We are in the home state. The final item of business is a member's business debate on double nine seven five in the name of Bob Doris on 75 years of Marie Curie. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I invite members wishing to participate to press the request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I invite Bob Doris to open the debate around seven minutes. It is a privilege to be leading the final debate in Scotland's Parliament of 2023 to congratulate Marie Curie on celebrating her 75th anniversary this year. That we have such a parliamentary debate just before Christmas is fitting. As many of us head off for our Christmas break, the work of Marie Curie will continue undiminished. It will provide dignified, respectful, caring and compassionate palliative and end-of-life care within a hospice setting and people's homes over the entire holiday period. That will not stop. Marie Curie staff and army of volunteers and fundraisers deserve her heartfelt thanks and support for all that they do, not just over the festive period but all year round, but more on that later. Our thanks to Marie Curie reaches back some 75 years since its inception in 1948. Marie Curie has provided palliative and end-of-life care and support to millions of people affected by terminal illness and those dealing with dying, death and importantly, bereavement across the UK. They serve the communities that I represent with hospice at home services across Mary Helen Springburn and beyond, as well as their inspirational hospice at Stolpill. I use the word inspirational quite deliberately. I extend that description to the wider hospice movement, including St Margaret's hospice in Clydebank, who showed great love to my father in the last weeks of his life. Marie Curie is inspirational. She is unflinching in the love, care, compassion and support that she offers those who are approaching end-of-life as well as their families. She has come a long way since the first Marie Curie home opened up in 1952, the Hill of Target and Cooper Fife. Marie Curie initially provided residential care for cancer patients and ran a home nursing service, with clinical advice provided primarily by GPs. Marie Curie's willingness to innovate, change and adapt has been crucial over the years—a theme that I will return to again, Presiding Officer. Marie Curie saw a significant change in the 1980s, moving away from providing long-term nursing care to cancer patients and increasing focus on palliative and end-of-life care in communities and in hospices. They were caring for more patients who were more seriously ill for shorter periods of time. Medical care is led by consultants in palliative medicine and specialised services provided by allied health professionals. Marie Curie hospices also developed a wide range of day services reaching out into their communities. The 2000s witnessed further change in innovation. Marie Curie committed to providing palliative and end-of-life care to all people diagnosed with their terminal illness, irrespective of their diagnosis and, in 2014, removed cancer care from its name to reflect that. There are two hospices in Scotland, the one in my constituency, of course, and the second being in Edinburgh. However, Marie Curie is a truly national service in hospice at home services in one way or another across 31 of Scotland's 32 local authorities. Marie Curie's report from July this year entitled How many people need palliative care demonstrates why we need Marie Curie and others more than ever. We need their expertise, dedication and their innovation. Pawn of care needs are set to increase by more than 25 per cent by 2048. Modelling work suggests that the number of 85-year-olds living in Scotland will increase by 90 per cent by 2048 to 257,000. We should celebrate and welcome that scenario, but we must also address the clear service and funding challenges that will be presented to the Government of all levels and the wider public sector and all delivery partners supporting palliative and end-of-life care. The growing challenge of supporting all those with multimorbidities who will be in need of complex personal-centred care and pain management of end-of-life is daunting, but it should also be cherished. Offering love, ensuring dignity and equality of life to all in such situations is the core business of a humane, caring and compassionate society. I said earlier that I would return to the support required. I welcomed the Scottish Government's recently announced strategy steering group to oversee the development and delivery of a new palliative and end-of-life care strategy and the associated work programmes. We can all agree with the principles that will underpin the new strategy, including equitable access to both general and specialist palliative care services and the development of a fair to inspire ethical commissioning and funding process. Mary Curie and Scotland's network of hospices and hospice at home services will be key partners in delivering those ambitions. They will also be key partners in developing and innovating new models of palliative and end-of-life care that will be required, just as Mary Curie has always done since her inception in 1948. I want to offer some suggestions to support that innovation. The debate on pay pressures and funding gaps within the hospice sector has been well rehearsed and, in the Scottish Parliament in recent months, a £16 million gap has been identified, driven by in large part by the hospice sector trying to keep pace with the very welcome and significant pay awards that the Scottish Government has made to NHS workers. Any new sustainable funding model for hospices must have an inbuilt mechanism by which NHS pay awards in Scotland recognise the clear and obvious knock-on effects on pay pressures within the hospice sector. That should form part of any ethical commissioning and funding process being developed. I would also note that some of the communities that I serve have significant levels of deprivation. Areas of deprivation are more likely to have a higher proportion of people living with multi-marbidities and at an earlier age, lower levels of healthy life expectancy, less financial resource and often more precarious support networks. That must all be taken into account when mapping out who we deliver, what is to be an equitable access to both general and specialist palliative care services that we are all committed to. Perhaps we need to start being explicit in legislation about the right to palliative and end-of-life care. It may focus minds and drive the budget decisions of those tasked with designing provision across Scotland in the future. I would ask the minister to consider opportunities that are presented within the human rights or the national care service bill that will progress through this Parliament to do just that and to work with myself, Marie Curie and others to achieve that end.  As I began with a heartfelt thanks to all those who offer such wonderful palliative and end-of-life care. Of course, I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a very happy new year. Thank you very much, Mr Doris, and I now call Sue Webber to be followed by Jackie Baillie. Miss Webber, around four minutes, please. Yes, thank you, Presiding Officer. It doesn't seem that long ago that I hosted the roundtable on the dying and the margin study from Marie Curie and the University of Glasgow. Indeed, that was back in November, and there was a member's debate around that in the chamber. Then again, a few weeks after that, there was a member's debate entitled, Charitable Hospice Care to Meet the Future Need, which I led here again, and there are very many familiar faces in the chamber this afternoon. I want to thank Bob Doris for bringing the subject of hospices back to the chamber at this perhaps more poignant time of the year when the subject means more to most. I am therefore very delighted to have the opportunity to speak again. Marie Curie has done absolutely excellent work over the past 75 years, and she continues to provide vital services to those who need palliative and end-of-life care. She supports millions of people who are affected by terminal illness and those who are dealing with dying, death and, importantly, bereavement across the UK. Marie Curie is the largest charitable funder of palliative care research in the UK and the largest third sector provider of palliative and end-of-life services in Scotland for adults. There are two Marie Curie hospices in Scotland, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, as Mr Doris stated earlier and, in 2022-23, Marie Curie supported over 8,100 people in Scotland and, in 2022-23, around 8,815 people died in the Lothian region. 90 per cent of them had a palliative care need. Hospices are critical to this. Across the region, 4,060 visits were made to the 672 terminally ill people by Marie Curie hospice care at home teams. In November, I visited the Marie Curie hospice in Fairwell Head, and immediately I entered. There was a calmness and serenity that enveloped me and gave me a sense of wellbeing and care. I was given a tour of the facilities and had the chance to speak to members of staff. Early Marie Curie homes were housed in converted buildings, which were not ideal for the type of care that they delivered. The hospice at Fairwell Head was opened in 1966 and was the second purpose-built building opened by Marie Curie in the UK. It was designed to care for those who were seriously ill with advanced conditions. Over the last year, the Marie Curie hospice in Edinburgh and West Lothian service has supported a total of 1,690 patients through their inpatient, outpatient and, very importantly, community and day therapy services. A lot of people have a preconceived idea of hospice care, but most of Marie Curie's work is done in the community, with the majority of hospice care delivered beyond the hospice buildings and walls, out in people's homes and in the community. It gives people the option to die with their friends and family in their homes supported by teams of experts. Marie Curie has a fast-track team that helps people with tasks such as washing, caring and showering as they get close to the end of their life and, crucially, keeps them out of hospital settings. That team is essential to keep people in the right place and offers family support to relatives. It was disappointing that the budget this week made no mention of the support needed for the hospices to address the £16 million deficit that faces the sector. The rapidly growing need for the palliative care in Scotland means that it is vital that the contribution of hospices will become increasingly important. I hope that that will be considered going forward. In closing, I want to echo the words of Bob Doris when he spoke about Marie Curie's inspirational work across the country, how supportive they are to families and those at the end of life, and how innovative they continue to be. I thank Marie Curie for her 75 years of care and wish her very well in the future. