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Connect with Cathy
http://www.cathysclub.com/
http://www.cathyscomposters.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathynesbitt/

Connect with Russ
https://russjohns.com/
https://thepiratesyndicate.com/
https://nextstepnext.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext/

Audio digitally transcribed by Descript

Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] And good morning pirates. Welcome to the #piratenation and the #PirateBroadcast™. I'm Russ Johns and I'm here today to talk about a no downside lifestyle that you may not know about. And we're going to be talking to Cathy about this and I just really excited to see you again, Cathy, how are you doing?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:00:29] Thank you, Russ. I'm excited to be back. I love being a pirate.

Russ Johns: [00:00:33] Yeah. It's really fun to be out and about and share some of the things that you're doing because  I enjoy what you're doing. We were talking before the show and once again, we're having a conversation and next thing, it's time to go on the show and we should start this and record it, share it with other people. Right?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:00:52] Absolutely.

Russ Johns: [00:00:53] And so for those that may not know you, or haven't been able to enjoy your last episode, give us an update on what you're doing and what you're focusing your attention on so people can understand  how you feel.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:01:10] Thank you Russ. So my working title is Cathy Crawley laughing bean green. I'm focusing right now on the laughing part. Right now we're having a mental health tsunami and it was here before for the current situation. It's just the situation has really brought it to the fore. Now we're really aware, we can't look away anymore. We're having a crisis, what do you call it? Overdoses and drug addictions and like just the gamut of...

Russ Johns: [00:01:38] Suicides are up.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:01:39] Suicide. Thank you.  I couldn't think of the word. It was not my head. Yeah, suicides, all of that. And I think that we really need to reach out to these people. How do you torture people, Russ? By isolating them. So during the pandemic, when we're all shut in. In Canada, Ontario, where they're just opening up today. We can go get our haircut. It's been like months and months. And people are just like going cuckoo because you can't be on your own. You're just with your own thoughts. And it just is you ruminate. And you're like, oh, it's so scary. So laughter just forces us... we're not laughing at the situation, we're laughing because of the situation and it helps us to become more resilient.

Russ Johns: [00:02:22] Yeah. And there's actually a physical result. My friend, Red O'Laughlin used to give clinics on smiling, in how smiling... how I say#smilesarefree. There's not a downside. And that's what I was talking about. You have a no downside lifestyle. It's like laughter yoga, all of these positive things that you can actually bring together kind of life. Okay. Everything is not necessarily ideal. It's not necessarily exactly how we imagined it and we can still live through it. We can succeed. We can thrive. And on your worm business, there's even a waiting list now. People are realizing that they can grow their own food. They can produce gardens and grow things and produce outcomes. And it's all positive. It's all positive.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:03:19] It's my time. Come on, get out of here.

Russ Johns: [00:03:22] Don't take the spotlight. Come on. So Cathy, I wanna go back. You've been doing worms and laughter yoga for a while. Which one came first, the worms or the yoga or the laughter?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:03:36] That sounds like one of those chicken or egg questions. The worms came first, Russ. 2002 I started my worm business, so 19 years selling worms by the pound for worms in the house. And I believe that's my mission. Why I was put on earth. Why not?

Russ Johns: [00:03:51] Yeah. Why not? It's a perfectly acceptable, it's a great mission. And walk us through the process because if you've never owned worms or you're not familiar with worms a lot of people go, ooh, worms, I don't want to. And they're amazing creatures that convert your trash into black gold essentially. So walk us through the process and what people could do to get started or how they would, how they might think about it.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:04:17] Yeah, so this is a beautiful it's for me, composting, it's indoor composting with worms. It can be done outside, but we're in Canada. It's too cold in the winter. In Texas, too hot in the summer, just as example. So the worms are really heat, temperature sensitive. Indoors, perfect, cause if we're comfortable, they're comfortable. So any container will do. It's creating the right environment. So they require a carbon nitrogen mix, just like outdoor composting except indoor, you need to manage it because if you have fruit flies, you're not going to do it. You're going to be like, oh, I don't want a fruit fly explosion. So if you have them outside, they're decomposers. They're fine. So it's your say the carbon or the batting would be shredded paper. So a nice, another way to manage some of your paper.

