Hi everyone and thank you so much for tuning into my channel. If you're new then a massive welcome to you. My name is Claire Carmichael. I am finally a newly qualified nurse. I am awaiting my NMC pin registration as we speak. Hopefully it won't be too long and I'll get it before January. And this is my third year overall blog so I just want to give you an overview of third year, what's maybe expected of you and hopefully get rid of those doubts and get rid of those panics and fears that you might have about third year. And another disclaimer as always, I can only speak about my own experiences. This is just personally what I've been through and this is everything that goes on at Birmingham City University and your university may differ from this. So just have a look at your Facebook groups and your own university guidelines modules to get more of an insight from your own university lecturers and students and all of that jazz so that you can be a bit more prepared maybe for what your university actually does compared to Birmingham City University but hopefully I'm going to give you some little tips and advice maybe to help you cope anyway. So at our university we have four modules. So our four modules are at the first half of the year we have nursing practice four which is our big anatomy and physiology final exam and in that exam we had a choice of four case studies but they narrow it down to two at the end and you pick between the two that they give you for the final exam. So ours were liver cirrhosis, myocardial infarction with a mixture of pulmonary edema and we had COPD mixed in with sepsis which is a really good one and we also had like a subdural hematoma which is a big bleed on the brain which was really exciting but I didn't understand any of it as you might have seen from my previous videos at the start of the year. So two that we got to choose from was the myocardial infarction and the neuro one and I just couldn't do the neuro one. So myocardial infarction and pulmonary edema was the one that I chose. We had to learn the conditions, we had to learn how to treat it, how to manage it as a nurse, interventions, we had to know the pharmacology so the ins and outs of what medication that we were going to give this patient, side effects, doses, contraindications, all of that. We also had to know a load of blood gases, what they did, what they were testing for, what it means if they're out of range. We had to know all of the observations why they would be out of range, what's going on in the body, why she got a high heart rate, why she got a high blood pressure, why has she got no urine output. All of these different things we had to explain in massive detail for the exam. Luckily I passed it thank god but that was our first module and then our second module was policy and politics which I kind of was dreading when I heard the title I was like I don't want to get into policies procedures and politics even though we need it as nurses just to sit and listen to someone talking about that I imagined it to be really dull but actually it was quite an interesting module. I really enjoyed writing the assignment as well. I was a little bit gutted with my grade because I honestly thought that was my best piece of writing and it was one of my lowest grades so I wasn't happy with that but the module itself was great, the assignment itself was really well structured, it was really laid out and then for the second half of the year we had our acpe dissertation slash not dissertation that I've banged on about in previous vlogs, I'm not going to go into too much detail but that was a four thousand word assignment which wasn't enough words for me, I would love an extra thousand for the results section just to get those critical points in there a little bit more and go in a bit more depth with it so I didn't feel like there was enough word count but I managed it, I smashed it thankfully. I actually got a first in that one, I got 75% from a dissertation which some of you know because you've watched my previous vlogs but I was chuffed considering I didn't get any GCSEs or anything at school and yeah I had to work really really hard to get that 75% guys but all in all the dissertation was actually not that bad even though it stressed me out a lot and it drained my soul a little bit actually all in all it wasn't that bad looking back at it and I thought actually it was all right, I followed the guide, I followed the workbooks, I followed all of the examples that they put online for us to do, if you do all that you can't go wrong guys just make sure you follow all of your assignments, the guides the information that's online for you follow it all and you'll be just fine and then our final final module of all was our transitioning to qualified practitioner the one that we were all excited for because this is our final bit so for this we had a PowerPoint presentation so this was alone in front of a small group there was only I think about 15 of us in our group there wasn't that many at all and you get a chance to practice in this module so we practice in small groups every single week to get us used to speaking in public and everything and to try and get rid of those fears I'm not going to lie on the day I feel like I melted I felt like I said um um a lot I feel like I stuttered a little bit but I did say everything I needed to say and I said it with a little bit more um a little bit more um what am I trying to say without reading off my cards do you know what I mean a little bit more autonomous I don't know what am I trying to say guys I didn't have to read off my cards that much because I'd practiced it quite a bit so I just had the little bullet points just to just to remind me where I was at the time which was probably have for this video because I haven't prepared anything and now I have no idea what I'm talking about so yes along with that we had our numeracy as well so we had our final drugs calculation exam where we had to get nine out of ten for this or you failed basically I'm very very fortunate I got a hundred percent in that so yes I didn't have to do that again I found actually drug calculations really really easy I found it much easier than doing the first year maps which was all fractions and decimals all of these weird and wonderful things that I hate but I found just putting it into a sentence like the doctor gives you this but you need this and you've got this I found that's so much more easier to understand because I've been on placement and I've been doing medications and stuff so I could work it out really really simply in my head fortunately for us we did get a calculator as well which helped massively so all in all third year for us the modules were they seemed um oh I don't want to say this but I'm gonna say it anyway they seemed a little bit easier than second year and I don't mean to put anyone down or anything like that I loved second year second year was my by far my best favorite year because I did so much I did so much extracurricular activities so I had a way over time second year I was living my best life second year and third year I just feel like the modules I've just got on with and I've done and I've found it actually a lot easier I don't know why I've really enjoyed the modules I've really enjoyed the workload has been really nice for third year the workload has been a lot easier than second year for me I just my own opinion some other people might think differently but the workload was split up really nicely it we had a lot of time to do everything we had enough time to do everything whereas second year it was all boom boom boom boom this felt like a lot smoother laid out well and we had just far more time to do everything so overall for third year for me has been amazing and it's been really good for the workload side of things and then of course we have placements which is what you really want to know what is expected of you on placements in third year OMG it's not that bad guys stop panicking honestly sit down give yourself a pep talk it's not that bad so basically through the years first year you're a little bit more supervised by your mentor you sort of stick to the side because you haven't got a clue what day it is you haven't got a clue what terminology is and you're just like what pretty much sums up first year placement first year first placement and then as you go on you learn a bit more you feel a bit more confident and then as you go into second year you sort of start to do things on your own she's like I know this I've done this first year and you start to pick up things physiology starts to really click in in second year and you think oh my god I understand and then you will be working alongside your mentor but it'll be a little bit more of a distance so they'll sort of supervise you from afar and then in third year you have to show your autonomy so you have to make sure that you're rationalizing things that you're doing so your mentor might ask you questions like okay so what would you do in this situation what type of dressing would you use for this and why and if you don't know the answer that's perfectly okay as long because you can show where you would get that information from so if my mentor says to me Claire what would you put on this leg also I'd be like I don't know this leg also is a mess it's everywhere there's blood there's exudate there's a load of slough but actually this bit's really dry I've got no idea what I would use however I'm going to look at what we've got for a start what have we got and then I'm going to look at the guidelines for management of leg ulcers nice guidelines and then I'm also going to look at the wound management plan in the bnf which is really really good I advise anyone to look at the bnf wound management plans because there's tables of what sort of dressing do you use for different types of wounds whether they're sluffy necrotic and all of that is amazing look it up so that's what I would do I would go and I would find the evidence what works best for this type of wound and then I would do that and I would apply that and hopefully it will make the leg better in the long run so then you're assessing it the week after so that's basically it you have to show that you can rationalise your decisions that you can find evidence based practice and put it into practice as a nurse and that's all they want you to do they want you to be safe they want you to practice safely and protect your patients and do the best for your patients so that they get better that's all that they want to see I haven't found that I'm doing anything seriously more than I was second year I'm just showing that I know things and that I can safely redress a leg without someone having to do it for me you're sort of going into patients and you're thinking oh they don't look right instead of going to your mentor and saying my patient doesn't look right what shall I do you're saying okay let's get the ops machine let's do some ops you do your ops write them all down you're going back to your mentor and saying listen this patient wasn't very well they they looked like they were about to pop it or something I don't know they're looking jaundice who knows whatever your reason so I've done this I've done the ops this is what I've found I'm really worried because their blood pressure is really really low and then you can even go to a doctor yourself if you wanted to if you felt that comfortable you could go to the doctor and say listen this patient is blah blah blah here I remember findings what do you think what do you recommend what can I do can you come review them all of that jazz that was like a hundred miles an hour I'm really sorry but you get what I'm saying so your placement you are just showing that you're safe you're safe to practice you can make decisions that's it you're going to smash it you've been doing it first year and second year you're going to smash it keep