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Let me also start by thanking Bob Doris for securing this debate in what is the final member's business of the year. I would also like to reiterate my thanks to Marie Curie as it celebrates 75 years of palliative care, of research and end-of-life services across the UK. The work that Marie Curie has done and continues to do to support millions of people affected by terminal illness, death and bereavement is absolutely invaluable to our communities and to our healthcare system. If Marie Curie is to have another 75 years of success, then urgent support from government is required. As Bob Doris said, we know that demand for palliative care is set to increase over the next 25 years and by 2040, two thirds of all deaths in Scotland will be in settings like care homes and hospices. The unmet need for palliative care remains significant, with one in four people not able to access support at the end of their life. Inevitably, as costs have increased, there has been a decrease in the amount of activity that Marie Curie and other charitable hospices can offer. As a result of rising inflation and the NHS nurses pay uplift, palliative care providers have been left, as we have heard, with a £16 million deficit. They have had to increase their nurses pay, rightly so, to be in line with the NHS, or they will lose staff. That is entirely linked to action taken by the Scottish Government, yet, disappointingly, there has been no offer of any remedial funding arising from Tuesday's budget. I hope that the minister will reflect on that further. I absolutely agree with Bob Doris. I thank colleagues for signing the motion to allow me to have the debate go ahead, but does Jackie Baillie agree that money is in very short supply and that we need a sustainable funding model for the future that takes all this into account going forward, not just a short-term solution but a long-term strategy? Jackie Baillie. I am happy on this occasion to absolutely agree with Bob Doris, but there is a need for something just now to help them over this hurdle, but to build it in, as he suggested in his own contribution, is entirely correct. Marie Curie and other hospices need more than just warm words of congratulation. They do need that sustainable long-term funding that Bob Doris and I agree on. The service simply cannot be expected to provide care over the coming years as demand rises when current funding arrangements only cover less than 40 per cent of their costs. Palliative care services, we all agree, are important. The people that work in hospices and palliative care are important. The important work is two thirds funded by donations from people, companies and trusts who decide to support the sector. I also want to put on record and agree with Bob Doris again my tribute to St Margaret's Hospice that does help people in my constituency and, of course, chars providing care for children with life-limiting illnesses. However, if the Government truly values Marie Curie and other hospices in Scotland, it needs to support them properly and should ensure, in my view, a minimum of 50 per cent statutory funding for providers. It should also assess the impact of future NHS pay awards on the hospice sector to ensure that funding is provided to allow hospices to match NHS pay awards for their staff going forward. Failure to do so will widen the gap between those who can and cannot gain access to palliative care, putting extra strain on the NHS and costing the taxpayer millions of pounds. Just as every person should be born with the very best start in life, receiving healthcare throughout their life as and when they need it, each and every one of us should have a right to die with dignity and care. The Scottish Government has a duty to prioritise palliative care staff and services in line with the work done in the NHS and social care sector. It must do more to support hospices like Marie Curie that, for the last 75 years, have done so much for the people of Scotland. For that work, they have our heartfelt gratitude. I would like to join my colleagues in congratulating Marie Curie on its 75-year anniversary. I am grateful to Bob Dorris for raising this important milestone for our members' debate. Death is a part of life and it is important that the fairness, equality and dignity that we aim to provide in life are also extended to those approaching death. Marie Curie's work over the past 75 years has made this a reality for many. In their capacity at the front line, Marie Curie has offered crucial insight into the needs and the challenges of those who care for it. I support their calls for more research to better understand the rise and demand that we face. Scotland's population is ageing and at a higher rate in rural and island communities. A disproportionately large amount of future palliative care is likely to be required in those areas. However, research in the BMJ has found that terminally ill patients living in rural and remote areas are at significant risk of being hidden and forgotten. I would like to see further research into the specific challenges that they face. Marie Curie highlighted the four A's—availability, accessibility, accommodation and affordability. Availability of resources from specialist teams and social care workers to equipment and technology is more limited. Accessibility challenges abound. Lack of public transport, poor road conditions, accessible vehicles and long distances. Accomodating the needs of terminally ill people can be more difficult due to a lack of accessible housing. Finally, affordability. Being terminally ill costs an individual between £12,000 to £16,000 a year on average. That is compounded by the rural premium, which puts terminally ill people in rural communities at a much greater risk of poverty. Applying policy designed in and for urban areas to rural settings does not work. Research to better understand how we can overcome those challenges is much needed. Thank you to Marie Curie for all the research that she has done over the years, which has been of an extremely high quality. I was pleased to be able to sponsor the exhibition of the Dying in the Martins report and photographs from Marie Curie and the University of Glasgow. I am sure that you will all agree with me that this was a very powerful piece of work. The loved ones of the participants who came to Parliament were very generous with their time. They spoke to me about their loved ones participating in the exhibition and that this was a legacy. It is up to us to ensure that this legacy is one of change and one of improvement. I call on the Government to support more research like this to ensure that no one is forgotten or left behind and that demand is met. Finally, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Miles Briggs, to be followed by Gordon MacDonald. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I start by paying tribute and thank you, Bob Doris, for bringing this debate to Parliament, the final debate of this session, and for his work chairing the cross-party group on pallative care. It is important that the cross-party working, which takes place in this Parliament on this issue, is recognised. As we look forward to Christmas just around the corner, it is quite telling that, for many families, they will be using the services that our hospice sector provides, and Marie Curie will be at the heart of that, especially for many of my constituents here in Lothian. To put on record our thanks to them for what will be a difficult time but also what must be a really good time for people celebrating Christmas, what might be their last Christmas and the work that the hospice will be doing to make sure that many wishes will be coming true for people this Christmas is incredibly important. Across Scotland, what our hospice sector does day in, day out, 24 hours a day, has to be recognised and understood. That is something that I really want to put on record. My thanks to Marie Curie and our whole hospice sector for what they do. However, we do know that, as this debate has outlined, I associate myself with what has been said by other members so far today, that there is a huge unmet need for pallative care in Scotland. Despite that, our hospices and Marie Curie are trying to provide that and fill that gap. There is that unmet need, with around one in four people not having access to pallative care support that they need at the end of life. As we have heard and Bob Doris's outline, poverty can often be an act as a barrier to accessing pallative care, and that is one of the key challenges that we must address. I was taken by Marie Curie's briefing for this debate when they compared a report finding from 1952, the national survey concerning patients with cancer nursed at home, and a 2022 survey that saw many overlapping problems that we have not resolved. That should be a real demand for all of us to step up to do that. We know that pallative care is increasing, we know that an ageing population will present more challenges for our health service, but that our hospice sector will be there, wanting to help to fill that. We as parliamentarians and the Government especially need to be there to help them. The funding problems that they are facing today and in the future really need to be at the heart of what Government looks at. We see a cross-party consensus on what needs to be a better deal for our hospice sector. That is shaped. Many people will have views and the Government has views on that. However, it is an emergency situation for some hospices who are using their own reserves now, and that needs to change. In the new year, I hope that the Government looks towards a solution. The new year will present opportunities for the pallative care sector, I hope. We have the national care service bill, and I hope that, unlike what we did as a parliament around the integration of health and social care, we will make sure that the hospice sector at the heart of what the national care service bill delivers. That is why I hope that the Government will also look towards a right for pallative care to be enshrined in that. We need to see the problems that that can help to address solved. A person would be able to have a prompt assessment, people wanting specific services developed, and the conversations around death can then take place in a positive conversation with family and friends and that individual at the heart of those decisions. I hope that the Government will very much take from this debate and previous debates that we have had in the chamber, that there is a real cross-party belief and ask of Government to look towards what pallative care means in Scotland in the future. I think that there is a real united opportunity for Parliament to do something that helps to sustain and take forward our pallative sector next year. Can I pay tribute, as others have, to Marie Curie for what they have achieved over the past 75 years? It is remarkable at milestone anniversary, but I know that they are not resting on any laurels. They want to make sure that they are for every family and individual. I also take the opportunity, Deputy Presiding Officer, to wish you, the chamber and those who are watching, a very merry Christmas. Thank you, Mr Biggs. I now call Gordon MacDonald to be followed by Carl Mocken around four minutes, Mr MacDonald. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also thank Bob Doris for bringing this motion to Parliament for debate and to Marie Curie for her 75 years of providing pallative care across Scotland and the UK. The first Marie Curie home in the UK was opened in 1952 at Hill of Tarver in Cooper Fife. Since then, our UK hospice network has grown over the years with nine hospices offering in-patient and out-patient care and a broad range of day therapies to meet the needs of individual patients. As others have said, the two Scottish hospices are in Glasgow and in my constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands at Fair Milehead, which I have visited on many occasions, the last occasion being only two weeks ago where I took part in the Lights to Remember event at the hospice. In the last year, the Marie Curie Edinburgh hospice and the West Lothian care at home team supported between them a total of 1,690 patients through their in-patient out-patient community and day therapy services. I should point out that my wife is a district nurse providing pallative care to patients in West Lothian and works alongside the Marie Curie care at home team who provides support to those individuals. Demand for the service is increasing as Scotland's population is in ageing, with the census highlighting that in Scotland between 2001 and 2021, the over-65s had increased from 16 per cent of the population to 20 per cent, an increase of nearly 267,000 people in that age category. Although compared to previous decades, life expectancy for men and women is increasing, however, the downside is that that also means that those over-65s have more health problems and that the time spent in ill health is also rising. That puts pressure on our health service, including those working on improving end-of-life care. The Marie Curie report on how many people need pallative care provides very basic estimates of the future need, but it does indicate that there will be a significant higher need for pallative care in the future. The report states that the methods used in that report can provide a head count of how many people in the population need pallative care, but they do not indicate what the service implications are for meeting this need, what the gap is between need and the current provision of caring services, or which groups or individuals are most likely to miss out. More research is needed to model population need for different types of services alongside improved data on service access, outcomes and patient and carer experiences. That is a crucial point that the member is making. Will Gordon MacDonald agree with me that my point about the weaker support networks that ties with deprived communities and the more financial vulnerabilities means might need to put more intensive support in those particular areas more mapping need and provision in relation to pallative and end-of-life care? I absolutely agree with that. I will come to that point in two seconds. I therefore welcome the announcement in the report that the Marie Curie will commission research to help to answer the questions of population need for different types of services alongside improved data on services, access, outcomes and patient and carer experiences. Presiding Officer, it is important that we better understand what support people require as they reach the last few months of life. Therefore, I welcome the Scottish Government's creation of a strategy steering group to oversee the development and delivery of a new pallative and end-of-life care strategy. The aim is to ensure that everyone in Scotland receives well-coordinated, timely and high-quality pallative care, care around death and bereavement support based on their needs and preferences, including support for families and carers. The strategy will also aim to understand and respond to financial insecurity, housing, employment and information in accessible formats for everyone requiring end-of-life care in their families. I thank the dedicated staff at Fair Milehead, Marie Curie Hospice, who will be working over Christmas in new year for all that they do to support those people reaching their end-of-life care. I thank Bob Doris for bringing this very important debate to the chamber.  