June 3, 2025 • 31 mins
Daily habits to reduce stress and anxiety have made a huge difference in my mental health—and in this video, I’m sharing the ones that truly work for me. These aren’t generic tips, but personal practices I’ve used to feel more grounded, clear-headed, and calm.
🌱 What you'll find in this episode:
• How eating protein when anxious helps regulate my body and mind
• Why I do personal "audits" to check in with my mental state
• The importance of what I feed myself—food, media, thoughts, and relationships
• How connecting with nature and moments of awe shift my perspective
We’re all different, but I hope sharing what works for me helps you discover what might work for you too.
✨ Let me know in the comments - what habits help you manage stress and anxiety?
Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/
Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/
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Credit for the music used in this podcast:
The Beat of Nature
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fiona Kane (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast
with Fiona Kane.
Today I'm actually going totalk to you about mental health
and anxiety and simply how Imanage my own.
I think sometimes it's usefulto get to someone else's idea of
what works for them.
Now, what works for one personisn't always the same thing that
works for somebody else, but Ifeel like if I at least share
(00:23):
some of my strategies and someof these strategies well, many
of them are strategies I've usedwith my clients you might get
some benefit from them.
So I thought I would start bysharing some of my strategies.
So I suppose the first thing Iwould say is, when I do notice
that I start to get startfeeling quite anxious or start
feeling for whatever better term, sometimes I feel like I'm not
(00:47):
very grounded.
I feel like I'm a bit all overthe place and I feel almost like
I've reached liftoff.
I'm just kind of not groundedanywhere and I'm kind of
flitting about and feeling verydisconnected I suppose is the
right term.
One of the first things Iactually do in that situation is
I eat protein, becauseprotein's really, really
(01:08):
important for helping to groundyou and helping to connect you.
So that's one of the firstthings I will do.
And so it could be some eggs orit could be some chicken or
some fish or whatever it is, butI will sit down and I'll eat
some protein, because I findthat that's really good at
grounding me.
And sometimes.
The other thing I would say toyou is, whenever you are feeling
(01:29):
if you just notice you'refeeling a bit off something's
different, whether that'sphysically or mentally, whatever
it is I kind of do a bit of anaudit, right.
I do a bit of a review of like,okay, what's going on, what am
I feeling?
What's going on?
And I might sort of, like Isaid, stop and have some protein
first and just remember tobreathe, like sort of calm my
(01:51):
breathing down.
But then what I will do is whenI've sort of calmed down a bit
and when I'm sort of sittingthere, I will do an audit.
And essentially by an auditwhat I mean is I think about
what's going on.
So if I'm sitting down to havesome protein, I think, well,
when did I last have someprotein?
What's going on?
And I might find that I've beeneating too many carbohydrates.
(02:11):
I've just been having thesecarbohydrate-only meals, so
maybe I've been eating, I don'tknow, like bread or muffins, or
even just it might be healthierfoods, but just too much without
protein in it, right?
So I will just notice have Ibeen eating protein regularly?
Have I been eating vegetables,or what have I been eating?
(02:32):
I look at what's going on withmy diet because sometimes I
realize, oh okay, I went to afunction last night and there
wasn't much I could eat, so Iactually had the pizza or
whatever it was, and then thismorning I didn't have a proper
breakfast or whatever it is.
But I just do a bit of an audit.
I look back at things I've beeneating.
Then I'll look back at otherthings.
So I'll look back at how muchtea have I been drinking?
(02:54):
Now, that's really the onlycaffeine I have tea and
chocolate, right, but I'll lookat those things.
So, in your life, look atwherever caffeine might be
coming from.
Have you been having too muchcoffee or have you been starting
to rely on energy drinks forenergy?
So it's just looking back onwhat I'm doing as far as
caffeine goes.
Am I overdoing the caffeine?
Then I'll look at things likeam I drinking enough water?
(03:16):
And even though I love my tea,in between that tea, am I having
the water, so just making sureI'm keeping hydrated as well.
So there's simple things thatsort of help you stay grounded,
but also just help you reviewwhat's been going on, what might
be affecting you.
Then I will look at other things.
(03:37):
So I will look at and I'vetalked to you before about what
are you feeding yourself.
Well, what you're feedingyourself isn't just your food,
right?
So what you you feedingyourself?
Well, what you're feedingyourself isn't just your food,
right?
