#54 My Body My Story 45 Over 45 - Joanne

In this episode, you will learn 10 FACTS about Joanne and what she thinks about perfect body image, positive changes and challenges of 45+ women, what is it for her to feel good and look beautiful, and what advice she would give younger women and 30-year-old self!

10 Facts About Joanne

(at the time of the project)

1. 62 years old.
2. Joanne grew up together with four siblings in Goulburn, on a sheep farm in a rural area.
3. She studied a Bachelor of Arts and professional writing in Canberra.
4. After she has graduated, Joanne came to Sydney and worked as an entertainment reporter with On The Street magazine. She was interviewing both local bands and sometimes international acts.
5. Joanne was also introduced to a film agent and had a lot of film extra work. She worked on Mad Max Three Beyond Thunderstorm set, and, she spent several weeks as a featured extra on Bangkok Hilton with beautiful Nicole Kidman. She also did quite a lot of television work and some advertisements.
6. Joanne and her Argentinian partner at the time travelled extensively and had a jewellery and handicraft business all through the 1990s.
7. Joanne then became very interested in mental health and psychology and moved on and did a diploma in counselling from the College of Applied Psychology.
8. For the past 10 years Joanne has been working in mental health field.
9. The biggest challenge at this age – “Feeling good about how you look and how you dress and how you interact with others. Being confident.”
10. Positive change with age – “I think I've managed to remain strong, resilient, independent.”

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT (auto-generated)

Hi, you're listening to My Body My Story podcast.

This is a very special day. Though, I'm quite confident that today I will feel the most beautiful I felt for a long time.

 

This is the 45 or 45 chapter where we celebrate rule breakers and role models, the women who inspire us to live life our way and to show that sensuality, beauty, soul and true essence. Here we talk about what it's like to be 45 Plus, adjusting to the changes that come with time, and will listen to the stories of our participants. If you have an interesting story to share, we would love you to participate, you can email us on info@aleksandrawalker.com or visit our website, www. aleksandrawalker.com

 

Hi, everyone, and welcome to my body My Story project and welcome to our studio. Today here with us is Joanne, and while she's sitting in the makeup chair and Chitra is doing makeup for her. I'll be asking her a few questions. Hi, John. Hi, Alexandra. Welcome, and let's start. Tell us a bit about yourself.

 

Hi, well, I'm 62 and a half. I grew up in Goulburn, in a sheep farm in a rural area. And I studied professional writing and came to Sydney and worked as an entertainment reporter. And during the 1980s It was a fantastic time. And then I met my partner at the time and Argentinian. We travelled extensively and had a jewellery and handicraft business all through the 1990s. And then I moved on, studied the primer of counselling and now working well for the past 10 years in with mental health mainly I was at the UN S W on English language tests. But that all stopped in 2020 When COVID arrived,

 

What a career turn - from entertainment journalist to mental health!

 

Yeah, lots of others, many a variety of vocations very interesting times as well.

 

So tell me a bit more about your experience while working for the entertainment. Well, you said it was reporting for the…

 

Yes. So when I studied a Bachelor of Arts and professional writing in Canberra came to Sydney and I was very fortunate to get work with an entertainment magazine called On The Street. So I would be interviewing both local bands and sometimes international acts. It was fantastic. It was very interesting. And then I also was introduced to a film agent and had a lot of film extra work which was also incredibly interesting and fun.

 

Do you remember what movies, series you were?

 

There were quite a few that was? I guess one of the main ones. The two that stick in my mind is Mad Max three Beyond Thunderstorm. And also, I spent several weeks as a featured extra on Bangkok Hilton with our beautiful Nicole Kidman. That was but I did quite a lot of television work some advertisements. Yeah, quite a lot of work. So combined the writing and the film work.

 

That's interesting and whom did you interview? Do you remember any famous person?

 

So let me think of some of the there was a bang from the USA called Concrete Blonde, Naina cherry from United Kingdom. There were a lot of independent groups in Sydney at the time. Let's see the Tex Perkins and various other groups. It's quite a long time ago. I'm trying to remember some of the names of the groups.