I think that we can all agree that at some point we will all be touched by the death of a loved one, and should that loved one need end-of-life care over a period of time, pallative care, we would all wish that to be provided in the best way possible, with trained and sensitive care staff, passionate, as Bob Doris indicated, who have the knowledge, time and training needed to support both the physical deterioration but also the emotional needs of our loved one and their wider family. Marie Curie, as we have heard from others, has developed since its inception in 1948 to do just that. Can I welcome the work and commitment that Marie Curie makes to working with those at end-of-life, working in our communities nowadays, not just in hospices as we have heard but in people's homes and with our NHS? In my own region south of Scotland, it is served by NHS Ayrshire and Arn, NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, and I know patients from all those health boards and the staff hold the working relationship in really high regard. The report that others have mentioned talked about the visits, and in my own area 59 people in NHS Ayrshire and Arn in 22, 23, 95 in NHS Borders, and more than 4,000 visits in NHS Dumfries and Galloway. Every number above represents a person who may be in pain, be feeling overwhelmed and lonely as they approach those last days of life, and I, like others in the chamber, are thankful that we have this dedicated organisation, Marie Curie, who do their best to provide visits to patients in often very challenging circumstances. I want to raise three issues that have been touched on by others, but just that really struck me about the provision of end-of-life care and the provision of hospice care in 2023, almost into 2024. I think that we all agree that this is valuable work and a service that we want to continue. For that to be a reality, we need to address funding. We have heard statutory funding has not kept pace with hospices across Scotland and the £16 million deficit that we know is there. We need the Scottish Government to make clear what steps it can take to support the funding of hospices. That is linked to my next point, which is about staffing. Hospice staff are trained to the highest level. We have all agreed that. We all know that and need to be seen in a par with NHS colleagues. I will take an intervention from our colleague Paul Sweeney. She will recognise the immense public goodwill for hospice care across Scotland, exemplified by the efforts to rebuild the Marie Curie Hospice in Glasgow, which raised £16 million. Over half of which was from readers of The Evening Times around 10 years ago. Surely that shows the level of public goodwill to support hospices. With increasing demand, that sort of fundraising is simply not sustainable to grow the capacity that we need. It needs the state to intervene. I thank my colleague for that intervention. It is a very well-made point. We have addressed how much our communities and how much Scottish people value hospices. They would do everything that they could to make sure that the funding continued. We have a responsibility in this place as parliamentarians and, of course, the Government to make sure that we do everything that we can to fill that funding gap and have a plan, a sustainable plan, as Bob and others have mentioned. As I was saying, we need to not just value the work of our colleagues and hospices, but also value the pay gap and make sure that we have provision to ensure that the staff do not continue to have this pay gap. We do not want to lose staff being able to move to that sector because it is such an important sector. In my final seconds, I want to just raise the point that I have raised many times in the chamber, which is about the injustice of inequality. Others have raised it, so I am not going to labour the point. However, people in the chamber have mentioned the margins in the dying exhibition and I think that we all know that a picture expresses a thousand words. The richest of us can often afford to stay at home and receive daily care directly in the place that we have lived and prospered. However, for those who have suffered through their life and struggled to make ends meet so often, that option does not exist and they leave their life in the same sense of powerlessness that they have had in other aspects of their life. It is simply not right that that happens. I am going to close on that point. Surely, in a time of need like the end of life, we must be looking to find solutions to provide the support, care and comfort all that is necessary. I thank you for the opportunity to speak in this debate and I too would like to start by paying tribute to Bob Doris for bringing the motion to the chamber today to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Marie Curie. It was great to hear from my colleague Gordon MacDonald because one of my earliest memories of being in MSP was Gordon MacDonald and I meeting at Ainsley Park swimming pool in my constituency to throw our support behind a swimathon to raise money for Marie Curie. I say that first of all to pay tribute to all those who have undertaken fundraising initiatives over those 75 years to support the work of Marie Curie. Also, the reason that I was invited by Marie Curie to be part of that support for that fundraising initiative, along with Gordon MacDonald. Gordon MacDonald talked about the hospice in his constituency and my constituency of Edinburgh Northern and Leith at Lynx Place, our Marie Curie's offices. The reason I wanted to mention that and speak today is to pay tribute to not just those providing palliative care, as others have rightly emphasised, but it is important that we pay tribute to the organisational team at Marie Curie and the policy team. I think back to my time as an MSP and what a significant contribution those policy teams have made towards a range of parliamentary considerations and activities, including this debate today. Particularly for myself, I remember the input from Marie Curie during the process of the passing of the Social Security Act 2018. I can say, along with the input of many other stakeholders, that that is a better piece of legislation because of the input of Marie Curie. Since the passing of that act, the implementation of social security in Scotland has benefited from much advice and ideas and emphasis on certain areas from Marie Curie. As we recognise the huge contribution that Marie Curie has made over its years of existence towards providing palliative care and enhancing palliative care and making the case for palliative care, the policy teams throughout that time and particularly in recent years in terms of the experience that I can advocate for have made a really important difference towards the process of policy-making and law-making. I, too, would like to thank Bob Doris for bringing the motion for this debate and to those in the chamber for their contributions. Mr Doris has been a champion of our palliative care for many years now, as is evident in his role as co-convener of the CPG on palliative care alongside Miles Briggs. Through his tireless work in and out of the chamber to support Marie Curie and other hospice services, I agree with many members that have said that it is poignant to be here today having this debate. It would also be remiss, particularly given my role as the Minister for Women's Health if I did not pay tribute to the woman who made all this possible, Marie Curie herself. Her life was dedicated to science and advancing our knowledge of medical physics. She is an inspiration to me and I know to many women across the world. Like the organisation that bears her name, we have much to thank her for. If you might indulge me, I would like to quote from Marie Curie, Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be misunderstood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less. I think that that is particularly poignant given the subjects that we are talking about today. I congratulate Marie Curie on her achievements over the last 75 years and the staff and volunteers who have pioneered palliative and end-of-life care. Marie Curie has provided invaluable support to people and their families at the most challenging points of their lives, as well as supporting other health and social care services and teams delivering palliative care and end-of-life care. I note Ben Macpherson's point about the importance of their policy team supporting the Social Security Scotland Act and know that they have a lot to engage with with regards to palliative care as well. Many colleagues across the chamber have already reflected how much Marie Curie's services mean to them personally, to their families and to their constituents. That highlights the broad scope and reach of Marie Curie's work and why it is so important. As Carol Mockin says, it is delivered in hospices, in communities and in people's own homes. Bob Doris's motion also highlights the increased need and complexity of palliative care projected by Marie Curie research up to 2040. We have also reflected on that during the motion brought by Sue Webber earlier this month and the debate that we had about the cost of dying. Both discussed in the context of sustainable hospice care to meet future need. As Bob Doris has said, Marie Curie is well placed to help with this challenge. In 2022-23 alone, Marie Curie has delivered care and support to more than 8,000 people across Scotland. It is therefore vital that we learn from the wealth of experience brought by organisations such as Marie Curie to inform our work and support the development of sustainable, high-quality palliative and end-of-life care services. As I have said before, I have made it a priority to meet with or visit a number of hospices, as well as convening the round table event on 5 December with Marie Curie among all the other independent hospices in Scotland and health and social care partnership chief officers. Discussion, as I have said, at that meeting was open and Franken was valued by participants who noted that this was the first time that this dialogue had been opened. They were grateful for the chance to discuss these important issues, even though the financial situation remains very challenging. I recognise the £15.5 million gap. I will strive to help where I can. As health and social care partnerships are responsible for planning and commissioning adult palliative care services, we have been engaging with them to explore solutions and options for longer-term sustainable planning and funding for hospices. At the meeting, colleagues also welcomed our wider work on the development of a new palliative care strategy. There are real opportunities to address the specific issue of commissioning independent hospice care through wider consideration of national and local leadership, responsibility and accountability by the strategy steering group, which was established to oversee the development and delivery of the new strategy. Miles Briggs. Taking this intervention, one of the key issues that we need to look towards was, previously, before health and social care integration, a chief exec's letter provided that certainty and opportunity for our hospice sector to fund the work that it does. Is the minister looking at what that could potentially be reformed as part of the national care service to achieve that sustainable funding that the sector so desperately needs? I know that Miles Briggs' intervention there. The care service does not sit within my remit, but I will discuss that with Ms Todd. I recognise that. The aim is to publish the new strategy for consultation in spring 2024. Marie Curie are key partners in our strategy steering group, along with the Scottish hospice leadership group and CHAS. We have all agreed a shared aim that everyone