It was the first Friday in January 2025, and I had just climbed out of the water after my first 3.8km open water swim event — the RIP View at Point Lonsdale. My arms were heavy and I had that particular glow that only comes from doing something your body wasn't entirely sure it could do. The course tracks the spit from Queenscliff to Point Lonsdale, and every time I turned to breathe on my left I caught a glimpse of the infamous RIP, the treacherous stretch of open water between Point Nepean...

A few months ago, I was working with a client in his early sixties. He had spent most of his career leading teams, managing complex projects and carrying the responsibilities that often come with professional success. Like many of the people I work with, he was intelligent, highly capable and deeply committed to his work. Yet despite exercising regularly and maintaining what most people would consider a healthy lifestyle, he often felt tired, tense and mentally exhausted. He described feeling...

As a resilience and performance coach, I help busy and stressed professionals create alignment, cultivate equanimity, and boost vitality by integrating practical mind, body and lifestyle strategies. One of my main roles is to help clients get better at stress. This involves developing and embedding skills and tools that help better regulate their nervous system and stress response. Self-regulation is your nervous system’s ability to shift between “go mode” and “recover mode” in a healthy way....