being you and they will love you and along with this you will have your placement documents so whatever you need signing off in there whatever it says you need to do to meet those competencies and skills do that always follow your university and trust guidelines policies procedures and that document make sure you get it signed off make sure you're doing everything you should be and you'll be amazing and for my management placement it was all of the same things but my mentor wanted me to show more management because it's management placement they wanted to see those management sort of skills so things like delegating sort of prioritizing your workload organizing the day so I had to think a little bit more differently because I'm not a delegator and I know we have to and I will do it but I hate it I feel really uncomfortable doing it and but I am better at it now I'm not as bad and I will do it because it it's the NHS we are short staffed we need to delegate and we can't take so much on or we're going to burn out so those delegation skills have to be put in place so I did do it a few times where I delegated to the team or a team member I sort of I got my list for the day of our patients and I organized our patients and what was the most prioritized one to the least and things like that so I did do a little bit of that as well and that's it really um there was no really like extremely high expectations because we are still students we are still newly qualified nurses and again if you don't know something say or just say I really don't know this but I'm going to find out and come back to you I've done this a few times where my mentor and another nurse actually said oh do you know what this is and I was like never even heard of this medication ever in my life I didn't even know it was such a medication and they were like oh should we look it up because actually that person didn't know either it was the first time they had seen it so and they'd been experienced for years so I said well let me look it up and I'll come back to you so I went back and I looked up all the stuff and then I went back to them and said this is what I found and yeah so it's just little things like that and you just have to remind yourselves that you are still learning even when you're newly qualified you're still going to be learning and nobody knows it all top consultants I've seen this happen myself so I know it happens top consultants top NHS chief executives they don't know it all and I've seen people I've seen top consultants ask other people for help I've seen them come to nurses I've seen them go to healthcare assistants to say oh really don't know about something this isn't what I'm usually doing do you know anything about this and it happens we can't physically know it all our brain isn't programmed to know everything about everything we can only store so much information through routine and practice and what we're doing every day day in and day out so please be kind to yourselves if you don't know it all if you don't know something say it don't practice unsafely say yeah I know this and do it and then put a patient at risk now patient safety always admit when you don't know something ask for training ask for more experience in something go away research something if you don't know it just keep yourself and keep your patience safe and that is the best thing I think any of you can do students I see you out there on social media really panicking when you don't know something and you're like I'm not cut out for this I don't want to I can't be a nurse because I don't know this or I've had a bad day forget it do you know what if you don't know something it's fine if something went wrong it's fine mistakes happen and as long as you learn from those mistakes as long as you reflect from those mistakes as long as you're open and honest and do something about it you're going to be fine you're going to be great everybody has mistakes so please don't beat yourself up about it and I hope to God you take this little piece of information that I'm giving you now and you take it on board and you listen to me if you don't listen to anything else of this video don't beat yourself up take it in your stride reflect move on don't be don't dwell on the things that have gone wrong think about the things that are going well have gone well and how you can improve next time so just to summarize my final pieces of tips and advice for third year firstly when you get your assignments through look at your assignment brief follow that assignment brief to the last t if you do that they can't fail you because you've followed the assignment brief you've added everything you should do it'll just be your grade that you get and obviously that'll come with your writing and your critical analysis and all of that so please just follow the assignment briefs follow any guides or workbooks or anything like that that they give you follow it literally to the last p go to your library go to your personal development department if you're really struggling get some more help don't suffer in silence with it also if you're feeling really stressed if you're feeling burnt out take some time out and i know you might feel like there's not enough hours in the day but literally 10 minutes of meditation or just 10 minutes shutting everything off and just sit for a minute gather your thoughts and just get back on track because you are the most important thing out there you should be number one priority because if you can't look after yourself then how are you going to look after your patience you have to be on your best form you have to be your best self so you can make them their best selves so please take some time out relax and just you'll be okay don't forget to break everything down as well so when you've got assignments coming in dissertation break it all down write yourself a timeline when you're going to do things how you're going to do it stay organized this is a really good tip that i've been saying from first year you need to stay organized and prioritize your workload don't leave it to last minute because if you leave it to last minute it's gonna be a mad rush you're gonna get stressed and oh it's not worth thinking about guys just get your things organize it plan it and do it and make sure you make the most of every opportunity this is your final year to do this when you're a newly qualified nurse you're probably not going to get these opportunities again so make the most of everything out there as a student just go with all different teams go on different pathways really get involved and just get in there get stuck in and just learn just learn as much as possible absorb it all and just on a very very final thing you are if you are if you're not yet but you will get here come back to this video but you are a third year student nurse now if you're watching this and you are third year and you are struggling and you think oh how am i going to do it i don't want to fail why why are you thinking like that you've got free first year smashed it you might have maybe not passed something first time but you've smashed it the second time or third time you've got through second year the second year workload was insane um you've got through all those exams all of those assignments so why should third year be any different you've come so far smashed two years guys you've come to third year you are here why would you start failing now just keep doing whatever it is you've been doing and smash it you're going to pass it you're going to you're going to be amazing nurses get rid of those doubts get rid of those fears and remind yourself how far you've come what you've done so far and look to the future wearing your blues getting your pain and just carry on


Welcome to Dare to Dream. This is Debbie Daschinger, a mystic for any age. Dr. Gabriel Cousins pursued spiritual liberation through holistic medicine and three great spiritual traditions. Torah, Jewish mysticism, Eastern yogic way of life and Native American Sundance traditions, and Dr. Cousins will be with us in just a few minutes. So stay tuned for an amazing show today. I want to thank the sponsors for this show, Dr. Dane here and Access Consciousness. They do beautiful energy work out into the world. And if you're interested in becoming a facilitator or attending one of their online classes anywhere in the world, go to dr. Dr. Dane here, h-e-e-r.com, as well as access consciousness.com. Dare to Dream podcast has been on air for over 13 years and has been nominated for two People's Choice podcast awards and a webby ward. We are consistently ranked in the top 100 best podcasts in all of the USA, in and on Apple podcast, as well as in other countries. Debbie Daschinger is a certified coach whose expertise is visibility in media. She coaches people to write a page-turner book, takes their book to a guaranteed international bestseller, and pulls back the curtain so her clients have the system to be interviewed on media and podcast and get massive results, such as how to find and use media exposure to locate your tribe, fill workshops, sell books, and gain positive exposure. You can connect with Debbie as well as get your free templates and tools so you can start to get booked on media at Debbie Daschinger.com. It's d-e-b-b-i-d-a-c-h-i-n-g-e-r.com. Question. Do you want to know more about Jewish mysticism, eastern yogic way of life and Native American Sundance traditions, and more? My guest is Gabriel Cousins M.D. who is considered one of the world's leading experts and proponents of raw live plant source nutrition. Dr. Cousins pioneered a way to cure diabetes in just 21 days. Dr. Cousins is a four-year Native American Sundancer, an eagle dancer, and an 11-year spirit dancer. Adopted by the Lakota Sioux Horn Ship Clan, he was appointed head of the Yellow Horse Clan. Beginning in 2008, Dr. Cousins began developing diabetes prevention and organic farms programs supported with micro-business loans in 26 different countries. Dr. Cousins is the author of 13 books. He is a holistic physician, psychiatrist, family therapist, rabbi, yogi, spiritual mystic, and vital at any age advocate. He's a physician of the soul. And if you'd like to learn more, go to drcousins.com. That's dr-c-o-u-s-e-n-s.com, as well as treeoflife.mn.co. And I welcome Dr. Gabriel Cousins to Dare to Dream. It's so great to have you here. Debbie, it's great. I love the title, Dare to Dream. So many people are afraid to dream. So wonderful. I love it. Yeah, me too. And not just to dare to dream, but to create the dreams, right? Yeah, right, right, exactly. That's what it means. So it's beautiful. So I'd like to start with the prayer of merging the heavens and the earth and the heart and the mind, because they're metaphors, okay? So here it goes. So just feel the merging of the heart and mind. Feel that what we call hukmahalav, wisdom of the heart. Okay, nice. What language was that?  