So what you're feeding yourselfis stories that you're telling
yourself, or it's people thatyou're spending time with, or
it's things that you're watching, reading, listening to.
So I'll start looking at well,what am I doing there and how is
(04:00):
it affecting me?
Like, what am I doing that'sdifferent, because last week I
was feeling fine.
This week I'm not.
So what's going on?
So I will be looking at.
You know, have I been readingstuff?
And it could be you're readingthe news and that's not good for
you, or you know.
So sometimes reading the newsmight be good for some people
and sometimes it's not.
So it's just knowing that foryourself, or it might be.
(04:23):
I'm listening to podcasts, butI'm not listening to ones that
upset me, not ones that upliftme, or it might be I've been
watching too many murder showsor CSIs or something like that.
Maybe I need to watch somethinga bit more inspiring or just a
bit more like a rom-com orsomething that's just a bit more
(04:45):
kind of you don't have to thinktoo much about.
Maybe I've been watching toomuch television and I need to
look at have I been goingoutside and have I been looking
at the trees and looking at thebirds and enjoying the world
around me?
Because sometimes we spend waytoo much time inside and we're
not doing anything outside orgoing and enjoying being outside
.
And there is something abouteven if it's just going out into
(05:07):
the backyard or a balcony thatyou have or standing at the
front door, whatever yourlimitations might be, but
there's just something aboutlooking at the birds, looking at
the animals, whatever it is.
I was up the Central Coastlooking after or just helping
out a relative of mine on thelast couple of days and I was
(05:30):
looking out the back window andhe has all of these birds come
to visit him to get fed.
But I was looking at there was,you know, a white cockatoo, and
there was.
He has this magpie family thatcomes to visit him and he has
these crows, these giganticcrows, with this like I really
like oily sort of oily skin oily, I don't want to call it fur,
(05:54):
what do you call it?
Coating anyway, on these crowsand I'm just looking at these
birds because they're prettyamazing to watch and watching
them kind of argue with eachother, that kind of thing.
But I just I allowed myself tohave a bit of awe and kind of
just looked at these birds, youknow.
So sometimes it's just steppingback and looking outside of
(06:15):
yourself and having awe, andwhen I'm up there I always do
sort of a sunrise walk becauseit's on the beach.
So I get really, reallyinspired by watching the sunrise
over the beach down at sort ofin Edelong and Yemina.
It's beautiful there and so Ilove going there, being there
for the sunrise, and evenyesterday I went down there for
(06:37):
the sunrise.
Oh, no, it was the day before,actually, and it was when I
first left his place to go tothe beach.
It was about a five-minutedrive, it was pouring rain,
right, and I just thought, no,no, I can see some space in the
clouds there.
I'm just going to drive downbecause, regardless of anything,
even if I sit in my car andlook at the water, that's good
(06:59):
for me.
So I just thought I'm going todrive down there, I'm going to
sit there and look at the waterand I'm going to wait and see
what happens with the weather.
And I sat in my car for 10minutes while it rained quite
heavily and then the rain easedright off, right, so I was able
to get out.
I just put my hoodie over myhead just in case it started
raining too much and I actuallyjust grabbed a small umbrella
(07:21):
because it was still raining alittle bit.
I did my walk and the rainpretty much stopped when I was
halfway through my walk, right.
But I would have missed it if Ihad said oh no, it's raining, I
can't go right.
I mean, if it was likelightning striking or something,
obviously I wouldn't go in that.
But this is just rain and itwas no big deal.
So I just went anyway, becauseI also know one thing that is
(07:42):
absolute for my mental health iswalking, moving my body.
I have to move my body every day.
If I don't, it affects myphysical and mental health.
So it's just something aboutwalking.
Obviously, we know all thethings that walking does, but
just talking personally, justthe things that I look at, what
it does is it clears my head,what it does is it allows me to
(08:04):
have awe, because I do lookaround and because I'm on
Instagram and all that sort ofstuff.
I will actually not always, butsometimes I'll look for things
that I can photograph that areinspiring.
Right, and I don't alwaysphotograph things.
Sometimes I do.
Sometimes I take photos ofmyself or take photos and all
that kind of stuff, likeinfluencers do Not that I'm
(08:24):
really an influencer, but youknow, sometimes I do that stuff.
Sometimes I won't as well,because that's not good for my
mental health on that day.
But the good thing aboutthinking about things that you
could take photographs of is youthink, oh, what's inspiring
here today?
