105: Stress Management and Aging Gracefully with Despina Kamper

Transcript

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Welcome to the Dear Menopause podcast.

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I'm Sonya Lovell, your host Now.

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I've been bringing you conversations with amazing menopause experts for over two years now.

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If you have missed any of those conversations, now's the time to go back and listen, and you can always share them with anyone you think needs to hear them.

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This way, more people can find these amazing conversations, needs to hear them.

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This way, more people can find these amazing conversations.

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Hi everyone, I am very excited today to bring you a guest who is coming to us with a little bit of a different angle to what we often talk about on here.

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I'm going to introduce you to Despina Kamper.

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Now.

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Despina combined her passions for health, mental health and education and developed the award-winning Self Discovery Lab, and this is a place that supports women in dealing with their emotional challenges of this crazy society that we live in today.

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Despina, welcome to Dear Menopause.

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Thank you so much, sonya, and it was really nice to hear award-winning.

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I'd forgotten that we won that award a few years ago and you just reminded me, so thank you.

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Own those awards.

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Yeah, absolutely Awesome.

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Okay.

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So I gave a really brief intro.

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Very, very scratched the surface as to who you are and what you do.

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Why don't you share with everyone that's listening who you are?

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and what you do, sure, so, as you've said, I'm Despina and I'm a naturopath and nutritionist, but my focus is mainly around stress disorders and anxiety disorders.

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So I've been in clinical practice for about you lose the years, don't you?

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At least 25 years anyway and I stumbled upon this area.

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I work very closely with psychologists and I look at diet, lifestyle.

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I've also got a qualification in counselling and how we can support people through.

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I like to call them stress disorders rather than anxiety disorders, because we don't all fall in that picture.

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So I had a clinic in the eastern suburbs.

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I saw a lot of women who were eating the right diets, all on organic foods, a diet that was so much better than mine.

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Yet symptoms were still there, all kinds of symptoms that they were coming to see me with.

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So it really occurred to me that, yes, diet is important, but what I found more important was managing their stress.

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Managing their stress and we know that when we are stressed we're not digesting properly or we're having ill effects of chronic disease that interfere with whatever therapy or treatment we're having.

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So it occurred to me that I needed to address that level first.

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So I was running I called them anxiety awareness workshops.

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They're like our fortnight yoga classes, if you like, but they weren't yoga, they were all the breathing exercises we learned in clinic and the ideas of all the movements that we needed to do to calm that nervous system.

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And we just got together.

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It was only for my clients and we just all got together as a group.

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It was women and we practiced these treatments that we learned through clinic and it was really powerful and I found that we're doing them every fortnight and I thought to myself why are we doing these only to women who identify as having a disorder?

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Why can't we do this to just the average person who doesn't have a stress disorder?

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Yeah, so I started thinking about well, what can I do to have people, just normal Joe Blows, come along and join us on as a preventative to having a stress disorder?

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So hence came the retreats and started working on all kinds of retreats to support they're women only retreats.

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So to support women in managing their stress, identifying their assets, if you like, and clearing the mind from that internal chatter to be able to clearly see the pathway they want to take.

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Yeah, amazing, and I love a couple of things that you said in there and I'm going to deep dive into a couple of those things in a second.

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But one of the things was that you had this realization that, rather than treating the illness, it was like let's get preemptive about this, let's get ahead of the curve here and, before they actually do start that, start these great habits and practices.

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So I thought that was really really cool.

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One of the questions that I had for you was you mentioned that you were seeing clients that were eating the same diet as you, if not better, yet they were displaying still displaying symptoms of stress and anxiety.

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What would some of those symptoms be that you were seeing?

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The usual symptoms we get are the digestive issues.

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Yeah, we get the bloatedness or you know that's a clue to me that something's going on with digestion and we know that there's that brain gut connection very clearly now.

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And we know that our nervous system affects our gut and we know that there's so many symptoms.

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You know 80% of our serotonin lives in the gut, so it's you know, I started to see all those digestive systems disturbances straight up diarrhea, constipation, and then I started looking at symptoms of the nervous system.

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Like you know, people who would startle very easily, and these are the questions I needed to ask, not something that was volunteered to me.

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So you know, if someone came to see me for a simple gut issue, or even if someone came to see me for asthma, I would always apply some sort of therapy around stress.

