In this conversation we chat with Chris about how the experience of bipolar can feel but also how we can learn and grow from it. Chris talks about the importance of inclusion and connection, having a ‘vibe tribe’ and dropping judgement when caring for people who are having a rough time.
Come and listen with:
Lucy (She/Her) – A big fan of pickleball, ice cream and storytelling
Rachel (She/Her) – Social Worker, Dialogical Practitioner, mad footy fan and wildly passionate about transforming the culture of mental health services to be person-led and human rights informed.
Incredible artwork @sharleencu_art
This episode mentions “The Road Less Travelled” By M. Scott Peck
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT –You can sit with us
[00:00:01] Lucy: This podcast has conversations around different mental health experiences that may be distressing for some people. If that doesn’t feel like something you want to explore today, you might want to visit another podcast and come back to us another time.
[00:00:14] Rachel: discovery college acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to lands, waters and community. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to the elders, past and present. They have never ceded sovereignty.
[00:00:32] Lucy: In this podcast, we share stories that help us learn from each other, connect us and inspire growth. We want to acknowledge that this way of being, of coming together to share knowledge and stories, is a tradition that has already existed on this land for hundreds of thousands of years as a part of the culture of First Nations people.
[00:00:51] Rachel: discovery college acknowledges the views shared in this podcast are about mental health experiences, but are not a substitute for professional mental health advice and support. The views in this podcast are not the views of Alfred Health, but are the views of the individuals we’ve had conversations with.
[00:01:07] Lucy: The stories we share on this podcast aren’t just stories, but memories of the people who have bravely shared their experiences with us. Remember to take care of yourself as you listen, as well as to take care of the stories that you hear.
[00:01:33] Rachel: Extremely Human is a conversation about the profound experience of extreme states. When we speak about extreme states, we want to explore a more humanistic way to understand people’s experiences that aren’t always shared by others.
[00:01:47] Lucy: Each extreme state holds different meaning for each person, including those related to psychosis, depression, grief and addiction. As we chat with a variety of humans, we explore the important question how can we respond to distress with greater compassion and humanity?
[00:02:05] Rachel: Welcome back to the extremely human podcast titled you can sit with us. In this conversation, we chat with Chris about how the experiences of bipolar can feel, but also how we can learn and grow from them. Chris talks about the importance of inclusion and connection, having a vibe tribe and dropping judgment when caring for people who are having a rough time.
Chris, welcome. We have been asking everybody the same question at the start of each episode. It is, can you tell us a disproportionate reaction you or someone you know has had to something?
[00:02:53] Chris: Thank you so much, Rachel and Lucy. I’m actually so excited to be here. I’m definitely able to give an answer to that question. I remember once I was dancing in the cafe with my mum, just having a bit of a boogie, just a bit of a Saturday morning, just a little bit of a I don’t know, it wasn’t even that out there, actually. It was just moving my arms and stuff. And then my Mum was like, you can’t you can’t dance in public. And this was just after one of my episodes where I was almost hospitalised for bipolar disorder, like having an episode. And then I was just like because I was in that state of mind where I was just like, F you all. I was just like, no, you’re going to watch me now. And I think I did it even harder at the time. And I was just like moving around even more and stuff and did a few spins because I love to do a few spins. And then she got angry at me and then she stormed off. And then I went up to her afterwards and I said, Mum, I was just dancing, you got to just be a bit more light hearted.
And I was getting better. But I think it was just hard for her because I don’t know, my mom is a great mum, beautiful, but can be overprotective and worry about what other people think.
[00:04:11] Lucy: I feel like mums always cop it as getting, like, being the example of the disproportionate.
[00:04:17] Chris: Yeah, I think it’s because the reason why mums cop it with this disproportionate reaction question is because I think that we always want to be ourselves, but then when we become unwell, we become a different version. And usually mums are pretty switched on us to when things start to change. I remember when I first was going through an episode, I remember I was like in my room putting everything into the pyramids and baptising myself with oil. And then my mum came in and she just screamed like, what are you doing? What’s going on? Kind of thing. And she was really scared at the time, but I think was that kind of her viewing me in that state of mind, in that extreme state, she then went to get help and support from headspace.