And I don't mean perfect photos, mean because there's no such
thing.
Like you know, I'm way pastthat.
What I'm just talking about isI thought, oh, that flower is
(08:45):
really pretty or that cloud'sreally nice, or look at the
horse, or look at whatever it is.
So I just do that kind of stuff.
I look around for things thatare beautiful or inspiring.
I'll pay attention to thelittle birds.
I say, oh, what's that littlebird doing over there, or I'll
pay attention to the butterfliesor whatever it is, or the bees
around a flower, or I'll payattention to the butterflies or
(09:06):
whatever it is or the beesaround a flower.
So I just try and pay attentionand so that's really good.
Having awe and just lookingoutside of yourself is really
good for my mental health and Ifind that also it's just that
kind of.
The universe is bigger than us.
Whatever's going on in our headit's so minute compared to the
world.
So just going out there andgetting a bit of a what's the
(09:29):
word?
A juxtaposition or what's theother word, but just a contrast
I can never think of the rightwords, but anyway, going out
there and just getting adifferent point of view
different perspective might bethe word is really really good
for my mental health.
And looking for things that arein nature, that are beautiful,
also really really good for mymental health.
Moving my body, getting thatcirculation going, kind of
(09:52):
getting, because I get reallysore muscles and things, so it's
really good for my muscles aswell to be walking.
All of those things really makea difference in just clearing
my head, and sometimes I'lllisten to podcasts on my walk.
Sometimes I turn it off and I'mnot listening to anything.
But even if I'm listening to apodcast, it's never that loud
that I can't hear first of allwhat's around me, because I want
to be safe, but also I want tohear the birds and things like
(10:15):
that.
So you can sort of listen tothings or not, depending on how
well that works for your mentalhealth and how well that works
in your strategy.
But sometimes actually justlistening to nature is a really
really good thing.
It can be really beneficial.
So all of those things, walking, being out in nature, makes a
difference for me.
(10:36):
So what else I do is I will andeveryone knows this about me but
I do love my tea and I make aritual out of my tea.
I always use pretty cups I'vegot, for those of you listening,
I'm holding up my teacup and,excuse me, I'm just going to
have a sip.
I use pretty teacups.
Sometimes I use special pots,those teapots.
(11:00):
Sometimes I go out to myfavorite cafe and get it might
be a hot chocolate or it mightbe a pot of tea or something
like that, and I do it becauseit's a ritual.
I know I could do it at home,but there's something about
going out and doing it somewhereelse.
It feels special, a bit of aritual.
I'll go up to Currajong there'slovely cafes there, currajong
Village, and I will go out ontothe balconies of those cafes or
(11:23):
sit somewhere where I can seeoutside and I'll watch.
There's a cafe in particularwhere they've got I think it's a
.
I was just trying to rememberwhat.
Is it an eagle, or is it a hawk?
Anyway, a bird of prey of somesort that's out there.
This nest must be nearby andI'll watch it out there and I'll
watch it flying.
I'll watch it flying over thetop of me beautiful.
(11:45):
So going there, having a ritualof a tea or whatever.
So even just things like that,little rituals, rituals of
things that feel special, thatfeel like you are nurturing or
nourishing yourself so any kindof nurture and nourish ritual
can be really, really helpful,because if you think back to
when we were children, it wouldoften be the thing that our
(12:07):
mother would do for us, like themother would make you some
chicken soup, or in Australia itmight be Vegemite toast or
whatever.
It is where you came from,something like that.
So it might be somehowreplicating that If you're lucky
enough to still have your mumaround.
It might be to ring your mum aswell.
Mine's not here anymore, so Itry and replicate little things
(12:28):
that I might have done with heror that she might have done for
me.
Like I said before too, I justalways remember about my
breathing and I find and evenjust in this podcast you'll
notice if you're listening I'vejust started to slow down
because I'm thinking about mybreathing and when I think about
my breathing, I slow downbecause I talk and I talk really
(12:51):
fast and that's just how I am,it's what I do, but I'm learning
.
When I remind myself aboutbreath, I slow down.
I remember to breathe andthat's a good thing and that's
why we do it, because I teachthis all of the time.
Does it mean I have itperfectly worked out?
(13:13):
No, it does not, but I teach itand therefore I remember to
remind myself about it, right?
And so sometimes, during aconsultation or during a podcast
or whatever, I will remindmyself about the art of
breathing.
