On this episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury Rachael talks about Local Community Projects such as Bells Line of Road Community Meeting set for Wednesday 2nd May, tackling Homelessness in the Hawkesbury which follows on from a meeting with The Mayor Mary Lyons-Buckett, Susan Templeman MP – Federal Member For Macquarie, Salvation Army, Wentworth Housing, Platform Youth Services, Hawkesbury Community Kitchen and other local organisations – believing together we can achieve more.

Also would you like to make some Extra Cash for your local school, sporting group, organisation or yourself with the NSW Government initiative Return and Earn Project, Rachael will share some ideas and where the drop off points are located. She will also catch up with Hypnotherapist and Naturopath Kathryn Hams with some further insight on the questions raised this week from last week’s podcast.

Lots to cover and something for everyone in this Community Noticeboard episode. I Live, Love, Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode.

Rachael: I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and welcome to The Drive Home to Hawkesbury, where I believe every home has a story, and I love sharing those stories on real estate in the Hawkesbury with you. Here we share the best ways to add value to your property, how to avoid the common mistakes people make when buying and selling property, and how to get the maximum return on your investment with a focus on supporting local business. I live, love Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode with you, let’s get started.
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on what time you’re tuning in to The Drive Home to Hawkesbury, today I am joined by Kathryn Hams. How are you this morning, Kathryn? Or this afternoon, now that is has just gone midday?
Kathryn: It is just on midday, I’m good, thank you. It’s a lovely day here in Hawkesbury, isn’t it?
Rachael: It is, isn’t it? And I’m so pleased for the rain we had overnight, I’m just listening to the beautiful magpie in the back of the office here, and I’ve also got a special surprise, which is already saying “Hello” as it is. Hello to everybody watching too, this is Topsy. Say “Hello”, Topsy. Hi, everybody.
She’s the newest member to my family. Topsy is Bruce’s sister so I was very lucky to score her in the family and Bruce is at my feet wanting to get in the picture as well but Topsy is about eight months old I think and her and Bruce and little Louie. We’re all a complete family now so it’s lots of fun and the biggest time wasters, but they’re fantastic. So, Topsy says “hello” to everybody looking and she’s a Scottish Terrier. A little Scottish Terrier and they’re a lot of fun. So, I’ll pop her down so we can get on with the show, but I just wanted to share that with everybody.
So how is everybody today? We got a few people online which is great to see. Hello to everybody. We’ve got a few things today. What Kathryn and I … we’re sort of been thinking about lots of different things over the last couple of months, but how to best put this together for everybody is a bit of a community notice board on Mondays. The Drive Home to Hawkesbury covers all things to do with real estate and answers for questions from buyers to sellers and rentals all those sorts of things, but we also thought there was a little bit of a gap we’ve seen there and we want to just fill that gap with a few other bits and pieces that are coming up.
So, today that’s what we’re gonna cover off in a few different topics and we’ve also had a lot of questions throughout the week so thank you very much for those questions we really appreciate that and Kathryn’s gonna address all those questions in regards to and also smoking. The topic of smoking. I’m gonna cover off on the earn and reuse cycle. Sorry, the return and earn programme and also the homelessness situation that we have in Hawkesbury and also we’re just gonna touch on a couple of other topics including Bells Line of Road and the developments going on with that.
So, without further ado, we’ll get into the programme and we’ll see if you’ve got any questions. If anybody has any questions, feel free to type them in and we’re happy to interact with people as they’re watching and we’ll put those questions up on the board if anybody wants to ask more questions. So, how are you, Kathryn? You’ve had a great weekend. You’re ready for the week ahead. What’s happening?
Kathryn: I’m excited. I finally finished last year and the trophopathy course that I was doing to and finally got the go ahead last week so, I’m full into that now and it’s good because it gives me that ability to do a holistic way of looking at people, so that’s been great. But apart from that, I’ve actually been listening into what’s been happening around the Hawkesbury and you mentioned the Bill’s line of road [inaudible 00:03:51] What’s going on there, actually at the moment.
Rachael: Yeah, thanks for introducing in regards to that. That was actually an interesting topic and the councillor for our local Hawkesbury, I caught up with her at the Windsor business group this week in a meeting and she was actually mentioning that it’s about to be gazetted with the council, so it’s really important that everybody get involved if you wanted to have a say, I suppose. It’s like the bridge for Windsor and I don’t have an opinion one way or the other. This is not an opinionated show, it’s just a matter of getting the information out to people. However, if you want to have a say and you want to hear what’s going on, on the Bill’s line of road, there’s been lots of talk of tunnels and taking farms off people and taking main roads and taking properties on the side of Bell’s Line of Road, but it looks like it’s getting close to be in the word of the local council.
So, the reason meeting on next week, thank you for bringing it up, Kathryn, that’s on Wednesday, the second of May at 6:00 PM and that’s gonna be at the Charlie Pavilion. The Charlie Pavilion at the race course. So, if anybody’s got any questions in regards to that it’s probably a good contact from the Windsor Business Group. They’ve also got further details on that or contact the local council in regards to that meeting that’s coming up, but really good opportunity just to sit and listen and see what, I guess is projected. What they’re thinking, what programmes are in place, there’s a number of options for the roads and different ways it can be done and I guess that’s what the meetings all about is to find out about it and see what the best way forward is for everybody.
So, do get involved. I will probably be there as well. A number of other people and it’s gonna be a busy night, but lot’s of fun to hear all of the progress that they’ve got going on there.
Kathryn: There’s actually a lot of those going around in the community, those type of meetings for the local people to be actually getting involved in and even though we’ve got such a great, vast way of getting it out into media these days with social media and how we can get it out to everyone, I still inevitably hear of people that do miss it. So, it’s great that we’re actually putting it out there, , so it’s another way people can remember to get to these meetings and it’s important for them being living in the Hawkesbury to have their say of what’s going on or to know even.