 

Oh, that's okay. It's enough. So it was a it was an interesting time.

 

Very interesting. It was fantastic. Yeah.

 

So you have so many different areas you work in. What are you most passionate about what area of Your work or life, you're more into.

 

I'm a very creative and artistic person. But about, let's say 10 years ago, I did a diploma in counselling, which I became very interested in mental health, psychology and in general and just needed to learn for myself. I'm having some depression and anxiety. And that diploma was quite amazing. I did this during College of Applied Psychology. And then I got work with a lady who lives in Bondi who has schizophrenia. I've worked with her for the past 10 years. And I also have a, another client who has something called cerebellar ataxia, which affects the balance sits at brain injury, and he's unable to walk. So I'm, I help both of these people, particularly the lady with schizophrenia with everyday things that they need help with, and taking her to medical appointments to psychiatrists helping her with her medication and her everyday life. Life, I would call him my friend, man who has cerebellar ataxia. I help him with his home, helping around the home and his garden, and just company.

 

So what do you think is the hardest part of schizophrenia, for the person?

 

Schizophrenia is a really, really challenging mental health condition? It is, I think, it's so hard for the people who have schizophrenia to be accepted by a lot of society in general, this is my experience that people are frightened. And, though, for the person, the voice voices, although that is reduced by taking medication, closer pain in this case, but it's an extremely it's just such a challenging, difficult mental health condition. But Carol is my clients name. She trusts me. She relies on me and she's very good. During the years. it's hard. It's hard sometimes. But yeah, it's I see her, probably about 20 hours away. So it's one on one.

 

Yeah. Interesting. So everyone knows that with age we change. But what positive changes? Do you see for yourself at this age?

 

The thing is, if you if you can have confidence, and if you believe in yourself, and you have self belief that gives you power if you lose your confidence. And I think I've managed to remain strong, resilient, independent, and even though there were challenges, sometimes losing confidence, not necessarily in my physical self, because I've always had the same sort of body weight and shape. There, it's more, you're getting older. And yeah, it's, um, everyone must feel the same. Getting old, older is challenging.

 

So what is the biggest challenge of this age?

 

Feeling good about how you look and how you dress and how you interact with others. Being confident in social situations, although the last couple of years, that's been challenging for everyone, during COVID I've only just started to go out again socially in the last few months. So I think if you can walk in somewhere and feel strong, stand up straight head held high and and you feel good about yourself. That's really important.

 

Yeah, so what does it mean to you feeling good and looking good?

 

What does it mean?

 

What is it for you and what comes first? Feeling good or looking good?

 

Feeling good

 

So when do you feel good about yourself?

 

Not always but mostly I'm, I'm quite independent and I move around a lot by my self when I'm not working. So, just that confidence to go out and just feel okay.

 

And what makes you feel the most beautiful?

 

I think what's happening right now will make me feel beautiful. This is a very special day. And that I'm quite confident that today I will feel a nice, beautiful I felt for a long time.

 

Oh, that's nice. Okay, so what would you say, is your greatest accomplishment at this point of your life?

 

My greatest accomplishment would probably to have arrived at this age through so much change. I have a wonderful family. They've been instrumental in keeping me focused and grounded. So probably my greatest accomplishment would be having done all the things I've done, and I'm standing up strong. I hope.

 

So. You mentioned you have family. Do you have brothers and sisters?

 

Yes, I have four siblings. We as I mentioned earlier, we grew up in Goulburn, it was a sheep farm. My parents family, mom and dad's family had been in the area for since the 20s. When my siblings and myself in the 1970s we were very fortunate because there was Gough Whitlam was in power with Labour and there was free tertiary education. So we all managed to go to university both in Canberra, some of us and others in Sydney, and everyone, all my siblings and their partners and my nine nieces and nephews. We all live in Sydney and have been here since the 1980s. My mother's 90 She's in Goulburn and now it's a cattle farm and she runs the farm.

 

Still the same farm?