Yeah, it was Hebrew. Hebrew. Just my own accent, okay. That's beautiful. So this is great because I want to harken some into that. But I love what you're about. And I love the quest and the energy that you have and you bring to your work continued and to your life. So let's just start with the fact here you are this good looking guy. And let's just tell people your age because I don't believe anybody would believe it. Let's start there. So my chronological age is 77, okay? And comparatively speaking, I'm getting younger. And I mean that seriously. So when I was captain of an Amherst College football team inducted into the National Football Hall of Fame, when I was seven years old, I could do 70 push-ups and seven pull-ups, 500 sit-ups and so forth. Now at 77, I regularly do 1000 push-ups three times a week, 80 pull-ups. I can hit, I've hit 100, but I do 80. I couldn't even touch my toes as a football player. I could hit about six inches above the ground. Now I put my hands on the ground. I couldn't cross my legs. Now I sit in full lotus for, you know, for hours. So what's the message here? There is a message is that according to our mental state and our spiritual state, we can actually get younger with age. I'm obviously younger, more flexible and stronger, literally eight, 10 times more than when I was a very good athlete at the age of 20, 21. So it's a very positive viewpoint. It's like, oh, my brain can get more flexible, my body can get more flexible because people tend to consolidate and get hard with age in their mind as well as their body. And so it's an important message, a really important message. Will you go a little deeper into that? Gabriel, for people who are listening and are thinking, I would like some of that, please. I'd like to look like him. I'd like to become more flexible. I'd like to feel younger, act younger. I'd like to touch the floor and sit in a lotus position. So can you give us some specifics? What do you do physically and or nutritionally and certainly mind wise to create all of that? I mean, I'll give you some of the math of it, but something happened about 17, 18 years ago. Not that I wasn't doing things, but I was in the middle of an eagle dance. So that's a Native American thing. So there were about 60, 70 sun dancers, eagle dances when you are pierced through your chest for all four days of the dance versus one or two hours. Okay. So you never leave the circle at night. You just sleep on the ground. So on the third day of the dance, it was really hot and difficult for people and everybody had left the field but me. And my Sundance chief said, get going, start really dancing. And then the drummer started going and I just started dancing ecstatically. I just, even though I don't know much about Sundance, let me explain it. You actually have hooks in your chest attached to a tree. Okay. And it's like, I'm dancing aesthetically and something shifted. And it's if I usually at four days, you don't eat or drink for four days, mostly you get a little weaker. I'm getting stronger. What is going on? So there was a mental shift. And on the fourth day, you're supposed to pull back and break. And I didn't just pull back and break, break meaning the hooks out of your chest. Okay. Let's go back. I did a, the people said I did a back to it, but I think I just did a summer self or whatever it was. I had so much energy. So something shifted in my mental state. Okay. And again, I was the only one really of 18 easel dancers to really never leave the circle.  You know, I know about this practice you're talking about. Now ask you these hooks. I mean, is it painful? You have metal. Don't you going through that's pulling. Scars. Can you see the scars there? I can. Can you see the scars there? Yeah. Right where my fingers. Yeah. Okay, so what you have is that they, they cut two holes and they put a wood peg about the size of your finger through that. And you're putting those in and then they attach a rope to two ropes, two places like that. For women also do something. They do it on the shoulders. Okay, they do it here. You don't want to be doing it on the breath. No, you don't want to be doing that. And it's sort of, it's wood. Two holes that they cut. Okay. And then you put the wood in again about this thick. And then the rope is tied to it. And then you have two, one on each side. And then when you break, you pull back and then it gets. At the end. Does that answer the question? Absolutely. Yeah. So, but when you're dancing ecstatically, you're not feeling a lot of pain. And for me, for four years, I was the only one to make it without water. Because, you know, if you really need to do it, I'll give you something, but it's a mental state. And so there was a shift that took place now. So I, how do you get stronger each day instead of weaker. It's a spiritual shift. So that's what happened. Now I apply it to my life. So I regularly do yoga. How about six times a week? Okay. What kind of yoga? I'm doing breathing, which we call pranayama. Well, it's called tri yoga. My wife is a yoga teacher. It's called tri yoga. And it's a flowing yoga. Rather than a static yoga, so to speak. So you move from one position into another is always a flow. Okay. Then I do pranayama breathing exercise. By the time most people are 70, it was 50% of the one capacity. Well, that doesn't happen if you're doing breathing exercises. So what I'm saying is a certain intent. You got to work a little harder. So the physical exercise I mentioned the 1000 push ups, the 80 pull ups, sometimes 100, 100 sit ups or 500 sit ups and a variety of other things that you do that I do that just keeps maintaining and expanding strength, flexibility and endurance. It just takes some effort. Okay, it takes some intention. So there's no secret to this. Once you start doing it, it usually takes about two years to get into a higher level of function, you know, where you're sustaining it. So that's kind of what it is. I do a variety of things. I don't really do weights. I work with these very rubber bands and different things like that that they do it, but that's it. There's nothing spectacular about them. No, what adds to it. I'm also on a 100% vegan or plant based diet and I'm about 99% live food. Well, that does actually help. It helps us straight agility balance because with age also people tend to lose their balance.  Okay, in my world. Okay, but when people get in their 70s and so forth. There's a tendency so you want to always be working on your balance. So we have different poses and yoga focus on balance as well. I'm not going to go into different poses, but the point is, you have balances important. Okay, if you don't practice it, use it or lose it. This is really what it concerns. So it takes some effort, take some intention, but there's also this thing about getting younger and stronger and more flexible and having more endurance with age. It's a mindset. As well as yes, I'm working hard. Does that make sense when I'm saying, yeah, it's really inspiring without a doubt. I love your zest for life and exploration. I love it. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, your latest book. Sorry, we have a little bit of laps going on. Nothing. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for, for thank you technology and COVID, but your latest book, Dr. It's called into the nothing a spiritual autobiography and it talks about you surrendering to the divine urge. I want to start there. What is a divine urge mean to you. So, it's a very good question. No one's asked that question. I love it. Thank you. Manashtana Laila has that the death. Okay, we have, we have a death urge with a sexual urge, right. The divine urge is what I describe in book is the final urge of all creation. The primary reason why we're put here on this planet is to know God. So the divine urge, we call it David Cude Haywood or to God merging and enlightenment are the driving forces of all humanity. Now, does that mean everybody knows that. No, that's not the case at all. If you reach a certain point that becomes the primal urge to return to God. So that's what I'm talking about. Let's say divine urge for the divine beyond sex beyond death, anything. It's the most important reason we're here and at a certain point you're evolution, you actually get it. So in my book into nothing I have a lot of poetry talking about a lot of poems, but the divine urge is the driving force behind spiritual life in which all the spiritual practice is no longer practices. There are a way of life that keeps reinforcing and growing beyond the mind and into the nothing. That's it. Now, I'll go a little further with that. But into the nothing is, is actually literal. So the Torah says, you can't know God live very profound. Most people don't really get it. But what it means is, you go from the nothing, I into kind of the something I saw into the something. Now, what I'm saying is, the nothing part is where you disappear. There's no you. So you can't know God live because there's no you there to be there.  That's I am this. Then we have I this, which is pure awareness separate from any identification. The nothing is where the eyedness disappears. So you can have a void. Some couples. Somebody never come to someone but there's a you in the void. This is prior to that there. There's no you. There's no void. There's only the nothing. Actually, if you look at Genesis day one, it's primordial chaos, no form, no time or space. Just primarily okay. That's the nothing. And the nothing actually is no thing is that correct. The nothing meaning the place of all creation. That's right. And may I ask you when you really interesting when you say, good, good, good. The divine urge you say is for us to know God, the reason why we're here. And I'm curious because a lot of metaphysicians say, we are all God, and that we are God becoming a form in order for God to know itself. Is there a difference between God knowing itself through each of us as a form as opposed to us coming to have a life to know God. This is very deep question you just asked. Okay, and there is a different. See, if there's you kind of getting to God or I am one. There's still an eye that's one. This is prior to the oneness. Because I this is still existing in, I feel one with all. Does that make sense that I'm saying, here, there's no I to feel one. There's only that. So it's a deeper state, or actually, you know where you stop existing as a separate items. And then from the Inus, then you move into Inus, then you move the time, space and energy where you have certain form, and so forth. So this is prior to that very few people talk about this but since this is my direct experience over the years, getting more and more into that. Okay, that's how I came into the nothing. I actually the title was initially dissolving into nothing. But they thought that was just a little too heavy. But, but that's what we're talking about. Yeah, you just appear. I love that I, I love that I understand that intimately actually. And do you receive guidance spiritual guidance on a daily basis and if so what form does that take for you. That's a really good question. So there's a metaphor. I don't know if you can see the river behind me on the Russian River can you see the river. Yeah, my God it's beautiful. Yeah. So we have the river of life. Okay. And for me, God speak has spoken when I was four years old. I can't tell you why, but I knew I needed to be a doctor. No one in my family never been doctors. Our family was in the house stock. They were bakers and whatever, you know, and when I was eight I began to have mystical experiences seeing people in white mystics and different mystical experiences happened over time, which kind of took me to this The next direct message is whenever you see Choctipotter the wiki of the Kundalini energy from Swami Muktananda. age 33 1975. And I went into nothing for the really first time in their lives. As I came out, a little voice ring up and said, You should learn to eat and live in a way that supports the Kundalini. But I knew it this okay, really pretty new. It's like, okay, I really need to understand the Kundalini I need to understand the best diet. So for the next seven years, because I was in an ashram type setting, both in India and we're actually South Falls bird which is upstate New York but also in an LA as well. I explored the question. And pretty much came up with my book, you know, my first book, a spiritual nutrition in the rainbow diet, which was a 100% vegan plant based food and well for me 99% live food but I said 80% and that's the diet that best supports the Kundalini. Because meat, fish, chicken, dairy are the energy of death. And one of my other, I had to lose my second one so it's a caution that I would say, When you kill an animal you create fear, misery and pain. When you eat it, you take that into you. And that blocks the flow of the divine energy. So I began, obviously moving in