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You know, if you think of asthma, for example, we don't normally think it's obvious that there is a stress component, because when we're stressed we're not breathing properly, when we're stressed we're not digesting properly.

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So, depending on what they've come to see me, the symptoms around that, they're clues for me.

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For you know what's going on in terms of their nervous system and, without a doubt, no matter what chronic condition we have, if we're managing our stress, the chronic condition doesn't.

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We don't perceive it as badly.

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Yeah, we're much more relaxed about it and much more accepting of it.

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We know that higher cortisol aggravates symptoms, so it's just a better way of managing our condition, especially if it's chronic.

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Yeah, and what are the implications of not managing those symptoms?

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So you know, for somebody who is ticking the boxes when it comes to nutrition and exercise and getting to bed early, you know the things that we seem to talk about all the time.

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Those pillars that everybody seems to know now are the things that create healthy foundations and good lifestyle.

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But what are the long-term effects of not addressing the digestive issues, the breathing, and that's actually something I want to talk to you a little bit about in a second as well what does tend to kind of play out long-term for people.

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Yeah, when we have a healthy response to stress, we have that high cortisol and then the amount and adrenaline when we need them and they turn off when we don't.

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When we have something that's not functioning as well, a nervous system that's not functioning as well, you make chronically higher levels of cortisone and adrenaline and they can contribute to all kinds of conditions.

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It can contribute to things like depression or insomnia or fatigue or reduced muscle mass.

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It can lower your libido.

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Immune system Every single system is affected.

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I feel like you're just rattling off all of the perimenopause and menopause symptoms here, which is really interesting because there's obviously this link.

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When we talk about perimenopause and menopause symptoms, I think it's always really key to remember that they can also be the same symptoms that show up for other conditions, and we should never just assume that because you are fatigued and you've got low libido and you're not sleeping well, that, oh my gosh, that means it's perimenopause.

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We must always, always do a check-in with a health practitioner to ensure that we address anything underlying as well at the same time, absolutely, and we know that there's a link.

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You know, progesterone is very protective in the way we we handle stress.

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So we know that our boundaries are, you know, a little bit loose and it's sometimes difficult to manage stress at this time.

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So, in particular around this 40-plus age group, we need to look at how we are managing stress.

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We don't really think about it unless we have some sort of disorder, which is why, you know, I did those retreats to make us start thinking about, well, how do we manage stress?

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What are our personal skills of doing that which we don't have an opportunity to do so often?

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So, yeah, it's.

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I have found, when I treat women 40 plus, that this is hugely beneficial.

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Again, it's not just about treating the condition, but also those underlying.

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We know, with hot flushes, that when we're stressed we're so much more vulnerable to it.

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So it's, yeah, getting to that underlying trigger, if you like.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Fascinating.

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One of the things I wanted to touch on you mentioned there was we were talking about asthma but breathing.

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And I was listening to a podcast recently and they were talking about the benefits to your immune system and your overall health of looking at how you breathe and changing that.

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Now a I'm gonna like totally hash this up, so I'm gonna rely on you to put all the right words and phrases into place here.

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But there is a lot of research that's been done isn't there on how we breathe and how that impacts many aspects of our wellness.

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Yeah, breath is so important we don't realize how 22,000 breaths a day that we do.

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So, if we get it, if we're breathing incorrectly I hate to use the word incorrectly, but just differently it has a profound effect on your body.

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So we breathe in oxygen, breathe out carbon dioxide.

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So it's those two gases we're talking about.

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And if we know that when we're having stress and anxiety or if you're having a panic attack, one of the treatments is to put a brown paper bag over your mouth, so the carbon dioxide that you're breathing out you're breathing back in again, because it's the carbon dioxide that we're lacking in these stress disorders, because we're hyperventilating, Managing breath in such a way that we can balance that oxygen and carbon dioxide.

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It's bad patterns, basically, that we've put ourselves into.

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We're just bad breathing habits from holding on.

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Holding our breath and also breathing from the chest as opposed to those beautiful big belly breaths.

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Well, yeah, and we've got to be careful how we use language.

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We don't want big breaths.

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Yeah, and you know it's normal breathing.

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You know having that well what is a normal breath?

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You know a six-second breath would be ideal, but in this day and age we very rarely get that.

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When we breathe in, we trigger that fight or flight response.

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When we breathe out, we trigger that rest and digest the other part of the nervous system.