Rachael: Exactly.
Kathryn: So, yeah why not do it.
Rachael: No, I think it is and equally if it’s any listeners or anybody that wanted to put a community event forward or business that wanted to be promoted, that’s what the Drive Home to Hawkesbury is all about. I’m all about community. I know Kathryn is as well and it’s just a matter of giving back to the great community that we live in, so Maggie’s saying hello to everybody as well. I think the three of them are anxious to be able to play in the backyard. Anyway, so I think it’s a really great way to do that and great community board, so definitely want to look into.
Kathryn: So, it has the recycling. What’s working with that, talking about the community and giving back? How are they doing that? You put up with of the recycling during the week?
Rachael: Yeah, [Justin Murphy 00:06:56], he’s the waste education manager for Hawkesbury City Council and they actually have embraced a programme with the new South Whales government and it was originally done, interestingly enough, the first recycle and earn programme was back in 1971 back in Oregon. Other country, but it’s good to learn from others that are doing things well and it’s called the return and earn scheme and basically what there is, there’s these collection points in and around the Hawkesbury area, including some local businesses that you can drop off recycling products. Now, some of the … it’s quite strict as to what it is, but some of the drop off points they’ve got is the Windsor Middle Recycling.
That’s a really good spot to go to. [inaudible 00:07:43]News agency, the Windsor news agency’s part of it. The Vineyard United, there’s also, that’s the service station at Vineyard, there’s also the one at Australian Pub or the Australian Hotel, I should say. Food Works at South Windsor and the [Black Top 00:08:00] Tavern’s coming on board as well. The [Royal Cafe 00:08:05] at Richmond’s and a friendly grocer at [Bosodia 00:08:08] and as I say, the Windsor Middle Recycling, he’s got an interesting way of doing it. It’s probably the most efficient in this point, even though it’s great to have other collection points, it’s great depending on what amount you have.
if you have a large amount in bulk, the Windsor Middle Recycling is probably good to go to because he can do it in bulk fairly quickly, whereas what you have to do is you have to go back to these recycling points with your recycling goods. So lets say for example a can that’s a particular size that hasn’t been crushed. That’s really important. You can’t have the can that’s crushed because they don’t accept those and they do get rejected.
Kathryn: That’s amazing.
Rachael: Yeah.
Kathryn: And a lot of people would get used to crushing them in the old days. We used to always crush everything to get it in the bag and take it off to the recyclers, but that’s not the game now.
Rachael: No, exactly and the other thing, too, is what do we all do when we have a drink? You wanna squash that can, you wanna [inaudible 00:08:56] and recycle it but I believe that if you have crushed the can and you’re creating more space to recycle other things, Lion’s Club will also take those crushed cans so don’t worry if you’ve made that decision to crush the can. That’s okay either way you win a prize, but you’re helping the local businesses as well as the local environment because it’s reducing the amount of litter that people are putting out there. I think what council we’re talking about was also reducing it by, let me just check the figures it was reducing it by 14%. They’re hoping by March from last year.
They calculated to this year. They looked at a 14% reduction in litter so I think that, that’s a positive effect on the environment but also we all wanna help out and try and do our bit for the community and so forth. Also, the money that you can gain from recycling these items.
Kathryn: Pocket money.
Rachael: That’s right, it’s pocket money for the kids. I’ve seen mom’s and dad’s out there on the weekend with their kids and encouraging them to collect those cans and so forth and I think it’s positive. The things you can’t recycle is things like milk bottles or wine bottles so there’s a bit of a lit I’ve got of which I will put out on the website for people so they’ve got a link there, but basically what it is, it talks about what you can use and what you can’t use in the recycling plant, but equally you’re still recycling at home, you still have the yellow bin at home, but when you go to these recycling points you’ve got the cans that you can out in there.
They don’t accept the plain milk, flavoured milk, case of water, glass containers of wines and spirits, sashay’s for wine no containers for cordials or concentrated vegetable and fruit juice or registered health tonics and I think that’s probably because everybody’s recycling those at home. That they’re rewarding people for recycling the other items. There is a website that you can go to. It’s api.newsouthbottles.gov.iu so that will give you a complete list of the returnandearn.org.iu so they’ve got a handy website to have a look at.
What you essentially do is you have to on your iPhone download an app called Tomra so you can go to the Tomra app. I’ve downloaded the app as well, and basically you put your email address and a few contact. There’s a bit of a password in there so that’s protected for your own use and then you go in and start recycling and earning some money, but not giving just money, they’ll give you … Woolworths has come on board apparently and they’re actually suggesting that, well they do actually give you a voucher or there’s a PayPal where you can put funds directly into your account or you can donate it to a charity if you wanted to.
Equally, you are supporting the local business that are having these vending machines there, because it gives three and a half cents per recycled item so that’s handy for them.
Kathryn: Wow.
Rachael: That will help them pay their rent or what have you.
Kathryn: Encourages other businesses to get on board, too, doesn’t it ? To get involved in the community and doing that recycling that’s getting out there and the 40% that’s quite a large amount, really, when you look at it in percentages to other things that have gone and changed.
Rachael: Absolutely and you’re talking tonnes of waste that is reduced over the time so I think that’s a really important point and it’s been one that’s challenging over the years and for many different countries, but I think if we can all work together to do that and as I say, I’m not an expert in this and by all means, I’ve heard this from the meetings that I’ve attended and I’m just sharing it as a community announcement all in our responsibility with the statistics there, but I certainly will put the documents that I have up on the site for people to have a look through and if you’ve got any questions in regards to that.
Kathryn: That’s good. That’s good because I really do believe that we hear these things on the TV, but no one realises that there is local places that actually … where they can do it and a lot of the time people will hear it and even complain to the point of saying well that’s great, but where do we go? You’ve actually brought it to the notice that there is places like Middle Recycle and things like that and the most businesses get involved, the more opportunity to make it easy for people to actually recycle.