[00:05:06] Rachel: So we are here to talk about extreme states or how to be with people who are experiencing distress. What does being in an extreme state mean to you, Chris?
[00:05:16] Chris: So I was diagnosed with bipolar when I was 19 and I’m very open with my diagnosis. I think it’s important to aggravate positive change in society by being yourself and being authentic. And I think for me, it’s an extreme state. As someone that’s experienced a living experience with bipolar disorder, I’ve experienced really full on mania and really depressed depression and then also in between, where things aren’t exactly quite one way or the other. One of my least favourite experiences of a state is like, when you’re feeling flat and it’s really hard to shift into one way or the other. And when you’re feeling flat, it’s like you just don’t want to do anything. And it’s probably my least favourite emotion with the mania. What that looks like is rushing thoughts because I think I’m almost like creating magic to myself. And I’ll often say strange things. I’ve often thought I was Jesus Christ reincarnated and often the chosen one. So that’s like the more of the mania. And then the depression is just feeling suicidal, feeling like you don’t belong in this world, feeling misunderstood and just really feeling quite sad and lonely. But I think that the mania is something that’s seen by everyone, because when you’re manic, everyone can see how you’re acting, whereas when you’re depressed, it’s not as noticeable. When I first was diagnosed with bipolar, I actually was depressed for about six months. I was doing a course in psychology, and I hated it, and I really wanted to do something in music, actually. And then after six months of being staying up all night till, like, 03:00, a.m. Crying because I couldn’t get my assignments in time, I went back to university, and then I was manic, and that extreme state was seen by everyone. It was really embarrassing for me at the time because I was in a uni course where I had a lecture at one stage, and I went in front of all of the people in the lecture theatre, and there was like, oh, you have to believe this and that. And I had this thing where I thought that you have to use your left and right hands. Like, I thought it was strange that human beings only have they usually only choose their right or their left. And I was like, when your brain becomes more in tune with everything in the universe and all this stuff, you’ll be able to use both hands. That was really, I guess, for me, looking back, that was extreme because it was publicised. And I think that often when you’re going through these states, you actually don’t realise you’re going through them.
[00:08:04] Lucy: So it doesn’t feel extreme at the time when you’re in them.
[00:08:07] Chris: Yeah, exactly. So I feel like it’s not until you come down from a high or a manic episode. Manic episode can be experienced in different ways by different people. But when you come down, it’s almost like you’ve been drunk or taken drugs and you’ve forgotten your night out and you got this hangover and you’re anxious about all the things you said and did.
[00:08:29] Lucy: Yeah. Does it feel like it’s not within your character when you’re in that? Or why? Do you feel anxious about what happened?
[00:08:41] Chris I think I feel anxious about what happened because it isn’t in my character. I’m an outgoing, charismatic, happy go lucky guy. But I think that definitely acting like you’re Jesus or God or that you know all the secrets of the universe, it scared a lot of people at the time. And that’s, I guess, how people become ostracised and they get pushed away. Because when you experience this extreme state, you think you’re it. You’re the chosen one. You got everything going on.
[00:09:12] Lucy: Yes.
[00:09:13] Chris: And then when you come back down to Earth, it kind of adds to the depression, like when you go into a depressive episode. Because I feel like it’s like because when I was 21 and I went through this one of my episodes, all my friends gone, they were not interested in me anymore. They were scared by how I was acting, and I think a lot’s changed. That was about ten years ago now, but I think that was something for me.I felt like that year, 2012, was funny, because that was meant to be the year that everything ended. The world was over. Yes, but that was the world was over for me. It was like, a horrible year for me. Yeah. And I felt really lonely, and I think I don’t know, I think that maybe people didn’t understand, but I do think people can do better. Yeah.
