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Speaker 1: Hi there, listeners, fans friends of this podcast called Healthyish.

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Speaker 1: Hope you are feeling healthy ish. This, of course, is

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Speaker 1: your daily one from Body and Soul. I am your host,

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Speaker 1: Feliciti Harley. Now. The team here at healthy Ish have

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Speaker 1: been following today's guest for a while now on social media,

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Speaker 1: and we're so pleased she joins us in the studio.

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Speaker 1: We've all been equally moved and inspired by her story.

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Speaker 1: Disability advocate Steph Kelly is here to share her story

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Speaker 1: of how a horrific car accident left her with life

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Speaker 1: altering injuries and how she's turned into something positive for

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Speaker 1: us all to follow along with. Now after this chat,

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Speaker 1: listening to extra healthy Ish, where she talks more about

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Speaker 1: the accident, her health, and how she finds hope in

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Speaker 1: her darkest days. You can catch that one wherever you

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Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Steph, thank you for well coming into

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Speaker 1: the studio today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: It's nice to have you here. I feel like I've

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Speaker 1: watched your journey on social media, so I feel privileged

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Speaker 1: that you've come in and you can share your story

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Speaker 1: with us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. Know, I feel like a lot of

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Speaker 2: people if I meet them after they've watched my videos,

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Speaker 2: like I feel like I know so much about you

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, you do.

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Speaker 1: Is that it feels strange to you?

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Speaker 2: And not really? I think honestly, I think because I

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Speaker 2: have I'm so used to everyone knowing my medical background

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Speaker 2: in hospital, nurses, doctors, allied health, I think I'm actually

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Speaker 2: quite used to people knowing what's going on. So now

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Speaker 2: it's just everyone. I'm like, oh, so.

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Speaker 1: What is going on? Tell us about your health story.

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Speaker 2: So I have a to sum it up very quickly.

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Speaker 2: I have a heart condition which I've had for most

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Speaker 2: my whole life, and that's SVT superventricular taki kadia, which

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Speaker 2: is an arrhythmia. In my teenage years, I developed all

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Speaker 2: of these symptoms. They didn't know what it was. It

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Speaker 2: ended up being diagnosed as pots postural orthosatic takey cardio syndrome.

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Speaker 2: I did a lot of rehabilitation. I was very keen

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Speaker 2: to be a nurse. I left school early and then

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Speaker 2: I did my sirt three diploma and I was kind

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Speaker 2: of I was going into hospital quite often, but I

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Speaker 2: lived a very great life and I had a quality

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Speaker 2: of life, and everything was going very smoothly, and I

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Speaker 2: would go into hospital. This sounds very dramatic, but when

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Speaker 2: my heart would mess up, I'd go into hospital and

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Speaker 2: I would need to be either cardioverted with medication that

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Speaker 2: pauses your heart for a very quick second, or defibrillated,

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Speaker 2: which is called cardio version as well.

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Speaker 1: Sound quite extreme, I know.

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Speaker 2: And I kind of I realized. I just like rattle

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Speaker 2: it off to some people. I'm like, yeah, yeah, so

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Speaker 2: occasionally I just have to get my heart kind of

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Speaker 2: turned off and on. Yeah, And it sounds crazy. It

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Speaker 2: is crazy, and it's crazy when it happens, but I'm

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Speaker 2: just so desensitized to it. So that was happening, and

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Speaker 2: I had, Yeah, I was working as a nurse full time.

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Speaker 2: I had met my partner in twenty sixteen and I

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Speaker 2: was very much infatuated and was like, I'm going to

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Speaker 2: marry this man. And then a year and a half

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Speaker 2: into our relationship, so in March twenty eighteen, we were

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Speaker 2: driving I just finished work at the Kids Hospital and

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Speaker 2: we were driving to Max Brenner and we were turning

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Speaker 2: right at a roundabout and I didn't notice this was happening,

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Speaker 2: but a woman was coming the other way and she

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Speaker 2: didn't give way, so she crashed into primarily my side

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Speaker 2: of the car. Adam had a few minor injuries, but

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Speaker 2: my injuries were too slip diss in my neck, twisted ribcage,

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Speaker 2: break your plexus injury, which is a nerve that runs

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Speaker 2: down the left arm. So I was in a sling

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Speaker 2: for two years, and then a year after the accident,

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Speaker 2: I developed all of these crazy symptoms which I could

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Speaker 2: tell you talk about for a million years.

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Speaker 1: We can go into those health yes.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, I was diagnosed with gastroparesis and intestinal failure.

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Speaker 2: So everything that had happened in the accident and then

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Speaker 2: after the accident made that my intestines essentially shut down,

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Speaker 2: so I was then unable to get any nutrition. I

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Speaker 2: had feeding tubes placed and I also had a central

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Speaker 2: line placed into my bloodstream, which now that's how I

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Speaker 2: receive my nutrition and hydration.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about the routine that you go through

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Speaker 1: every day, Oh, just to stay alive.

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Speaker 2: It's it's tedious. So I wake up in the morning

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Speaker 2: and I disconnect from my TPN, which is a full

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Speaker 2: sterile technique. I have my medications, and then during the

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Speaker 2: day I will normally have one leader of IV fluids,

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Speaker 2: which people pay for it's very trendy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, to get ivy fluids.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I do that I need to obviously, and

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Speaker 2: then during the day I have medications every fourish hours

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Speaker 2: IV medications and then also feeding tube medications, and then

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Speaker 2: of an evening I have to do a full sterile

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Speaker 2: set up. Again, takes about twenty minutes in total, but

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Speaker 2: it's very one wrong move, and I mean it's your life. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so that causes a lot of anxiety and stress. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: and then I'm connected to TPN for a minimum of

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Speaker 2: twelve hours, but it fluctuates between twelve and sixteen.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean a lot of us have watched

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Speaker 1: your journey on social media, and I think you know

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Speaker 1: one thing. I mean, I mean, I suppose I'm blown

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Speaker 1: away by what you do every day to stay alive.

