S3, E8: Healing through Buddhism with Lanka Wijewardena - Medical Doctor, CEO & Founder of AROGYA Pty Ltd.

Lanka is a Sri Lankan born Australian, based in Melbourne and an Australian MBBS graduate from the University of Adelaide.  Over the last 8 years, Lanka has been working as a General Registered Doctor with a special interest in Occupational Medicine. Lanka's other interests include Indigenous & Migrant Health, Aviation Medicine, Clinical Governance, Leadership & Management. 

Throughout Lanka's career as a doctor, her passion goes beyond clinical medicine. Lanka has always been passionate about Buddhism and its value in individual and social well-being. Combining this passion and Lanka's experience in Occupational Medicine, Lanka has developed AROGYA Pty Ltd offer unique well-being programs named ''Heal with Buddhism" with a mission to teach individuals how to be content with each moment of their lives through the practical application of Buddhist Mindfulness.

Because, Lanka has developed these programs with her many years of experience as a doctor with special interest in  Occupational Medicine understanding the importance of looking after the health and wellbeing of frontline workers, healthcare workers and other professionals who are working under an enormous physical and psychological stress created as a result of ongoing demands under current global crisis.

Most importantly “Heal with Buddhism” programs with a practical approach to life are designed to provide participants a whole new perspective to being content through a philosophical and spiritual journey that teaches them to navigate through the uncontrollable and unpredictable nature of life, which could be dis-satisfying, stressful and tiring at times. 

Get ready to be inspired…..5-4-3-2-1. 

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Connect with Lanka Wijewardena:

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Website: http://www.healwithbuddhism.com.au/

Email: lanka@healwithbuddhism.com.au

Connect with Vicki Main - Podcast Host & Co-Author of The Momentum Mindset Book:

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Click here to purchase a copy of The Momentum Mindset Book by Vicki Main and Jonathan S.Bean.

