THE WANDERLUSTERS MIND PODCAST

Abby Lewtas 14/8/18 Abby Lewtas 14/8/18

The richness of travel, art and culture with Olympian Peter Van Miltenburg.

My very special guest on TWM Podcast today is one of my Coaches mentor and life long friend, Peter Van Miltenburg. Peter is a former Australian sprinter who specialised in the 200 metres. In 1984 he was the Australian 200 metre champion. He also went to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where he competed in the 100/200 metres.

Travelling the world for athletics, art and fun to foster a global perspective, deep compassion, connection and empathy with culture and people.

About Pete

Peter is a life member of the Anglesea SLSC where he still competes and coaches one of Australia's most successful beach sprinting teams. More recently he has been coaching at Xavier College, Kew, Victoria as the Head Coach of Athletics and Cross Country.

Peter has an intense passion for art and recently completed a Masters in Art Therapy and wrote his thesis “An art enquiry into the experience of loneliness and aloneness.”

“When I came home, I had a reality check. How lucky we are here and also in terms of letting go, I realised it is a big world it is a global world and people live their lives according to how their lives, it’s not right or wrong. Some people are multi billionaires and some people have nothing.”

— Peter Van Miltenburg

When coming home...

The differences Pete faced - Comforts of home were very alluring and he was very appreciative. He felt grounded and conscious of the choices he was making back home. Is not as connected to material things.
What had changed for Pete - Felt far more conscious of his life and and developed deep compassion other peoples lives.
Biggest stress - Now struggles with seeing people who struggle with the basics of life.
3 Lessons learned from travel and reverse culture shock

Humanity and how precious it is - we are so connected, no matter where we come from.
Resilience - I can 'fall over' and I have the ability to 'get up.'
Humour - The one thing that connects people - there are some things that make everyone laugh and laughter is a global language.

Advise to himself for returning home - Whatever the experience is, good or bad, wherever you find happiness and love, wherever you provide happiness and love and share happiness and love that, wherever it is, home, or somewhere in some little country then seek that out and find what it is in life that you truely want and if that is where you are, then you are a very lucky person, if not go and find it.

“We really are connected in so many different ways.”

— Peter Van Miltenburg

“Whatever the experience is, good or bad, wherever you find happiness and love, wherever you provide happiness and love and share happiness and love that, wherever it is, home, or somewhere in some little country then seek that out and find what it is in life that you truely want and if that is where you are, then you are a very lucky person, if not go and find it.”

— Peter Van Miltenburg

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Abby Lewtas 11/8/18 Abby Lewtas 11/8/18

Why you should never stop travelling.

The world has so much to offer...

Travel continually teaches us to grow and evolve. I say continually because sometimes we don't learn the lessons the first time round, or we don't fully pick them up and adopt them, or we lose them.

The world has so much to offer so here are 5 reasons why you should never stop travelling.

“Travelling is the only thing you buy that makes your richer.”

The world has so much to offer...

Travel continually teaches us to grow and evolve. I say continually because sometimes we don't learn the lessons the first time round, or we don't fully pick them up and adopt them, or we lose them.

Common lessons and learnings that people say they have gained from travel are to have an open perspective on life, how to be flexible, adaptable and capable of doing things you thought you couldn't do, how to be resourceful and look within rather than outside yourself to get something done and that travel teaches us that life is to be enjoyed and to choose an adventure.

5 reasons to never stop travelling

Travelling is unknown, NEW and thats exciting….There is always a new place to go, new people to meet and new cultures to experience.
Travelling helps you to continually dive into curiosity and playfulness.
Travelling is fun, rich and creates lasting memories.
Travel disrupts the mundane routine
Finally (might sum up the last 4 points) Travelling offers us an opportunity for growth, learnings, lessons and expansion.

Live on Facebook - The Wanderlusters Mind

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Abby Lewtas 7/8/18 Abby Lewtas 7/8/18

Fiona Peters - Following her dreams as a luxury lifestyle photographer.

Fiona is a Luxury Lifestyle Photographer who travels the globe to exotic, tropical island destinations capturing the beauty through her eyes. She is an adventure seeker, ocean lover, yogi and keen surfer. Influenced by her upbringing on a beautiful coastal town of New South Wales, Fiona began surfing at the age of 13. Her interest is in capturing Mother Nature at her best. When she's not riding a wave, you'll find her shooting the many beautiful stories that she feels so privileged to witness.

