramic cups and then they'll make you sit in a circle around the heater and maybe hold hands and hum, and then someone will come out with one of those bowls and go and you'll sit mindfully, and they'll make a sound.
Speaker 2:And the inference is number one, that you can be healed and number two, that you Well three things One you can be healed. And number two, that you well three things. One you can be healed. Two you need healing, why do you need healing? And um and three, I don't know what the third one was.
Speaker 1:It's annoying, yeah look, I, I I'd put it to you. You know that maybe your skeptic radar is an over over overdrive at the moment because, because what you're describing. What you're describing is I know that this is the Smart Women podcast and you're not interested in talking about anything male and football and those kinds of things.
Speaker 1:But you know, one of my favourite times of the week is after our football game. You know I'll take the brazier. You know, by the side of the pitch We'll have a fire, we will sip. You, don brazier, you know, by the side of the pitch.
Speaker 2:We'll have a fire, we will sip. You don't sip, you just drink. You just drink Beer.
Speaker 1:We'll sip, you know, asahi, you know from the pure beer making facilities in Japan.
Speaker 2:Go on.
Speaker 1:And yes, we'll make therapeutic noises.
Speaker 2:What are they?
Speaker 1:Well, we'll rip the shit out of each other. You know We'll tease each other. We'll identify moments when people made embarrassing and humiliating accidents during the game.
Speaker 2:Are you healed by this process?
Speaker 1:And we will laugh and it will be cathartic and at the end of the day we will say you know, it's great to be a 56er, and I mean that's what we call ourselves and yeah, it's actually a really nice human moment of yeah, connection.
Speaker 2:Well, I do the same thing.
Speaker 1:I go to the gym.
Speaker 2:and then I have a coffee I don't have to call it a healing ceremonial cacao sipping circle. But I do feel healed and cleansed, and I can't charge people for it.
Speaker 1:I our sipping circle.
Speaker 2:But I do feel healed and cleansed, and I can't charge people for it. I feel healed and cleansed at the end of it. You've had a cleansing ale, you've had a beer and a sausage. How is that? It sounds a lot more grounded than sitting in someone's lounge room sipping and pretending that you're somehow releasing something from your heart.
Speaker 1:I guess it's the way that we talk about it. I mean because the essential human experience Well, the frame-up matters. Okay, why?
Speaker 2:The frame matters. Why does the frame matter? You go and have a beer and a sausage after a game and you all sit around and a fire.
Speaker 1:The fire's really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's cold and it's a nice. I agree, sitting around a fire is one of my absolute favourite things to do, and then talking to my friends and having a glass of wine and having a laugh. What I'm not doing is drowning in earnestness. I'm not pretending that I'm facilitating somebody's healing. I'm not pretending in that moment and nobody else is, and I'm sure none of the men in your group are that you're releasing your some sort of deep inner child part of you. The thing is that there's a strong inference and this is the problem with it and why. I know I sound sort of acerbic when I talk about it, but it's like moderate religion leads to extreme religion, which is problematic. Moderate little healing circles then lead to people going on retreats where they'll have something like a frog toxin or what is the what? How do you pronounce it?
Speaker 2:ayahuasca ayahuasca, and then people die and the other result well, not everybody dies, yeah, and only a few one yeah, that's right. Who cares um?
Speaker 1:it's the elevation of a normal human gathering of people to something that has this spiritual element that I object to, and so I mean why, if, if you acknowledge that it is a kind of natural human instinct and there are benefits from that sense of community and having that time together, why can't you, in the words of Mel Robbins, just let them? Let them do it? Why do you feel?
Speaker 2:You cannot quote a book you haven't read.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't need to read the book because I've read that. I've read the cover of the book. Okay, and it's and, and and it's one of those, it's one of those wonderful self-help books if you, just if you read the cover and you understand the title, and that's all you really need to know.
Speaker 1:And it's just I feel the fear and do it anyway if, if you don't like these people elevating a normal community event into something spiritual, why don't you just let them? Why the need to point it out and warn people that it might be dangerous? Because I'm not saying it's unvalid, but I'm interested in your reason for it.
Speaker 2:Well, because I did just say and you clearly weren't listening to me that from the moderate to the extreme, not all of it is dangerous, but as soon as you start number one, human beings are extremely prone to following charismatic people.
Speaker 1:That's right yeah, right.