in Scotland receives well-coordinated timely and high-quality palliative care around death and bereavement support, based on their needs and preferences, including support for families and carers. I very much appreciate Evelyn Tweed's comments regarding rural and island areas, given where I live. I know that Marie Curie nurses operate in my constituency, and we also need to recognise inequalities across Scotland, as was highlighted by Gordon MacDonald. We also have a shared principle that we are committed to equitable and timely access to general palliative care and specialist palliative care services, as is needed by each person of any age living with any illness in all places. As Carol Mockin said, putting the individual at the heart. The key question is how to achieve timely and equitable access. I am keen that we continue to focus our improvements through the development and delivery of the new palliative care strategy. We will build on the research published by Marie Curie and develop a strategy based on evidence, including our wider analysis of current and projected needs, our mapping of governance services and support, underpinned by what matters to people and their families, based on their understanding and experiences of palliative care. It will be important for the strategy steering group members to continue to engage with us, as I know that they are already doing, with the national care service legislation and forthcoming human rights bill. We want people to receive care where they feel most comfortable wherever possible. I apologise for interrupting the minister. I am listening very carefully to what you are saying. Earlier on, the minister mentioned that the national care service bill was Ms Todd's responsibility. Obviously, the human rights bill will be another minister's responsibility, and, Ms Minto, you have a cross-cutting responsibility for palliative end-of-life care. What assurances can we have that there will be a single point of contact for MSPs that wish to progress the matter within Parliament on a cross-party basis to have those representations so that it does not get fragmented as we move forward? Mr Doris makes a very good point. It was the one that I recognised when I was on the back benches about who is the right person to speak to. I will take that away and make sure that we have absolute clarity on who and on which minister is the appropriate one to be contacting. I will start my final sentence again. We want people to receive care where they feel most comfortable wherever possible. For many, but not all, this will be at home, supported by their family, friends and care staff. For some, it will be in a hospice. I would like to conclude by again thanking all those working in Marie Curie for the commitment and dedication that they show each day, often in extremely challenging and upsetting circumstances. I would like to offer my personal thanks for all that they do every single day of the year. If I may conclude with another Marie Curie quote, which I will certainly be considering over the Christmas break, one never notices what has been done, one can only see what remains to be done. On that note, I wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a good new year when it comes. Thank you minister. That concludes the debate. Let me be the last to take the opportunity to wish all those in the chamber and in the gallery and particularly all those with a connection to Marie Curie, a merry Christmas and a happy healthy 2024. With that, I close this meeting.


G'day, welcome to Brutalosophy and a very wet southern part of Western Australia. This is the Pemberton region of the great southern in Western Australia and it's known for wineries and a hardwood forest logging country. Before I start, I want to acknowledge the Bibelman Wadandi people who are the traditional custodians of the lands around here from the greater Nungar Nation. Now in this video, I'm going to compare two iconic service boots, the Weiberg Stichdown service boot and the White's MP service boot. So the premise of this video is a comparison, it's not really a battle, it's a comparison between these two iconic service boots. On my left is the Weiberg Stichdown service boot from Canadian boot making company Weiberg. On my right is the White's MP service boot, this version is called the Sherman. Both are iconic in the sense that they go after the, you know, quite clearly sort of World War II vibe in terms of service boots at the military war. And I'll talk a little bit about that soon. They come from intergenerational companies, White for example started in the 1880s I believe, during the U.S. Civil War and eventually moved from sort of the Eastern States and the U.S. across to the Pacific Northwest and their history across the years has been to make logging boots and other kinds of forestry work boots as well as firefighter boots for those who were parachute into wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and other areas. Weiberg have a similar history. I don't think they're quite as old, they're I think in the fourth generation of ownership and they also come from a history of making work boots and firefighter boots from the 20s and 30s and so on. How have they evolved and how do they compare as service boots and boot makers? Let's take a look at that by looking at each boot in turn. So I'll start with the Weiberg service boot. Now you can say this is the granddaddy of the recent service boot trends, the Americana heritage service boot trend that started in the 2000s and then really caught on in the 2010s when people like Thursday Boots came on with the Captain boot and then quickly followed by Grant Stone and their service boots, Parkhurst and their Allen and Richmond service boots. Even people like Allen Edmonds rebirthed their Higgin Mill service boots. Wolverine thousand mile boots got rebirthed in this trend that was started by the service boot Americana frenzy. And I think you can quite rightly give that credit to Brett Weiberg who in the late 2000s, I think around 2008, he saw the way the Japanese market was going with Red Wing heritage boots and he revived an old Weiberg design from the 1940s when they made Canadian Army boots and he created this Weiberg stitch down service boot. So much so that stitch down service boot has been trademarked by Weiberg. And you can see that this is a fairly iconic service boot, 6 inch or slightly less than 6 inch in height. It has a toe cap although they also come in plain toe models, reasonably generous quarters, a vamp piece and a single piece backstay, very Boondocker style, very World War II style. Block heel, fairly substantial midsole and a really nice grippy outsole. Although they do come in different outsole versions from Weiberg. Now as I said, Weiberg started as a work boot company and when Brett Weiberg revived this design, they obviously decided to turn toward more casual boots and you can look at this construction and just admire all sorts of things from this construction. Firstly, the clicking which is the choice of leather selection in all Weiberg boots is just incredible. You don't see a bad piece of leather anyway. You don't see any kind of grain losing itself other than the normal sort of creasing you see in wear. From the clicking through to the stitching is just refined. I mean the actual precision of that stitching on the quarters, on the backstay, on the toe box is just precise, elegant and absolutely even. The double stitch down on the 270 degrees stitch down, and I'll talk about stitch down in a minute because they're both stitched down boots. It's just so precise. The double stitching, one of which goes through the flared out uppers in the midsole and the other that goes through all the way into the outsole. They just sit alongside each other in perfect parallel lines. The stitch per inch density is perfect. Weiberg have obviously decided to make a tough service boot, capable of being worn in the military in the trenches, but with a really refined way of doing it. So if you take a look at this somewhat less refined, but extremely tough service boot from whites called their MP Sherman. Yeah, you do see that they're not put together as carefully as the Weiberg, but they're put together tough. This is a work boot maker who said, hey, let's make a service boot, but we'll just make it like a normal work boot. We're not going to be too precise about our stitching.  In some of my other whites MPs, the stitch per inch density, is something like four per inch, really big wide hand sewn stitching, though. And this is also a stitch down. I said I'd talk about stitch down. Unlike Goodyear welting where the uppers are turned in and the inside of the uppers are sewn to the insole and then the outside through the welt is sewn to the sole construction through the welt, stitch down construction flares the uppers out and then stitches them directly to the midsole. So in both cases, in this case, you get a double stitch down directly to the midsole. In this case, you get a single stitch down rolled welt. And I'll tell you about the rolled welt. I think whites are the only people who do this. The rolled welt is where they flare the uppers out in a normal stitch down, but what they then do is they get another piece of the same leather as the uppers, in this case, Horween's Chromic Cell. They stitch that to the uppers and then roll it out and then stitch that down. And that's why you get this bubble gummy kind of well, storm-welty kind of look around there. And that's why when you look at the sides, you actually see two layers of uppers leather and then the midsole. Super tough construction, as I've said, a little less elegant, but the ideal service boot. I mean, I think if you looked at that, you'd say, oh, OK, I can see where Thursday captains come from. You can say, all right, I'm pretty sure that's where the genesis of the Parkhurst Richmond boot comes from. And if you look at any other service boot with a captor, you'd go, OK, I think that's where that came from. Quite obviously, a military-style boot made by a good, tough workboot maker. In terms of comfort and sizing, Viberg uses the UK sizing model. So go and have a look at my Viberg review to check out what sizing is in the Viberg boot compared to your US sizing, because they do use UK size numbers. In terms of sizing for the Sherman, this is the MP last, which is a modified Barry last. And it is a slightly strange last. It's actually longer than the size says it is, but it has a sort of cigar-shaped kind of last, so extremely comfortable.  But it's not that you buy them too long. You have the right requisite sort of thumbs width along the front. In terms of comfort, the arch support on these are amazing. They have a leather shank. The entire sort of arch area is built up with layers of leather to sort of build it up into your arch. It's tucked in here, so you kind of cantilever this bit of leather, which pulls your arch up to give you fantastic support. The Viberg, as solidly built, is perhaps not as comfortable under the arch. It doesn't have that push-up of layers of leather pushing you up, although it does have this sort of similar cantilever type of approach to it. The leather is used, in this case, is Horween's natural chrome excel. When it first comes, it's a very light honey brown and it's now obviously become quite a dark brown through just the oils in my hands, through one conditioning with vanishing shoe cream, and through, would you believe it, or not, sun tanning? Because if you walk around in the sun, these actually get darker. This is from CF Stead in England. Charles F. Stead produced this Kulata leather. It is a bovine leather, not horse. Kulata is the piece of the animal where it comes from, not the animal itself, and it's from the hind quarters. Very tough leather compared to this soft, sort of moldable leather. It's quite a tough, very sturdy feeling leather when you put it on. In terms of comfort, I'm not sure I can separate the two. I would perhaps maybe pull out the MP boots being slightly ahead because of that arch support factor. So in summary, not so much a battle of the service boots, but a comparison of these two iconic models. Two of my favorite boots, I think. This is obviously my grail boot, if you follow my videos you know. And this is really, if it's not a grail boot, it's something that you desire once you start collecting boots. So that's it. I hope you like this slightly quirky video. And if you do, click on like, it'll really help me out. And if you're not subscribed, don't forget to click on the subscribe button because YouTube will then bring more of these videos across to you about boot comparisons, boot reviews, and so on. And I have a lot more to come. So click on subscribe and take care and I'll see you in my next video.