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Speaker 1: But equally, I'm also inspired by your positivity and the

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Speaker 1: way you approach this with this just amazing sense of Okay,

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Speaker 1: this is what I'm doing and I can get through this.

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Speaker 1: How has social media amplified your story? And how do

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Speaker 1: you feel when you get people sopose responses and people

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Speaker 1: commenting and things like that.

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Speaker 2: So I think at first I was really hesitant to

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Speaker 2: share everything online, not in a way of being ashamed

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Speaker 2: of my illness or anything. You know, I talk about

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Speaker 2: everything online, including fertility and my bowel habits and everything.

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Speaker 2: But I think the hesitation was from, you know, do

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Speaker 2: I want to identify as being a sick person being disabled?

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Speaker 2: Do I want to kind of center a Instagram or

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Speaker 2: a TikTok page on my life with my illness? And

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Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of a lot of hesitation

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Speaker 2: in general anyway with people sharing their health journey because

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Speaker 2: they don't want to be identified by that. But I

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Speaker 2: also think, like your this takes up my illness takes

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Speaker 2: up a lot of hours in the day. I have

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Speaker 2: to cancel events, and I have to do this, and

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Speaker 2: I have to do that, and I have appointments. And

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Speaker 2: I think showing that in you know, day to day life,

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Speaker 2: but also showing highs and showing lows overall a big mix,

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Speaker 2: I think is kind of what led me to then go, Okay,

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Speaker 2: I think I think I've found the little niche that

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Speaker 2: I want to I.

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Speaker 1: Mean, i feel like I'm, yes, I'm saying the story

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Speaker 1: of your illness, but I'm also saying the story of

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Speaker 1: who you are as a person.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, because I love to share, you know, my interests,

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Speaker 2: like my partner and I met via cars and our

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Speaker 2: puppy Oatly, and so I think I try and show

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Speaker 2: a variety of things. But I yeah, I think it's

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Speaker 2: like the advocacy and the understanding of what life is like.

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Speaker 2: And obviously everyone's different in their I have friends with

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Speaker 2: the same illness and they have very different symptoms and

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Speaker 2: very different routines. But yeah, overall I do I do

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Speaker 2: like to show just everything and very real and raw information.

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Speaker 1: One real and raw if what posts that got me

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Speaker 1: is one of the pinned TikTok posts where your quote

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Speaker 1: is watching everyone else live their lives while yours is

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Speaker 1: on pause. What do you want us all to know

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Speaker 1: about what life is like living with a chronic illness?

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Speaker 2: I think a lot of people forget that, especially in hospital.

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Speaker 2: You know, if you spend a lot of time in hospital.

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Speaker 2: I have had visitors visit me and then they'll go home,

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Speaker 2: spend a few weeks at home, and then come back

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Speaker 2: and visit weeks later, and they'll say, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 2: like I can't believe I've gone out and done fifty

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Speaker 2: million things in my day and you've kind of just

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Speaker 2: sat in this one spot, and I think that really

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Speaker 2: shows the isolation that can happen with an illness.

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Speaker 1: For me, it just really it's about valuing your health.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I think not taking things for granted and

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Speaker 2: just really taking every day day by day. I it's

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Speaker 2: really weird. I look at beautiful blue skies now and

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Speaker 2: I kind of look at views. My husband's always like,

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Speaker 2: why are you so obsessed with that view and this

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Speaker 2: view and a gorgeous day? And I'm like, honestly, like,

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Speaker 2: I just I want to like take it all in. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: Like I just I look twice at things. If I

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Speaker 2: see a really nice view of the city, I look

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Speaker 2: twice at it, and I think, yeah, it is honestly

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Speaker 2: just valuing everything and every interaction you have and not

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Speaker 2: taking everything. You know, I used to take everything so seriously.

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Speaker 1: Doing the small stuff, yeah, I know.

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Speaker 2: And like some people are like, oh, what do you

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Speaker 2: have advice for this and that? And I'm like, honestly,

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Speaker 2: like I really hate to be the person who says,

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Speaker 2: like stay positive, but don't stay positive, stay realistic. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but also like I feel like there's always a light

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Speaker 2: at the end of the tunnel. And I have had

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Speaker 2: many instances where I didn't think there was, but there

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Speaker 2: truly is. Steph.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on.

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Speaker 2: Healthy, Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Well listeners. If you're not following Steph, I highly recommend

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Speaker 1: you jump on and have a look at the content

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Speaker 1: she puts out because it's equally informative and inspiring and yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think you'll get a lot out of it. I

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Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed this chat. If you did, tell us

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Speaker 1: rate and review this episode. We love feedback here. We

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Speaker 1: just want to offer well create better podcasts for you

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Speaker 1: to listen to. You can also share the set with

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Speaker 1: a friend. By the way, anything else, head to bodyansoul

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Speaker 1: dot com dot you, follow us on socials, grab our

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Speaker 1: print edition, which is out in your local Sunday paper,

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Speaker 1: and until tomorrow, stay healthy,