Rachael: Absolutely.
Kathryn: So the hard part comes out, you know?
Rachael: And I have to admit to it’s really hard with some of those sites, too, because they have had some challenges with the programme and I suppose we all need to work with them in regards to that. A couple of points that came up was that if there are cans and bottles that are rejected because they’re not the right size or they’re crushed instead being entire, sometimes there’s been about rubbish being left on site. So, what they’re essentially doing here is they’re going to mitigate against that by having the vendor that’s there so whether it’s Clean Away or Tom Ross Services they’re going to provide a and clean that daily on the new programmes that they’re looking at doing.
Kathryn: Oh, okay. That’s good.
Rachael: So that’s will reduce the refuse on site because you bring your recycled goods in a plastic bag probably and then you go through the thing, you’re left with a plastic bag normally ] take it home, but what do you do with it? So it’d be good to have that bin there and recycle that as well, but interestingly council handed out keep it in the cup which is a recyclable cup and API authorised Hawkesbury Environment Network responsible cafes. This is another initiative but what they’re doing is that with responsible café programme is all about essentially you take one of these recyclable cups to the café like for example the Outback Café up at Windsor, and they’ll give you a dollar off your coffee.
Kathryn: Okay.
Rachael: Now, that’s just encouraging people to use their own containers, whatever it might be that they use. I’ve got a glass one that I do use. From time to time when I’m going to different sites and I just think it’s handy. George Street Loft Café is involved with it, also Lime and Coconut Café in Windsor. So, there’s a couple of cafes that’ve taken it on board and I guess the problems that we saw in regards to that that arose as a result of that was interesting in that … what happens when you drink a cup of coffee? You’ve got a dirty cup, but if you want a second cup of coffee, you wanna go back to the café and have another coffee.
Now, normally if you got time, you’ve gotta wash the cup and then give it to them clean and everything else, but you hand this dirty cup across to the café owner, well the café owner, they’ve got a decision to make. Council’s got rules and regulations that we’ve got to have a clean environment.
Kathryn: Exactly.
Rachael: We’ve gotta do everything we’re meant to do and it’s not that they probably … that all cafes don’t wanna get involved, it’s just I guess there’s this process involved with that whole taking the cup or not taking the cup which was an interesting point brought up by the Hawkesbury Hotel and he’s quite right. It’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is in some circumstances because we all want to do the right thing. We all wanna make an effort for the environment, but you also wanna make the place.
Kathryn: Second cup of coffee.
Rachael: You owe me that second cup of coffee a day. It’s not true, so if there are some hotels or cafes that aren’t supporting it, it might not be that they’re not supporting it because they don’t wanna support it, it’s just trying to find the logistical or the best way forward to ensure the safety of their people that are having the cups of coffee because that reused coffee cup is always an interesting point so I thought that was fascinating in itself and as much as recycling and so forth doesn’t sound that exciting, when you get get into it and the topics and the people that are involved with it, it is.
It’s great to be avidly involved and it’s also great that people can get something out of it. Your sporting groups or your local school. Even if you just wanna get a bit of money for Christmas time or your special times of the year.
Kathryn: We’ll they’re always fundraising, aren’t they? [crosstalk 00:17:30] always fundraising and looking for funds [inaudible 00:17:34] so especially holidays, school holidays, just any of those things and it’s getting the kids involved in it then when they’re involved and they ask why and then they learn about recycling so if they learn at a younger age, then it’s something they can be aware of and probably fit that into the way that they will live, even. So, that then starts there a different generation of thought. So it’s great. It’s excellent.
Rachael: Yeah. I think it’s terrific because as you say, the kids of now are learning how to look after different things whether it’s putting the litter in the bin or whether being recycling and getting a reward for things, putting that recycling away. So, there’s so many different levels of it and I guess over the years we’ve all had the attitude of it doesn’t matter. My piece of rubbish won’t count, but what we’re essentially finding out from the [darter 00:18:30] is that it does. It makes a huge difference if we all just do one little bit for ourselves, the environment, and the local area. It makes it better place for everybody.
Kathryn: That’s really good.
Rachael: Yeah, that’s right and tell me, you’ve got some questions, really interesting questions this week, actually on some things that a lot of us have struggled with over the years or you know of people that have struggled with over the years. So, what was some of those things that came up for those people online?
Kathryn: Well, from our chat last week, I had a few people contact me on different situations that they’re involved in being that from reflex to not being able to sleep to fatigue, weight management, things like that and really when you look to the [inaudible 00:19:31] when you look at that sort of thing, what you got and what you go to, the symptom. It’s the symptom it’s not the cause and to get down into something where you can actually start fixing it from the bottom and work up, you go to your gut and your gut health is so important.
So, it was interesting the amount of people that came in with those sort of questions about it and then taking the time to check to them individually working out those few simple little things could alter the way that your gut operates or even the way you feel.
Rachael: What would a simple thing be for somebody that was listening?
Kathryn: Well, the thing is that when we look at gastric reflux or weight management and things like that, immediately everyone gets scared because it’s such a bandwagon that a lot of people that a lot of people have got on to try and make a load of money out of … with try this diet or try that diet and all this, but simply as you’re talking about how we’ve all grown up in a different society now, if we were to go back to parents or parents’ grandparents, and things like that, there wasn’t as many as preservatives around.
So, my first [inaudible 00:20:47] when they come to me and they say, “oh my god, here comes the diet,” I go, “no, it’s not. I’m not gonna do that to you, alright.” I’m gonna say to you is have a look at the [crosstalk 00:20:56]
No, no, no. That’s about it. That’s the reaction I get and you get the rolling of the eyes and, “this is gonna cost me a fortune.” [crosstalk 00:21:03] tell me to don’t panic. Tell me to do this. But just cut your preservatives down. It’s simple. Cut your preservatives down and after that, see how you go and start reading those labels and learning about what you’re actually doing. So, it’s really very simple to start and it doesn’t cost a lot. So, it’s basically just broadening your own knowledge. So, that was good work coming out of that.