Speaker 2:So as soon as someone puts the word spiritual in front of a leader, I think we're in danger. Okay, yeah. Because they're going to say stuff, someone thinks they're endowed with some elevated sense of self or purpose or plugged into something, and they're going to start telling people to do things that are potentially dangerous. Now, I'm not saying that a cacao ceremony is irritating, as it is to me, with the sisterhood of warm female wisdom as irritating as it is to me, with the sisterhood of warm female wisdom.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that is dangerous, but if you go into the wilds of South America and you Take Ayahuasca, take Ayahuasca, you're in danger. There is danger to that. In order to do what, to get where?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think that people go in that direction because they have heard that others have had very kind of meaningful experiences. You know they've had the vision dream, you know they've had the hallucination, and then suddenly everything in their waking life makes sense to them.
Speaker 2:Well then, they have to go back to the real world, don't they? So you have this experience of, I don't know, some sort of breaking through this. I mean, there's this whole sense of you need to understand that we're all connected, that sense of universality that people talk about. Right, yeah, that we're all one yes that is, some sort of elevated sense of self or elevated sense of the self being connected to everything. Yes, and then you stop being so connected to the ego.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah yeah. And you start to, yeah, you start to Start to what Contribute to the collective Do you? Yeah, I think so. How?
Speaker 2:do you start to contribute to the collective?
Speaker 1:Well, if you have a meaningful experience where you feel like you're bigger than something else, then your own little dramas don't prevent you from doing the things that help everybody thrive. So you'll farm the crops or you'll bring them in, but will you?
Speaker 2:Where's the data that suggests that people that go on retreats or spend a lot of time meditating actually are greater societal contributors?
Speaker 1:Well, there'd have to be something. Otherwise those things wouldn't be part of human tradition. They wouldn't, you know. Oh, that's a point.
Speaker 2:Part of human tradition. I just think we need to believe in something bigger, because we don't like the fact that the whole fact is that it's just random.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's actually very functional to believe in something bigger, because, if you know, no man is an island, no smart woman is an island, if you thought that your own experience of living was the most important thing, if you were so thoroughly self-centred that you couldn't see that you were connected to a family or a community or to a nation.
Speaker 2:But you can be a humanist. I'm a humanist, I'm connected to other people and I don't think I'm a particularly selfish person. I think I'm quite giving.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. So maybe you're just you're, it's the when you say we go from the moderate To the extreme, To the extreme. Yeah, and so we should get rid of the moderate.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not saying that, I'm just I'm illuminating the danger of something that is just so commonplace. Yeah. It's so commonplace, and then, as soon as you hear the word healing, when it's everywhere, this notion of I was just listening to Mindvalley, who are a very, very large organization with a lot of social media reach, talking about this guy who's. Because that's how we end up with this idea that we don't need science, we don't need modern medicine, because we can all just eat properly and be healed.
Speaker 1:We can just heal each other or heal ourselves. It's very dangerous. I think the journey, or the you know, when you move on the spectrum from the moderate to the extreme, where I think it gets corrupted and quite clearly corrupted, is when individuals who are part of that experience gain power from the way that they define themselves, of course. So you don't like the term the spiritual healer, I don't like the term spiritual healer or spiritual leader.
Speaker 2:I mean, look at all the. You know we now find out that these sort of yoga doyens were predators, because as soon as someone gets a whiff of power, then as soon as we endow somebody, as soon as they get a whiff of power, and as soon as we endow somebody with great wisdom and great spiritual wisdom, we're in trouble.
Speaker 1:I guess that's the idea in that other book, the title of which I read, which was If you Meet Buddha on the Road, Kill Him.
Speaker 2:Did you actually read it?
Speaker 1:No, I read the cover. Okay, and I might even be misquoting the cover, but it is the idea of Buddhism as a spiritual tradition. There have been a lot of highly celebrated Buddhist leaders. I heard somebody make this rather disruptive comment that if Buddha was able to come back today, if Siddhartha the Buddha was able to come back and have a look at all the statues of Buddha and all the trinkets of Buddha and all the Buddha T-shirts and all the Buddha products then he'd commit suicide because he'd be so depressed.
Speaker 1:That is not what the essential Buddha's teaching was about, that elevation of people to spiritual leadership, and I think we can all recognise that when you elevate a human being, they have power, and power corrupts Absolute.
Speaker 2:Power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely also this notion that buddhism is just this endlessly gentle thing. In its original state, you know, people could develop that sense of depersonalization, that sense of separation, because it made them able to fight more effectively yeah so I think everything gets this mantle over the top of it sort of gentle, elevated, illuminating presence, and I don't think it is. And you had a really good point then as well about leaders. What did you just say about leaders a second ago, before I said that?