 

Yeah. One of my brothers. He he's, he runs cattle with my mother's there and my cousin and theirs. Yeah. That's great. Yeah, five of us. Five and my dad, my beautiful dad. He passed away in 2002. Dad served in the Second World War. It was he would have suffered from post traumatic stress. He was beautiful dad. Great Father. And yeah, missing all the time.

 

Yeah, I like listening to family stories. Yeah. Five kids.

 

Yeah, everyone's in around Coogie and Clovelly. And there's a lot of sporting, elite sports people within my family.

 

So you gather together quite often?

 

We do although, like everyone in the last couple of years has been a bit tricky.

 

Yeah. So if you could travel back in time, and meet your 30 year old self? What would you tell her? Or what advice would you give her?

 

To believe in yourself to always be resilient no matter what. Take one day at a time. Because who knows what tomorrow brings? Yep. Be compassionate. Be kind. love animals, birds nature. That's really important to me as well.

 

And what advice would you give younger women who will eventually reach this age, but at the moment, they're still young? What would you tell them?

 

To believe in themselves? If they can education is so important. Knowledge is power. To be respectful, to be kind to believe in yourself, even when Times are hard and, and things can get you down.

 

So if we would talk about the body image, and I like to ask you, where do you think this idea of perfect body image comes from? What is it for you your perfect body?

 

I think, I mean, it's been probably a mainstream sort of idea for some time that advertising and media can really influence how women or men perceive themselves or feel about themselves. Facebook has become social media has become quite daunting. I think for some people, I only just joined Facebook in December of last year, oh, come on, you're really? I think there's a lot of probably, there's a huge amount of regarding beauty and body image and what's the perfect body and that's for male and female. And to look as young as possible, to be fit

 

Who do you think benefits from this image? What industries?

 

Fashion, Makeup? Although, I guess, I mean, in probably in certain careers, it's very important that the image is essential, how you look how you dress, how you, you're,

 

What do you think this careers are? Where's it so important?

 

That could be within business within Media? All kinds of areas, perhaps

 

It's interesting because the human perception first, of course, it's visual perception. And this is a brain mechanism of protecting itself from too much information. So it's like a shortcut for the brain to decide this is my person or not my person, do I want to get deeper into connection with this person or not? And unfortunately, it's based on looks. And this looks like… what are the rules like… that create that's created by media or the society by the industries which are interested in earning more money? Like for example, I believe that a lot of things it comes from plastic surgery industry, medicine, that pharmacies, pharmaceutical medicine, sorry, pharmaceutical industry, and it's just basing its action. As a marketeer. I can just see that? On the very basic human instinct of selective attention. Yeah, that our brain? Yeah, try to shortcut based on visual image.

 

it's almost like it becomes competitive that Yeah, yeah. Unless you have that image in may not feel like you'll succeed, or

 

It's actually, a very deep conversation, because I think it's also to do with the, there's so many sides of that. And I think it's also to do with some ideas like, Okay, this colour scheme, you know, this this kind of things with, with the, like, This colour is important, and this one is worse, you know, like, yes, it's so many sides of this subject, and I think we just need to do a separate podcast. Okay.

 

So, my last question, and do you have any favourite quotes about being a woman or

 

My number one, number one is “Never ever give up.”

 

It's a nice one.

 

Never, ever give up.

 

And I think it can relate to being a woman.

 

You just have to keep forging ahead. And I do like, it's one day at a time. In fact, I had both those on my fridge – “One day at a time”.

 

That's very nice. Yeah. And I think that these two quotes can relate to women as well. Yes. So thank you, John, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and answering my questions. I hope you will enjoy the rest of the day.

 

Thank you to you as well.

 

And you will feel beautiful today.

 

I do already. Thank you so much. Thank you. That was a very interesting

 

If you have an interesting story to share would love for you to participate. You can email us on info@aleksandrawalker.com or visit our website, www. aleksandrawalker.com

This is the 45 over 45 chapter of MY BODY MY STORY podcast, where we celebrate rule breakers and role models - the women who inspire us to live life our way and to show their SENSUALITY,  BEAUTY, SOUL, and TRUE ESSENCE.

 

For more information about the project visit:

https://www.aleksandrawalker.com/45-over-45

 

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