Now really, in place that people do write in and ask us these questions because it’s the way we can know what they need to know and what the community’s wanting to know. We can answer it.
Rachael: Absolutely. I think it’s terrific and I think it’s important. I think everybody thinks, I’ve got this thing going on and nobody else has had that same thing and there’s millions of people from all the advertising and marketing and also the natural paths and doctors and so forth on the gut hill so it’s great that more people are talking about it now and it’s more accessible. I think that people have so many great friends out there as a result of being able to tap into that knowledge but i think it’s really important for people to go to somebody like yourself, is qualified to give the right advice around because people can go into a health foods store and there’s lines and rows of gut health. This is great for your gut, this is great for that. This is great for weight management and you don’t know what you’re looking at.
Kathryn: It’s overwhelming.
Rachael: Where as somebody like you can just go, oh, you don’t need all those things. Maybe just this one product or try this and then add things to your programme or to your healthy rite of life as you go.
Kathryn: And I think it’s, well from he way that I like to do things with client, is that I don’t take a lot of clients on so when it comes to neurotrophy and the overall holistic health, I probably limit myself to six at a time and that’s it because really, the body’s so intricate in how it works. I’d rather deal with that one person all the way through. And the other thing, too, is that we don’t need to spend a lot of money on supplements on everything and I think that’s a mistake that we so commonly get caught in. You go into a natural path and anyone would come to a health foods store and you walk out spending hundreds of dollars.
Well, I don’t want that for people. No one struggling with money and I’d prefer them to be on to get good heath easily. So, that’s really important, I think.
Rachael: No, absolutely, and what else was people … what were their thoughts around different lifestyle habits that we have?
Kathryn: Well, the other thing that came up a lot was smoking which I was a little bit shocked at that because I thought we have conquered a lot of that but there’s a lot of people that are out there that are out there that are struggling. So, the question to me was, how do we know hypnotherapy’s gonna work? So, that’s a fair enough question because when you’ve spent lot of money on patches or this or that or you’ve gone off and you’ve bought the hypnotherapy [inaudible 00:24:20] for smoking and the one for anxiety and the one for failure, and then what if it doesn’t work?
So, why would they go and spend money with anyone when they’re so sceptical? So, I like those questions because you gotta know why and so explaining to the people that you can go to certain people. They will do smoking things and yes, you’ll get over it, but again you gotta look at the root cause. Why are you smoking? Why are you thinking too much? Why are you gambling? Why are you eating? It’s all those things and it’s the root cause. So, for me again, I’ll go back to the root cause when I do my smoking things and I explain that to people and I also explained how it’s very important that the main concept with hypnotherapy is that unless you really want it, you’re not going to get it.
So, you’re in total control of you mind and people worry that they’ll spend a session [inaudible 00:25:19] which I haven’t done that to anyone yet. Maybe to my children, I might do it but not to anyone.
Rachael: I dare you to do it to your children.
Kathryn: It’s tempting.
Rachael: It’s quite true, isn’t it? With hypnotherapy over the years and I think it’s come a long way and I think there is benefit to it, but certainly some of the things that are challenging, even with smoking, with some people that just don’t know how to give it up and it’s not that they don’t wanna give it up, either, it’s a choice because they enjoy it and what right do we or any of us have to say that something is not serving you, but I think once they come to that conclusion that they wanna give up smoking like you said, then it’s important to get all the support that you can to be able to align your behaviours and align the things that you need to do to be able to conquer the biggest fear [crosstalk 00:26:17]
Kathryn: That’s right the complete change. The complete change and redirect yourself and this is all a game of breaking habits so there’s a lot of things involved in doing anything you choose to change. It’s gotta create different focuses, different everything. So, it’s the whole things. It’s not as easy as going and buying a soda.
Rachael: No, it’s not.
Kathryn: Unfortunately, that’s what marketing is and that’s part of life these days and the same as when you were saying about Dr. Google it’s very important for people when they’re getting information from the internet to look at the source and to see how well that that source is and they don’t get caught up in these blogs and things like that that are people’s opinions that have no education. So, that’s important, too. One of the things I heard that you are doing during the week is that you’ve caught up with a lot of community organisations, , and I think it was about the homeless in the area of Hawkesbury.
Rachael: Yeah.
Kathryn: How did that work out for you?
Rachael: That was really good, actually. That was a really nice meeting. The mayor, Mary Lyons-Buckett and Susan Templeman 180 was there, Salvation Army was there, the community kitchen people, Wentworth Housing, all the great people that do so many things for so many people and they’re the unsung heroes of what we do, especially the community projects that are going on that we don’t even know about but everybody wanted to get together to look at the chronic homelessness in the Hawkesbury and how to best tackle that because everybody has seen the homeless growing in the Hawkesbury.
Kathryn: Yeah.
Rachael: a lot of people have different opinions one way or the other and that certainly come through fairly strongly in the meeting as well, but equally it’s something that needs to be addressed to be able to help these people to be able to find a home and find a real solution as opposed to just providing a short term fix of whether it’s clothing or food so that they can live another night on the street versus help them with rent, bond, and those sorts of things to head towards getting in to property themselves, so I think that was what the message was, that there was a bunch a steps, really that lead it to be addressed before you could address the whole homeless situation because it’s not just a matter of stop doing this or do more of that or make this happen.
It’s not that easy. It’s a process that’s in place and it’s kind of like when you’re renting a house. You can’t just move into a house. Before you move into a rental property, you have to apply for the property. You have to inspect the property. You have to go and look at as to whether it suits your needs and once you put the application in and the application gets checked by the agent, that agent then gives the approval to then go forward to the owner to ask their approval.