Fiona dropped everything and moved to Bali to follow her dreams of photography and surfing and the world.

About Fiona

Fiona is a Luxury Lifestyle Photographer who travels the globe to exotic, tropical island destinations capturing the beauty through her eyes. She is an, adventure seeker, ocean lover, yogi and keen surfer. Influenced by her upbringing on a beautiful coastal town of New South Wales, Fiona began surfing at the age of 13. Her interest is in capturing Mother Nature at her best. When she's not riding a wave, you'll find her shooting the many beautiful stories that she feels so privileged to witness.

Her passion started as a teenager, producing her own film and prints in the darkroom during high school and then leading into slide film and digital applications through University. After her studies she traveled the world extensively, exploring the globe to develop her own unique photography style. Traveling gave her the opportunity to engage with people from all walks of life and opened her eyes to amazing architecture, festivals, cultures and much more.

“Its not luck, I’ve created this...I had no life savings. You’ve got to connect with people, connect and be willing to do what it takes but you have to truly beleive in yourself.”

— Fiona Peters

When coming home...

Emotions and differences Fiona faced - things are expensive, how much we consume, Fiona and her partner realised they want to live a minimalistic lifestyle.
What had changed for Fiona - Friends didn't really understand their lives in entrepreneurship.
Biggest stress - Where Fiona moved to is small and she didn't have a big network so she needed to build up her businesses and contacts. Fiona juggled jobs and her business.
How Fiona supported herself - Friends and family helped with finding jobs and places to live until Fiona was able to get set up for herself.
How Fiona used her mindset - Its not about luck its about finding what it is you want and really going for it. You have to truely believe in yourself, connect and network and get yourself out there.
3 Lessons learned from travel and reverse culture shock

Patience and being prepared for anything to happen.
Difference in cultures and to respect and acceptance.
Gratitude for what we have in the western world. Simple things like clean water and everyday things

Advise to herself for returning home - be paitcent with my partner and just putting yourself out there with what you want to do.

“It’s only you who’s stopping yourself.”

— Fiona Peters

Cate Brubaker - An obsession for Germany to leading and helping others live a global life.

Cate is an author, teacher, and part-time nomad based in North Carolina, USA. For over 20 years she has helped all kinds of global souls successfully navigate international and intercultural transitions. She has lived, studied, worked and traveled in 36 countries on four continents and never says no to gelato.

Cate caught the travel bug in a big way where she continually returned to Europe, became independent and finally decided to lead a life helping others with re-entry and repartiation.

About Cate

Cate moved to Germany at 16 to live with a German family and attend a German school for her senior year of high school, then returned for a year of college, then to teach English for a year after college, then for several shorter stints to teach German for a study abroad program and do research.

Cate is also a workshops facilitator, speaker and worked with international schools in Europe, Latin America, and Australia. And, of course, she has traveled a lot including taking career breaks to travel with her husband.

“Going abroad just throw you off kilter in such a good way and it can make you question everything about yourself.”

— Cate Brubaker

When coming home...

Emotions Cate faced - Didn't want to go home and really resisted the transition. Excited to see family and friends, felt very disconnected. Conflicting emotions and Cate didn't know how to be the person she was in Germany back home. Feelings of guilt
Biggest stress - Felt like she had lost her life from abroad and her life from home.
How Cate supported herself - Wrote in her journal, had some amazing people who were wonderful support systems for her. Cate wrote chain letters with her connections abroad (in the 90s before the internet).
How Cate used her mindset - she set out with a new attitude, like she could do anything. She would 'just do it!' A lot of seeds were planted during this time and it took her 20 years to process the experiance.
3 Lessons learned from travel and reverse culture shock

She can do things that are hard and become stronger because of it.
Global is within her and she can be global anywhere.
Realised that she didn't need permission to 'belong'.

Advise to herself for returning home - It's going to be ok...it might take a while to figure out who you want to be but you can figure it all out.

“Global is a mindset, not a location.”

— Cate Brubaker

Are you glorifying your travel memories?