that direction. I wasn't born a vegan. That wasn't outside of Chicago, Chicago Stockyards in the 40s. Forget it, whoever heard of a vegan. Okay, what's that. Okay, so once we get past that. That message came out in 1983 I did a 40 day fast. And at the end of that fast. Again, a little voice ring out and said, go to your roots. And let me ask just for edification so when you say a 40 day fast. Do you mean water only do you mean as a breatharian. Do you mean, what did you intake or not. It was a juice. I've done a 21 day water fast as well. But it was a juice. And that's the kind of fast we do because you have enough energy to deliver. So, at the end, a little voice ring out I was kind of leaving my body to tell you the truth, but the voice come out and said no it's not your time get back in your body and go to your roots. So I began studying Judaism and all the, you know, the cabala and so that there's a little voice that gives that direction at particular times in your life. Now that's a little different than the question you asked. The question you asked is when you're meditating twice a day for an hour or so. Okay, you're constantly getting input from the device. You're constantly, but then there's the, let's say the sentences and capital letters, go to your roots, you know, learn to eat the way it supports going to lead. Does that make sense. So the two levels of that. So we want to communicate with the divine every day, we're getting messages, we're getting aligned with the river of life which is right outside of me about pointing to out there. The key is to bring our well in alignment with the divine. Okay, which, which means, normally, for most people, the ego runs consciously. But as you bow, consciousness runs ego. We need the ego. We, we in India would call a hum car what's the ego it's about your physical body I mean if you didn't have your brain and didn't have your body how are you going to get around how can we do the show. Right. It's not inherently bad. It's when you identify with the ego, then that's where we have trouble. Okay, so ego is good but it has to be aligned with consciousness or under consciousness, and then that consciousness is aligned with the river of life, which is the divine design of who we as unique individuals are supposed to be. Most people, everyone's born original, most people die copies. The key is to be original. And that's really what my book into nothing is about is this path back to being an original. And it covers all the different things, you know, I say all I ever learned in life was from meditation playing football and sacred relationships. Now you laugh about the football thing but let me explain my initial spiritual experiences, or what I would be on my limits. And kind of not into the nothing but really began having a static experiences playing football. That may sound ridiculous but that is really what was going on as I would go to these other planes beyond the zone that athletes talk about. You know you're feeling really good this is really mystical. Really going beyond the body. Deep experiences so football was my first initiation into the mystical. That's not far fetched at all to me I understand from the standpoint I've done to Los Angeles Marathons. Okay, there you go. And that was a deeply spiritual experience going way beyond anything I conceived I could possibly do. Certainly the first year and the second year because I like to dream bigger. I decided to best my time. I said, I'm going to carve 30 minutes off of my finish time which is pretty grand for 26.2 miles. And I used meditation I used visualization and of course I was training. And not only did I carve off 30 minutes I carved off over an hour. I finished and went through the finish line and saw the clock as I had in my visualizations but I had taken a full hour off. That was it blew everything out of the water to show me like wow, just take this is a minute example of what's possible. So then what else is possible. Beautiful I love it, because it's accessible to everyone. I mean for me it was football, you're doing the marathon, same principle, you're going beyond your perceived limitation. Yeah.  And this is all in the book folks when you get the book, your path takes you to the Native American tradition.  I don't know if you're allowed to talk about specifics. I don't know what side of the Sundance but we can. I would love you to and how it changed you and how you're even living here today to talk about it. So, when in 1973. I had another vision. Okay, God speaks to us in capital letters sometimes. I was actually taken an S course. The last one with Warner or her. Okay. And I saw three figures. I saw crazy horse, Lakota Sue. I saw Abraham. And I saw Saibaba of surety, not the current Saibaba but he left his body in 1980. Okay, so these figures are speaking to what what's going on. I mean they weren't in my, I mean obviously they were my conscience but they weren't in my conscience. So, crazy horse is what motivated me to do the Sundance. I, we have past lives and I'm sure your audience knows about that. But I probably was the first Native American doctor. He met when he was eight years old, he met crazy horse. Okay. So, without getting into details. Somehow crazy horse is somewhat of a mentor but that was what encouraged me to do the Sundance. I was inspired. I didn't. I didn't grow up thinking I couldn't do Sundance. No, it just happened very quickly. And even when I did the what we are called the eagle dance. And again, as you say, as I explained, you're tied to the tree for four days, not just an hour or two. It was all spontaneous. So a lot of it is the illusion of spontaneous but not really spontaneous, because it's all there. So I'm inspired by crazy horse. Then we look at Saibaba of surety. I must really don't know that he was a God merge being very unique. And actually I spent, later spent a lot of time in his, what we call Mars did people couldn't forgot whether he was a Muslim or a Hindu, very unique guy. But once he actually materialized in front of me. And when I mean materialized there was so many else next to me who saw him also. And he actually gave me what we call shock the pot energetic initiative. Not me over it was like, what? Okay, I was walking with swimming precautionary we both saw him but he focused on me. So there was actually a materialization of him and why I reported because somebody else saw it happen. Okay, so I made these, these are deep connections. Now, Abraham, every boundary crosser right has been part of the story for me but when I went to Israel, I, and we actually have were citizens of Israel. I took an initiation of my own if they didn't have they call Aliah but that's not an initiation stepping up. So I, I went to the negative desert. And somebody people can live for a day and they get without food or they can die. Okay. So, I was, I found a little half cave. And I was there, stayed there for 72 hours about water experiences but sometime during the night. I had a little fire going because there's wildly animals and stuff. Abraham appears and communicates into me, some of his qualities like universal love by the spiritual warriors ship to the great spiritual warrior. His tent was opened in all four directions. He and Sarah had a probably the first really healthy relationship of male female being more equal she was a prophetess. You know, they, they're, that's very unique relationship. Very powerful for the 3000 years ago. Right. 2700 years ago. So he also initiated. So I actually got initiated by in these three great traditions by actual energetic beings who actually materialize. You can, this stuff isn't imagination. It really does happen. You know, fortunately they're witnessing. I also was initiated by Lakshmi. I don't know if you know who Lakshmi is. Indian goddess. Absolutely. The goddess in the concert of Rama. Okay. And I was just meditated in the forest in Petaluma doing fire service. She materializes. And literally merged with me that this section on every level. And so she activated the sacred feminine. We got three men but we have the sacred feminine. And so there was seriously a transformation of Lakshmi initiating me in the actual merging with me into my being. So these figures do, they actually really do materialize. Again, fortunately they're witnesses. So it's not like I'm crazy, right? You know, and so Lakshmi also initiated in the process, which was very, very significant. Activating the sacred feminine. Did you come out with any different qualities after each of these mergings? Were you able to speak differently or understand the matrix of things differently? What were you imbued with by virtue of that happening? So really each one gave a particular spiritual gift. So Lakshmi literally activated the sacred feminine. And without going too far into it, let's just say men and women both have male-female qualities. She activated female qualities in me. You know, literally. Okay. That was the result of that. Where you can feel the subtle uterus. You can feel oxytocin from your nipples. I mean, real, I mean, very, very direct stuff. Okay. That was way beyond my imagination. You know, it's like, what? But that's what I mean. I'm sure they did the same thing, but more, more the spiritual qualities. But at the same time, let's say, he was in God merging state. Different than self-realization. Self-realization is the first step where you're really waking up. God merging was where you're in that sustained state all the time. Self-realization you get. There's a you and you're liberated. But there's a whole spectrum. And I explained that in the book. You know, so in precaution and acknowledge me. He made the point, hey, you're just the beginner. So part of what I got is I'm always studying. Take every time you get to a certain level, you're a beginner again. You're never done. So, some obituary was more at the end of line. So in precaution, we're in the middle part of the spectrum. Okay. Same thing with auction. I've had other feminine initiations. You know, which we're very real. And so that part of me isn't, it isn't like a, you know, a certain being politically correct. It's not like that. It's reality. It's my experience of that active sacred feminine within me, even on a physical level. I'll just share this with you. It's kind of funny. So I think it's funny. So just a few weeks ago, I had blood tests done. So my testosterone is above the outer range, but also as soon as my estrogen. Now, that's not, I've never seen that before. That's a sacred feminine. So what I'm saying is they make a difference. I ask you though, it's my understanding.  