Russ Johns: [00:05:02] Recycle.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:05:03] Recycle, right? You're recycling. You can use it onsite. And the nitrogen would be your food scraps. So your clippings, when you're preparing your food: potato peels, carrots, bananas, coffee, tea, like all of those scraps. And I would say you want your pre-consumer like your prep stuff rather than your plate scrapings, because once on our plate, we put the salt and pepper and all of that stuff that could be harmful to them.

Russ Johns: [00:05:29] Okay.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:05:30] And the worms convert all of that. So it's in a container like maybe a rubber maid or something like that. I do have a beautiful system, if you just want a container, that's fine. The worms will eat all of that material, the paper and the food, and then their coop. Yes. You refer to it. It's the black gold that's nutrient rich fertilizer that you then put back in the soil because when plants are growing, the nutrients are coming out of the soil, into the plant. So if we take those fruit clippings or whatever, and we throw them in the garbage or do anything other than composting, we're robbing the soil of those nutrients. Yes, we can grow another plant there, it's soil, but it won't be as nutrient rich as the last plant.

Russ Johns: [00:06:10] Yeah. I took a two year course on sustainable farming and did a program and it's amazing to me to learn how dirt is not the same as soil and it's not nutrient rich. Like you would want to grow plants in or food, have a garden. And I did a lot of composting over the years, a lot of soil amendments and getting gardens and garden beds and trying to get all of the right ingredients in there, so plants could grow and it always amazed because a lot of times it was a race between, do the deer get it or do I get it?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:06:50] The deer.

Russ Johns: [00:06:51] The bunnies. Yeah. Yeah. It's all good. It's all good. And it's really important for us to understand that we do have an option. There are alternatives and just like Marcia Reece here, alternatives to chemicals, she's doing copper for a health and antimicrobial, staying safe and healthy. And then we have Elise from south, South Africa, south America. No South Africa is from Elise and she's in here today. And we're talking about healthy food. We're talking about growing your own food with using worms and composting and also smile after. So thank you so much for being here. I want to talk about, I want to talk about the yoga laughter yoga. So is it I've watched your show the other day you were out on the rock. Is that watching your yard?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:07:46] That's a glacial pebble.

Russ Johns: [00:07:48] That's a glacial. That's awesome. That was fantastic. I loved it. It's fantastic. And if anybody hasn't followed Cathy where do they find you? Is where's the best place to find you?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:07:59] Probably my worm website. It's cathyscomposters.com and then you can get to all of my offerings from there. I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, of course I'm all over the place. And I still don't have a cell phone.

Russ Johns: [00:08:10] Is that where you're putting your your videos is on LinkedIn?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:08:13] The videos are on YouTube.

Russ Johns: [00:08:15] Okay. And how often do you post up on YouTube?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:08:19] As often as I can.

Russ Johns: [00:08:20] So you don't quite have a schedule yet, Cathy.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:08:25] I don't have a schedule, no.

Russ Johns: [00:08:27] Alright. Marcia says, hey, thanks for the shout out. So important to get unnecessary chemicals out of our lives. I have to agree with you. There's millions of tons of empty containers of hand cleaner, hand sanitizer in the landfills now that I would prefer not to be there, but that's just me. And I'm not a Puritan. I provide my own share of, material in the landfill, but it's really important for us to think about how we can take little incremental steps and laughter is one of them. And so talk about how you decided to do laughter and what was the prompt? What was the source of this #inspiration for you Cathy.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:09:12] Yeah. So what happened  was about 10 years into my worm business and it was all gung ho, I have tons of energy, so I'm like, yeah, everyone needs worms. And I'm just the one. And then I realized people were afraid of worms and they didn't want them in the house, all of that. And 10 years in, I guess it was about 10 years in.... can you someone's at my door and my husband's just stopped. Sorry, one sec. I'll be right with you.

Russ Johns: [00:09:35] We're talking to Cathy Nesbitt, the laughter yoga teacher and the worm connoisseur. So she's answering her door. We're here. Real-world experience.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:09:48] Okay. I'm sorry. You never know what's going to happen. It's live folks.