I will slow down my breath, andthat is really really good for
me, right?
So one of the breathingtechniques I teach my clients
(13:36):
I've talked about it on herebefore is a breathing technique
where you breathe in for fourseconds and out for seven
seconds.
So it's in for four, so youcount to four seconds, out for
seven, so you're breathing outfor that little bit longer.
And essentially what you do is,if you do this six times, so
like one minute 60 seconds, thenwhat happens is you reset your
(14:00):
body and your nervous systemback into rest and digest, so
you take it away from the fightor flight which I would have
talked about before.
I might mention it again here,even though I have talked about
it before back into rest anddigest.
So fight or flight.
So our nervous system hasdifferent modes.
It can be in and there's twomain ones.
(14:23):
It's kind of a few, but there'stwo main ones that people know
about, and one is fight orflight and one is rest and
digest.
Now, fight or flight is therefor a reason.
It's there to deal with danger.
Actually, I saw a videoyesterday.
That's the other thing I likedoing for my nervous system.
I just like watching coolvideos.
There was a video yesterday ofa ranger, a safari driver.
(14:45):
It must have been in Africasomewhere.
He was sitting in his van car,whatever it was.
He had these two.
Was it one or two, I can'tremember now no one.
He had this.
I think it was a cheetah, butwhatever it was, it was a big
cat, right, and it had come upand got really inquisitive and
it was actually sitting right infront of him with its like no
(15:08):
more than a foot away from him,even closer.
I think it was really checkinghim out, right, and apparently
what he was doing, because itshowed you he was kind of
looking away.
He wasn't looking at it.
Apparently, if you look them inthe eye, that shows that you
could be a threat to them.
So he wasn't looking it in theeye, right, and he'd eventually
kind of realized he wasn't athreat.
(15:30):
So it went away.
Obviously it wasn't hungry, butthat would be a case where you
would really be in fight orflight, right, for a really good
reason.
That would be fight or flight,and so fight or flight is a mode
that we go in and it's like aprotection mode to save us.
Now, in his case he did the.
Actually it's fight, flight orfreeze, and he did the freeze
(15:52):
method because I was like hewasn't going to be able to
outrun this cheater thing.
Whatever he was in the car, itwas on his car so he couldn't
drive off without it.
It's not like he's going tostart punching it out.
So he did kind of the freezeand stay calm and look away and
not look in the eye kind ofmethod and it worked right.
(16:13):
But in fight or flight whathappens is our body sends it
gets your heart going reallyfast and it's so it can send
more oxygen and more blood andthings around your body, right.
And the reason being is becauseif you need to run or if you
need to fight or whatever, youneed that sort of extra sort of
boost of energy.
So it's sending around stresshormones like cortisol and
(16:36):
adrenaline and it's sendingaround stress hormones like
cortisol and adrenaline and it'ssending around lots of oxygen
to your arms and legs so you canrun faster.
It's also circulating to youreyes so you can see better.
So basically everything thatyou need so that you can run or
fight or whatever you need to doto get out of this emergency
situation.
And it's an amazing systembecause sometimes that actually
(16:56):
saves our lives and we've allheard stories of people who have
had a dog running after themand they've been at a scale, a
six foot fence, and theynormally couldn't do that, but
they've been able to get overthe fence.
Or the mother who was able tolift a car off the pram when the
baby's pram's been run over, orwhatever, because a mother will
have that have what would seemlike a superhuman strength to
(17:19):
save her child.
So this is what we get to saveourselves.
We get this sort of boost ofall these stress hormones and
this circulation.
Now, that's a good thing ifthere's a cheetah sitting in
your car or if there's a dogrunning after you that wants to
bite you or attack you.
It's not such a good thing ineveryday life when it's just
(17:40):
about a deadline or it's justthoughts that are going around
in our head or whatever it is,because what's happening when
you're in fight or flight?
There's no circulation going toyour reproductive system.
There's no circulation going toyour digestive system, because
your body considers that if youare about to become lunch, you
do not need to digest lunch,right, which is a pretty
(18:01):
sensible system when you thinkabout it.
However, being in that systemall of the time obviously isn't
good for us, because it meansthat we don't digest our food.
We end up with a whole lot moredigestive symptoms, a whole lot
more reflux and bloating andmight be other issues at the
other end.
Whatever, but our digestiondoesn't work well and food sits
(18:24):
around for too long and also,because it's affecting your
reproductive system, it mightaffect your sexual function as
well.