Yeah, but not the testosterone. Usually the testosterone goes down, the estrogen goes up. That's not what we're going on. You don't do a thousand push-ups two times a week with a low testosterone. So both testosterone and estrogen are above normal. So that's what I'm trying to explain is that that's the actual initiation, or I'm going to say infusion of the sacred feminine that actually changes your physiology. That's what I'm trying to say. Got it. I'm talking about, you're familiar with oxytocin. Sure. So where do women experience it? It's in sex. Yes. Well, or birth, childbirth, I would imagine. Childbirth, but it's also the experience of physically in. Or yes. Nipples are one place. So what I'm telling you seriously is that after this initiation, there was an increase in oxytocin. I could feel it physically. You see it? Now what you see in men, if the testosterone goes down, the estrogen goes up, they get kind of a belly. And they, they get kind of flabby. I mean, generally speaking. Okay. Unless you're doing things. So that's not what's going on here. But the oxytocin has been active. I can feel it in the places where women use. To you. That's pretty rad. I'm not talking about, I don't need sex to do that. It's just, it's there exactly. Wow. Yum. That's what I'm talking about. That's, that's watch me. Okay. Activities. So is that making sense now? It's a different reality. Yeah. Yeah. And what led to you feeling so. Passionate about curing diabetes. What got you interested? Yeah. Diabetes. What, what was your interest in curing it? Well. In the, in the early 70s. I'd be, we didn't have the word holistic position. Didn't have that word. But as the psychiatrist, I saw that people's mental state was affected by their physical state. I saw that when people hyperprisemic, they were in balance really multiple levels and really also. In the shockers that are associated. Okay. With your physical, your endocrine system. So to help people, I had to heal their hyperprisemic. So I had already been playing. Then I just kind of got interested in diabetes partly cause. A lot of Native Americans have diabetes, like maybe 90%. I don't want to say that, but if you ever heard of Dennis Banks. No, no, not at all. Very famous Native American elder. And Dennis is one of my clients and we became really good friends. He even let me do a sweat block. I mean, he's a. He's a senior, but I, he sat in my sweat, sweat lodge. Cause I, I lead sweat lodges. On the new means. So. Then everywhere done and we did a march across the United States for diabetes healing diabetes for Native Americans. He says everywhere he went was at least 90% of Native Americans. So I was so much interested from the Native American position. Also in India. A huge percentage of Indians have diabetes. My two spiritual teachers have diabetes. So I had kind of an interest in it. Third is it's really simple to heal. If you apply the principle, they say it's incurable. I understand that. That's, it's incurable if you don't know what you're doing. It's very curable if you know what you're doing.  You go on a low carbohydrate part of the life with diet. But you still have to mix your diet, your constitution. Are all unique individuals. That's really important. Some people need more fat.  Everybody needs low carbohydrate. So I naturally had an interest in doing this. And that's how I came to it. I saw that it was tremendously affecting people's mental state. Emotional state. Physical state. And so that's how I got into healing type two diabetes. Okay. We also heal type one. It's all doable. And so that's kind of the message. So I just got into it because the different cultures I was living in, it was a big problem. So I needed to solve it that way. It's not like I ever had diabetes or have an abnormal blood sugar or anything like that. It's totally normal for. The normal optimum 70 to 85 less than a hundred is non diabetic or non prediabetic. Diabetic is a fasting. 26. So. Normal blood sugar like. 85. So it's not me personally. It was like, how do I work with Native American? How do you help the people from India? It's more like that. And then it's a major epidemic. In the United States. People eat too much. Yeah. Yeah. It's so interesting. Yeah. Blood sugar levels are. Huge. So important for health. And I myself, when I was young. I was, I'm very young, like around 21 years old. I was tested. I don't know how the doctor even figured out what was going on with me, but I had that terrible test where you have to drink. Yeah. Something that's sort of like. Six hour glucose tower. That is correct. And it's like drinking Coca-Cola on crack. It's so sweet. You have to fast drink that. And then they take your blood sugar level literally every hour. And then they take your blood sugar level. You know, you already know where I'm headed with this. I definitely had extreme hypoglycemia. I had never heard of it before. And then I had a contend with it for many years. This awareness. Oh, okay. This is what's going on. This is why I'm tired. This is why I'm moody. This is why I have cravings. This is why. So I did a tremendous amount of research and it took years. You know, it was not overnight. Of refining, but I, you know, today I will tell you, and it's been decades, decades and decades. I'm completely healed. I had never had another blood sugar issue. So I feel very heartened. To hear. And of course, let's be honest. I've done a tremendous amount of inner work and healing as well. So the physical. Also follows what is going on. Inside. I'm very hard to hear you say that this is so as well for diabetes, that it can be. Yeah. Those same principles to heal oneself. It's an extension of that, actually. Not that. I think it goes always to diabetes. But you're a little, you're more on the heroic side. Okay. That's what I sense from you. And you have to love yourself enough to want to heal yourself. And part of the healing journey. Is getting people to love themselves enough to want to heal themselves and connect with their soul. So everyone in the three week program. I mean, literally 99% of the people feel, thank you for reconnecting to my soul. Because we have them meditating. We have them going, you know, you know, we have all these things going on. But the key is what you just said. You got to love yourself and if we heal yourself. And that is.  They love yourself. In a good way. Not an ego. Okay. That's the power behind the healing. Right. And I feel strongly that pain is a great motivator. You know, pain is a great red flag that says there's something really off. Yes. In your life. And you can choose to live this way. And we already have an idea of how that's going to turn out. Because it's not fun right now. Or we can use this as a launching pad to completely alter things. Even though we don't know what it's going to be like. We're not sure how we're going to get there. We're not sure how we're going to get there. We're not sure how we're going to get there. We're not sure how we're going to get there. We're not sure how we're going to get there. We're not sure how we're going to get there. We're not sure how we're going to get there. We're not sure how we're going to get there. I, I feel like. You know what I'm saying this euphemistically, because I want people who are listening to you. I hope they will feel inspired, whatever it is, fill in the blank. They're experiencing. That may be offered untoured in their life. That once we open up and say, I don't want to live like this anymore. This isn't good. This isn't acceptable. I don't want to live like this anymore.  And then it's going to be open to us. What it is we need, if we will be open to doing new things and committing to them, but also to surrendering. Yeah. There's one other piece. And what you have. Incidentally, I'm sure it's called that stock. Persistence. Right. You got to keep showing up. And one of my poems, I said, whatever happens. I'm just going to keep showing up. Okay. You need that to make this work. You need that, and that's like, you need that persistence. I'm just gonna keep going. I don't care. And then we get to the other side. Ah, we lost Dr. Cousins, but I'm quite sure that he will be back. And just a minute as he reconnects, he's actually on the Russian river. You can see how gorgeous that was. And I think we heard ducks quacking too. So while we wait for him, just remember that this family therapist, Rabbi Yogi, spiritual mystic, vital at any age, Mama Mia, to look like that at 77, my goodness, and be able to do that many push-ups and pull-ups, I am really inspired. Humanitarian peace ambassador and physician of the soul, just to reiterate, you can find out more about him at Dr. Cousins, C-O-U-S-E-N-S dot com, as well as TreeOfLife dot M-N dot C-O. And again, the book of his, of the many, many books that he has already put out into the world, the one we're talking about right now is his latest book, and that is called Into the Nothing, a Spiritual Autobiography. So it's fine, Dr. Cousins, I just gave them, again, your website and more information on you. And so thanks for popping back in with us. I knew you would. Oh yeah, it's perfect timing. But some other computer went dead, but here we are on my cell phone. So I just appreciate the good work you're doing. You really get it. I could tell that deeply, and that's really, to me, that's really important because our work, I say our work, you and I were talking about is how can we be the most powerful, transformative force we can be on the planet to uplift the consciousness of all humanity? That's how I'm looking at it. And I'm gonna just add that, as far as I can tell, we are going into the Aquarius Age, December 21st. And for the West Coast, it's at 10 a.m., 10, 20 a.m. And we're trying to get as many people to meditate for that transformation because it's about the expansion of consciousness for humanity. So I'll let you know about it, but I again, really appreciate you are a fellow spiritual warrior, I love it. Oh, I am, I am. I resonate so much. Thank you, received. And I started out this conversation by saying Manashtana Halayla Hazar. And so just, you know, if somebody doesn't speak Hebrew, it's something the youngest child, which I was, says all the time it Passover and what it means in English is, why is tonight different than all other nights? So I just wanna take that and say with everything going on right now, Manashtana Halayla Hazar, why is this different? What is your understanding of what's happening? And what is your understanding of how Dr. Cousins can we show up? We're talking about being spiritual warriors. I feel like now more than ever, right? Our souls chose to be here at this time. It's auspicious. We must be brave, very brave souls to choose this. God bless us all. So what can we know about first of all, removing the fear of death and uncertainty and global fears? And then how would you say peacefully can we show up today for ourselves and for humanity in the world? I know it's a huge question, but I would love you to weigh in on this. Sure. The first thing is to have the intention to do that. Without the general intention, it's hard. And then we need the persistence to do it, okay? And why are we doing it? Because it's our time. So this is the way I feel about it. It is our time to uplift humanity. That's why we're talking about the Aquarian Age. It's the human, the water barrier, carrier, right? And water's consciousness. So it's something that's bigger than us. And the question is, as we look at the river out there, is how do we go with that flow of our destiny, the river of our life for all humanity and not just ourself. But for ourselves, it is like, it is our time. This is the Aquarian Age. This is hardcore, I'm gonna say reality, but you have to be a little sensitive to tune in. And those people who are tuned in, and I don't like to lay a responsibility on anyone, but if you're tuned in, it truly is our responsibility to be consciousness-expanding agents to support everyone in this bigger picture. So that's how I see it. That way, do it in our different ways. You have your show, I'm doing my teaching, my book Into the Nothing is specifically about going along and aligning with the will of God. And the will of God at this point is, it's called Wake Up Time for Humanity. It's wonderful. Once every 26,000 years, I mean, it's that big. So that's how I see it. And we're just really lucky to be a little bit more tuned in as a change, transformational of consciousness agents and if God says it, you gotta do it. The door open, you gotta walk through. That's how I look at it. So that's how I see it. I do it my way. I've got the books out. Every six days a week, I'm doing the real teachings. I'm giving Shaktipat six days a week around California time, nine to about 9.30. I'm doing that like 10 minutes Shaktipat meditation and then 10 minutes of teaching. So it's all happening. It's our choice to go with the flow of the river. People who are interested in this and your meditations and connecting with you more, is it all on your website or where would you send them? They go to drcousers.com or treeoflife.mn, mightynetworks.co. Everything is listed. Now I'm actually having a meditation retreat. Well, I don't want to, once