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So having longer elongated out breaths is beneficial.

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But for that to happen we do need to drop the breath, that diaphragmatic breath, to have that length of time for the breath.

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And that's just takes training.

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That's all it does.

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It takes training and it's not something you have to put time aside for, it's something you just practice during the day.

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How we can have just that kind of breathing cycle as you work, as you do things, just to reset that norm and to rebalance those oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.

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Something we do I've trained in and do in clinic as well is working on that breath.

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It has a profound effect.

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You know, if we we can't not address stress without address breathing Full stop, yeah, yeah, it's fascinating.

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I find it fascinating because I feel like it's something that's not talked about enough and my background is as a personal trainer and the only times really that we talked about breathing, you know, back when I trained 15 years ago, was the difference between being huffy, puffy and being unable to hold a conversation and that being an indication of where your heart rate was at and how hard you were working right.

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But that is, you know, obviously, bringing you into that chest breathing and that, yes, you know short, shallow breaths, and I did.

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I do remember doing a workshop which is probably why I used the language of those beautiful big belly breaths, but where, you know, we were taught how to teach people when we were doing, say, cool downs and things like that, to do belly breathing, and it amazed me how many clients I ended up having that couldn't do belly breathing Diaphragmatic, yeah, and and that is that is obviously, for whatever reason, become something that we have to learn how to do.

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Absolutely.

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We live in fight or flight a lot of the days, and fight or flight, you know, we have two parts of the nervous system the fight or flight and the rest and digest.

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When we are in fight or flight, smooth muscle contracts so our diaphragm as well becomes tight, so we can't do that diaphragmatic breath that easily.

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And if we're huffing and puffing and exercise and there's nothing wrong with being in fight or flight when we're in exercise mode we need it.

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Yeah, it's actually good for us.

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Yeah, 100%.

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But it's managing to be able to, like you say, get your clients back into that rest, calm state before they leave the gym, you know, and that's the most beneficial for healing as well.

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So after a session.

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So it's having that tonified nervous system that can do that without getting too technical.

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Yep, no, and I think that's it's so important when we're talking to or about, you know, this phase of life or age that you know my audience is.

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We're talking about perimenopause and menopause, so we are definitely talking about that, predominantly 40 plus, and it's really interesting because that, you know, we talk so much now, which is great.

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We've raised so much awareness about increasing protein, doing strength training, you know, understanding whether HRT is something that you choose to use or not, or what the alternatives are to that, but I feel like we're not talking enough about the work that you do.

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Yeah, and so many things are associated with this age group as well.

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We've got that whole shame or the stigma that's attached, and all the feelings of worthlessness that just amplify the symptoms as well, so that all triggers that stress response, and it's something we do need to unpack and find our worthiness within this stage of life as well.

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I feel like we've got we've still got a long way to go when it comes to looking at beauty at this age group.

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Yeah, you know we praise a woman for looking young all the time, but we don't think about what effect that has on the psych as a social culture.

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You know what does that mean?

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I had a really interesting conversation with a good friend of mine over the Christmas break.

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We caught up with them and we were at their place for dinner.

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She is late 30s, about to turn 40, and very, I would say, driven by society's beauty ideals and does not use social media at all, which is, I think, quite unusual for that, yeah, very unusual yeah something that is.

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Neither her nor her husband are engaged in social media at all, don't even have accounts, and so I was actually showing her something on my Instagram account because I was talking about a particular company, and I was like, oh look, let me show you some photos.

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And we're on my Instagram account and a picture came up of, while I was scrolling through my feed, of Pamela Anderson, who, as most people know, now has totally embraced going makeup free and you know she's let her hair grow out and she's I didn't know that actually, it's really, it's incredible.

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She yeah, she never wears makeup, so it doesn't matter whether she's on the red carpet or if you see her at the shops.

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She's makeup free.

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And she's really very vocal and raising a lot of awareness about why she chose to let her hair grow gray and stop wearing makeup.

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And if you think of Pamela Anderson back in the Baywatch- days and you know really personified that, you know, overblown perception of what beauty was, yeah, and a very unnatural, I suppose, perception Anyway.

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So this photo of Pamela Anderson came up and my friend made a comment and she went look at her, she looks awful, I've heard that she's gone all natural.

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What a shame she was such a beautiful woman.