We are live. Welcome back to Recovery Monday. Today we are going to talk about the alarming lack of education and information available about the real nature of your anxiety problem. So that's today's topic. This is actually a lesson from chapter one of my book, The Anxious Truth. We're going to go through it for maybe 10 or 12 minutes. We're going to take some comments and questions from the audience and have a nice little chat. So Recovery Monday, episode three. Welcome. I'm going to let's pull the chat up and see what's going on. Hey, special note. If you're watching because you came from Dean's channel from DLC Anxiety on his YouTube or his Facebook, welcome. Dean and I are trying a little technical experiment where he is mirroring this stream because we're going to be doing a lot of cool stuff together with this sort of thing. So yeah, there's that. If you are watching from my Facebook group, thank you, Kathy. I appreciate it. I'm not going to be able to see your name unless you follow that restream link that I post. I'll just see Facebook user. So I'll do my best to go on with the comments. That way I will do the best that I can. I'm going to put the chat overlay up right away so that you guys can see what everybody is saying. And let's get right to it. So I see a few people here ready. We've ready up to 19 or 20 people. Let's get into it. This will stay in the Facebook group on my Facebook page. It will stay in my YouTube. It will be on my IGTV. You can watch it on Dean's YouTube and Dean's IGTV. So we're going to play it. It'll be everywhere. So don't worry about it. You can come back and watch. Excellent. So some guys are showing up. Love it. And let's get into it. So in this book, The Anxious Truth, these Recovery Monday Lessons are all lessons right out of this book. This is chapter one, lesson four, I believe. Let's see. Chapter one, lesson three. It's called Nobody Ever Told You. So we're going to go over it really quick. It is Nobody Ever Told You is a lesson I wrote. This is chapter one of the book is all designed to help you understand that this is not your fault. You're not broken. You're not sick. You're not beyond repair. And let's talk about the alarming lack of information and education about this. So in the book, I talked about the fact that in 2018, when I started writing The Anxious Truth, only two U.S. states, two out of our 50, right? I can't speak for other countries, but two out of 50 U.S. states mandated some sort of mental health education in our schools. Two, only two out of 50. Now, I'm not saying that there is no mental health education, but there were only two states that actually said, you know what, let's say that you have to teach a little bit about mental health. So I feel pretty confident in saying that in the Western world, at least for those of us that have already been through the primary school system, we were not really given a whole lot of information about this. School didn't teach you about anxiety and anxiety disorders. School doesn't teach you about emotional competency and literacy. School doesn't teach you about handling your feelings. You know, for me, I grew up having like health class, which was great, which I learned about like how to brush your teeth and you know, how to use deodorant and all of that stuff. And we didn't really talk too much about mental health, right? So the school system, at least in the West, and my friends in the UK and other Western countries seem to corroborate this, really kind of lacking. We don't really talk about these kind of topics that we're concerned with, how to handle anxiety and fear and big emotions. We don't talk about that in school. So our schools are generally failing us when it comes down to this, right? We get basic, the most basic mental health information, but really not a whole lot. Now, let's talk about other possible sources of information. So who else could teach you this sort of stuff? Well, your family and your friends, like in the book, I called it like your tribe. Like, did your tribe teach you this?  And the answer generally speaking is no, they didn't. But now why is that? They didn't get the information either. So in a way, asking your parents and your friends or your uncles and aunts to teach you about the nature of disordered anxiety and relating to fear and discomfort wouldn't be fair because who taught them, right? So it's not like we're surrounded by role models and older people who have this information are happy to hand it to us. Some of these things are very uncomfortable to talk about in some families and some social circles. You don't talk about emotions. You don't talk about mental health. I know I've done a couple of episodes looking at different segments of the population. I did with Dr. Lisa Cortez, we talked about the Latinx community where you do not talk about mental health and you do not share your emotions and you just have to be strong. So we are in oftentimes dealing with that sort of thing where our tribe, the people who brought us up, the people who were older than us that we maybe looked up to and maybe could have gotten that information, didn't have it themselves or the culture that they were in the time that they were in maybe just didn't support talking about those sort of things. So they weren't too much of a help either, right? Now we get to where else could you find the information and we fast forward sort of into the internet age and the internet shows up and look, I know that the Facebook people and the social media people want to tell you that they changed the world with these sort of things and they clearly have changed the world but did they change it for the better? I don't know about that. Did Google change the world for the better? Yeah, sure it did. Did Facebook? Yeah, to a certain extent. But it's also very lacking. So now you didn't get information about this in your formal education. You likely did not get any information about the true nature of what we're talking about here from your tribe and your social circles and family support circles. So now fast forward to the internet age and you would think, well, it's got to be there, right? So it is.  But it probably took you a while to get to this. So why is that? Because while in my heart, I absolutely know that this is the way I make a joke about it. I steal a line from the Mandalorian and say this is the way. But while I know that science tells us and clinical data tells us that these are the best ways to conceptualize and go after these problems, they are also not the most glamorous. They're not the easiest to teach online. They're not feel good.  That's easy for the internet to do. And if the internet is anything, it's all about easy. So that attracts attention that is sort of easily clickable. That makes us feel good. It strokes our fear.  That's not so user friendly, unfortunately, right? So it's not terribly friendly. It's not warm and fuzzy. It doesn't make people necessarily feel good. People like me are telling you that you're going to have to learn to confront that fear and move through it in more productive ways and build a new relationship with fear. We're not teaching you how to just knock it down and get rid of it. So why in God's green earth, in an internet full of affinity and like algorithms, where things that make you feel good, make you laugh, like make you feel like you're being stroked and coddled, those things naturally rise to the top. And I understand that I totally get that the internet is based on affinity. And it's based on that sort of stuff. Somebody who says, well, you're going to have to really do scary stuff is going to get a little bit buried in that. So I still contend to this day that some of the best information about anxiety and anxiety recovers that you will find on YouTube, this giant community that is YouTube comes from really qualified clinicians, therapists, counselors, people like that, researchers, academicians, professors, that are putting out some tremendous information, but they're shooting on their phone in their office in Wisconsin somewhere, and they get 116 views on their video and no one ever hears of them. Now, sometimes it's because the most qualified people didn't aren't really immersed in the social media world. They're not marketing, they're not promoting, they're not doing that sort of stuff. I mean, some of the folks that I've had on my podcast that you know that I admire so much, people like Sally Winston or Marty C for Dave Carbonell, like these are very prominent people in the field. And you may have read their books like Leading to Know for Sure, or you know, some of the other great books that we talk about, but they're not in the business of social media and promoting, they come from an older school clinician and an academic world where this isn't part of the deal. So the best information about anxiety and anxiety recovery is hard to find. You have to dig for it, you have to have a friend of a friend kind of points you at it.  Admittedly, I know half the people see that and click away instantaneously. So this is why it's hard to find.  So either in the school system, it's not mandated, we have more, we have so much to teach our children back in, you know, when we were kids and even our kids now, we have a lot to get through in the schools. So asking them to talk about this stuff might be a tall order. It was then maybe it is now, I don't know. But in the end, then our family and friends, they don't get the information. So we can't really help each other out if we don't know now. If you're watching me now, now you know. So you could be part of somebody's tribe, and you can start to break this cycle, right?  Okay. But generally speaking, we can't rely on those folks because they're not getting the information either. And then the internet is really going to tell us all about sort of the feel good fuzzy stuff that makes you think that you're recovering. But reading memes all day long is not recovering. Even though Instagram will teach you otherwise, then you've heard me say things like recovery is not found in the Instagram scroll. Recovery is not found in inspirational memes. Recovery is not found in watching videos again and again and again and listening to people. It's not found in people validating your, your fear and your problems. Those are all good things. Yes. Jayde is here with zombie. Excellent zombie giraffes. We'll talk about that, but that might be a new thing. By the way, you and me, we invented that. So, you know, the internet is not really going to go too deep into the nitty gritty that we talk about in general, you're going to get very fluffy advice that's really just more designed to sound good. And I'm not saying it's bad advice, but, you know, like inspirational memes and celebrities that want to talk about mental health, that's great, but it isn't really recovery. And so that's in a nutshell why nobody ever told you. And, you know, chapter one of this book, this book, I'll put it up on the screen, how to get it, just go to my website, is all about trying to help you understand that you're not broken or this isn't your fault. How would you have known? How would you have known? And I think in the book, one of the lines that I wrote was it's literally like being blindfolded, put in a car driven a thousand miles away from your home in the dark and kicked out without a map. Like you did not know where you were going. You did not know what was happening. You did not have a map or directions. You had no instructions and now your job, find your way home. So that's a really tall order. And if you are struggling right now and you are confused and you don't necessarily know what to do and recovery seems so huge and I don't know which way I'm supposed to go with it. And I hear so much different information. And why doesn't anybody talk about this like you do, Drew? That's why. That's why. So if you're confused and feeling a little lost and overwhelmed, look, who would blame you? Again, kicked out of the car, very far from home in the dark, blindfolded without a map. How were you supposed to know? Right? So that's, that was the crux of this lesson, lesson one of the three called nobody ever told you. In the next chapter, when we talk about the lesson next week, so come back next week, we're going to talk about it's called a drift and a sea of bad information. And it starts with first nobody told you, then everybody wanted to tell you. So next week, we're going to talk about when you do start getting information and advice, what that is. And for those of you who have been through oils and crystals and blankets and all kinds of different therapies that didn't work and hypnosis and stuff that was supposed to cure you, come back next week.  