a month starts with Shabbat Friday night and then Saturday, sending three Shaktipat meditations a day and then there's yoga. Well, I'm leading yoga. We do different things, but it's a monthly thing. Twice a year, I'm doing spiritual fasting retreats at this point over the internet, which works. Actually, I was surprised it works. And then a special, what we call yana yoga, but it's yoga of the mind to help people learn how to solve their limiting beliefs about themselves. And Dr. Cousins, this is Dare to Dream. So what are you next, Dare to Dream? What are your future dreams and goals? I can't wait to hear this because you have created so much. Well, the truth is in a subtle way, I'm committed to do whatever God tells me to do. So I try not to dream too much. My dream is to be totally aligned with God's will. Now we are actually moving to Israel, okay? But I have programs in 26 nations around the world. And so I'm teaching all over the world. I've taught in 42 different nations. And if I could say my dream, which is my reality, my dreams are my reality, okay? I kind of get that feeling for it. I expect that to continue to expand. I'm also writing my next book called Spiritual Fasting. Okay, so it's not just fasting, it's spiritual. Like you're detoxing on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. But I'm more into the humanitarian and awakening as many people spiritually as possible. So we have our humanitarian programs. We have five nations in Africa. We're in Mexico, we're Argentina, we're in Brazil. We're all over North America working with many of the Native American tribe. We will continue to expand that to increase consciousness but also called feed the people. It's very important to feed the people. So our farms are organic vegan farms in all the five countries are actually feeding those people in the area. Our people are not starving cause they're being fed. Okay, cause we're supporting that economically and so forth and then the get independent, the farms get independent. So I do diabetes prevention and also organic vegan farming around the world and the different nations and getting the word out. And my hope is to be able to reach millions of people in time with the expansion of consciousness. So that's kind of my dream or prayer, so to speak to really be that transformational force for millions of people cause it's our time to wake up. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on the show today and for all the amazing work you're doing on the planet. Yeah, and I wanna bless you for all the good work you're doing. I love your program. I'm happy to come back at any time you want me, okay? But I bless you and I really bless all the listeners that they continue to be inspired by your work, by my work that we really create a transformative consciousness on the planet. Amen. It's our time, it's our time. Okay, Debbie. Thank you so much. And I'm gonna end today's show with a quote, but I wanna preface it by saying this, something I find to be a beautiful synchronicity, which means no accident and divinely ordained is that I choose a quote for every guest having no idea before I'm going to use the quote on the show, where my conversation is going to go. So I think you will see today is just like every other week over the many 13 to 14 years I've been doing the show, it is outstanding. So the quote I chose today is from Sogyal Rinpoche, and it is this, to be a spiritual warrior means to develop a special kind of courage, one that is innately intelligent, gentle and fearless. Spiritual warriors can still be frightened, but even so they are courageous enough to taste suffering, to relate clearly to their fundamental fear and to draw out without evasion the lessons from difficulties. I also support the blessing that Dr. Cousins gave all of you, thank you for supporting the show. Thank you for all of your beautiful comments. I read all of them and they're so meaningful and encouraging. And I ask you to subscribe to Dear to Dream so you can hear this number one weekly transformation conversation. And if you'd like to see us and you're listening on podcasts, go to youtube.com slash debbie dashinger. So you can also be inspired by the beautiful Dr. Cousins. My guest next week is renowned channel, Rebecca Dawson. She's been sharing wisdom from Saint Germain, Kuthami and Serapis Bay for over 20 years. She has much to share and you'll be the first on the frontline to hear her wisdom for all of us.


Coriolis force is an apparent force that accounts for motion on a rotating sphere, such as Earth. We can break the explanation of the Coriolis force into two cases. Zonal flow, which is east-west, and merienal flow, which is north-south. The explanation for both cases relies on conservation of angular momentum. For zonal flow, imagine an air parcel moving to the east with a velocity u. Angular acceleration is just the angular velocity squared times the radius of rotation. If the parcel is moving at a velocity of u relative to Earth's surface, then it has some extra angular momentum, which is u divided by r. To find the total angular acceleration that the moving air parcel has, we need to square the angular momentum of the air parcel, which is omega plus u divided by r, and then multiply it by r. We then subtract the air's acceleration, which is just omega squared r. The difference to good approximation is 2 omega times u, which is just the Coriolis force, and in the case of eastward motion is pointed away from Earth's axis in the northern hemisphere. Thus, the Coriolis force turns the air parcel to the right for zonal flow. If the air parcel moves to the west, then by the same argument, the Coriolis force points towards Earth's rotation axis in the northern hemisphere, which again turns the air parcel to the right. The explanation for the meridional flow is simpler. An air parcel initially has the angular momentum of the Earth at its latitude. If it moves north at the same height, then it has more angular momentum than the Earth below it. And so it goes faster than the Earth and appears to move to the right. If it moves south at the same height, then it has less angular momentum than Earth and appears to slow down relative to Earth and thus appears to move to the right.


Hi, everyone, and welcome to OSSF New York. My name is Tamara Shea MacKerrim. I'm a lead user experience design consultant at Scott Logic. I'm also a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Finos, and I co-lead the event and marketing stream in the EMA region. We also have three of the panelists who are actually part of the committee as well here. Today, we've got a panel on women's career progression within FinTech, and I'm very honored to be sitting with four leaders within this field who will be sharing their career journeys with us today. Our goal is to share experiences and learnings and to provide guidance to everyone in this industry and specifically women in their career progression. In terms of the format, I'm going to introduce the panelists and kick off the conversation. You can submit questions throughout the panel on slido.com using the code OSSF. And midway through, we'll stop to take a few questions and then continue the conversation. So let's get started. Here with me today is, left to right, Kim Prado, who's the CIO at Bank of Montreal Capital Market, Alejandra Velagra, who's the global head of city velocity and digital solutions, Jane Gavronsky, who's the chief technology officer at Finos, the Linux Foundation, and Rita Chatterverdi, who's an executive director in the release and change management at Morgan Stanley. Thank you so much for being here today. I want to start the conversation by talking a bit about the challenges that we face throughout our careers and how these evolve throughout the different stages. Kim, you started your career in finance and then made the move to technology, and now you've been working in FinTech for almost 30 years. How have the challenges you faced throughout different stages of your career? When you say 30 years, that really scares me. In case you guys are curious. Very impressive. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. But anyway, it kind of has. No, you're right. I started my career in the business. I was a mortgage-backed securities trader and CMO structure, and I sold treasuries and agencies, and then became a quant. And from there, I ended up in technology. And it was a complete accident, to be honest. I didn't even know it was happening. And the key here, for me at least, was when you think about technology and how it's evolved with my career alongside of it, we didn't have BAs. We didn't have QA and all these things, all these roles that go around development today.  And I mean, I'd be sitting on the desk just building a tool and deploying it to the traders, and they would trade off of it. It wasn't this big hoopla of all these functions. And so it was really a, when I first started, it was all about build and building solutions quick, fast, get them out the door so we can make money. Then it turned into a buy situation where we weren't building as much anymore. Now there was vendors that were popping up for everything on the planet, and we were buying more software and integrating. And then you have open source, which came into my life. And so the way I like to look at it now is we've got build, we've got buy, and we've got open source. And when I think about our strategy and where we're heading with all of this, it's not one way, right? It's a lot of different players at all times to deliver a solution. But I've been very fortunate over the years to get to see the evolution, especially in the e-trading space. I mean, I don't know about anyone else in the audience that's been in the e-trading space, but to watch the progression of fixed income e-trading, especially, it's like revolutionary what's happened there. And that's another example of like, okay, let's build a pricing model and a spreadsheet and push it out to trade web so we can go live in 1997 or 98, whatever year it was. And now it's like, nobody even sees a ticket, right? So. And I guess, so there's an element as you're doing all that of leading different people and supporting them throughout. Kind of when you started your career, was it more kind of doing all of that work, being more hands-on and kind of transitioning to kind of provide that support to others to succeed in doing that as well? Yeah, very hands-on. I've had a sweat to the oldies every step of the way to get to where I am, yeah. And I guess in terms of career progression, as you progress in your career and manage more people, communication becomes crucial to success. But sometimes we may face certain challenges in terms of being heard. Have you faced a situation where you felt that either your ideas were ignored or undermined and how did you approach that? All day long, right? I mean, how many times are you sitting in a meeting and you have a great idea and the guy next to you doesn't wanna stop talking so you just never comes out or you finally get your turn to say what you're thinking and it doesn't come out right, right? And you just, they just roll their eyes, right? But you have to be tough, you have to be strong and you have to remember that you earned your seat there and your opinion does matter. And just because someone says, oh, that's not a good idea or you shouldn't do that, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It means, okay, you've gotta go back to that person, you've gotta explain your point, you gotta hold your ground and you've gotta actually bring them along with you versus fighting or getting upset. Because, you know, everybody's got a different opinion and that's what makes the world so wonderful, right? We're all different. So, and I guess, you know, the challenges we face may change throughout their career but we also, as people, mature and become more confident in challenging the status quo and, you know, doing what feels authentic to us. Ali, you've been working at Citi for over 20 years as well. Now, how has your approach to overcoming challenges evolved? Well, it's definitely evolved. I think my approach to overcoming challenges when I first started in the industry was to, you know, weep every Sunday night because I had to go to work on Monday morning. So, I believe we've evolved past that. No, you know, I think a story that kind of illustrates the point well for me, I also grew up in the mortgage backed securities industry and on the trading desk at Citi and I noticed when I was probably like an associate VP that pretty much everybody just on Fridays would go golfing. You know, they all just like got up and left to golf and I was there because I didn't know how to golf. Yeah, my dad's South American like got like golf.  