How do you look back on your travel memories? The common thread is that you remember the good times. Most of the time, you forget the rest. The seemingly ‘bad’ and ‘challenging’ times turn into moments of ‘overcoming challenges’ and you look upon these with a positive outlook. On occasions I believe you glorify these memories. Making these memories seem even more amazing than they actually were, attaching the strongest and most amazing emotions to them.

The unrealistic stories and emotions we connect to travel to make it seem 'better' than where our life is at right now!

“Never let your feelings get in the way of seeing things as they truely are.”

How do you look back on your travel memories?

The common thread is that you remember the good times. Most of the time, you forget the rest. The seemingly ‘bad’ and ‘challenging’ times turn into moments of ‘overcoming challenges’ and you look upon these with a positive outlook.

On occasions I believe you glorify these memories. Making these memories seem even more amazing than they actually were, attaching the strongest and most amazing emotions to them.

The reason is this is important to RECOGNISE is that there are some instances, such as Reverse Culture Shock, experiencing Post Travel Blues or your in a time where your unable to travel but you want to...maybe its a stage of life that your in so it can be unhealthy to look at our memories this way. Making us feel worse about our present situation.

Thinking of travels or any situations for that matter, can lead to “glorification” to the point we envy our past.

SO...Perhaps nothing good and nothing bad?I believe that in life you experience emotions 50% what you label ‘positive’ and 50% what you label ‘negative.’

The opposite is also true. You can also dramatise the negativity of a situation. Stating how awful and horrible it was and deep diving into these emotions. Painting this time in a far worse light than it actually was

It's up to you how you see a situation, look at what you gained from it? The challenge that you faced, the wonderful time that you had. Just don't over glorify it and make it something that it wasn't. Especially if your working through a tough stage of your life, it will only make things more challenging for you.

Live on Facebook - The Wanderlusters Mind

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Abby Lewtas 24/7/18 Abby Lewtas 24/7/18

Kate Williams - Inspired by the world to build a thriving wellness business.

Kate left New Zealand at 20 years old to study the world instead of going to university. What she learned was something that school could never teach, travel opened her eyes to a whole new way of seeing life. At 25 years old, Kate found herself (on the Gold Coast) booking a last minute, one way ticket to Melbourne, triggered by what she claims to be a 'quarter life crisis' on the search to find a "good" job. After a year or so in the corporate world, feeling like a square peg in a round hole, Kate set off on an adventure again. Kate has not moved home to New Zealand but knows how it feels to move into many different situations. Now residing in Torquay, VIC, she has found a way to feel at home and has since created a business, Retreat Yourself Box, designed to encourage and inspire people to lead fulfilled lives.

Kate set out to study the world, after continually questioning the status quo she now runs her thriving wellness business 'Retreat Yourself.'

About Kate

At 25 years old, Kate found herself (on the Gold Coast) booking a last minute, one way ticket to Melbourne, triggered by what she claims to be a 'quarter life crisis' on the search to find a "good" job. After a year or so in the corporate world, feeling like a square peg in a round hole, Kate set off on an adventure again.

Kate has not moved home to New Zealand but knows how it feels to move into many different situations. Now residing in Torquay, VIC, she has found a way to feel at home and has since created a business, Retreat Yourself Box, designed to encourage and inspire people to lead fulfilled lives.

“Why do I want to ‘get the house’ and ‘get the car’ and I had to dig a little deeper to overcome the pressure I felt.”

— Kate Williams

When coming home...

Emotions Kate faced - Hard and challenging to fit back in but used this motivation to fuel her next steps and make a change in the world.
Biggest stress - Worried about what she was going to do with herself in her career.
How Kate supported herself - Saw a life coach, spoke with family and took small steps to what she wanted to be doing.
How Kate used her mindset - set small goals to a bigger vision and supported her to dig a little deeper.
3 Lessons learned from travel and reverse culture shock

People are all the same, no matter your background, we all want to be loved we all want to be accepted.
You can do anything you put your mind to.
Ive learned to seek out adventure and excitement and finding adventure in everyday.

Advise to herself for returning home - Don't worry about whats ahead, don't stress about what you think you 'should' be doing. Look inside and take small steps to your bigger goals. Do things that make you feel alive.

“One of the biggest things that travel has taught me is that people all over the world, no matter where you’re from or what your background is or where you live, we’re all the same. We’re all the same on the inside we’re all on the search for the same thing. We all want to be accepted we all want to be loved.”

— Kate Williams