Russ Johns: [00:09:52] It's live. It's live.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:09:55] Okay. Yeah, it was about 10 years in and one more person said, ooh, worms in the house. And I was like, oh my gosh, I was really getting discouraged Russ. I was like, maybe I should just get a job. Who would have me? Who wouldn't come on. But I really wanted to keep doing it. And then I was out of business. It's amazing. I think the universe is spectacular. You would getinvested all the time. I was at a business event and the speaker  introduced laughter yoga. I don't even do regular yoga by the way.  I'll talk about laughter yoga in a sec. And I was like laughter yoga, I wonder what that is. I love laughing. That was interesting. And then I was at a networking event that same week. Hundreds of people, the very first woman I met, yeah, a laughter yoga teacher. I said to her, oh my gosh, twice in one week, come on. So I said to her, oh laughter yoga is mainstream cause I heard of it twice in one week. And she said, no, it isn't. We trooped around that night. I asked everyone, have you heard of laughter yoga? Have you heard of laughter? Nobody had heard of it. And I was like, oh, okay. So her laughter club was in the same, like the neighborhood where my mother-in-law lived and I loved my mother-in-law. She just passed, so I'm happy to keep her alive here. And we would go, it was date night, we would go out for dinner and then we'd go to laughter. So fun. And she'd say we better not have garlic. I'm like, that's their problem. And so we would go to this club. Now, this club was at a very densely populated corner in Toronto, like condos everywhere. The first time there was maybe eight people in the club and then the next month there was six people and then there was the three of us. So she said, I can't continue. Like she was paying for space and she canceled the club and I looked around and I thought, what is happening. These people don't know that there's gotta be 10 or 20 people that want to laugh. Come on. And then I thought, I love this so much, I'm going to get trained. So I became a leader, laughter leader, and then I loved it so much. I became a teacher and I've been appointed a laughter ambassador by the founder of laughter yoga himself. So let me talk about laughter yoga. It's the 26th anniversary started by a medical doctor, Dr. Medan  he's from India. And his goal is world peace with love. Can you imagine us all laughing together? So he's doing amazing work. There's clubs around the world, laughter clubs around the world. North America is a late adopter. Like yoga is just arriving. So laughter yoga,  it's still coming, but he's working with police with military with inmates in prisons, students in schools, laughter everywhere and it fits everywhere like with addictions, so when you're laughing, you're secreting all the love drugs, I say, have you had your daily dose of dopamine? Oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins versus when we're stressed and not breathing properly. We're secreting cortisol.

Russ Johns: [00:12:55] Okay. So keep on laughing.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:13:00] Keep on laughing. Laugh everyday 10 to 15 minutes of sustained belly laughter is equivalent to about 300 situps, 30 minutes on a rowing machine, like so many equivalents and how fun. Like ever laughed so hard, your stomach's hurting and you're actually crying. You're like, oh, stop it. Yeah. Those are the laughter muscles.

Russ Johns: [00:13:23] Do you have any #inspiration for people that may need some prompts for laughter?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:13:29] Yes. So #smilesarefree. I think they did this in etiquette class, where you take a pencil, although it's a pen. If you can't smile, if you're like, I'm so serious, there's nothing to smile about.

Russ Johns: [00:13:42] I'm so serious. I can't crack a smile.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:13:45] I think just hold us a pen or a pencil in your teeth. It forces you to have that little smile. And so your brain doesn't know the difference between real and simulated laughter.

Russ Johns: [00:13:56] Isn't that amazing.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:13:58] It's beautiful.

Russ Johns: [00:13:59] To me, that's amazing. And that proves another point is we are not our thoughts. Thoughts come and go and you have choices in when you're thinking of something you could say, okay, that's interesting. Instead of owning it, you can say that's interesting. And just let it go.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:14:17] Yeah, just let it float on by, like nobody would have a friend, like the voice in your head.

Russ Johns: [00:14:22] Nobody wants a friend like the voice in my head. So critical. It's so critical. Oh man. Just think it's so funny. Wendy says, happy Wednesday. Busy Marcia #piratenation keeps me on track. Thank you so much. Thank you Wendy for being here. We're talking about composting, laughter yoga and more rooms. So I love the fact that we can talk about these things. And it's fascinating to me that more people haven't adopted the laughter, even laughter yoga, laughter in general and especially this time of the season that we're going through and some of the challenges that people are going. And it's fascinating to think that something so simple can be so powerful.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:15:14] It's a beautiful release. If you've ever been in a stressful situation and then something funny happens and  you're like, it's not appropriate, but you just keep laughing.