I know I will, we usually have fun with that. So let's look at some of the comments. I always love the comments. See who's here will answer some questions. Hi from the UK. Love it. Where is IGTV? That is Instagram TV. That is IGTV. That is like Instagram's video. If you follow me on Instagram, it will be there. Tawny, your book has been a lifesaver. Thank you. Those are very kind words. And I'm super glad that it is helpful to you. That's why I wrote it. So took me about to get here. Angville from Norway into house. I always think I will not stay okay, which is never true, right? So you've always went up okay. And we have to really be careful about how we define okay, the person who said that I'm afraid that I won't be okay. Feeling bad. And this speaks to this topic today, right? So we don't talk about the fact that human beings go through periods of low mood or sadness. And we experience grief and loss and anger and frustration and resentment and happiness and joy and this wide range that is like human life, right? We don't talk about that so much. So and then we're surrounded by information that tells us like, choose happy, we have to, we should be happy, choose happiness, vibrate at the proper frequencies. And honestly, I give this to that because this is about vibrating at any frequency at all. And it leads us to believe that unless we are vibrating properly and manifesting positivity and always being positive, that something is wrong with us. But the reality of it is that somebody needs to teach you that the default condition for a human being is not nirvanic joy, nor is it crushing depression and sadness, it is probably neutral. So when you get to recovered, you get to the point where you just stop thinking about how you feel. So when you feel like, well, I'm never okay, we'll define okay. If you think that okay means you're radiating positivity all the time, you're supposed to be automatically happy, that's going to be super frustrating, really disappointed in an unfair expectation for you to put on yourself and for the rest of the world to put on us. That's not fair. We're capable of being very happy sometimes. Then a lot of times we're capable of just being natural, you know, just neutral. That's okay too. So let's see what else we got here. I'll start to put these up on the screen too. I just so much is going on the screen right now. We should know this like we know our own name. I cannot agree with that more. You guys know I'm a huge Claire Weeks fan. If there is no Claire Weeks, then there is no anxious truth. So I will always acknowledge Dr. Weeks. And she was dead on right. So I'm going to do a podcast episode next week. Tomorrow's episode is about the three seasons of recovery. But next week, we're going to do an episode called Are You Following Principles or Instructions in Recovery? So Dr. Weeks was basically saying you really need to know the principles of recovery, right? So as opposed to just asking for specific instructions on how do I deal with this? How do I deal with that? How do I deal with my stomach? No understand the principles of recovery. And that's what Dr. Weeks was talking about. She was dead on correct. It makes a huge difference. Samuel says that mental health is completely underrated. It is. Although we are getting better at talking about that. I do want to acknowledge that, right? We just had World Mental Health Day. That's a big deal. Everybody comes out and talks about it. It's great. We're starting to talk about it more. It's important. But at the same time, some of what we talk about, we talk about very big mental health issues. And I get that things like depression and suicide. Those are really important things we do have to talk about. And sometimes we forget, you know, that there are other parts of mental health too. It's a big, big, big topic and we don't cover it enough. So let's see here. This is very common. So feeling sadness, I don't know, for very high anxiety, I keep feeling increased anxiety by fearing and googling depression. So that's what I'm talking about. We don't say I think so much of this, so much of this. And look, I completely and utterly will acknowledge and completely respect and validate that in a situation where somebody is being driven by OCD, and I know you've heard people like Kimberly talk about and Jenna Overbaugh, my friends talk about, you know, studies that have actually shown some different electrical activity in people who have OCD. We have to validate that that's true. That's not a choice. Having OCD is not a choice in any way, shape, or form, right? But I also believe very strongly that what's on the screen right here is caused to some extent or we contribute to it when we do not teach things like emotional competency, mental health competency, and the understanding that like we're allowed to be sad sometimes. Then it leads people to believe I cannot experience my own emotions. I should not be sad. I should never be sad because they won't handle it and it will somehow magically become depression, which it doesn't, by the way, sadness and depression are two very different things. So let's see, well, let's go through and try and get down a little more. So let's get kind of ahead of the game here. I always think these are going to be 15 minutes and then there are, you know, that overload today just listening to one of my podcasts. I just finished recording this week's podcast on the three C's courage, competence, confidence that will come out tomorrow. So check that out. Okay, so this is a big deal here. Fear is my biggest enemy right now. Fear of fear. That's huge, right? So welcome to the stream. First of all, and the fact that you can say that, like that's really big that you can say that like I know that I'm afraid of the symptoms and I'm afraid of the fear that is a big step forward because that's understanding, right, which is really good. And that's the stuff that we don't talk about. Like a lot of people like what do you mean? I'm just what am I? I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of driving. No, you're afraid of how you feel when you drive. I'm afraid of going, leaving my house. No, you're afraid of how you feel when you leave your house. So Bo's mom, when you get to that level, that's really good. So huge thumbs up for coming to that realization. Super important. Yeah, Nikki's talking about feel good remedies on the internet. We're going to talk about that next week. It's pretty big deal, right? Let's see here. Gina, I know you want to talk about medication I rarely talk about. I have three podcast episodes on my experience with medication. I tend not to go into medication. I'm sorry. It's a very, very, very personal decision. And it sparks debate.  So I don't, if you want to know where my stand on medication, go to the anxioustruth.com and search for anti-depressant. And you'll see the three episodes I did on that. But I tend not to get into medication talk for that reason. It's weak. We almost can't. It doesn't work out. With the zombie giraffes always makes me laugh. That's an outgrowth of a conversation in the Facebook group, which is great. Laura knows now. Hey, Laura, nice to see you. Let's see here. I was doing the warm stuff fuzzy stuff. Okay, this here we go. Let's see. I was doing the warm fuzzy at first. It was cute, but now I do the hard things and it really helps out more. And this is a good explanation. So Samuel, thank you for sharing that. It's a good explanation as to why this type of information is a little bit buried, right?  And there's that conversation that I have with my buddy Joe Ryan the other day. If you guys don't listen to Joe Ryan's podcast, you should Joe Ryan calm, especially if you have a traumatic background. We're talking about that. So much of popular culture mental health advice is designed to come from the 50,000 foot view, right? So when Oprah talks about it, when Dr. Phil talks about it, when people write books about it, they are writing from this 50,000 foot view, a very broad overview. So Eckhart Tolle has some really solid concepts. I'm not dismissing any of his kind. I know I pick on him, I don't mean to pick on him, but he's just super popular, right? So his concepts are good at a very high level. But who is in the mud with you when you tried to take those 50,000 foot concepts and put them into practice on a minute by minute basis, right? So and I think this is why folks like me start to come into play here and you're a therapist like if you have one. So it's really hard because that information gets sells books and gets clicks and likes and follows. But it doesn't, you have to have somebody who will help you translate it down into the muck and mire when you're actually doing the work. That's why things like choose happiness. Meh. Anthony is pointing out that I look suspiciously gleeful about that next lesson. Yeah, we'll have a good time with that. Every time we talk about anxiety curves, it always turns out to be a funny conversation, right? Okay, I'm put this up for a second. So Bose mom, I need I'm going to address this for just a second. You may have said more. The scary distance symptoms makes doing the hard things seem seem impossible. I'm just going to point at the word seem. And I'm going to point out that scary dizzy sensation has never actually caused you any harm other than frightening you. You're going to have to start from that. So when you say help anyone, you're asking, how can I make this go away or not be afraid of that? What you really have to do is ask, like, well, can I get through this? And the answer is yes, I can. Yes, I can. This has never hurt me or harmed me. It makes me really uncomfortable and afraid. But you can handle that