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And I had to bite my tongue because we were in an environment where we were having this lovely family catch up.

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I was like I'm not going to get on my high horse about this right now.

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It's not the right time and place, but it was really fascinating to me that that was her reaction.

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And that's not through social media, like you said.

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That's just our society, the culture within our society.

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Yeah, that's interesting.

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It doesn't surprise me though.

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Yeah, no, it's just.

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Yeah, we need a revolution, don't we?

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We just need you know to make it cool.

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And it goes to show you as well how far that revolution needs to reach, because there are people out there that are not on social media.

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It is about coming back to who you are, isn't it?

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It's?

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It's about, like, well, who am I?

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If I took away my looks, if I took away the title of my job, you know everything about me, who am I, and you know this is what.

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I work a lot on the retreats as well.

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It's who am I?

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Where do we come from and let's start there and what are my assets as a person?

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Not my titles and how I present myself to the world.

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It's a fascinating journey to go down.

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It is, but it's really important and I think it's something we need to talk about a whole lot more, which brings us to talking about your retreats.

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Which was how you and I connected was over an interest in what you were doing, and you do have a retreat coming up locally in early 2025.

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So, but before we jump into talking about that specific retreat, talk to me about how you evolved from your workshops and your in-clinic sessions to your retreats, which are global as well as local.

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Yeah, clinic is kind of I do for half the week.

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The other half of the week I lecture at university, so Torrens University and Western Sydney University so and I've also got a qualification in counselling.

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So it was kind of bringing the education component, the counselling component and the clinical component together.

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And I was at a stage in my life where I don't want to be working so hard and I don't want to be just saying I want to practise more.

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I don't want to say the masses, but I want to practise, you know, one to 20, yeah, and I really like the workshops that I was doing earlier with the anxiety awareness.

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But I wanted to practice, you know, one to 20, yeah, and I really liked the workshops that I was doing earlier with the anxiety awareness.

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But I wanted to make it again women only.

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There's something that we need that women together is so unique and special and very empowering.

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So it's still women only.

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And I thought what could I do?

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And I've got a Greek background and I thought why don't I run retreats?

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And to run retreats you really have to immerse yourself in the experience.

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So I thought let's do a week-long retreat and let's do it in the Greek islands and just remove people away from their homes and their attachments.

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And I just gave it a go a couple of years ago and it was just phenomenal, just phenomenal and I thought I could do this for a living.

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It was a trial run a few years ago, so I mainly do them overseas, but I'm now starting to do them at home as well.

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Yeah, so that was kind of the journey to there.

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Was that a local audience that you like was that?

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Australians that travelled to Greece for your no.

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No, it was.

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I had someone on the case for marketing.

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They purely marketed to, funny enough, the UK, switzerland and I think France were the main.

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But yeah, I had people from America.

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I don't even know how they got there, it doesn't matter, they got there.

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There was an Australian, but they lived in the uk.

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Um yeah, australia's a very small market so it's harder to market these things to them yeah, and greece is a long way to fly for yes, and it becomes a very expensive trip, you know, if you're adding all these extras to it.

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Yeah, so that's my's, my yeah, that's where I mainly go, but again, it's for me it's just much more meaningful job and combines all the things I do well, you know, in one place.

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So it's, and I do have people come with me.

00:19:56.597 --> 00:20:02.661
I've got other practitioners, especially because I like to do retreats based around conditions as well.

00:20:02.661 --> 00:20:08.191
Like you know, the one I've got coming up is around post-menopause, peri-imposed.

00:20:08.191 --> 00:20:24.692
You know, I like the idea of doing them for autoimmune conditions and you know where we can just come together and talk holistically about, um, the condition, yeah, and there must be something really powerful for having people in the room, women in the room, that are all living a similar story.

00:20:24.872 --> 00:20:29.782
Yeah, being able to hear firsthand, face-to-face, that eye contact.

00:20:29.782 --> 00:20:48.979
You know there's some amazing Facebook communities out there now for a lot of people to get support around different areas, but to actually sit in the same room with someone who is living the same story as you is so incredibly powerful, so I can really see the positives of holding those with you know certain themes, I guess, in mind.

00:20:48.979 --> 00:20:57.541
So then tell us about your Hunter Valley, New South Wales-based retreat that is coming up in March 2025.