I think there’s been a hundred cases that we’ve identified with the process of just renting a house, so when we’re looking at a homeless person, you look at where they’re living, how they’re living, are they rough sleeping, in what way are they rough sleeping, are they out in the open do they have a tent, are they just in the cold on the park bench or are they in somebody’s … couch surfing from one person’s couch to another because that in itself is homeless in a way, too, because it’s not just about people that are out on the streets and you often see them begging or so forth, but you won’t see them because they’re tucked away.
Whether it’s on the river or whether it’s in the grandstand at Windsor, it’s another spot where they’ve congregated. It’s lots of different places and they’re just looking for a safe place to stay and essentially Wentworth put a fantastic programme together. I’m sure she’d be available to talk to anybody that wants to since I haven’t actually been able to ask her about that, but I’m sure that they would provide information if anybody wanted to help with that homelessness project and I know that there’s a couple of people that I’ve spoken to since the meeting.
Big shout out to Barry. You’ll know who I’m talking about. He wanted to put his hand up because he’d done a lot of work with he homeless in the past and it’s just a matter of working together cohesively as a community and I think that was the message of the meeting, too, that it’s right that we have 5, 10, 20 different organisations all helping the local community. We need to bring that together so it’s one big … that could also really take some speed and work together as a team to make it happen because if we’re all about the same message, we’re all doing the same things, we can all help one another and we’ll get there faster I think.
Kathryn: It’d be interesting to know because I’ve worked a bit, as you know, in the communities of doing things and I’ve done a lot with women’s groups in the areas regarding these sort of things and you’d come up with the reason why are they homeless and as we’re all individuals, they all have individual reasons for that and I think that in itself is very interesting to look at and to see how you can work their situations out so that cracks at that problem. It’s not there and they wanna go on with their lives again.
Rachael: Oh, absolutely. No, I completely agree with that and there’s a gentlemen by the name of Vander Joan and he’s overseas in Oakland, California. Jenny Raft from Wentworth Housing provided this information but he’s got a couple of points. One is that he’s driving by change and is fueled by passion for the people that are trying to achieve what we’re trying to achieve and trying really hard to end homelessness in developed countries around the world. Expand harm reduction practises, make housing happen and reform the justice system because I think people don’t realise that domestic violence and assault is a big factor with homeless people.
It’s a lot higher incidents than the average family or person within the local community so I think it’s really important to note that and that’s why we wanna get them off the streets as fast as we possibly can to make things a lit bit easier for everybody.
Kathryn: I think also it’s interesting that you say because when you talk about homeless, it’s also the people that are living in cars. That’s another problem.
Rachael: Oh, absolutely.
Kathryn:Myself, I see that happening around the area and coming down to that domestic violence and what’s going on for people and how very sad it is. Just very sad, and for anyone with these, I know that this for the community, but LifeLine is something that is always valuable for people to call if they need to talk to anyone about it, too, so I just think it’s a good thing to have that out for people and I know when I did my volunteering for LifeLine that we had a variety of people. It wasn’t just only suicide, it was a lot of situations in life, so we’re all well-trained down there to talk to people they wanna speak to, so that’s another route.
Rachael: Oh, absolutely. LifeLine, Salvation Army, Brilliant, Wentworth Housing, they’re good for emergency housing to help people out as well. 180, youth platform services. There’s so many great local organisations. The community kitchen. Everybody want to help and I think that the whole team, a tribe of people are working together to achieve that aim. Topsy thinks that’s a good idea. She’s just barking a lot. Yeah, she thinks that’s a positive project and to get involved with it. So, anybody that wants to get in contact with myself or Kathryn for that project or we can put you in touch with some other people happy to include you in that process because I think the more people that are involved the better it is and we’ve all got certain skillsets that we bring to the table and we can achieve things. Was there anything else?
Kathryn: It comes back to the old thing that the united we stand, and divided we fall so the more we unite as a community the better we can move things and have things happen.
Rachael: Yeah, absolutely. So true, Kathryn. You’re definitely a community player. You’ve been in the community. I think we both love living int he Hawkesbury and we both love giving back and it’s been something that we’ve both wanted to do over the years and you think that you’re helping that person, but essentially what happens is you feel really good about it and you get so much more out of it by giving and it’s a funny thing, but once you give your time or money or whatever it is that you can give.
It doesn’t have to be money. It can be just essentially skillsets or times or just some providing assistance in some way to local organisations and sometimes you’ll think, I won’t. I won’t [inaudible 00:35:43] I won’t get involved because what will it matter if I just do that, and yet that one person might know somebody else that can put them in touch with somebody else for whatever reason. It’s sort of like that six degrees of separation. I kind of think it’s really exciting because it just starts that snowball and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and everybody just gets so much out of it.
Kathryn: You start fighting about it, don’t you ?
Rachael: Yeah, you do and I think you get more excited about it as you say, you start the conversations with people and you don’t realise that there’s those six degrees of separation or the links that tie in together and everybody can help one another and equally if there’s anybody watching or anybody that watches this at a later time and they want to chime in and they need somebody to do something for them or if they wanna hep out an organisation, just put your hand up and we’ll and put you in touch with people that we know and equally if there’s a community organisation that needs help and you’re looking for some sort of sponsorship or something just let us know as well so because we can put the word out and you just never know who somebody might know somebody.
Kathryn: That’s it. The power of the word.
Rachael: Indeed, indeed. Well, I think we’ve covered off quite a few topics today, a bit more than I what we thought we would, but certainly each Monday we’re gonna come back together at 12:00 noon and any questions or so forth in regards to whether it’s on health with Kathryn or whether it’s on real estate with myself, we’d love to hear from you. We’d love to hear what’s going on in your life and how we can help you and certainly the Drive Home to Hawkesbury is dedicated to the local community and doing that for people. So, if somebody wanted to get in contact with you, Kathryn, how can they do that?
Kathryn: They can call me. My number is 040-841-1865. I’m sure you got a link or something up in this anyway, , so they managed to do that last week for questions so I’m sure they’ll do it again.