Russ Johns: [00:15:23] It's like cracking up at a funeral.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:15:26] Exactly. It's ooh, that's maybe not appropriate, but it's just like that release. It's not to offend anybody. We just are a pressure cooker. And then we just blow up and it comes out as laughter. And it's a beautiful thing.

Russ Johns: [00:15:38] Yeah. That's what I tell everybody. When I leave, I want everybody to have a party for me.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:15:43] I'll be there

Russ Johns: [00:15:44] We'll have a pirate giveaway. So what's the next step? You're on a wait list for your worms. You're doing laughter yoga. And you're just going to continue to put the word out. And so how can people help and support you and grow this? Is it still laughter coaches or how would you describe that.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:16:05] Yeah, I'm being called I get almost daily requests for paid laughter gigs. So I'm working with Alzheimer's. Before COVID, I was going into long-term care, working with folks with different dementias and because it's not about jokes or comedy, it's intentional laughter exercises. It's really just laughing. So as the laughter leaves, I have to have really big energy to get people to move a little bit. It's gentle movement and just like little games, clapping and chanting. And then a little bit of music because music, as we know, reminds us of the past we don't need to remember just like the, at the laughter yoga, it's not jokes or comedy, so we're just laughing. We don't need the frontal lobe. Like we don't need the comprehension of the joke and jokes are cultural. Laughter is universal, but jokes can be offensive if somebody is the butt of the joke. Funny, not funny for everybody.

Russ Johns: [00:16:58] But laughter in itself is  universal, like you said.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:17:01] It's a universal language. Yeah. So right now I'm working also before COVID I was working with folks with special needs and what I've really believed that I'm divinely guided. I'm open, I'm intuitive and messengers come and I listen. I was walking in the force, oh maybe a month or so ago, and I had this whole vision arrive and it was just like, what is happening? And I understand that you don't need to know the how, like they say, don't worry about how, just what do you want to do? And then how shows up apparently. So I got this message that I was actually training folks with special needs  and specifically down syndrome, to lead laughter classes for their peers, so they would be laughter leaders. I don't know how it is in the U S but in Canada, we have a very poor system when it comes to folks that are special needs, or that are challenged, that are disabled. We have a pension plan called ODSP, which is a disability plan. And it's not enough money to live on, but if you get that money, if you work even part-time, that money comes off, like there's no incentive. There's no incentive to work.

Russ Johns: [00:18:12] No incentive to work, and it's not enough to live on and it's not enough to live on.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:18:19] It's not funny, but they don't have a voice for the most part. People don't have a voice to go to government and say, hey, this isn't right.  And they get kicked out of school. It's either 18 or 21, I don't know.  And then they get given this pension and there you go, live your life. And so for me I don't know, I just feel there's something there. And so I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to do this. I don't know how.

Russ Johns: [00:18:43] You don't need to know the how.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:18:45] I don't know. I don't need to know. I'm just feel there's something there. And I'm the one. And I know that I've got a lot of detractors, people saying why would you put yourself through that?  I don't know why, that's what I was divinely guided to do. I don't know. Like I can't question what I was put here to do.