00:20:58.069 --> 00:21:14.271
So this retreat is a weekender, so it's the Friday to the Sunday and it sounds like we've got lots jam-packed but there's plenty of free time as well, because I really feel like in a retreat some of the magic happens in between our sessions when people just sit, chat and connect, like you were saying earlier.

00:21:14.271 --> 00:21:19.461
It's quite amazing to have people with similar conditions all in the one room.

00:21:19.461 --> 00:21:20.403
A couple of things happen.

00:21:20.403 --> 00:21:29.130
You kind of get heard, you make connections and you just feel like you know your cup's full connections and you just feel like you know your cup's full.

00:21:31.809 --> 00:21:37.045
So this one is it's not, you know, we call it the aging well retreat, because I didn't necessarily want to put the word menopause or perimenopause, because lots of things happen post-40.

00:21:37.045 --> 00:21:42.863
Yeah, so it's, and I do want to address that whole stress component.

00:21:42.863 --> 00:21:46.983
So you know, on the Friday, once we get there, do you want me to just take you through?

00:21:46.983 --> 00:21:50.272
Yeah, absolutely Okay, excuse me, what we do.

00:21:50.272 --> 00:21:58.037
So the Friday we get there and we do talk about, you know, 40 plus perimenopause, menopause, what the picture looks like.

00:21:58.037 --> 00:22:02.020
We touch on a bit of biology and we might answer, you know, a couple of personalized questions.

00:22:02.020 --> 00:22:07.817
It's myself, as well as another clinician who specializes in menopause Great.

00:22:07.817 --> 00:22:13.134
So it's not just about you know, professionals providing advice.

00:22:13.134 --> 00:22:19.019
It's also an opportunity for women to talk about their experiences what worked, what didn't work, and being heard.

00:22:19.019 --> 00:22:38.096
Like I said, so much of women's experiences is about not being heard, yeah, so this just kind of opens up with that kind of platform to be heard, and it's purposely a small group retreat, so it's 10 rooms only that you know, and everyone gets the attention they need.

00:22:38.096 --> 00:22:52.375
So then we have dinner and then we have what's called philosophy circle One of my most favorite, and this only goes on for an hour, about an hour, but the workshops run for about an hour and a half and the philosophy circle is purely that we just sit around in a circle and we talk about.

00:22:52.998 --> 00:22:55.542
Well, the topic normally is what does femininity mean to you?

00:22:55.542 --> 00:23:02.701
That's the topic normally in these kind of retreats and everyone has a different perception of what that's like for them.

00:23:02.701 --> 00:23:22.505
And it's beautiful to sit and listen to each of us talk about femininity because obviously you sit there I always sit there and go wow, I never thought of it like that and you just grasp little things that shift your perspective on what it is to well, to be female, I was going to say which is different to femininity.

00:23:22.505 --> 00:23:27.521
So you just shift your perspective and you broaden your perspective in this area.

00:23:27.521 --> 00:23:35.873
So, and I always believe, even if you have a small five degree shift in perspective, that makes a massive difference in years to come.

00:23:35.873 --> 00:23:42.173
So you know, this is where I think we don't realize the subconscious magic that happens in these kind of philosophy circles.

00:23:42.775 --> 00:23:44.458
I'm amazed you can keep it to an hour.

00:23:45.540 --> 00:23:46.943
Yeah, we do try to manage it.

00:23:46.943 --> 00:23:54.758
We just try and get one person to speak at a time and that's it, and not have a conversation right it's just going around and you know, know what do they call those?

00:23:55.720 --> 00:23:56.362
A talking stick.

00:23:56.362 --> 00:23:59.038
We don't have a talking stick, but it's like that.

00:23:59.038 --> 00:24:00.054
No, but it's like that.

00:24:00.054 --> 00:24:05.559
Yeah, but you know, women can take that conversation on later on.

00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:08.259
And then day two, you know we do a lot of the work.

00:24:08.259 --> 00:24:14.833
We've got the self-discovery session first up and and that's where I come in and we really talk about the biology of stress.

00:24:14.833 --> 00:24:20.511
We talk about hormone regulation around stress and we implement some beautiful management strategies.

00:24:20.511 --> 00:24:21.755
So we really experience.

00:24:22.016 --> 00:24:26.996
We do a lot of breath work, meditations and empowering meditations, so that's that.