Speaker 1:A second ago, before I said that I think I said well, I was talking about. Look, it's a fairly well-established principle that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, that it is sometimes the human condition. When you are elevated to have power over people, some of your more self-centered instincts and biases might be activated and you will use that power for yourself rather than for other people yeah, and it really doesn't matter how small that elevation is.
Speaker 2:Look as some. As soon as somebody puts a hat on that, says I'm a healer, I can facilitate healing. I understand what's going on for you, maybe better than you do. Then I think we're in trouble.
Speaker 1:What if that person's a doctor?
Speaker 2:Fine.
Speaker 1:And they've trained Perfect and they wear a hat.
Speaker 2:Perfect, I approve of the doctor hat. I approve of that.
Speaker 1:Because they've studied science, they've learnt how to heal people, and so when they make a promise or a suggestion and they are way less definitive.
Speaker 2:We watched that film the other night, Inside Out 2.
Speaker 1:That was a terrific film.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I suggest everybody should watch Inside Out 1 and 2 because it talks about the workings of the mind.
Speaker 1:But isn't that just a silly children's animation? It's just perfect.
Speaker 2:As far as I can see, it is the best explanation that there's just. You know, our brain is a committee and these thoughts, feelings etc are just jostling for position all the time, and that your sense of self comes from an accumulation of your memories and then you make decisions off the back of that. So this notion of let's get down there to find your true self, talk to your higher self. What higher self? There's no higher self. Where is this higher self?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean for people who don't understand what Annie and I are talking about, there are two animated films. So good you. For people who don't understand what Annie and I are talking about, there are two animated films. So good you, explain them. They're really good, they've come out of Pixar and they basically sort of dramatize a metaphorical explanation for the way that the brain works, and that is that there are emotions and they all serve a purpose and when they work well together, then you could say that the human being is regulated. And what's nice in the sequel to Inside Out Inside Out 2, is it actually acknowledges the changes that happen in puberty and the other emotions that come on board. And look, let's not tell the story and just recommend that you have a look at it.
Speaker 2:The fundamental was that when she was smaller, the fundamental was that when she was smaller, the emotions that she had were fear, anger, joy.
Speaker 1:Disgust.
Speaker 2:Disgust. What was the other? One and sadness, oh perfect. And sadness, yeah. And then she reaches puberty and she gets ennui, which is so funny or whatever.
Speaker 1:Anxiety.
Speaker 2:Anxiety which just absolutely wigs out.
Speaker 1:Embarrassment and jealousy or envy.
Speaker 2:And envy, and also sarcasm comes in there. The sarcasm is so funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, from ennui.
Speaker 2:From ennui. Yeah, and I think it just explains so beautifully that our sense of self shifts right.
Speaker 1:Yes, but it's dynamic.
Speaker 2:It's dynamic. And who are we? Who are we? Well, we are an amalgamation of the memories that we hold and then the belief systems that are formed off the back of those. Yes, yeah. And you know we are a changing organism, so the idea of a true self is tricky.
Speaker 1:Now some would say that the experience of watching that kind of film, where you get some insight into the way that your mind works is a pathway to healing. Perhaps you know, if you understand your emotions, if you accept them, if you can work with them constructively, psychological flexibility, etc. Etc. You might. You might make yourself better, which is another way of saying you might heal yourself if you are oh oh.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that we don't need to actually analyze our thinking and our feelings and our belief systems and our attitudes. I think it's absolutely essential because we're being driven by things that are very errant and out of date. I think. Do go to a psychologist, do think about it, do analyze it, do talk to a coach.
Speaker 1:So it's okay to have someone who is um qualified to lead you you know, someone who might, might teach you, or or someone who might help you to understand. You know your, your instincts and intuitions around mystery.
Speaker 1:You know the things that can't be explained, and so I don't know what you mean by that well I I think we have to acknowledge that for some people, you know their spiritual life, their spiritual self, their instincts, their intuitions around the unknown and the mystery of it all. For some people, that's important, sure, and it is helpful for them to have someone who will guide them in their thought process, and so they may be a they go to church. You're going to go to church? Yeah, they may have a spiritual coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a what?
Speaker 1:Okay, I knew you'd hate that Someone who can help them to make sense of it and who can lead their spiritual self? Sure, but it becomes dangerous and counterproductive when the kickback for the spiritual leader becomes access, you know. Access to to people's wallets, access to people's bodies, you know what?