[00:10:10] Rachel: Well, I really want to hear more about how people can do better, but I was really interested in what you said, that coming down and feeling ostracised contributes to the extreme low. Is that right?
[00:10:23] Chris: I feel like that is something that definitely contributes, because you feel like you’re very alone, because you go through this experience where you feel like you’re connected to everything, connected to the universe, connected to.. You kind of have this feeling where you’re in tune, you’re in sync, and then to go through when you have the yeah. Like, I just feel like I used to literally go to McDonald’s or KFC every day, like, once a day. That was my way of coping. I didn’t have any friends at the time, and I was like, all right, is it McDonald’s or KFC today? Which one spin the wheel? Which one is spin the wheel? Exactly. And it was like there wasn’t a lot of joy in my life when I went through the depression. I think that depression is a lot harder to go through because you’re constantly trying to lift yourself up after you’ve been pushed away or ostracised or things like that. But the difference is that as I’ve gotten older and as I’ve gotten more in tune myself, and as I understand my condition more, I realise that whether I’m manic, whether I’m depressed, or whether I’m at a good level, like, where I’m feeling good, a lot of people call it baseline. It’s not my favourite term, only because I feel like baseline, it’s like a permanent baseline, like a permanent level of being. Like, when you’re stable, you’re only at this certain, which is not the case, I think you can have depressed days or manic days, or you might not sleep one night, and then you have the next day. You’re feeling like you got adrenaline rushing through you. But I feel like as I’ve gotten older and with psychology, I’ve realised that this is all me. Everything that I’ve been through, everything that I’ve been, whether it’s an extreme state of a high or a low, it’s still me. It’s just another version of me. And once I got to learn how to accept that, and once I got to learn that, I was like, you know what? I do have an underlying mental illness or I do have a living experience, it allowed me to kind of when I do go through depression now, compared to back then, Rachel, where I felt ostracised. Now I feel like I might just have a day where I eat some junk food and watch a movie and be compassionate to myself and learn how to treat myself better. Whereas back ten years ago, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how I acted in front of other people, if that makes sense.
[00:12:51] Rachel: It does make sense, yeah. So you’ve really learned to respond to yourself differently.
[00:12:56] Chris: I feel like that’s the thing. You have to learn how to respond to yourself differently in order to regulate yourself and in order to because if I’m sad now, I actually allow myself to be sad. I cry. I might put on a sad movie. I might listen to sad music and just cry. And I allow myself that because I feel like emotions are so important and feelings are so important. Whereas when I was younger, I used to be a people pleaser, and I used to kind of say that side of myself, the depressed side of myself, I never showed anyone, like, that side of myself that was up at 03:00 a.m. doing those exam notes or doing those whatever I was doing at Uni. It was different for me back then because I never showed my vulnerability.
I was always trying to keep that side of me away. Whereas now I think sadness is beautiful. I think there’s something beautiful about- what do you think about emotions? Do you think that they all have a place?
[00:14:01] Lucy: Absolutely. Like, I love a good crying session. Look forward to it.
[00:14:06] Rachel: Me too. So healing.
[00:14:07] Lucy: It is, yeah.
[00:14:08] Rachel: And human.
[00:14:10] Lucy: And human. But it kind of sounds like, Chris, that you’re learning more about yourself, or each time that it’s happening, it’s revealing something about you more. When we have the term relapse and things, it kind of implies that people are taking a step backwards, but it might actually be a step forward in getting to know yourself and healing. What do you think about that?
[00:14:32] Chris: I love that because I think that healing is a big thing. I think that we can be healing across our life, and I think that there’s no one time where we don’t learn, we don’t heal. And it was interesting because my psychologist, he said to me, Chris, every time you consider that you go and you think about, like, in quotation marks, like a relapse, you actually go through growth.
[00:14:54]Lucy: Yes.