Russ Johns: [00:18:59] Yeah. Yeah, we all have a gift, right? Wendy says, I love the voice in my head. He says, wow, cupcakes, now get on the elliptical machine. Life is balanced. I love you to go to bed. I love you, Wendy. Thank you so much. Marcia says, wow, I missed a day time is flying for sure. Absolutely. She says the voice in your head phrase needs to be printed on t-shirts. Wendy says you are too kind. See how we can learn laugh today. We can just have a great time. I love the fact that we're here, we're doing something amazing. And like I said before, the thing that we have to remember to be successful in life is produce more value for more people more often. And it'll always come back to us. It'll always return and we can just enjoy life if we're just adding value to more people more often. So there's a big need. There's a seed, me. Or there's a need, there's a seed. Absolutely. Motivator, #inspiration  I love the fact that we're talking about laughter and some of the things that are going on and the first thing we could do is just turn off the news. Just turn off the TV. Kill your TV, as I used to say. And it's really important for us to understand that there are things that we can do. There are people that make a difference and Cathy you're one of them. So I just really appreciate you being here. Is there any kind of a message that you would like to share with the community that we can actually maybe take with us today this week?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:20:49] I would love to invite anyone that's watching now or in the future to attend my, I have a Tuesday free laughter yoga session, come and check it out, but just know it may be your new addiction. Every Tuesday, 9:30 AM Eastern, free on zoom, online for now. Yeah. And I would say just, and if you can't attend mine, there are lots of online sessions. Like laughter yogis are prime for this time. We're here to help raise the vibration, because again, when we're stressed and we're afraid, like during a pandemic, we're not breathing properly and our brain requires 25% more oxygen than the rest of our body. As an operating principle, it's an answering machine, right? When we're stressed. Blood, lymph, oxygen leaves our brain because we go into fight, flight or freeze mode. We don't need to think we just need to act or react. So laughter forces, you can't just laugh ha ha ha ha. You have to breathe in. And so it's the deep diaphragmatic breathing that forces us. Then our body has a little party, all of our cells. If we're ever feeling sad, or not sad, sad is one of the actual emotions, but if we're ever feeling depressed and low energy, if we don't have enough oxygen, we just need to stand up, jump around, move around, go for a walk. We got to move. We have a heart that pumps our blood. We have another fluid called  lymphatic fluid. It only moves when we move. And if we're not moving, our lymphs like cooling and then that's when we can get sick because we're not moving our lymph and  that lymph is our life.

Russ Johns: [00:22:27] I love this. We learned something new today, Cathy. The worm is my new acronym. We own remarkable missions. Yes. Yes. I love that. I love that. It's really important for us to understand that we do have an opportunity to change. We have an opportunity to make a difference, #makeitmatter.. And I just really get excited about this because I've been getting back on my meditation routine and routine of meditation and just reflection and just unplugging for a while. And some of that stuff just, you just have to detox on occasion and laughter is a great way to detox. So Tuesday you say?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:23:10] Every Tuesday, 9:30 AM Eastern.

Russ Johns: [00:23:13] Okay. So if you're out there and about I just want to encourage you to reach out to Cathy, make the connection, enjoy that connection and make sure that everything's in alignment with you. And we have a little bit of laughter in the room.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:23:29] It's great for team building for corporations. Imagine nobody's skipping that day. No one's skipping that meeting because it's just so much fun. You get connected like to the boss, maybe you're afraid of the boss, but imagine you're all laughing. You're all on the same level now because you're just vibrating at the same rate. It's so good.

Russ Johns: [00:23:47] And are people getting back into the office? I know that some time, some people in the U S are getting back to the office or going back to the office.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:23:56] Not yet, we've been locked down for months and months. I don't know what's happening. Like our economy is really suffering. I'm sure. In the states as well. 

Russ Johns: [00:24:05] I got friends up in Toronto, up your way. Barrie's nearby, isn't it?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:24:10] Yes. I'm between Toronto and Barrie.

Russ Johns: [00:24:12] Okay. Okay. I have connections in Barrie as well. And then up by the lakes of where they put all the cabins up by the lakes up there. I can't remember it, Cold Creek or something like that.

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:24:24] Wow. Good for you.

Russ Johns: [00:24:25] Yeah. Up that way, but it's wonderful to have you back, Cathy. Thank you so much for being here and for those that you're listening in, joining in, connect with Cathy every Tuesday, 9:30 Eastern on Zoom?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:24:44] Zoom. Yep.

Russ Johns: [00:24:46] Okay. And what's the name of your worm website?

Cathy Nesbitt: [00:24:50] It's cathyscomposters.com.

Russ Johns: [00:24:53] Okay. Cathy's composters, I love it. Thank you Cathy, for being here again, and thank you for being a pirate. We love having #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings and love to share it. And I love the fact that you're laughing and I love laughter personally, because #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and I just love the idea that we can do that. So keep doing everything you can to make the world a better place. Thank you everyone.

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