and you can move through that. And then you learn that it is not harmful. It is not dangerous, no matter how dangerous it feels. And then things begin to change. So I see that you're commenting frantically, probably trying to get somebody to tell you how to be saved from that. You do not need to be saved from that. You never have been very important, super important. Like if you take nothing from today, take that because it's important. Let's see. No, no, no, no. Laura says Laura's lovely. So since I didn't know, okay, does it make it that much harder to recover? That's a really good question. That's a really good question. No. And I don't think that it does. And I know that you are living proof of this. Does it make it harder to recover? No, it just delayed it. And sometimes what it does is it adds a wrinkle because I encounter many, many people that I'm privileged to encounter and interact. I is a privileged to interact with you guys the way I get to. And I learn as much from you as hopefully you learn from me. And I do know that many, many people become very emotionally invested in some of that stuff that they read, they get emotionally invested in the people they follow, they get emotionally invested in the books. They want those things to work so badly. And maybe on a spiritual level or a philosophical level or a mindset level, they resonate very strongly with them. And that's fine. But then sometimes there's resistance to like, I don't want to let go of the three principles. Like I don't, I like it. I don't want to let go of, you know, Eckhart Tolle. I don't want to let go of this author or that author. But it's not working for me, but I don't want to let go. Right. So sometimes that happens, but that is doesn't mean that it's harder to recover. It just sometimes means that we have to look and say, well, this thing that I love so much, I can still love so much, but I can maybe put it aside for now while I'm sort of crawling through the dirt and the mud, which I will acknowledge that it feels that way. Sometimes I'm right on the ground doing the nitty gritty hard work. I can maybe put that aside that I can come back to that later and still love it. So sometimes that happens if you've gotten really, really heavily invested in some of those alternative approaches, that's fine. You don't have to abandon them, but maybe you have to add some of this into that and maybe put that aside until later when you're feeling better. You could still love that stuff. Nina, in the UK, if I could concentrate, I would read your book, but for now I love your videos. That's a very common thing that I hear all the time. And it's one of the reasons why I think we, you know, I try to do this sort of stuff. And that's also why the book does well in audiobook too, because I know some people would rather listen than read. I get that. And admittedly, this book is big. There's a lot of words. It's very detailed. So I understand it could be a tough read if you have a hard time concentrating. I get that. Define happy is very good. Happiness would have so many different definitions. I'll tell you very quick, 24 minutes. I'll tell you a very quick story about when I was seeing the one therapist that I saw, which strangely she was not a specialist in anxiety disorders, but that's okay, because she didn't pretend to be. And she knew enough to help me point myself in the right direction and get righted when I needed it. She was lovely. And she taught me that, because I used to think the same thing, like, oops, sorry, didn't mean to put that up. Like I would think I can't, I would get obsessed with the idea that I could not conjure up feelings of joy, but I wasn't defining that well, like the anxiety was twisting and distorting it so much that I would think, but I can't feel joy. I would look at my kids and think, shouldn't I feel some sort of joy? Shouldn't I feel overwhelmed with like emotion and gratitude? I would literally, that would drive me into panic zone when I couldn't do that. I thought something was really wrong. And she had me make a list of things. I've told the story you guys probably heard before. I sat in her office and she said, how'd you get here? So I drove my car here. She goes, tell me two things you like about your car. It was in the middle of winter. And I said, I don't know. The seat has heat. It's nice to have heated seats. And she's like, write that down. So she may make a little list of my phone. And she said, so what happens when you turn the heat on in the car and the seat, right? When it's cold, I said, I don't know, feels good, makes me warm. She goes, there you go, happy. And that was such a light bulb moment for me. And she was like, I don't understand why you think you're supposed to constantly like just bring up instantaneously these feelings of intense joy. Like who taught you that? And I'm like, nobody, I guess. But I was making that decision and that was wrong. So it was really great. She absolutely taught me that like happy has a very wide definition. Sometimes it's really joyful and overwhelming and amazing, like biblical happiness.  That's happy too. So there you go. No, no, no, no, no, no, let's see. If you have a chapter on anxiety causeway, I do not. So I did not write about medication in this book. In my first book, which is called an anxiety story, that one you can get for free. If you want to check it out, I did talk about my experience with antidepressants. But I don't have a lot of benzodiazepine experience. So can't really talk about that. And no, I did not, I did not do that. But honestly, Robin, and I want to say that you and I maybe have had this conversation before, like, I know you want to talk about GABA and glutamate. I'm pretty sure you were the glutamate person. My experience with antidepressant withdrawal is doesn't matter. I'm not invalidating your experience, which you're going through is really difficult. And it's a real physiological thing. But I watched thousands, no joke, thousands of people over a very long period of time on the Paxil Progress website go through antidepressant withdrawal, which isn't benzo withdrawal, but it is a withdrawal process. And I went through it. Then every one of them that maintained a strict focus on GABA and glutamate and receptors and trying to micromanage chemistry got nowhere. Time will fix that your body will know what to do. You cannot address those specific things. That is my advice to you on that. You may take it or you may not. I will respect it either way. Let's see here. It sounds like you. Sounds like you're cobbling. You guys cobbling two different things together. I'm not sure that I followed up. I think you guys, old mate and Bo's mom appear to be communicating. And I love when you guys help each other. That makes me so happy. I'm going to put this up because I see this.  What does that have to do with anything? I'm not going to, I'm not trying to attack anybody here, but that's one of those things that I see on the internet.  Everybody should hydrate themselves. Everybody like every human being walking the planet should make sure that they hydrate themselves every day because it's an important part of being healthy. But you will never, never, never hear me talk about like make sure you stay hydrated other than everybody should do that. So that's one of those things.  I see it even in the accounts sometimes that I follow. Sometimes they echo those messages, like hydration does not have anything to do with this. You can disagree with me if you want, but I will not go down that road. And I hate to see us go down that just drink enough water and eat well and move your body when you can because it's important. Okay. All right. Let's see here. The self-respect part, yes, that I'm 100% on, by the way, old mate. So that is 100%. And that's a big part of recovery too. If there's some underlying issues there, we got to talk about those, right? Super important. So good job. So let's see. Do I address health anxiety? Health anxiety is the same thing except the vector has switched 180 degrees. Again, on my podcast episode on health anxiety, I did one specifically on health anxiety. And also this goes with GAD. We talk about doing exposures as a doing thing with health anxiety. It's about not doing. So not Googling, not checking, not scanning, not doing any of those things, right? That's, that's, that's the health anxiety thing. Did I specifically write about health anxiety in this book? I did not. I would not tell you this is a health anxiety book. I will tell you that the principles of recovery in this book apply just 180 degrees in the other way. And agoraphobic has to do things to recover somebody with health anxiety has to not do things to recover. So hopefully that helps. And Robin, you're welcome. I saw you say thank you. Let's see here. Bear with me. No problem. Let's see here. I'm going to try and get to the bottom here because we're going to hit the 30, 30 minute mark. Let's see. Very similar concepts as Miss Lee. Thank you. I'm going to kind of scroll to the bottom here. It's easy to read something that describes you. So right, goes mom, very good. You're so right. Okay, you're very welcome. I'm sorry. I'm just going to kind of scroll through. Why does it make you feel like you're going to die? Chris, I'll answer that really quickly. This is part of we all know fight or flight, right? So fight or flight is a big deal. The anxiety response is a threat detection and protection response.  So that's kind of the way that that works. Why does it make you feel that way? Because that's what this response is designed to make you feel it needs to push you into evasive and protective and escape action. That's why. So it's just a natural part of that. I'm just going to scroll, man. Really quickly, I'll try to answer this one. How do you get your therapist on the same page? That's an excellent question, Miss Lee. And I try to cover that sometimes. It is a difficult question because you cannot force a therapist to change their paradigm, right, if they will. So you cannot change their paradigm. And I did an episode of the podcast. And again, if you guys are not listening to the podcast, that's I'm just going to flat out say it. It's tremendous resource. If you are not investing the time, that's free, by the way, there's no money involved in listening to a podcast. So there are 177 episodes of that thing. Start to listen to them, like go to the anxious truth.com and hit the little search button and search for the term that you want. There's a really good chance that I have talked about it. So I did an episode called why did my why is my not why did my therapist not talk about it like this? Where I explained that different therapists come from different paradigms, humanistic therapists, Gestalt therapists, psychoanalysts, like there are a ton of different therapy paradigms, if you will. And therapists are human beings too. They mean well, but what resonates really deeply at an emotional level with a therapist might be really good in certain contexts, but it might not be good in our context. So it's hard to get your therapist on the same page. If they are continually taking you through more psychodynamic or even humanistic purely humanistic person