Transcript

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Buddhist mindfulness teaches us to practice being content in the moment, understanding the continuously changing nature that doesn't allow us to have immediate control over the moments in the present, yet allow us To utilize our experiences in the past to create a better future. Welcome to the Get Unstuck Fast Viscosity podcast brought to you by VLM training and coaching specialists across the UK and Australia, hosted by me, Vicky Maine. Are you a business owner, leader, or executive? Have you ever felt stuck or disappointed where your life or business is heading? Do you ever feel overwhelmed, compare yourself to others, or feel like you're swimming in treacle at times? This podcast is here to help you get unstuck fast from viscosity to achieving escape velocity and expanding your knowledge. Our guests on the show will share practical tips and real life experience about how they got out of negative situations or circumstances to live their best life on their terms. We will be sharing real life stories from real people doing some incredible things. Stay tuned for our next guest. Welcome to season three, episode eight of the Get Unstuck Fast Viscosity Podcast. I'm your host, Vicki Mane. And today we have a special guest, Lanka Wijewaldene. Hi Lanka. Welcome. Thank you, Vicky, for giving me this amazing opportunity to share my experience and thoughts with your listeners around the globe through Get Unstuck, Fast Viscosity podcast. While we're standing on this beautiful land of Australia, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the country throughout Australia. and to the land, water and community. I would like to pay my respect to them, their cultures and their elders in the past and present and the future. Thank you. Thank you, Lanka. And you're calling now from Melbourne in Australia. Is that right? Yes. What a beautiful place in the world to live. It is. It is an amazing place and, and I think you've enjoyed your stay in, uh, Perth, which is another very beautiful place in Australia. Absolutely it is. Love Australia and love Perth as well, as I do Melbourne too. Let's get straight to it, Lanka. Can you tell our listeners more about your career journey and what you're doing now? All right, so I have taken a brief career break and currently looking for my next adventure while working on my business, Heal with Buddhism, a unique well being program designed to teach individuals how to be content through the application of Basic Buddhist principles of mindfulness. As you know, I am a doctor by profession. I graduated from University of Adelaide in 2011 and worked as an intern and surgical resident at Flinders Medical Center in South Australia between 2012 and 15. Since 2015, I have been working as a General Registered Doctor with special interest in occupational medicine. Um, with my special, um, interest in occupational medicine, I was able to provide my services to private and government organizations. A panel physician to Department of Home Affairs through Bupa Visa Medical Services, as well as police medical officers. The to Victoria police. Wow, that's fantastic. And what led you to wanna have a career in the medical profession? What led you to, what inspired you to do that? So I was, as a child, I was always fascinated by these, um, old stories. I used to hear from my grandma and my parents. Um, King Buddha Sasa, a 4th century, uh, Sri Lankan king. His stories were about, he was a surgeon, um, Though he was the king of the country, he used to go around the country with his surgical bag and not only helping people, but also the animals that he encountered through his journeys. So this is where I got this. amazing passion about what if I could help people. So that's how I ended up doing some surgical residency in Flinders Medical Center, though I've changed my career into occupational medicine. Wow. That's fantastic. And so you grew up in Sri Lanka and I've never been there, but it's on my list of countries that I'd love to visit. And yeah, it must be a beautiful place to live. And do you go back there often? Definitely. I go every year. With my mom and both of my parents, the only time I actually didn't visit Sri Lanka was during COVID since I moved to Australia. It is such a beautiful place, so green when you go to the countryside, obviously, and really, it's beautiful in every way, I would say. Oh, lovely. Well, I can't wait to go there at some point. I'd love to go there, but tell us more about what you love about what you're doing now. And I know you've changed roles and careers slightly recently, but tell us a bit about what you love about what you're doing. So as a doctor, especially in the career as in occupational medicine, I enjoy advising individuals and organizations to work together to create an occupational environment that prevent health risks. We can treat people when they get sick, but I believe that preventative prevention is the best compared to Treating people when they get sick, so this is I love about being a doctor while I was working for Victoria police where I could listen to the stories of these individuals who are highly skilled, but they are in a position that they need. medical support, even through my BMBS work, you get to see people from all around the world. It is almost like the world is on your palm. So you get to learn about other people's cultures, religious beliefs, and to learn that every human being is the same, but they are created. Differently because of their cultural or religious backgrounds or environments they experienced. I loved to be part of that experience that where I can teach people how to prevent medical conditions and live the best life they could. Whether it was at home or in their working environment or in the community. Fantastic. And I guess in terms of the role itself, there must be some, obviously working with people in such close proximity and hearing about all of their health challenges and various things. What was the role? Was it around that side or was it the workload or tell me what's the toughest part about what you've been doing? I would say being professional without losing human qualities is the toughest part, because as you would agree, sometimes doctors can come across as cold individuals. I believe it is a Protective message mechanism that we develop to protect our own mental health, but on the other hand, that this can negatively influence our own health and well being as well as our relationships with families, colleagues and the community. So I find myself that is the hardest part because someone tells me about. A very difficult situation that they're being, how can I not have a tear in my eyes because I wanted to be professional? So I think it is that balance to show individuals, you are still a human being, yet you are here to provide some professional advice. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit more about mindset. And So I'm curious, you've seen so Chills and I'm sure when you've been in the thick of it and you've had a lot of stressful situations, you seem very chilled and able to deal with those, but I'm curious, what are you fearful of? Are you fearful of anything? Yes, I am. I am very fearful of disappointing my parents, even though they are very difficult to disappoint because they have sacrificed a lot to support me where I am. That's my main fear too. Yeah. Yeah. It's lovely. I think it's lovely that you still have that great connection with your parents as well. It's really lovely. And on may it continue. I'm thinking about, I wrote a book recently with Jonathan Bean called the Momentum Mindset. And I know you've read it and I'm curious what, what was your biggest takeaway from the book or favorite part? And can you share some tips about dealing with resilience and setbacks and not giving up yourself of things that you've. I learn along the way. Two questions and one. . That's alright. So I loved your book. It was almost like reading someone's thoughts. It's beautifully written, so I really enjoyed reading it. My favorite one was page 78. The Fertility of Worrying, where it says that it is not worth worrying about a situation you may have to deal with in the future. That's because by the time it happens, you will be different and the world around will be different. So any worrying, planning. What you did in the past will be out of date and will be ineffective. I loved this because I am really passionate about Buddhist teachings and this is what exactly where the Buddhist mindfulness teaches us to practice. Being content in the moment, understanding the continuously changing nature that doesn't allow us to have immediate control over the moments in the present, yet allow us to utilize our experiences in the past to create a better future. I loved what you've written. I wanted to read it again. And I would love to read another book that you will do in the future. It is in the pipeline, but again, I think we've had various conversations. Prior to today's call, but I think you've certainly got a lot of depth and knowledge and experience. I'd love to hear you. I'd love to pick up your book eventually and read it about all of your learnings around what you're talking about being in the present moment and how tips to help others, what would you say is the biggest tip that you would give for people to deal with setbacks and not giving up and having that resilience say that being. mindful, being realistic. In my life, the one of the, the greatest lessons I've learned from my parents and people around me is when you are in a difficult situation, it is easy to get anxious and be all over the place. But if you become really calm, you and realistic, you get to understand The real situation, once you understand the real situation, we, as human beings, we are always very capable of managing our moments. Because we have a lot of experiences, once you know the real situation, your mind is able to identify how can I use my experiences and the support network to challenge Or manage this situation. Once you identified that, and once you have a clear understanding about what you can do, you can actually achieve what you want to achieve. But on the other side, if you are realistic, even if you can't achieve what you really want to, To achieve, you still have that self confidence on yourself, knowing that you have taken the best effort to achieve where you want to achieve. That's fantastic. Thank you for sharing your insights there. That's fantastic. I want to talk about leadership and team. Now, working in big teams like we have done, what would you say is, what would you say, generally speaking, is The common mistakes that leaders make with teams in the workplace to build that culture, and I'm not necessarily asking you to talk about any specific work team you've been in, but what would you say are the common mistakes leaders make? I would say managing different personalities is the biggest challenge in managing a team. And I think the common mistake leaders make is managing teams in the working place by trying to use the same antidote to every individuals because they forget. That we are all human beings with different inbuilt mindset that is modeled by different culture, religious values, different set of hard and soft skills as you talk about in your book, and most importantly, different lifestyles. If we were to use the theme technique or theme, I would say antidote to every individual person. I think that doesn't work. I think that's where some of the leaders may not succeed in what they're are doing. By managing teams, though they can be highly skilled individuals. Yeah, that's really, I like what you've said there because there's no one size fits all, is there? And that's the thing. And it's really interesting human behavior. And also the way someone performs in a team can differentiate over a period of time, like if they have an illness or they have challenges outside of work, they might not necessarily, they might need a different style of. Support. They might need a supportive, um, leadership style or whatever that is. So really like what you're saying there. Now I've been doing some research into conflict in the workplace. And I'm curious with your experience and knowledge of Buddhism and how would you handle conflict situations and What would trigger you in terms of, we call them hot buttons, which are very much things that would, would trigger you to get the, perhaps not the response that you necessarily normally have, a constructive response, but what would trigger you in fuel conflict? I'm curious. Of how, because although you're very relaxed and come across as very chilled and you've got very calm, surely there must be things that would trigger your hot buttons. Of course, I'm a human being. I think what triggers me is unconstructive criticisms because people can criticize you, but if they don't tell you what is the problem. What is the answer to the problem and how we can reach to that answer as a team or as a group of individuals, I find that is really unconstructive. Um, I think that I would consider as my hot buttons because that