[00:14:55] Chris: And the way he reframed that, it was very simple. But every time I think about anything that I go through now, like whether I’m on a high low, whatever, I think it’s just growth. Because every single time I’ve gone through something, like an episode, like I did that time, I was hospitalised, and the aftermath of that was really depressed, and I wasn’t in a good place. And I remember I was suicidal at the time, which was the start of 2021, and I was just like, I don’t want to be in this world anymore. Honestly, I just don’t know why I’m having to go through all these things. Like, I felt like a bit hopeless and a bit victim like. And then I ended up telling both my mum and my best friend and both had the same reaction, like they didn’t want to hear it, blah, blah, blah, that kind of thing. And I think I just was really firm. I said, no, you’re going to have to hear it, you’re going to have to listen to it, because this is the way I feel. And in order for me to process what I’m going through and accept what I’m going through, I need to tell you that I’m not feeling like I want to be in this world anymore. And I had to push through and both of them came with such support afterwards and everything like that. And over time, within a few weeks, I wasn’t feeling suicidal anymore. So I think that was for me. I took one of my psychologists, said, take a relapse is growth. And I just thought, you know what, I need to be a strong person, I need to be vulnerable, I need to tell people how I feel and I need to reach out because I’m going through a distress and I need to figure this out. So I feel like if you can kind of look at things in a different way. I feel like the episodes that happened, like end of 20w20 and 2021, and then later on in the year, I had another manic episode, but I kind of bounced back from them a lot quicker. And every time I’ve had some sort of episode, I’ve gotten to know myself better. I think it’s important for all of us as human beings to get to know how to regulate ourselves and how to cope in different situations and not worrying about how I’m perceived, but just focusing on reaching out.
[00:17:12] Lucy: Yes. Because it’s sharing the load with someone else.
[00:17:15] Rachel: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. This might sound weird, but I was thinking it kind of feels like a bit of a gift to give your mum and your best friend to say, I need you to hear this. Just hear it. I need you to hear it.
[00:17:28] Chris: I think humans are very programmed to want to do the easy route, but I reckon that my nun, when I was growing up, he used to say to me, “Christopher, life wasn’t meant to be easy”. And I used to say to him, what are you talking about? It’s meant to be fun. It’s meant to be great, exciting and all this stuff. And then I got to adulthood and then I had a lot of responsibilities, like we all do, and I was just like, wow, he’s right. It wasn’t meant to be easy. And I believe in life you have to work hard on yourself. Someone that’s diagnosed with mental illness, automatically they’re thrust into a position where they have to work on themselves. But I think everyone has to have some sort of self care or some sort of awareness of who they are as well. Because if you kind of go about life thinking that the easy road is you have to kind of…
[00:18:19] Lucy: And thinking that everything’s just going to be given to you as well. I remember reading in the book The Road Less Traveled, and one of the first pages says along the lines of life’s not meant to be easy. But when you act like it is, that’s when the real pain comes in and the struggle. And I was like, oh my God, it’s so true. But if you go with the lens of actually, this isn’t meant to be easy. No one said it was going to be easy. Why am I thinking that? You kind of go with a different mindset.
[00:18:51] Chris: If you assume that everything’s always going to be easy, then you’ll be shocked every time something’s hard. And so every time you get to a point where something happens to you and you’re like, you won’t be able to ever deal with anything, it’s like, I have to bring my car to the mechanic, like next week and it’s going to cost me $800. Not what I would love, obviously, but it’s just part of life. I think that for me, because I’ve experienced these extreme states of highs and lows and everything in between, I’ve gotten to recognise that to surrender to the process of life a lot more, everyone’s different. I’m spiritual. I believe in God and the universe, and I believe in people attracting to each other because they’re like minded and things like that. I do think that when it comes to obstacles last week I didn’t know that I would have the obstacle of the mechanic. But then this week I did. And then I was like, oh, that’s just the way it is. I have an old car. That’s just the way it is.
