Shows
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastHow Worried Should We Be about Our Safety Online? with Gareth Thomas | S2 Ep13The more time we spend online, the more thoughtful I become about how we approach connecting to this wonderful, virtual world. In the next two episodes, with the help of my guests, I will be exploring what impact an unsafe use of the internet can bring, what we should be aware of and how we could better navigate online to feel safer, more protected and more in control.Today, I start by tackling the challenge of online safety. To help me with this, I am joined by a brilliant speaker and cyber security expert, Gareth Thomas. A...2023-03-0652 min
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastOn a Mindful Ride Managing Living with Cancer with Steve Ryder | S2 Ep12Just a week ago, on the 4th of February, we marked an International World Cancer Day, a global initiative created to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. NHS in the UK currently states - 1 in 2 people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime. But what does it really mean? Why is it becoming even more important to pay attention to your own body? And what could future cancer treatment potentially look like?My guest Steve Ryder is an IT specialist, a husband, and a dad of three. He is...2023-02-111h 12
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning Podcast‘New Year, Same Me’ and Other Goals with Nick Elston | S2 Ep11Nick Elston is one of the leading inspirational speakers on the lived experience of mental health. He is described as a big man with a big heart and a big story, who is incredibly honest. Nick strives to encourage individuals as well as businesses to engage and open up talking about mental health by showing how to harness the same energy that could bring us down into a catalyst that can help us achieve our success.As I return from a longer podcasting break, I am right on time for us to reflect on our New Year’s...2023-01-2552 min
Rough Edges Podcast with Sarah I. FoxCreating Strong Bonds (feat. Ance Vanaga)In this week’s episode, Sarah is joined by special guest, Ance Vanaga. These ladies speak about topics such as: the importance of community during dark times, how to be vulnerable with others, and how to create strong bonds with the people you care about. If you want to stay up to date with Ance, you can follow her on Instagram @conversations.with.my.mind. Tune in for more empowering episodes on Rough Edges! In order to get further updates on this podcast, you can follow on Instagram @rough.edges.podcast. If you have any questions or further suggestions for ho...2022-08-2329 min
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastThe Uncomfortable Truth About How We Waste Our Time with Paul Holbrook | S2 Ep10Paul Holbrook left his corporate career to become a leadership coach and in the process realised that almost everyone he talks to struggles with time. He decided to tackle this challenge by creating a self-leadership programme Diary Detox focusing on healthier distribution of time and published a book ‘What Are You Doing? The uncomfortable truth about how you waste time at work’. Instead of being a CEO, Paul chooses to call himself a Chief Management Rebel. In this episode Paul and I explore the challenge of understanding where our time goes. Paul is a strong believer we all n...2022-08-011h 06
Life After MLMEpisode 114: Ance VanagaOne of the most vulnerable populations of people being sucked into MLM schemes are students, naïve, eager and looking for opportunity everywhere. That's how Ance Vanaga found herself in strange country at the age of 18, going door to door selling books for Southwestern Advantage, maybe the oldest MLM company we've found so far. Over the years of unpacking her experience, Ance started looking into the mental health side of it, and was shocked at what she discovered. So we sat down with each other and had some deep, enlightening and hilarious conversations about MLM's, cults, gaslighting and what w...2022-07-311h 20
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastWhat Sports and Success can Teach us about Mental Health with Dean Allen | S2 Ep9Dean Allen is the kind of lecturer you’d like to have in your university - friendly, down to earth, all for encouraging everyone to use their critical thinking and a genuinely good person. He’s been building his career between the UK and South Africa, but in the past few years his heart and opportunities have grounded him and his family in the Eastern Cape. As a historian and an author of the bestselling book “Empire, War & Cricket” Dean has been giving lectures and speaking extensively on the influence of sports. Coincidentally, I’m publishing this episode on...2022-07-181h 14
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastAm I a Boss Babe or a Cult Member? with Roberta Blevins | S2 Ep8Brace yourself for laughter, disbelief, behind the scenes of making an Amazon Prime documentary and learning why someone most likely is a victim of cult tactics rather than a boss babe, if they have joined a multi-level marketing company.My guest on this episode is the one and only Roberta Blevins! If you are a documentary binge-watcher like myself, you might recognise her from the series of LuLaRich. However, Roberta is much more than that. She is also a mother, a great friend, a hair stylist and an anti-MLM activist, who is not afraid to speak up...2022-06-291h 41
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastThe Voice that Influenced a Nation with Karlis Streips | S2 Ep7A conversation with Karlis Streips has been on my mind since I decided to launch my own podcast. What held me back was finding the right moment and the right topic to speak about. Where does one start with such a living legend as Karlis? He is a journalist, who has influenced many political conversations in Latvia, has been a voice of The Eurovision Song Contest and The Oscars and has participated in many historic events in Latvia, including the restoration of its independence, setting up the Latvian National Television and the very first Baltic Pride. His personal story...2022-06-111h 14