centered approaches and things of that nature, it's really hard to get that person to start doing exposures with you. It's really hard to do that. So sometimes it's just not a good fit with the therapist, right? I'm going to kind of scroll to the bottom here. Let's see here. Sorry, guys, I'm just going to try and get to the end because I'm out of time at this point. Okay. So I'll make sense here. I appreciate you guys helping you guys out. It's really good. So in the end that the episode today was recovery Monday episode three is all about nobody ever told you, right? So if you did not know why any of this works and you didn't know why you feel this way and you don't know what to do about it and you're confused and you're getting all kinds of conflicting information, I will leave you with the idea that this is not your fault. Like nobody ever told you this and now but now you've got some sources of information. So hopefully I'm a good source of information. I would like to think I am all the people you see me collaborate with. Those are good sources of information. So follow along with them to start to use this knowledge that why nobody ever told you or why the internet looks the way it does when it comes to mental health. I'm not trying to separate you from your favorite people on the internet by the way, but it would help you to start to understand what is a good source of information and what is not, right? And sometimes I will leave you this one last thought, which I know sometimes people hate when I say, but just because it makes you feel good doesn't necessarily mean it should be a primary source of advice for you. Feeling good is great. I want everybody to feel good and I would love to make everybody feel good if I could, but just because it makes you feel good or soothes your fear at the moment does not make it an excellent source of advice or practical recovery help. So there you go. All right, peeps. Thanks for coming by. I totally appreciate it. I will see you guys in the next one. We're doing these every Monday. There are like 30 something lessons in this book. So we got a better part of the next year mapped out for us. See me again next week at the same time in the same places. We're going to talk about all the crazy anxiety cures that probably didn't work for you. Keep commenting. I'll do my best to work with you and get in there. If I can, I know I'm not so good at YouTube comments, but there you go. And if you do not have, I'm never going to get this right. If you don't have this book, that's how you get it, theanxestreet.com.com recovery guide, but also listen to the podcast, avail yourself of all the free information. I put a lot of time into them. It's a good resource. Go listen, get the book if you don't have it. There's a lot of information. There's a good chance I've answered your question in this book and I'll see you guys next Monday.


Today, on NFTs stars, I have with me Vinayak Yandam, he's the co-founder of Sports Chain. Vinayak, welcome to the show, first of all. And, firstly, you know, Sports Chain announced the first digital sports NFT in India. So if you could just elaborate on that a little bit, what exactly does that mean? What does it involve exactly? So in the NFT world, there is definitely a lot of buzz going on. You have definitely seen a lot of cricketers, footballers across the world launching NFTs to different tech partners, etc. Sometimes on their own itself. But what we seldom see in the NFT market is a combination of a physical memorabilia and a digital NFT. And a physical memorabilia is something that is a lot of value in real life. So essentially it's a matchday memorabilia of a player, commemorating an achievement that they may have achieved during that particular match. So what we've done this time around for the very specifically for the Indian market is that we've seen a lot of digital NFTs out there. For the digital NFT, we actually partnered with Tamil Dalaivas, which is one of our partner teams in the Kabaddi League. And we launched the digital NFT of Surjeet Singh, who is the captain of Tamil Dalaivas. And it's a matchday jersey, the actual jersey won during the match where he achieved his record 300 career tackle points as a cover defender. So it's something to commemorate his achievement. And we actually coupled that with the digital NFT to be provided and shared with the Tamil Dalaiwa fans and Kabaddi fans. And it got sold out within 24 hours of launch. Well, that's really a success. Now, how has blockchain assisted sports teams? It's a very good question. When it comes to sports teams, blockchain has not really fully penetrated this particular market. And that's why we are in business. There are many avenues where blockchain can actually support sports teams. Starting off is the fan engagement aspect where we are currently looking to partner with different teams and providing the same solutions for our partner teams. Where essentially you take an example of what's happening on Twitter, what's happening on Facebook. A lot of times the communication over there is usually one way and you basically don't have any productive way for the fans to influence their teams. So using blockchain technology where we are using smart contracts to launch various team related polls where actual fans of these teams will be able to vote on very non-strategic decisions of these specific teams. For example, changing the color of the jersey for next season. Again, going back to the example of Tamil Dalaiwa where you have a yellow jersey for their away kit and blue jersey for their home kit. There's a lot of fan sentiment that they should be switched around because yellow is a more prominent color in Tamil. So you definitely don't see that happening on a Twitter medium, etc. So this is where fan engagement on blockchain really matters and the blockchain technology provides complete transparency in terms of who has voted and who's not voted. And it makes a lot of sense to kind of have that technology in place to just see the genuine people actually voting for their specific teams. So that's one avenue of it. There are multiple other avenues that are still developing. One of them is obviously the ticketing solution, but we are a bit far away from this at the moment. But definitely this is an area that will develop soon and in time. Okay, and I also read about these two terms. If you could just elaborate on that, White List and airdrop. I mean, for someone hearing it for the first time, it sounds like something out of some action movie or something. What is this about? Sure. So White List is generally a cybersecurity term, but in terms of blockchain and crypto, it essentially means that you get exclusive access. When a project such as our sales force chain will be launching their tokens for people to purchase that token as an investment. So that's what we call as a white list where you get exclusive access to a set number of people. So there's a defined number of people that can only get access. That's what we call as a white list for people to join in, sign up and only a certain amount of people will be getting exclusive access at a very attractive price when we launch that token. So we will be doing this for not just our project, but also all our team partners as well, where a certain amount of fans will be getting exclusive access for these particular fan tokens, which is our main product for our partner teams. Coming to the second point, which is airdrop. Now airdrop is something which is more commonly associated with the iPhone or Apple products where you have the airdrop to drop certain files. But in this case, it's a marketing term which is used again within the blockchain world where you want to promote your particular projects. So you drop or you provide free tokens of your particular project to different people in the sense you want to market that. So you hold contests and people who participate in this contest and airdrop is provided to provide those free tokens as a marketing tool in the blockchain world. Right. Okay. So I mean, pretty clear about what exactly you all are doing and how the blockchain is working and the NFTs in the sporting fraternity. My last question is, you know, in the last one week, in the last few days, there's been a lot of panic as far as cryptocurrency and these tech stocks and any kind of stocks, whatever are concerned. But even cryptocurrency is part of the picture. So why is that happening? What is the reasoning for that according to you? And how, where do we go from here in the road ahead? So it's a very complex situation. And it is triggered by multiple events, starting off with inflation, all the way starting off from the US, where they had a certain amount of money being printed. That has resulted to inflation. It is also, you know, coupled by a lot of events, global events, the Ukraine Russia war that is going on, the supply chain issues happening at China and as well, which has impacted a lot of these things. So all of this has really impacted the tech stocks, and you probably are also well aware that when it comes to tech stocks, the valuation of certain tech stocks are really, really, really sky high. So there was obviously some amount of correction expected to happen all together. So it's a culmination of many things coming together. And that has really brought a big massive headwind for tech stocks across the world. And it's not the likes of Zoom. It's not the likes of, you know, your Facebook, it's even Microsoft for that matter. So all traditionally built companies and new age companies are all getting impacted as well. So that's one aspect of it. And on the crypto side as well, there has been a massive impact. And very recently you may have heard about this term called stable coins, which is one of the most preferred cryptocurrencies in the world. That's what a lot of people used to trade between people, mainly because the value of that particular coin does not fluctuate too much. And once a stable coin has a problem in this case, USD, which is a project from Luna. What has happened is that it's an algorithm which used to be back to USD. And something went wrong with the algorithm and it crashed. And that actually impacted the market very severely. So on the crypto side as well, it's been quite badly impacted. And previously when the inflation, previously when the US economy were, you know, as we call it printing money, a lot of these investment actually gone to, you know, the crypto world as well. And suddenly you pull out all of that cash due to inflation and inflation regulation measures. Again, that also has an impact on crypto. So that's how these two worlds are interlinked and it's a turbulent time, but it's going to be a time where a lot of companies will go down and a lot of companies will go up. You will definitely see good quality companies coming up. How long will it last? I don't know that anybody's call, but it's a very testing time and it's a good time to be an investor because you can definitely cherry pick a lot of your tech stocks as well as good cryptocurrency projects as well. Right.  But yeah, it was nice chatting with you and all the best to sports day and all the best for the future. Thank you so much.