[00:19:52] Lucy: Totally and I was thinking the same thing last weekend when it was nighttime, it was dark, it was raining, and I got locked out of my house and I was like, I had no phone, no keys to drive anywhere. And I was just thinking, I wish this wasn’t happening right now. All my neighbours got around me were like people coming over with ladders to get into my house. Everyone was banding together. So it’s like I was actually thinking when I got inside my house, I’m like, I’m really glad that happened because it reminded me I have really good neighbours and people are good. If that never happened, I wouldn’t have got that opportunity to chat with my neighbours.
[00:20:30] Rachel: I love that saying, cream rises to the top. Reminded me of with your neighbours, and people go to the top when they’re good people. I wonder what you were saying before. You think we can do better? When you’re talking about how we support people who are in extreme states, what do you think we can do better?
[00:20:49] Chris: I just wish that as a society, we were more inclusive and more prone to helping people feel like they belong or have a sense of belonging. I think about the Mean Girls film and how there’s this one scene where they’re like, don’t sit with us. And I just think we need to be the opposite. It’s like, I want you to sit with us. I want you to be involved. I went out clubbing on the weekend, and there was this man on the outskirt, and he was probably like twice my age or whatever. He was on the outskirt of the dance floor, and my friends are looking at him, and I was like, why don’t we just involve him and come over? And he was dancing with us. He got photos taken with us. People from the nightclub were taking photos of him with us. I was just like, this is so cool. This is so cute. And I just feel like people need to embrace others more. I just feel like along the course of time with social media and things like that, we all use our phones and we all kind of are disconnected in some ways. But I just wish that people made more of an effort, like with your neighbourhood. And I think that when it comes to people that are going through extreme states of mind, like, really depression, anxiety, or mania when I was going through mania, I just wish when I was younger, the people treated me like the same, but they just maybe said, oh, Chris, blah, blah, blah. I didn’t have the right friends then. The thing is that I bang on about a Vibe Tribe. So basically Vibe Tribe is essentially I believe everyone vibrates on a certain frequency, and I believe that people are brought into your life. And I think the thing is that when you have a Vibe Tribe, there are people that you support, and they support you equally. Everyone can find their people. And when you find your people, it should be that you’re compatible. So you get along most of the time, and if you disagree, it’s okay because they give you another perspective. I think that for me, I honestly think that in general, people can do better by being more supportive, by being more open minded and less judgmental and more curious. Asking questions like, what are you going through? I’ve told my family and my friends, if I’m going through stuff, to ask me, like, first, are you okay? And then if it’s like, yes, and then the second question, are you stressed? It gives people insight into the fact that you need support. Do you know what I’m saying?
For me, when my mum said, Are you okay? I might say yes. But then she goes, Are you stressed? I say, also yes. So is there anything I can do? I’m like, oh, can you just hear me out? I need to just vent about this situation. And it gives the kind of tools for other people to support me better.
So asking me questions about how I’m actually feeling rather than judging me and saying, oh, you seem bit racy, you seem bit flat, or you seem to this or you seem that. I think it’s good to observe, but it’s also good to be curious and ask questions. Does that make sense?
[00:23:55] Lucy:Absolutely. The curiosity is huge because I feel like when something becomes foreign to us, like maybe you saying that you feel like you’re Jesus Christ. Some people might freak out about know and then that is what stops the curiosity. But if you actually explore, oh, what does it feel like to be like Jesus Christ? You’re like, actually it feels amazing. Then there’s a whole different conversation that can open up rather than being fearful about everything all the time.
[00:24:22] Rachel: Yeah, well, you can’t be curious if you’re being judgmental. I think dropping judgment allows curiosity.