00:24:26.996 --> 00:24:34.852
Then we have lunch and we've got a chef there who does lots of yummy food and functional food, you know, not just nutritious but functional.

00:24:34.852 --> 00:24:36.415
So we look at all the different types of food.

00:24:36.415 --> 00:24:40.252
So, yeah, we do talk about diet, because there's so many different diets.

00:24:40.252 --> 00:24:41.977
Which one is good for you?

00:24:41.977 --> 00:24:43.401
Do we go keto?

00:24:43.401 --> 00:24:45.473
Do we go anti-inflammatory?

00:24:45.473 --> 00:24:46.939
Do we go oxalate?

00:24:46.939 --> 00:24:48.765
Do we go antihistamine?

00:24:48.825 --> 00:24:58.565
You know there's so many different diets and we really bring to our attention that everyone's so individual and what works for you may not work for others.

00:24:58.565 --> 00:25:10.878
So, yeah, let's talk about diets and we do have this kind of question time where people can just throw those questions at us and what we hope is that you leave with your own personalised okay.

00:25:10.878 --> 00:25:16.693
This is going to be what I'm going to comfortably practice, you know, in my lifestyle changes.

00:25:16.693 --> 00:25:19.121
So you know everyone's going to be very individual to that.

00:25:19.121 --> 00:25:21.915
We've got worksheets that people will be jotting things down as you go.

00:25:21.915 --> 00:25:27.720
So that's that session and on the final day we just come back together and we just kind of pull it all together.

00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:37.837
We do a nice meditation, exercise is discussed, different types of exercise regimes are discussed, and you know there's a lot going on.

00:25:37.837 --> 00:25:49.964
So we just unpack how everyone's feeling at the time before we go and we've got this beautiful lounge area, pool, outdoor area that people can just sit around and just be heard, build meaningful connections.

00:25:50.750 --> 00:25:52.095
Sounds absolutely wonderful.

00:25:52.656 --> 00:25:53.038
Doesn't it.

00:25:53.509 --> 00:25:54.494
Yeah, it really does.

00:25:54.494 --> 00:25:56.113
I like them.

00:25:56.113 --> 00:25:58.962
Go see if I can book myself in.

00:25:59.324 --> 00:26:04.218
We also talk about supplements, which is something I forgot to mention because I think that's super important.

00:26:04.218 --> 00:26:11.932
There are some supplements that are very powerful for us to take, but for some it doesn't suit, you know, and someone says, oh, I've tried magnesium, it does nothing.

00:26:11.932 --> 00:26:12.212
Does nothing.

00:26:12.212 --> 00:26:15.699
Well, did you try this type of magnesium?

00:26:15.699 --> 00:26:19.484
Did you type you know this type of protein, or are we?

00:26:19.484 --> 00:26:28.740
Yeah, it's just, and I really like to knock out some, even brands, like I wouldn't even purchase half the brands at health food shops, you know they're.

00:26:28.740 --> 00:26:31.913
So there's some education that is needed around that.

00:26:31.913 --> 00:26:34.405
But we're not advocating for anything, you know.

00:26:34.405 --> 00:26:35.230
It's just very, very personal.

00:26:35.230 --> 00:26:40.441
It's information, and then you choose what you do with the information when you take it home with you.

00:26:40.602 --> 00:26:42.130
Fantastic, sounds amazing.

00:26:42.130 --> 00:26:51.720
So you have very generously made available to listeners of Dear Menopause a 20% discount and that discount is available until the 15th of February.

00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:59.798
So to find that discount code you can jump into the show notes or you can, if you've got a good memory and you've got a pen and paper nearby, you can jot down.

00:26:59.798 --> 00:27:04.480
It's Sonia, s-o-n-y-a, all in caps, 20 at the end, 2-0.

00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:11.451
So Sonia, 2-0, all in caps, and that will get you a 20% discount on this amazing sounding retreat.

00:27:11.451 --> 00:27:15.012
But that is only available until the 15th of February.

00:27:15.012 --> 00:27:23.500
So the other and the link will also be in the show notes for you to be able to actually go through and read more about the retreats and make a booking if that's what you want to do.

00:27:23.500 --> 00:27:29.711
But you've also got for anybody that's listening that's not in Australia and I do have a very global audience.

00:27:29.711 --> 00:27:36.436
I did notice that you do have a couple of dates added in for a UK and a Greece retreat this year as well.