Speaker 2:how many people died on that retreat? Where was that retreat? Do you remember?
Speaker 1:okay, so that was. That was the 2009 Arizona Sweat Lodge retreat. So there were 50 people on the retreat and it was a charismatic spiritual leader who was taking them through the processes, and so 50 of them went into the sweat lodge and three died. So not all of them, only three people.
Speaker 2:That's a great percentage, isn't it?
Speaker 1:And I think you know I mean the error there was. The duty of care of the spiritual leader was not sufficient to keep people safe from the dangers of that extreme experience.
Speaker 2:And if you take a step even prior to that? To the lack of duty of care. What are they hoping to achieve by sitting in a sweat lodge?
Speaker 1:Well, that which does not kill you makes you stronger. Okay, I think that's the thought process.
Speaker 2:And you'd sweat and have some sort of maybe hallucinogenic experience?
Speaker 1:Look, it is definitely part of many, many traditions where you um put yourself under physical duress, where it becomes intolerable, and so the mind has to go to another level. So it's, you know, in the catholic tradition, it's the hair shirt, it's the, it's the nuns who would wear the the the, the source wear the cord around their thigh that had spikes in it.
Speaker 2:That's the appeal to antiquity. Just because we've always done it doesn't mean it has any value.
Speaker 1:No, but it's more than that. It's something about the exhausting experience where the spirit has to triumph.
Speaker 2:Yeah sure, go on a hike, climb the mountain, okay, you know, has to triumph.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, go on a hike, climb the mountain. Okay, in in islamic tradition, um, there is the, there's the hajj, there's the pilgrimage, yeah, um and uh, you know, there's the standing in the sun for hours and hours and hours, you know, you stand, you stand, you stand. But but in in secular worlds, people do marathons sure I get it I know what it is, because the physical duress, if you can overcome it, you, you probably get a shot of endorphins.
Speaker 2:You get a shot of endorphins. Look, there's no two ways about it. That pushing yourself past where your brain says I can't do this anymore, to a certain degree is really healthy.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I do it nearly every day at the gym.
Speaker 1:Yes, but you do it in moderation.
Speaker 2:I do it in moderation and I understand the chemical process that's going on in my brain and it does change the way I think about things. I do push myself. I didn't want to get up this morning. It was cold and I thought I'm just going to have one sleep in, but then I put myself forward two hours and I go. I'm going to feel better for it. So I do get up. I've taken up running. I'm not very good at it, I don't particularly like it, I'm very slow, but I get a sense of, well, your day-to-day reality you are somewhere on that spectrum of putting yourself into physical discomfort or physical challenge.
Speaker 1:And you do get a benefit for it, I do. And it works for you. It does, and look, as you're describing that. I do actually recall I don't know whether you've ever shared this on the podcast, but you actually did go on a quasi-spiritual retreat that almost killed you. I did Because you were in the care of people who were not qualified to manage that particular process and they pushed you in a very extreme situation in an absolutely irresponsible yeah, I had an asthma attack.
Speaker 2:They almost killed you. I had an allergenic response. I had a terrible asthma attack and instead of getting me to a hospital, they kept saying it's her mother. It's her mother, and someone was squeezing me from behind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, didn't they sort of put you into a kind of like a full Nelson headlock or something like that?
Speaker 2:They just squeezed me from behind and kept saying some ridiculous thing about get off me, mum, as if asthma there's a direct line between asthma they used to think it was asthma and the smothering love of the mother, which, of course, is a complete heap of crap, because asthma is an allergenic issue. It's an inflammation of the airways and it was provoked because I came too close to a plant that had triggered me. It's got nothing to do, nothing to do with my childhood.
Speaker 1:And what happened? When did they finally work out that you were in danger?
Speaker 2:Well, somebody said she doesn't look well and they got me to the hospital and I was three days in intensive care.
Speaker 1:What, what?
Speaker 2:because you couldn't deal with your mother issues, that's right, my dear little mother was so unfair, my darling, adorable mother. How dare they? How dare they. And that's the trouble. This is the trouble with um retreats and people with small minds in positions of power. So that you know, it's like the frog toxin, the Cambo ceremonies up on the Northern Rivers. You know there's been a couple of deaths up there up on the Northern Rivers in Australia.