[00:24:29] Chris: I think that we need to be more aware of how we interact with others and be kind because you just really like it’s cliche, but you just don’t know what another person is going through. And it’s like the times that someone in the recent years I’ve had relapses so like 2020 and 2021 actually had not a relapse, but I called it a hiccup this year because I went and did I’m a part of a pilot episode of a TV show and we filmed on set for eight days straight. And I had the best time, but then I went straight back to work and then I don’t know, people started noticing things about me. Like I was acting a bit different, a bit strange, and saying some strange things and not able to regulate. This is only like four months ago, so these episodes can creep up on you at any point. And sometimes if they creep up on you big time, if you don’t listen to people and you just go about your things, it become a full blown manic episode. I didn’t realise it, but I overworked myself in the acting. In hindsight, I could have easily done the one day of acting and then not helped out. But I wanted to be on set and I wanted to feel the excitement and I did. I was so excited. I loved it and everything like that. And then my doctor said to me, I went and saw my doctor after there’s a few people at work saying, you seem to be different and family and friends. And I went to my doctor and my psychologist and he’s like, you’re just being you. You’re just excited. And I don’t want to change your medication because I want you to feel this excitement. I don’t want to dull this down for you, which is a really good thing. Most of the time, people that are like doctors, they might want to prescribe more medication to kind of dull the senses. But he was like, I don’t want to change this for you. And I honestly think that I would not do it any differently. I don’t regret what I did because I got to experience what I was like on set. I’ve got a vibe tribe where I feel supported even when I’m going through these episodes, which is so different to how I used to feel. And that’s the thing. It’s like not everybody with mental illness has this kind of support.
[00:26:39] Rachel: It really makes me think how the importance of feeling like you belong somewhere or belonging and acceptance allows that sort of non judgmental support to happen.
[00:26:50] Chris : I think people are getting better at becoming more supportive. I think, for sure it’s not all bad. But I do think that the more that we can learn about ourselves, the more control that we have. If you’re listening and you’ve got someone that doesn’t know how to support you, maybe like asking them to ask you those questions like, are you okay? Are you stressed? Is there any way that I can support you? Do you want me to listen or do you want me to give advice? Even that question, do you want me to listen or give advice is really powerful because sometimes you need advice and sometimes you just want someone to listen. We’re not fragile. I think that we might have gone through things that make us feel fragile sometimes, but we’re not permanently fragile and chronic that we can’t figure out life and that we can’t because when things are provided for people, they’re acting like they’re disabled. It just makes the people feel like that they can’t do anything without the system and they can’t move on with their life. I wish that more people would enable people to the point where they have autonomy, where they have the freedom to take risks. Because a lot of the time when people are depressed, they’re like, what do I do with my life? What do I do? The best thing I felt like in my life, whenever I’ve gone through an episode, an extreme state is to try. Try something different, try something new. When I was going through my stuff, I decided, you know what? I’ve been all my life, all my life saying to people, oh, I won’t do a music degree. I won’t do this or I won’t do that, because apparently those degrees don’t make you any money. Which is the reason why I was encouraged not to do them. And I ended up doing psychology, which I hated. And then I ended up getting out of COVID and being like, let’s do what I’ve always loved. And I think hobbies or a creative outlet are so important for every human. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got an illness or not. So I did acting lessons, and then I did an acting workshop, and then last year, I did singing lessons all last year because I was like, I want to record my own song. So these things I hadn’t done since I was, like, in high school because I kind of pushed them aside. And it’s funny because when I was diagnosed with bipolar, I felt like anytime I was manic, I was like, oh, Chris has got makeup on. Chris is unwell. Oh, Chris is doing his nails. Oh, Chris is doing his eyelashes. You know what? I’ve always been like that. I’ve always been someone that’s eccentric. Now I finally feel like I can be creative and free, and I can be Chris and not related to the mania. That took a long time to segue a little bit. I actually think it’s a gift. It’s funny because a lot of people probably would look at these experiences and think, this is not a gift at all. This has been torture. I’ve had to go through extreme highs and lows. I call it my superpower. I call myself a bipolar bear. I’ve kind of owned it and took an ownership of it and accepted it. And I’m happy to talk about it. And even with my past, I can talk about all my things. And I’m healed because I had, like, three years of therapy, talk about all this stuff. I’m not affected by my past anymore. And even when I wrote the song, the reason I wrote the song was to overcome was about overcoming abuse. And it was about standing tall, rising from the ashes, and becoming a bigger, stronger, better version of myself in hope that people that will listen to it also felt like that when they were listening to it. And so I actually think it can be a superpower. And what I mean by that is, because I’ve experienced these extreme states, I have the ability, like, with my acting, for instance, because I’ve been really low and really high, I can funnel that into acting into different ways. It’s always seen, mental illness as a negative thing. But I’ve written songs when I’m manic and I’ve done creative outlets, and I don’t think it’s all bad. I think that sometimes if you get better at knowing yourself and riding the wave and people learning how to treat you better, it’s also a really positive thing as well.