00:27:36.436 --> 00:27:36.959
Is that right?

00:27:37.682 --> 00:27:38.144
I do.

00:27:38.144 --> 00:27:42.817
You're going to get me to go to my website now because I've got all those dates there that I want to talk about.

00:27:42.817 --> 00:27:46.093
I didn't expect you to jump here, but yes, we have, that's all right.

00:27:46.093 --> 00:27:49.538
So I'm in Europe August, september, so I've aligned with two.

00:27:49.538 --> 00:27:55.192
I'm going to do two retreats over there, one in the UK, that's again a weekender and that's a bit more fun.

00:27:55.192 --> 00:27:58.781
You know, not all my retreats are serious, so that's a bit more fun.

00:27:59.150 --> 00:28:03.161
We go to Bristol and we do, you know, the Thermae Bath Spa over there.

00:28:03.161 --> 00:28:08.276
But we also, almost every retreat has that stress component that I talk.

00:28:08.276 --> 00:28:14.365
I don't call it stress, you know, just self-discovery is what I call it, that self-discovery component.

00:28:14.365 --> 00:28:21.553
And we do yoga, meditation.

00:28:21.553 --> 00:28:23.920
But our signature retreat, which is my most favorite retreat, is a week-long retreat.

00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:24.762
It's on the Greek island, crete.

00:28:24.762 --> 00:28:29.056
We all come together in a beautiful resort and it's us only.

00:28:29.056 --> 00:28:41.282
We sleep together, we eat together and we practice together and it's called understanding self and it really goes into, uh, separating self from mind and just an inward discovery.

00:28:41.282 --> 00:28:48.261
Yeah, and that's in september, in in crete, delicious and what a beautiful time of year as well.

00:28:48.402 --> 00:28:54.840
I'm actually um going to be in europe in september nice and'm looking at the date.

00:28:54.840 --> 00:28:57.314
I did have a peek on your website, which is how I knew.

00:28:57.314 --> 00:29:02.075
And I was like that times beautifully when I'm planning to meet my husband in Italy.

00:29:02.075 --> 00:29:05.071
I was like maybe I could squeeze that in Before arriving.

00:29:05.132 --> 00:29:07.196
I don't know if it's a good idea.

00:29:07.196 --> 00:29:13.881
Oh, actually, it could be a good idea afterwards, but I think probably before looking at the dates, but yeah.

00:29:13.901 --> 00:29:15.071
So how wonderful though.

00:29:15.071 --> 00:29:22.715
A week in Greece, on your own Island or your own resort within the Island, and just doing all that inward work.

00:29:22.715 --> 00:29:23.519
How amazing.

00:29:23.798 --> 00:29:37.553
Yeah, and the great thing is, what I found so good is we get people from all over the world and this one's very small one this is, I think we've got the maximum 14 people that can fit, but it's people from all over the world and when you look at the people, you think they would never be friends.

00:29:37.553 --> 00:29:42.634
When I first start a retreat, I get a bit panicky and I think, oh my God, how are we all going to get on, you know?

00:29:42.634 --> 00:29:46.191
But the connections that are made, I think this is just blissful.

00:29:46.191 --> 00:29:59.785
This is when you just really take down the layers and just connect with people, with who they are, and I just think it makes a beautiful impact on your life to be able to go home feeling like, you know, I'm a step closer to where I want to be.

00:29:59.785 --> 00:30:03.319
Yeah, we never get there, but always great to be a step closer.

00:30:04.451 --> 00:30:05.494
It's a life's work.

00:30:05.775 --> 00:30:08.162
Yeah, yeah, life's work Absolutely.

00:30:08.162 --> 00:30:09.737
There is no such thing as perfection.

00:30:09.737 --> 00:30:12.157
Despina, I have loved chatting with you today.

00:30:12.157 --> 00:30:15.513
I'm really grateful to have connected with you.

00:30:15.513 --> 00:30:17.900
It was you that reached out to me, which I'm so grateful for.

00:30:17.900 --> 00:30:18.770
Thank you for doing that.

00:30:18.770 --> 00:30:22.902
I'm really pleased to have been able to bring this conversation to my listeners.

00:30:22.902 --> 00:30:25.155
Thank you so much, sonia.

105: Stress Management and Aging Gracefully with Despina Kamper

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