Rachael: Yes, it was great to see so many people come back with all those questions. We were super pleased and we really appreciate everyone being on the line and catching up with you because we get to see you and say hi as well and we really enjoy interaction with you. So, thanks very much for joining us today, Kathryn, and everybody online.
Kathryn: Always.
Rachael: We look forward to seeing everybody next week.
Kathryn: Okay, bye.
Rachael: Bye bye. Thank you so much for taking out and listening to today’s episode. If you have any questions on the process of buying, selling, leasing or [inaudible 00:38:18] management, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word by Liking and sharing this episode with your family and friends. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and I look forward to caching up with you on the next episode of the Drive Home to Hawkesbury.

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This week Rachael speaks with Kathryn Hams on this fascinating subject where she opens up about her passion enabling people to live a full life. Whatever vice you are struggling with in your life, any habits that are no longer serving you, Kathryn shares her holistic approach to changing your direction to a new you.

Kathryn was a volunteer at Life Line, guest speaker at Beyond Blue and is trained in suicide intervention and domestic violence awareness and response and has an interesting insight on the Power of the Mind. Kathryn will speak on topics such as Agoraphobic Anxiety, Panic Attacks and Depression all of which she has tackled personally and successfully overcome and subsequently studied to help others.

I Live, Love, Hawkesbury and can’t wait to get into today’s episode.

Rachael: I’m Rachael Goldsworthy, and welcome to The Drive Home to Hawkesbury, where I believe every home has a story and I love sharing those stories on real estate in the Hawkesbury with you. Here we share the best ways to add value to your property, how to avoid the common mistakes people make when buying and selling property, and how to get the maximum return on your investment with a focus on supporting local business. I live love Hawkesbury, and can’t wait to get into today’s episode with you, so let’s get started.
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on what time you’re watching The Drive Home to Hawkesbury. Today I’m joined by Kathryn Hams, how are you Kathryn?
Kathryn: I’m good Rachael, how are you going?
Rachael: Very good thank you. First day of the week and we’ve been doing lots of things. It’s been a little while since we’ve caught up online. I just wanted to check in with you, because there was a couple of things that we’ve been working on, I suppose, over the last couple of months, and I guess we wanted to share that with everybody here today. Tell me, it looks like you’ve had your hair done? Tell me all about that. You’ve got some exciting news to tell?
Kathryn: I have. At the end of last year I got diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, it’s an autoimmune disease. Basically my thyroid isn’t in a happy position in life, and the other things that came with that was detox and very heavily with toxins and heavy metal toxins. Anyway, just before that happened I went and got my hair done, and I’ve always had a problem with hair dyes because I have very bad allergic reactions, to the point that I end up in hospital. I had a very bad allergic reaction, and that feared me on having to go back to the hairdresser. Because I’ve got my son’s wedding coming up in about a month’s time, it got to a point I’m thinking, “Well what am I going to do?”
Because I’d been with the Hashimoto’s and doing the supplements, I’d been doing a very heavy detox. Very Heavy in the fact that it’s working but not damaging myself at the same time, so being kind and using different methods not, sticking to one. So I thought, “I’ll have a go and see how I go with it.”
So I went to one hairdresser, and they did spot tests and I could feel the heat coming through and a bit of irritation. I was talking to my niece and she was talking about organics and I thought, “I’ll go organics and see what’s happening.” I found this place up in Richmond, and I went in there and they talked me through the whole process. I was getting my hair permed before, I didn’t need to do that. He reckoned he could cut back into my hair how it used to be, and there was an organic dye.
Rachael: I think I got my last perm done in the 80s. So probably good, you know.
Kathryn: But you see, there you go. Yours either really has got good strength, very good hold, or there’s one of the two.
Rachael: You’ve got a natural curl going on anyway, so you won’t be needing the-
Kathryn: I do now. I do.
Rachael: Yeah I think so, It looks good, it looks good.
Kathryn: So yeah, it’s all thumbs up and everything great. So great big thank you to Sam up in Richmond. “Esthetica”, it’s called. In my Facebook page I’m doing an interview with either him or the owner tomorrow. So that will be something if you want to have a look at that, they can see what they’re all about. Yeah, so that’s what I’ve been up to. So a little bit of a new me.
Rachael: I think so, it looks good. I think that’s what The Drive Home to Hawkesbury’s all about, just platforming different businesses in the Hawkesbury and talking about different things that we enjoy and love doing, and also the people that become part of that community and who are that community and make it so great. So it’s good to do that interview with Sam, and I’ll be really interested to hear all about that. Also, you’re involved with NLP and also hypnotherapy, and lots of other good things that you’ve been doing over the years haven’t you, Kathryn?
Kathryn: I have. I did with Beyond Blue, I did a few speaking gigs around the Hawkesbury area. I’m now doing them privately as well so, I’ve done a few for aged, so for the aged community. I’ve gone in there and we’ve done a few interesting things and I’ve got some really exciting things to do with them later in the year. So anyone in the aged community that wants someone to come and speak about life or anything nutritional I’m quite willing to do that.
The other thing I’ve been doing is trying to get people to understand what anxiety is about. Suffering it so badly myself for seven years and how it crippled me, I really feel for people that get boxed in with anxieties or phobias or habits that don’t suit them.
So I’m trying to get out more and do those speaking gigs around the place. I’ve booked Firies, anyone. Firies want me to do it, I’ll do it for them. PTSD, and they can open it up and gold donation to the Firies, gold coin or something, and workshops. So they’re the things I’m focusing on this year.
Rachael: Yeah, no that’s terrific, and I think it’s a real passion of yours. You can tell when you speak about it that its really important and it’s something that sits right at the top of the list for you and I think that, that’s great. The people that I know that are involved with the programmes that you run and also the business that you do; they’ve benefited greatly from that so I think it’s a really good thing.