Those sorts of issues mighteven, if it's happening a lot,
affect your fertility, who knows.
So it is a real problem if thisis happening all of the time.
So it's important to understandhow to take your body from fight
(18:47):
or flight and move it back intorest and digest, and that is
what that breathing techniquedoes.
So you do that four seconds inand seven seconds out, and what
it does is it will pull yourbody out of fight or flight and
put you into rest and digest,and so it's a really quick way
of doing that and it's a reallyconvenient one to do when you're
(19:10):
having a meal.
So I encourage my clients to dothis before a meal to take
themselves out of that fight orflight, put themselves into rest
and digest, because when you'rein that mode now, you're
getting circulation to yourdigestive system and your
digestive organs and now you canmake digestive enzymes so you
can break your food down.
If you can break your food down, you can use the calories you
(19:32):
can absorb and use the nutrientsand you're not going to get all
of those digestive symptoms offood sitting around not being
digested right.
So rest and digest is really,really important.
So, and also that includessleep.
So that's the other thing I wasgoing to get to is I look at my
sleep and what I might find isI might find I've been having a
(19:54):
second cup of tea at night andthat's keeping me awake and
getting up too many times to goto the loo.
That's interrupting my sleep.
All the caffeine's interruptingmy sleep.
Or I've been going to bed toolate, or I might have been
eating too late and so I'mlaying in bed and I've got
reflux because I ate at 10o'clock or something like that.
So I look at things to do withmy sleep.
Am I going to bed early enough?
(20:15):
Is my sleep being interrupted?
Am I watching something?
Am I checking my Facebook likesor my argument that I'm having
with someone on Facebook?
Am I checking that right beforebedtime?
Not conducive to sleep guys.
So just things like that I willlook at.
Am I getting enough sleep?
If I'm not, what's affecting mysleep?
What can I do to change that?
(20:36):
So some of the other things thatI do is I will look at things
like if I've got stories goingaround in my head, I might just
say to myself you know, is isthat true?
Is that helpful?
What's going on here?
You know, sometimes we've gotto interrupt those thoughts
because they're not helpful, andsome of the other strategies
(20:57):
I've talked about going for awalk, going out, whatever will
help me interrupt that.
Or maybe listening to a podcastor listening to some really
good music dance around thehouse with some music, because
what we want to do is we want to.
I've talked to you before aboutthings that can sort of boost
your dopamine or boost youroxytocin and different
neurotransmitters in your brain,and so things like music or
(21:19):
dancing around and exercise allthose sorts of things can do
that.
Or watching, like I've saidbefore, watching cute videos
I've been watching cute Capybaravideos lately, but whatever
little cute animal videos All ofthose things are really good
for boosting differentneurotransmitters in your brain,
and so it might be things likethat to boost the
neurotransmitters that I do.
(21:39):
So things to sort of justinterrupt the thoughts I'm
having, and sometimes I just say, look, is it true, is it
helpful, how's it going to helpme right now.
Okay, so we just have to letthat one go for now.
Right?
And?
And sometimes it's action is thebest thing it can do, because
we do get caught inperseverating about things.
So sometimes, rather thanperseverating about things and
(22:01):
going on and on and on,sometimes, like you know what,
I'm going to take some actiontowards my goal, whatever that
is.
And one action can be yeah, I'mgoing to get up and have a
shower.
Another action can be I'm goingto go for a walk.
Another action can be I'm goingto have some protein, and then
it might be whatever the thingis that I need to do.
It might be, you know, whateverthe goal is, it might be I want
(22:23):
to start a podcast.
So you know, like, when I wantedto start my podcast, what was
getting in my way is I didn'treally know what system will I
use and how much microphone willI use, whatever.
So you know what I did.
I asked people.
You can either Google or Iasked people, but I asked people
who were already doing it whatdo you use, what do you do?
What's the simplest thing?
And they all said use thissystem, use this microphone,
(22:47):
whatever.
And then I just did that right,because I get really
overwhelmed in the detail, thosedetails, and I'm not very good
at comparing those sorts ofthings.
So I could have spent another10 years kind of going, oh I
don't know what sort ofmicrophone to use, and I just
asked people who knew right.
And so what I started doing was,as I could afford it, I was
(23:07):
getting those things, or I wasdownloading the system or going
onto the website of the systemand looking at the different
plans.
