As a new friend and I exchanged our life stories she said ‘Robbi you’re one of the most courageous and resilient women I know’ – I couldn’t help but laugh. I said “really? why would you think that?” and continued laughing as the idea to me seemed quite absurd at the time. 

Someone once asked me ‘what would you do if you weren’t afraid?’ It’s an interesting question really, I immediately thought of ‘I’d jump out of an airplane (with a parachute of course) I’m talking skydiving, I’d go scuba diving, I’d climb a mountain… 

I’ve often been asked how I did what I did as a Clown Doctor for all those years.  It was pretty clear when I began working that I was going to need tools to manage some of the trauma I saw and the anguish I felt for others. I needed rituals to help bring me back into balance.

Bringing our hearts into leadership allows us to tap into empathy to express compassion first then follow with communication that a team member is more likely to not just hear but receive and take on.

When we don’t deal with our baggage, it can lead to reactions from our point of pain.   Sometimes the baggage we’ve been hauling around can dictate our reactions to people. 

Who doesn’t love a beautiful shiny sparkling diamond!  I often think we’re all diamonds, even if we’re ‘rough diamonds’.  A diamond doesn’t start off perfect; there is a process it goes through that transforms it from a lump of rock to a diamond.  The same could be said about us really. 

“Heartbeatz – where our hearts engage with our minds to elevate performance” – thanks for continuing to join me on this new adventure of discovering how we can bring more heart into our workplace and into our lives in general.
 

Stepping out of our comfort zone deliberately can be a great way to challenge ourselves.  When we choose to step out of the comfort zone, there is a certain amount of ‘being prepared for the discomfort’.

I love the energy of New Year and the enthusiastic anticipation of creating my life and I love the energy that everyone seems to have for the New Year

I know Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and wishes for peace on earth (for me that’s a standard wish all year not just at Christmas!) so this isn’t a ‘bah-humbug’ moment, rather this is me being transparent.  

Author Harriet Lerner in '‘The Dance of Connection’ writes, “children choose happiness over righteousness.  Grown-ups rarely make such a choice.  We have a terrible time stepping aside from our anger, bitterness and hurt”.  Well that nailed my butt to the wall...

Today I was reminded of the need to ‘spread a little kindness’ and in saying that it was actually me who needed the kindness.  I endured several medical procedures today where I was poked, prodded, squished and squashed and placed in more challenging positions than a Bikram yoga class before being placed into a machine that recorded the whole experience! 

I humbly confess that I have lived much of my adult life either in ‘fear of the future’ or ‘pain of the past’.  I found it very easy really, it was like a default setting, after all pain from the past is what made me feel fear of the future! 

As you know I’m passionate about connection – connecting with ourselves, with others… and the planet.  You see I’m of the belief that if we don’t take time to connect with ourselves then we have nothing left to give to connect with others.

A friend and colleague  is passionate about playing ‘games’ to increase your productivity and success levels and I love it so I've come up with a 'game' to change the ‘disconnect habit’ - the Jellybean Jar Game.  

Every now and then I get into a strong routine of walking on the beach a few mornings a week, it’s a brilliant space to workout by power walking in the soft sand, raising the heart rate, breathing deeply and most of all multi-tasking by listening to audio books or podcasts along the way.

My body is fabulous! They’re not words you often hear out of woman’s mouth, and they’re certainly not words I used to say often. This last week has given me great perspective on just how fabulous my body is.  

I celebrate the usual highs and lows that is the variety of my life.  I would go from being a Clown Doctor one day, to Keynote Speaker the next, to Class Parent Supervisor organising the ‘Greek Olympics’ at my son’s school, I have worn many hats and switched hats’ left right and centre! 

When I was a Clown Doctor, one of my ‘codes of clown doctoring’ was to ask ‘what does this situation need?’ when entering a ward or child’s bed-space.  A lot of clown doctoring skills are based on being able to improvise in the moment

I talk to dead people… I don’t see dead people like in the movie Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis, but rather I talk to people that I love who are no longer here.