Totally foreign to me and I was getting left behind to print everybody's tickets. So, I was like, oh, you guys golf? Well, I make money for you that I don't even see the benefit of in the end and I was like, that's kind of effed up. So, I at one point was like, no, like I'm not doing this anymore. So, I just said that I'd golfed. I was like, yeah, I golf, I'm golfing. And I showed up to golf with clients with a, you know, a pitching wedge, a putter and a seven iron. I don't know, for those of you who golf, maybe I'm getting some nodding in the audience. Like, okay, yeah, that would get you through at least some section of the golf course. And so, you know, I would say that was kind of in the earlier stages of my career, maybe like a moment when I just kind of said enough, I'm different, but I'm not gonna let that difference, you know, sort of be a detriment to my happiness at work. So, I just kind of joined the party. And then maybe a different example and this was a really pivotal point in my career. At this point, I was in the rates business actually. And Freddie Mac, one of the big mortgage agencies was one of the, if not the largest client in the rates market at the time. And the head of the desk was covering them and it was just, it was like not quite working out. And there was a woman who was running their swap book, their duration book. And at some point, someone was like, well, Allie, why don't you just back up the head of the desk and like see if you can make some headway with Freddie. And so, I sort of pinged her, you know, we didn't have sympathy back then. So, we didn't have blue, we didn't have sympathy, so I was picking up Bloomberg, but reached out and was like, you know, why don't, why don't we just get together the two of us? And rather than going out to a steak dinner and having some like heinously expensive bottle of red wine, we ended up getting pedicures together. I know there's a lot of guys in the room, but I'll blame, and maybe you've all had pedicures, but it is really fantastic. And so, she and I, you know, the head of duration trading at Freddie Mac and, you know, May, the two of us sat down, like chatted with one another, really ended up building a relationship over the long run. But I think that was a moment where I used who I am in a sort of a more genuine way to connect with a really important client. And I think she really appreciated it too, because she didn't wanna go any more steak dinners either. And so, I think that we can, you know, to take it beyond my personal experiences, I think that we all connect more effectively when we are true to who we are. Even when that seems like something that might be going a little bit against the grain, what I think the most important piece is just having that genuine connection with whether it's your colleagues or your clients or, you know, whomever it is you're interacting with. I think this is really, I love that idea. I'm getting the bad, I think. Pedicures for everyone. So, this is great. You know, whether it's being the only person that doesn't golf or the only woman in the room, you know, some of the challenges we face in our career stem from being the odd one out. I wanna ask you, Jane here, have you been in a situation where you felt that you're the odd one out, and how do you think our differences can be used to our advantage? Yes, but to be honest, oftentimes, sometimes, oftentimes I would be reminded by someone else that I was the odd one out because I was just too oblivious to notice. I don't know, I was just like so scared and sometimes scared, sometimes nervous about making the right impression, sometimes nervous about doing a good job, that I didn't really think about that I was the only woman in the room, which oftentimes I was. And sometimes other people would say, oh, there was a lot of, you know, bup, bup, bup, men. And I'd be like, oh, right, okay. But I, just speaking of kind of speaking up and having courage, I think I almost had more courage, funny enough, in the very beginning of my career. I was just, I just recalled recently a story where I literally was right out of the training program and my boss convened a group and there were people there with like 20 years of experience and there it was straight out of college and I thought he said something that was technically very silly. And I just spoke up and I said, well, I don't know anything about anything but I can tell you that that's wrong. And then this other guy who was in the room with me who then became one of my best friends, he came up to me afterwards and he said, wow, I can't believe he did that. And that got me more scared than having blurted that out because I had no reference point that that was not good. And then I kind of started getting more nervous about how do you say things and then you were like, oh wait, did that go over well? So I would say my advice is just just blurt it out and you'd be shocked at how many people do that and they don't think about whether it's right or wrong and it turns out to be probably more right than wrong most of the time, so don't be afraid. But the other speaking of being the odd one out, I would say that to your point, it's kind of almost finding the commonalities between not thinking about necessarily the difference but finding something in common. And for me, for example, I love to cook. So everybody loves to eat at the very least but we may come from different cultural backgrounds and one likes this food and the other one likes that food but we both like to cook or eat so you can probably find a food in common or you like pedicures and that's in common. And sometimes you could bridge the differences or you can explore your differences by first finding something in common and it's like oh, tell me more about this cuisine that I know nothing about. Or so I would say sometimes you kind of have to look for the positive to bridge what seems to be polarizing. And it could be, I guess, something on a personal level like with that person or potentially open source as an example, it could be something that brings people together and they can connect on that as well. It's just like banks, they were polarized and now they can work together on something. So that's great. So we can use our differences to our advantage and find our own approach to overcome challenges but very often we don't actually have to do that alone and we can rely on the support of people around us. And here I wanna ask you, Rita, what role does our professional and personal network or even our family play in facilitating our career progression? So I migrated from India to the US about 19 years back, actually. Came to a new country and I'd done MBA finance in India and I had started to work with GE capital in India but after coming here I didn't find any good opportunities in the field of finance which I always wanted to be in. So I decided to change course, I did some training. So speaking of personal support, my husband was a big support at the time to stand behind me and encourage me and provide me financial support to get reeducated, re-skilled and start over in IT. I read this Sheryl Sandberg book a while back, Lean In, and she says one of the most important decisions a woman will ever make is who she gets married to. So that's really, really important. In terms of professional network and support, in the initial few years, you're just trying to get a sense of who you are, what you like, what kind of people you like to be around and how networking and building relationships is often not at anybody's mind. So once I got at Morgan Stanley and I started to get my footing in those years, I was expecting a promotion. So I was having a conversation with my manager on a regular basis about career progression and promotion. The year I was expecting to be put in the process, he told me I wasn't put in the process and the reason he gave me was that I did not have strong sponsors behind me. So I had a good work delivery, et cetera, but I did not have sponsors who could stand behind me and say, yes, she deserves the promotion. So I sat down with one of my mentors and I said, look, this is the feedback I've got, what do I do now? So that's when she explained to me the importance of networking and building relationships at work. She said that, look, you can do all the work you want, but unless you are marketing that work, unless you're marketing your successes and building relationships with people who can vouch for you behind closed doors where these conversations are happening, because believe it or not, the most important conversations about your career, which is your promotion, your pay, et cetera, you will never be in that room. Somebody else will be speaking for you.  So I worked on that since that day and guess what, next year I got promoted, but promotion was not the be and all of it, right? I learned a very important lesson which I would really like for you to take away as well, that building relationships, building a good network, whether it's within your organization or outside, is really important because these are the people you can rely on for advice, as well as for vouching for you, for your promotion and compensation discussions, et cetera. So it's really, really important, plays a big role and we don't often put much value on it, so. Perfect, just to remind everyone, if you want to submit questions, you can submit on slido.com using the code OSSF. If anyone's having technical difficulties accessing that, you can just raise your hands and we can take your question. So I want us to talk a bit here about a particular challenge that we face in our career and that's time management. And this could be in terms of managing time to network and grow professionally, balancing work and life or even taking time for ourselves. And this is a challenge that is not specific to women and anyone can benefit from insight on this. Ali, I want to ask you here, how do you make time to connect with your professional network while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance? Yeah, I wouldn't say that I have achieved a healthy work-life balance, that that is aspirational and it's more like which part of my life is in a state of chaos and catastrophe. One part of my life is always in a state of chaos or catastrophe, despite my best efforts. But I mean, I think what Rita was saying about network is incredibly important. And as much as we're here talking about technology and as much as in my day job, I'm working to in some ways automate people out of processes.  