One of the videos that I was watching the other day that you did was I guess on doing things differently, and that’s what we like to do in real estate, is just when everybody else is zigging, we’re zagging. And people are thinking that, that’s what we’ve done for thirty years and that’s what we’re always gonna do. That’s when you’ve got to think about doing something differently. You were talking about often that’s a fear base that people get stuck in, that mind set, and they need somebody to actually release them from that or allow them to think a different way, because nothings every either right or wrong its just the way that we see things and perceive things.
So it’s good to have that independent person. I’ve always found that having a coach is a positive thing in our lives, and I think by looking to other countries and other cultures is also a positive thing in peoples’ lives too, and I’ve always done that over the years in the business I’m in. As I say, I think its really important to challenge yourself every day and just to think, “Okay, well what can I do differently? How can we do it better? What’s our morning routine? What does our day look, you know? How can I serve somebody better today?” And I think that’s essentially what you’re looking at doing, and have helped with people. So tell me a little bit about that.
Kathryn: I think that’s interesting that you said, “How can you serve someone today or what can I do for someone?” And I mean, it’s great that we do that thinking of what we can do for people, but we also forget to do for ourselves. Not just saying that there’s single dads out there. There’s single dads out there, there’s single mums, and there’s working people and there’s people that we’re in all different walks of life and no one is greater than the other, its just what is. But the one thing we seem to forget a lot of is ourselves and that its actually okay to be selfish in a good way, and balanced.
So recently like I was getting out and trying to lose weight because you know, wedding coming up, got to do the right thing, and I’ve put a lot of weight on with the Hashimoto’s too. And I was going to the gym a couple days a week and I play racquetball [inaudible 00:07:44] I think you know about that. Then what happened is, I was sort of in a position where, do I go by myself or don’t I? So normally, me would go “No I won’t.” Because going to a gym; and anyone who’s a little bit overweight; it’s quite an experience at times. You’ve got a lot of people usually that are thin there, they’re not usually really grossly overweight over even overweight. And so and they’ve got these lovely little tight sort of things on and bright colours and they all look nick, nick, nick and you’ll look at them and go, “Oh my god, am I ever gonna get like that?” Well, we don’t really want to get like that always, but what we wanna do is we wanna just tone or tune in.
So in January when I started going to the gym I would not have gone by myself. No way in the world. I was scared, I was not confident and my self-esteem was probably low. Now, about two weeks ago I went off for the first time and I played racquetball by myself, I rode, I did some cross training and I actually found it really empowering. I found it empowering for the fact that I stepped outside my comfort zone, I achieved it, it wasn’t really that bad, the endorphins in me; they’re jumping around going “Yeeha! Hi Kathryn [inaudible 00:09:05] you know that’s great you’ve done that.”
It’s excellent, and this is what happens; we get into these mindset phases where we get caught in habit, and habit can be what drowns it. So breaking habits, having change, doing positive things. While we’re a child we’d go and climb a tree and not think about the consequences of falling and of doing this. We’d go and do it. But as an adult, we’re always thinking of consequences, that we forget about the consequence of life and living it.
Rachael: No, its really fascinating and its good that you say it’s important to remember ourselves too in the equation because whilst we can look at others to support and provide for them, its also important to… what do they say in the aeroplane? “Give oxygen first to yourself and then to others.” So it’s essentially what you’re saying, you know? Look after the racehorse and then everybody else will benefit from that as well.
I think too we all benefit from that. I know we are racquetball buddies during the week and that’s great and I know I’ve missed it the last couple of weeks and we’re back on decks next week, but that’s great that you’ve been getting out there and doing the racquetball. It’s hard playing by yourself up against the wall isn’t it? With the ball, trying to keep it in the same position and trying to sort of switch it up a bit and make it interesting. But you know its also challenging going into the other areas of the gym too, with your cross-training and your rowing and as you say, there are loads of people that go to the gym but its important that we all just go, “You know what? It’s okay, we’re all on our own journeys, were all doing our own things, we’re all at different stages and places in our lives and it’s okay to be where we are.”
Kathryn: And I think what happens is that when we look at these things; and its like the birth of consciousness, its like when you first realise that there was things that were different to you. Like if you’re on the Nile and you’re by yourself you wouldn’t know whether you were the wrong shape or the right shape, the right height, the wrong height or anything like that because it would just be how it is. But when you go into a gym or something you tend to look at yourself, or say you’re in the mirror, and you think, “Oh my god how will everyone look at me?”, when they’re all looking in their own mirrors-
Rachael: Not everyone’s worried about everybody else.
Kathryn: Exactly! So you know we tend to think more about ourselves in such a negative way than what other people are, they’re not even worried. They’re too worried about their own selves, their egos, they’re looking after that.
Rachael: Yeah, and I think as we get older we realise it doesn’t really matter you know? Just give it a go, get in there. I often go kayaking by myself and out on the water, and it’s the best thing to do because you know, whether it’s the first dawn of light, or whether its nighttime sunset or whether its during the day, it doesn’t matter, the bird life on the water was the… you know you can just see lots of water dragons, you can see lots of birds that are flying in, grabbing the fish, eating the fish, the fish jumping around. Its fascinating and you learn a lot about yourself too when you’re out there on the water and doing different things, and its getting back to doing the things that really serves you and looks after you as you said before, isn’t it?
Kathryn: It is. It is. and I think that we forget to live life. That’s what I think we forget to do. I don’t want anything out there to think, “Well its alright for her to say, she doesn’t have the bills she, doesn’t have this, she doesn’t have this.” But, I’ve raised five children, I know what its like to have a business, to raise children. I know what that’s like. I’ve spent all day long with that and I don’t minimise that at all, not at all. But you know wouldn’t it be great if you could worry in a really good manner about that instead of worrying in a way that makes you sick? And mind that, because that’s what my work shops about; mind when you’re doing things like that.