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastDefending Democracy: Ukraine’s Fight of the Century with Maria Kuchapski | S2 Ep6On the day this episode is released it has been 91 days since Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine. For three months Ukraine has been fighting with all it has to remain independent and democratic. The ongoing support it is receiving from all over the world, even from the previously neutral countries, says a lot about the importance of how this ends. As a Latvian, I struggle to stay impartial. This war is too close to home and it has shaken up my own values as well.Along with the physical war there is also an informational...2022-05-251h 18
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastComically Serious Conversation About Suicide Prevention with Frank King | S2 Ep5Mental health is no laughing matter. However, many of us who live with a mental illness, experience some mental health struggles or maybe have a neurodivergent brain will know that sometimes we just want to have a bit of a laugh about what our minds have come up with again.This is exactly what Frank King does. On his journey from a professional comedian to motivational speaker Frank also found out that there’s a reason why suicide runs in his family and that he is living with something called chronic suicidal ideation. In order to support pe...2022-04-2056 min
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastHow to Break the Cycle and Heal Our Mother Wound? with Michaila Tyson | S2 Ep4We know that the way we have been raised will impact the way we are as adults. A less known fact is that, if a mother does not heal her own emotional wounds, there is a high likelihood that her trauma can then be transferred onto her children, especially her daughters.I have invited a maternal narcissistic abuse recovery coach Michaila Tyson to help me explore this sensitive subject. Michaila herself has spent a significant amount of time healing her own mother wound and exploring generational trauma. It has allowed her to arrive at a place where...2022-04-0800 min
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastCan Hypnotherapy and NLP Really Help? with Tony Leake | S2 Ep3Hypnotherapy and NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming, both have mixed reviews. Scientists say there is no scientific proof to back them up, however, practitioners focus on positive effects and bring forward a challenge that many aspects linked to our mind and will are yet to be proven. Psychology as a science is fairly new and still keeps developing. Additionally, even respectable businesses successfully use NLP practices in their coaching and training.I decided to explore why people find hypnotherapy and NLP so beneficial. My guest for this episode is Tony Leake. He holds a Diploma in Advanced...2022-03-2459 min
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastOn Second Chances and Life After Joining ISIS with Tareena Shakil | S2 Ep2If you live in the UK, you probably have come across Tareena Shakil on the news or maybe on her ITV documentary. She was amongst the women groomed by ISIS and she made a decision to take her one-year-old son and travel to Syria to join the Islamic State. What she also did was quickly change her mind and risk her life to return to the UK. She got arrested here, did her time in prison and went through the deradicalisation programme.ISIS and its recruits has been a scary topic for me, something unknown, something I...2022-03-101h 16
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastThe Dark Side of Multi Level Marketing Companies with Nicole Ziege | S2 Ep1I am back with the Season 2 of Conversations with My Mind and starting it in a similar manner as I did the first time around - with a very personal topic. When I was a student, I spent two summers in the United States selling books door to door and at the time I did not even realise my “summer internship” was actually me being a salesperson for a multi level marketing company.I have invited a passionate journalist and an anti-mlm activist Nicole Ziege to speak about how multi level marketing companies (or MLMs) work and how...2022-02-231h 23
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastTrailer - Season 2Conversations with My Mind is returning with a new season from the 23rd of February! This podcast is here to create a space for curious, inclusive and sometimes anxious minds where we can think critically, learn together and grow our empathy towards each other. I, your podcast host Ance Vanaga, am back ready to go even bigger. I want to challenge us to feel a bit uncomfortable and keep our minds open as that’s where we learn and grow the most. I am here to challenge my own boundaries of thinking and I invite you...2022-02-2103 minConversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastTrailer - Season 2Conversations with My Mind is returning with a new season!This podcast is here to create a space for curious, inclusive and sometimes anxious minds where we can think critically, learn together and grow our empathy towards each other. I, your podcast host Ance Vanaga, am back ready to go even bigger. I want to challenge us to feel a bit uncomfortable and keep our minds open as that’s where we learn and grow the most. I am here to challenge my own boundaries of thinking and I invite you to come along with me...2022-02-2003 min
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastWhat We Should Know About Anxiety and Can We Fully Cure It? with Dr Jenn Anders | S1 Ep16This is it - my final episode of Conversations with My Mind Season 1! I want to start by saying the biggest thank you to all of you for your listens, your support, your kind words, encouragement and lovely feedback you have shared with me. I cannot wait to see what the future will bring for this podcast!To make a full circle and finish where the encouragement to start this podcast was born, with my final conversation I chose to go back to my roots and speak about anxiety. What better way to do this than with...2021-12-0135 min
Conversations with My Mind: The Learning PodcastFrom One Small Act of Kindness to Starting a Charity with Leah Chikamba | S1 Ep15My today's guest is Leah Chikamba, founder and CEO of the charity Angels of Hope for Women. Leah’s story is a wonderful example of how something that starts as one small act of kindness can grow into a community joining forces to make the world we live in a better and, most importantly, a more empathetic place. Angels of Hope for Women is providing an outreach service and working with women and girls who have experienced domestic abuse and other harmful practices. Most of these women are asylum seekers and refugees living in accommodated shelter.We sp...2021-11-1741 min