doesn't make. That doesn't give any value to anyone in a team. Sometimes it comes up with ego of different people. Um, when I say ego, I would use it as an umbrella term, that sometimes people may not be, um, satisfied with their own. skill set or their own environment. So then they will probably pinpoint other people look at other people's presentations or their skills in negatively. But most of those people will might not be able to give you. Constructive criticism because willing to be in a better position as a group of people. They're there to achieve a destination alone rather than a team. Makes total sense. What would you say would be the top soft skills? I know you mentioned hard and soft skills, but what would be the top? Soft skills you would have, uh, you would recommend as working as a leader. I believe mindfulness is the most important skill because it Allows you to be a human being while accepting that you are working with other human beings under continuously changing and uncontrollable Environments where you may not be able to reach what you expect But still you have gathered and put all the effort into reaching to the destination you want. At the end of the day, I find it is not the destination that is most important, the way we reach that destination. is what's important because if we are able to reach a destination together, learning, respecting other people and creating a better environment for others, we have already reached a lot of achievements, even though we might not have reached what we have expected at the beginning of where we want to be. Yeah. So, can you give us, give the listeners some tips to stay positive and be more optimistic and how important is it to have that positive mindset or momentum mindset? Can you give us some tips for listeners? I would say being Realistic is what is the most important positive mindset, because that allows you to be positive about your effort and the support around you, but yet it allows you to understand the depth of the situation and allows you to work in a positive mindset to achieve. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think everybody can have those skills to think in a realistic way? Like, do they, or do some people, because some people have more self awareness than others. And it's, I think going off what you said, being realistic, do you think it's important to Having someone there in your support squad or someone you can talk to, to actually talk through these things and say, right, okay, what are the facts? What is, and helping them be more realistic? What would you suggest that they do? Or is it that they do something like a Buddhist practice that can help? What can help them be more realistic? I believe it is, practice is what makes us perfect. I'm not sure whether you can remember learning to swim or learning. Um, to, um, cycling or even learning to eat, drink and walk. We are community individuals and we do our best with learning. By persistence and having support from others, what Buddhism teaches is to be this independent individual, but yet make sure you support. Other people as well as reach out to get support from your loved ones or friends who you can trust. So I think, as you mentioned in the momentum mindset, it is really important to have a group of people and a community that You can turn into when you are in a difficult situation where you can have advice or have support or even for you to lend a shoulder to shed your tears. Fears. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. There's lots of takeaways there. Tell us a bit more about your programs. What sort of services are you offering? So it's a program that is designed to teach individuals how to be content to the application of Buddhist, um, the basic principles of Buddhist mindfulness. So, I am using it with practical tools based on the Bruce Lick's principles of Eightfold Middle Path, where it teaches us to how to train our mind to be kind, compassionate, yet independent. And ability to take challenges, to be able to look after our mental and physical wellness, while supporting others to create a society where Others can be safe and treated fairly. So my program is mainly designed to teach people how can you use these basic principles to be content in your own self, to create a healthy and happy life, whether And, using, utilizing these teachings to create a better environment, whether it is your home, whether it is your workplace, or whether it is your community. Thank you for sharing that. And where can people find you online right now? So I have a website called www heal with buddhism com au. Yeah, and I also write a blog every month on that website. You can find me on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. Yeah. Fantastic. What does success look like for the future for you and your business? Taking Heal with Buddhism programs to every corner of the world, teaching individuals to be content with their individual circumstances, as I said, while creating a healthy, happy, and safe and fair environment for others. Beautiful. Well, I wish you all the success with that. And I'm curious, have you got any final tips that you want to share with listeners about if they're feeling stuck at the moment and they want to get out of a negative situation, live life on their terms, any final tips you could give them that can help them? I think preparing yourself for using skills like mindfulness. Practice is important because as I said, practice makes us perfect. So if we are able to prepare ourselves to, um, face challenges in life, because one of my cousins actually said to me recently, life is like a multiple MCQ question. paper. We go alone while finding the answers to every day to day problems. So if we have actually practiced ourselves how to be positive, where to find help, and who are our Our most supporting network, we are able to face most of those challenges. It is sometimes life put us in situations that we least expect, but it is all about being content, being realistic and reaching out for help. And finding solutions to day to day problems. Well, thank you for your insights, Lanca. I wish you all the success with your programs going global. If anybody wants to find Lanca, she is online on LinkedIn. So you can get on there and find her. The link will be in the bio as well. And looking forward to hearing what you do next, Lanca. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time, Vicky. And I would like to thank all your listeners for listening to your podcast. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, Madcare.