And I do think it is something that you have to prioritize and you have to actively engage and maintain. And I found sort of back to my earlier point about authenticity. I was never, I'm not a big drinker, like I'll drink from time to time, but as the mortgage folks loved to do, going to a bar after work and it's kind of socializing in a bigger group, I just kind of got quiet and I'm not naturally a very quiet person, but it just wasn't my thing. And as I got, I guess, both a little bit more senior and a little bit older, I just kind of said, you know what, this isn't working for me. I know that this is how a lot of people network, but this scene, like I'm uncomfortable. I'm getting awkward. This is not like my best self coming forward. So I'm not building a network or connection very effectively. And so I started just pinging people for coffee. I mean, I have a couple of city colleagues in the audience and I think they'll know that to be true. I'm much more comfortable in a one-on-one setting where I feel like I'm really giving that person my undivided attention and we're actually connecting. And it also means that I need to take a break and get up from my desk and have a breath of fresh air. Well, I'll just do it with Amit instead of doing it by myself. And that gets me home at a reasonable hour to have time for my husband and my son, which is absolutely critically important to me. And at the same time, I'm building or maintaining my network. And I do it every single day. Every single day I have, I could be walking to get lunch or just getting a cup of coffee, but I'm very, very, very committed to building and maintaining that network. That's perfect. It's almost like building something that just can work around your schedule and the things that you do every day anyway, rather than having to go for drinks after work. It doesn't have to be formulaic. You can do it at an event like this. You can also do it in a way that works for you in a way that fits into your schedule. It's more important that you try to figure out what works for you than that you jam around peg into a square hole because that's what everybody else is doing. Amita, how important has maintaining a work-life balance been for you and also how do you make time to upskill and develop your career? So, and he said it right. It's aspirational. There is no such thing as work-life balance. You keep prioritizing from day to day. What's more important today? And you take care of it. You move on. Next day, something else might be more important. So I do release and change management. And back in the day, we used to have releases, like 12 releases a year. And those releases used to be mammoth releases. We used to prepare for those releases weeks in advance. So leading up to the release, the only focus used to be, or release has to be successful. There shouldn't be any issues, et cetera. Now we have releases every single weekend. There are releases during the week as well. So now it's like, okay, yes, the work has to go on. But at the same time, if things are happening in your personal life and your son has an important game, of course, I have two boys. So of course, you make time for those things. And then when there is a big event in the office or work requires more attention, you then pay attention there. It will again come back to how much personal support you have. My husband and I have been the only ones supporting each other here. He's played a big role in making sure that when I needed to focus on work, I was able to do that. And my team in the office, they allowed me the flexibility to be home when I needed to be home and I needed to be with my family. So creating a strong support system, both in your personal life and your work life is really, really important. I'll just go back to something that Ali was saying about networking as well. A lot of times people think that networking can only happen after work and you go out for drinks, et cetera. But in my own experience as well, just to Ali's point, it's not, I've never networked after work. I have always networked during office hours, during the nine to five, going to people, even to senior management. If you go to anybody and say, hey, I need 15 minutes of your time, I want to just introduce myself and give you some updates about what I've been working on, they'll never say no. And that's a very good way to just approach somebody and let a senior management person know who you are and what you're working on. So just wanted to reiterate that point as well. So I guess there's an element of making time to network and grow professionally. But also, in addition to that, there's something important about making sure that we also avoid burnout. And I want to ask Kim here, how do you make time for yourself? I'm really good at it. I have to say that. I'm good at it. It'll be there tomorrow. If I've learned one thing, the work doesn't get up and walk away. And I have this saying that when I had my second kid, once I realized that the laundry would never be done, I was much happier. I became a happier person. And so I've just learned that sometimes things have to wait. And COVID really threw a hitch in the plan on my schedule. I was very regimented just like these women with nine to five networking and all of that. I don't go out after work either. I like to go home and I'm a big fan of the coffee and the lunches and popping in, but with COVID it made it a little harder, right? Especially with all the back-to-back meetings and now people thinking you can work till eight o'clock at night because you're home or you're home. So one of the things I did is I need fresh air and I would just go for walks and I would bring my iPad with me on the walk and do meetings while I was walking. I mean, there were times when I had the iPad on my treadmill as well, like whatever it took to just have a different set of scenery is what I was going for. I literally had a meeting with a woman who used to work at Barclays in the Short Hills Mall. And I said to her, I'm like, I really want to meet you but I can't do it here and it's like 10 below zero so why don't we meet at Short Hills? And we literally had our meeting walking around Short Hills. But you just do what you gotta do but you gotta make time for yourself. I always joke my free time is from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. don't mess with it and I mean it. And you gotta pick a time that's for you and not deviate. So committing to keeping that time in the diary but also accepting a level of imperfection and some of that. You gotta, you're not perfect. No one's perfect. If anybody thinks they're perfect, get over it because you're not perfect. You never will be and no software release will ever be perfect. So if anybody expects that too, you know, you just gotta do your best. And as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and know you're doing your best, that's all you can ask of yourself. So I guess time management is difficult for anyone but for women specifically, there's an additional challenge because of societal expectations on women when it comes to family responsibilities. And here I wanna ask you, Jane, do you think that that has changed and what are some of the conversations and the compromises that need to happen to help us overcome these challenges? It has, I think it has changed. I hope it has when I have three children, they're all grown up. When my husband and I got married, or maybe even before, he kind of like at one point we were talking about work and careers and he kind of took, he kind of did this double take and he said, wait, I'm gonna have a career, you're gonna have a job. And I said, no, no, no, no. You're still married today? I said, we have to have a conversation about this. And then we spent probably like four years talking about it. And I said, well, this is how this is, this is what I'd like to do. And we went from that to when, and it just turned out to be, I think I was lucky when my, our first child was born, he had like very busy work life and mine was okay. And I, when I, and at some point, somebody I asked for it and I got a much bigger job and we sat down and we had a conversation. I said, well, you realize I haven't been on any business trips in like 10 years. Literally, I, I was the one who was at home every night at seven PM, no matter what. And he was the one who was trapped. I said, well, this is gonna change now. Are you okay with that? And it was okay because he was in a startup and he had a lot of much more free time. And I started traveling like crazy and he supported me in that. And it just, we got lucky that it happened and he got over the whole career thing. And then other things happened, like my youngest child, she was the third, no one had time for her. She's like the third ball up in the air. Somebody's gotta catch it. And, and I think since she was like six years old, she started making her own play dates, you know? And she would call on the phone and she'd be like, I'm Sasha. I would like a play date with your child. And the mom would be like, because she, we had a schedule. It was all on an Excel spreadsheet. We had a schedule. She knew what nights she was free. And she would, and the mom would be like, wait, can I talk to your mother? To hire her. Yeah, she's still very organized. And she'd be like, no, she's not home.  And she's loves to tell that story. Things aren't changing though so much. I mean, I've just seen in 20 years, you know, I like to highlight for people like now, my whole team takes parental leave, right? The men take leave, the women take leave, everybody takes leave. And that is creating a certain amount of improved gender equality at home, I think. I think when both parents are like, you know, in the weeds, it definitely helps everyone. Perfect. Just because we're running out of time. Kim, Ali, Jane, and Rita, thank you so much for sharing your journeys with us. I also want to thank everyone on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Finos, and especially my colleague, Devon Beckles, who helped me organize this. We have a couple of questions coming in, but the panelists will be available after this to answer questions. So I want to thank everyone for joining us today. Thanks. Please. Thank you.


his way. We need to get out of the Holy Spirit's way. According to Ephesians 4-30, sometimes the way we live our lives grieves the Holy Spirit. He wants to move in power in our lives, ministries, and church services. He wants to work in our hearts and minds. He wants to make us examples that glorify Jesus. He wants to impart spiritual gifts and power. Sometimes we resist because we're embarrassed by his nature. Sometimes we resist him because we fear the opinions of people. Sometimes we resist him because of sin and compromise. Remember this, you'll never ever regret surrendering to the Holy Spirit. He wants to move in and through you. Will you surrender? Subscribe to learn more about the Holy Spirit.


I don't particularly like reading from a script, but this is such an important issue I've taken the opportunity to write a few things down. So, like most of our people, I'm sick and tired of seeing us drag through the mud in the papers. These headlines aren't helpful and, frankly, aren't a fair reflection of CFA today. 99% of our people, be they volunteers, our career staff, our admin staff, do a terrific job. That is why I am frustrated that the focus is unfairly squared on the handful of people that aren't. People absolutely have a right to feel safe and welcome at work, whether that is at headquarters or on the fire ground. I've been very clear with my expectations for conduct and behaviour. We take the welfare of all our people as a serious priority. We have made significant changes, including new leadership. We've also made a number of significant changes to our structure to put inclusion at the forefront of the organisation and our thinking and our actions. Where we need to take further action, we absolutely will. But, I won't cop our terrific organisation being dragged through the mud. My focus is on the future and on growing our organisation. While I'm not interested in raking over the past, it is worth putting on record that in the past there was much division within the organisation. But we've turned a corner and that has started with strong leadership from the top. No more blame game. Let's get on with our good work in keeping the state safe and CFA, the champion agency it is. Thank you.