Rachael: Yeah that was what I was going to segue to;is the Worry Well Workshops that you’ve got available, and I think its really important that people know that they can think about things but it’s a matter of working out how the best way to do that. I think sometimes too just having that extra person to help along the way. So they’re coming up in the next couple of months, aren’t they?
Kathryn: They are actually. I probably will start releasing dates in May I think is when I’m doing that. That’s when they’re coming out. I’ll just be doing them in the Penrith and Hawkesbury area. Later we’ll look at going online for some areas, to doing it online as well. But I think what people have got to understand when they can’t sleep and do things like that, it usually comes back to something you could be worrying so much about, and if you could just ease it and get that sleep, the future will look so different the next day.
Rachael: “It’s so important…”, you were saying?
Kathryn: No, go on.
Rachael: Yeah, no, I had a client the other day and they were really concerned about a property they had and they were in the cutting off period and unsure as to whether the buyer was going to proceed with the sale. And for all intents and purposes the buyers; they want to do the right thing, they’ve put the deposit down, they want to buy that house, they want to move forward on things. And sometimes it takes a little bit longer with the finance, obtaining the valuation or getting the pest in building or whatever it might be in that cutting off period for the buyer.
So sometimes I say to the owners that are waiting for that deposit to come through, “Don’t worry about it until I tell you to worry.” And it is a difficult thing for people to sort of, I guess take on board because they it’s okay but we don’t know what the outcome is and it’s like worrying about it’s not going to help either. So, if we just sort of let the process do what its gotta do, we’ve positioned everything in the best possible way, and generally you’ll find that the outcome is positive because the positive energy has been put in there. Whereas if you worry about things, it doesn’t matter what it is in life, sometimes you give it that energy and that energy then allows that thing to manifest in your life.
So you’re better off just being positive and you’re better off looking at the positive sides of things. As much as some days you wake up and you don’t want it to be positive or you’re not thinking that the day is positive or that anythings going right but sometimes you just have to keep on keeping on, knowing that the next day’s going to be better and the day after that’s going to be better than that and I think that’s essentially what you’re saying.
Kathryn: I think so, I think that its like silent steps. As long as you try to think the next step, even if you don’t walk it, it’s a silent step. And it’s always progressive in that way. And the thing is that, if I can give anyone out there who gets this today and listens to it, if you’re trying to get out of a place where you’re stuck, where you’re worried, you’ve got anxieties, or anything like that: distraction.
Think about a purple and pink spotted goat. Serious. Because when I say that to my clients and they say to me, “What?!” And I go, “Well, are you worrying about the other thing?”
“No, but how did you come up with that?”
And again, they’re going off on it, so you’re not giving any life to that negative situation, and if you don’t give life to it, it can’t survive. And its with your brain, its called neuroplasticity, and its ow we wire our brains in. And you have to try and distract and get rid of that wiring, and you can do it. You can do this,, and you can do it with training. Everything that you makeup, or we do or we create, we can un-create it. And you can make a new path by its choice.
Rachael: Yeah absolutely. Absolutely. Its great, and so if somebody wanted to find you Kathryn, how can they get in touch with you? Do you have a Facebook page or a mobile number that you can leave for people?
Kathryn: Yeah, the Hypnotherapy Hub is on Facebook so they can either look that up or they can either just look me up on Facebook and look at it. Or my phone numbers 0408411865 and if you ring now…
Rachael: Is there a free set of steak knives or something with that? No, no.
Kathryn: I’m sure I’ve got carving knives.
Rachael: No, that’s all good. And if anybody’s got any questions in regards to real estate I’m always happy to help, I’m always looking at zigging and zagging with different people so we’re happy to look at the alternatives and I guess everybody’s unique and we’ve all got different situations and it’s a matter of working together in the local community to help one another get there at the end of the day.
But thank you very much for our time today Kathryn, I really appreciate it. I think that this is going to be more of a regular gig. We’re going to try and get her on and get onto the website at least once a week and just sort of have a catch up, see where things are going with people and what the questions are that are coming through. Because we have had a few questions that we will be addressing from a week to week basis I’d say, if you’re up for that Kathryn? Are you good for a weekly[crosstalk 00:18:32]
Kathryn: If they want to send questions to me or to you about the real estate. It’s important because buying a home is the biggest cost that you’ll ever really buy something isn’t it? I’d say-
Rachael: I think so, and I think a lot of people don’t realise. They come into an office and then its 500 000 or it’s a million dollars or it might be more than that, I mean the median house price is over a million dollars in Sydney now for a house and it’s a lot to think about, to put that sort of money. You don’t go to Crown Cassino and put a million dollars down on black or red without doing some due diligence.
So you need to know the right questions to ask the right people to go to, to ensure that buying that house is a good experience because I think that there should be more real estate experiences that are good for people versus not so good. And I think once you’ve had a positive experience in real estate and once you’ve found that dream house or that house that you can do those renovations to, or the house that you can move in with your partner that you’re going to marry or you are married and you’ve got kids and you want to enjoy the lifestyle in and around the Hawkesbury, is just a great thing to do.
So we’re always here and available for you. Racahelgoldsworthy.com.au and Kathryn is at Hypnotherapy Hub so we can put those links up online and also we will check in once a week and answer any questions that anybody puts forward. As I say we’ve got a bit of a list running at the moment but we didn’t want to inundate anybody with those questions today but we’ll certainly address those as they come through and we’ll catch up with everybody on the next episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury.
Kathryn: Excellent.
Rachael: Thanks for your time Kathryn.
Kathryn: Don’t worry bye.
Rachael: Thank you so much for taking time out and listening to today’s episode. If you have any questions on the process of buying, selling, leasing or Strata Management please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes, and I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word by liking and sharing this episode with your family and friends. I’m Rachael Goldsworthy and I’m looking forward to catching up with you on the next episode of The Drive Home to Hawkesbury.

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