[00:30:47] Lucy: So we wanted to end the episode, all episodes, by asking if you’ve seen anyone sit with distress?
[00:30:55] Chris: Well, oh, there’s been a few, actually. So one time when I was going through manic episode, my cousin, I went and stayed with him for about a week, and he was very supportive. He never kind of talked to me in a different way. He just spoke to me as if everything was all good and I’ve had a few of those experiences. There’s someone else as well, another friend that we did a video call, and he was playing guitar, and I was singing to him, I don’t know, probably for like, an hour, but I was just singing away. And he’s like, do you remember that time when you were manic Chris and I sang on the guitar with you over video call? It’s like, oh, my gosh. I’ve been very lucky and privileged to have people around me that have been there for me and have supported me.
[00:31:40] Lucy: Being there for someone, meeting them as they are is such a easy thing to do. Like, you might be a little bit more energetic or maybe a little bit more down, but you’re still you. You’re still Christopher Stefano.
[00:31:55] Chris: Still the same person, just on the side.
Thank you so much for having me.
[00:32:01] Lucy: Thank you for coming. This has been epic.
[00:32:03] Chris: Thank you so much, both of you.
[00:32:05] Lucy: Thank you, Chris.
What a fun and energetic episode with the one and only Chris Stefano.
[00:32:13] Rachel: It was, wasn’t it? I adored this conversation.
[00:32:16] Lucy: Yeah.
[00:32:17] Rachel: It left me feeling a great amount of joy.
[00:32:20] Rachel: Me, too. I love the part in this episode where Chris talks about following your passions and how important that is when he said he was always interested in acting but was sort of dissuaded from doing that because people didn’t think it was a good career path. But I just feel like a lot of people in general, if you live your life in accordance with what you think other people want from you that can contribute towards such poor mentality and depression and anxiety.
[00:32:50] Rachel: Yeah. I wonder how many people could relate to that in different ways across their lives. There’s definitely to lesser extremes ways, subtle, but when there’s this disconnect with how you see yourself and how you think the world around you sees you can be really hard to reconcile. I got to say. I’ve got to make comment about the Vibe Tribe. I’ve always thought about how important it is to feel like you find your place and how hard it is when you don’t. Yeah, but that word Vibe Tribe, I will plagiarise that all the time now.
[00:33:30] Lucy: I also just want to shout out that Chris has followed his passions and has released a song on all platforms called Like a Page, which is an awesome dance track for those wanting to have a bit of a boogie.
[00:33:44] Rachel: It is excellent. I had the absolute joy of riding in the car back from the recording with Chris, and he played the song for me, and it was so groovy.
[00:33:55] Lucy: So catchy. Get ready for an ear-worm.
[00:33:57] Rachel: He’s done a great job, and congratulations to him.
[00:34:00] Lucy: I hope you enjoyed the episode and I hope you enjoy like a Page.
[00:34:18] Lucy: Thank you for listening to our podcast. If you wanted to stay in touch or learn more about discovery college, please head to our website, discovery.college.