Speaker 2:They get this frog toxin, poor bloody frog. I think we've covered this before. I remember saying poor bloody frog. I think we've covered this before. I remember saying poor frog. I think we've covered it before so I won't go over and over it. But they get this frog toxin and it burns them and then they purge and apparently there's some spiritual advantage to purging. You know vomiting and whatever, and then you're better. There's no, there's no follow-up on any of this. No one tracks it. There's no data on whether or not people, after they go through these extreme spiritual events, actually are better people, happier people, do they lead more productive lives or do they just go? Where's the next time I can go and smear a bit of toad on me and vomit? I mean, I don't know, it just seems mad.
Speaker 1:what's? Where's the next time I can go and smear a bit of toad on me and vomit. I mean, I don't know, it just seems mad. What's the stuff that you take before a colonoscopy in order to?
Speaker 2:Oh, Pycoprep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pycoprep, pycoprep, pycoprep. Yeah, I mean, I think they're missing a major marketing opportunity. Spiritual cleanse with two liters of Pycoprep, pycoprep, just poo it all out you know it's just funny.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that was what I wanted to discuss today, but Grisistine came across my feed about this women's wisdom circle.
Speaker 1:Nestled into Nestled, oh nestled, and sipping, oh God almighty.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that'll do for now. Thanks for listening in.
Speaker 1:Well, you know something positive to sit on the end of it, just so that it's not. This is bad. Stay away from it, from the broken terracotta pottery of spiritual elevation. Let's acknowledge the fact that there are people who make money out of it. There are people who get egoic hits by being the most powerful person in the room or on the planet. What's the encouraging alternative?
Speaker 2:Look, we know for a fact that the most protective thing that you can do for your brain is exercise, stimulation, a good diet and community. Community is everything to us, absolutely everything. And you know, and be with people. People are fantastic. It's going to absolutely support you. We know that the fact that your neuronal activity is absolutely accelerated when you're with other people, because you've got to respond, you've got to talk, you've got to listen, you've got to hold their stories. Talking to people, communicating is is fabulous, having relationships and friendships, and I get it. But just don't don't collect the lonely and take them into an environment where you're selling them something that's empty. Yes, you don't do that to people. It's horrible. You know there's all these fantastic charities. You can go. Go and work in a soup kitchen. Give something back to the community. These are fantastic communities that aren't promising you that they're going to heal you.
Speaker 1:So I've got permission to stay for an extra hour around the fire next week after the football game. I don't know how we got to that but sure.
Speaker 2:And when have I ever said to you come home now. I never have.
Speaker 1:No, you don't, I never have. But you keep organizing social events on a Sunday evening when I want to stay and play.
Speaker 2:I don't you know.
Speaker 1:Anyway, maybe speak to your spiritual advisor about that. Yeah, I'm going to go and get a spiritual.
Speaker 2:I'm going to become one. Do you know what? I'd be so good as a guru, would you? Oh, man.
Speaker 1:Really, would you keep your own name or would you change your name? Anushka? You'd be Anushka. What would your totem be?
Speaker 2:Your animal.
Speaker 3:Oh me a cat A groodle. Oh me a cat A groodle A groodle Anushka Gudinsky.
Speaker 1:That would be my name. It sounds like you'd also speak with a Russian accent and give people psilocybin. Anushka Gudinsky. We just need to get nine perfect strangers to come and sit in your lounge room. That's right.
Speaker 2:Anyway, on that happy note, I'm sorry if I got negative about it. I just don't like the vulnerable people. I don't like people taking advantage of other people. I don't like it. I hope you're all having a lovely day wherever you are in the world, and from DY in the northern beaches of Sydney, australia, on a perfect winter's afternoon, see you later. Thank you, david. Bye, bye, australia, on a perfect winter's afternoon. See you later. Thank you, david. Thanks for tuning into why Smart Women with me.
Speaker 2:Annie McCubbin, I hope today's episode has ignited your curiosity and left you feeling inspired by my anti-motivational style. Join me next time as we continue to unravel the fascinating layers of our brains and develop ways to sort out the fact from the fiction and the over 6,000 thoughts we have in the course of every day. Remember, intelligence isn't enough. You can be as smart as paint, but it's not just about what you know. It's about how you think.
Speaker 2:And in all this talk of whether or not you can trust your gut, if you ever feel unsafe, whether it's in the street, at work, in a car park, in a bar or in your own home, please, please respect that gut feeling. Staying safe needs to be our primary objective. We can build better lives, but we have to stay safe to do that. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and share it with your fellow smart women and allies. Together, we're hopefully reshaping the narrative around women and making better decisions. So until next time, stay sharp, stay savvy and keep your critical thinking hat shiny. This is Annie McCubbin signing off from why Smart Women. See you later.