So one thing might be you go onand you choose a plan that day,
or you might go on and youmight watch a YouTube video
about how to film things or howto do certain things, or you
might ask someone or go and lookat the reviews of a camera,
(23:30):
whatever it is.
But you just start, you justbegin, you do something, and
that's what I did with thispodcast is I just began.
Now I'm not Jo Rogan, I don'thave the biggest, most amazing
podcast in the whole wide world,that's okay.
But what I did is I started andnow I'm sort of more and more.
I'm getting better at differentparts of it, I'm learning
(23:52):
different strategies and, as andwhen funds are available, I'm
getting support from otherpeople and help with different
strategies or aspects that Idon't understand or that I don't
know about, and that's fine.
But now I have a podcast andI've got over 100 episodes of
this podcast, whereas I couldstill be sitting thinking about
(24:14):
what sort of microphone do Ineed, right?
So sometimes you just need tobegin, you need to start, you
need to get some action because,as I've talked about before,
action builds momentum.
So sometimes we just need totake an action.
The action could be as JordanPeterson talks about all the
time.
It could just be make your bedright, but sometimes action and
that's what I would alsorecommend.
If you are someone who is athome a lot or you're working
(24:37):
from home, I would make a pointof have that shower and get
dressed, because there'ssomething about spending the day
in your pajamas that is reallynot motivating at all.
The other thing that I do thatI find really really helpful is
I do butterfly tapping.
You'll have to probably watchthe video if you want to see
(24:57):
what this is or Google what thatis, but essentially I put my
thumbs together with my hands,with my palms facing me.
I put my thumbs together sothat my hands look like, kind of
look like butterflies, and thenwhat I do is I put my hands
(25:17):
over my chest with my thumbsstill hooked in together and I
go tap, tap, side to side, sideto side, side to side, tap, tap,
tap, tap.
So you will have to probablywatch a YouTube video to see
this or Google butterfly tapping.
But essentially, look and Ican't even remember the science
but there's something about whenyou hit either side, when you
(25:38):
hit side to side, it stimulatesboth sides of your brain and
there's something about thatthat can be very calming.
The other thing is that whatyou're doing is you are it's
like a hugging.
You're hugging yourself, soit's also got that benefit, and
it's also that tap, tap, tap,that tap, tap and hugging it.
(25:59):
It is almost like you know whatI was talking about before,
like the soothing, that likewhat your mother might have done
for you when you're a baby, ifyou were lucky when you're a
child.
So it is kind of aself-soothing method that I use.
So sometimes I use that if I'mfeeling anxious as well.
So, uh, so that might be usefulfor you, that might be
something that you could try.
(26:20):
So really, it's just like whenyou're having these issues.
It's remember to breathe.
It's remembering to noticethings outside of yourself.
Go outside, look at theuniverse.
Have a bit of gratitude as well, like I have the gratitude that
I can go outside and that I cansee the beautiful cockatoos or
eagles or whatever the birds arethat I'm looking at when I'm
(26:42):
outside.
I just have such gratitude thatI can see them.
I live somewhere where I cansee them and they are really
beautiful and I can admire theirbeauty.
Do a bit of an audit to see whathave you been consuming and
that might be food-wise, butalso media-wise and other things
.
Are you regularly watchingsomething now that's making you
(27:02):
feel stressed?
Are you putting a news or apodcast or something on first
thing in the morning?
That's actually starting yourday with making you feel really
stressed.
Or are you looking at all youremails and messages first, when
maybe you'd be more productiveif you started with just by
doing your work, or you startedby doing a meditation, or
started by going for a walk orjust started by listening to
(27:25):
music.
That really you know that isreally fun to listen to music.
That's really inspiring.
So kind of look at your dailyroutine and look at little
places where you might be ableto make little tweaks.
But so, essentially, do anaudit.
If you're not feeling goodmentally, do an audit of what's
going on.
Obviously, the other thing isto reach out if you need to.
So it's reach out to a mentalhealth professional or ring
(27:48):
Lifeline or talk to a friend orsomething like that.
So obviously, if somethingfeels like it's beyond you,
reach out for help and getsupport for that.
But these are all kind of justa little kind of everyday
strategies, the sorts of thingsthat I use in my life.
That I find makes a really,really big difference.
The other thing, too, is tolearn to laugh at yourself.
Honestly, it makes a bigdifference when we learn how to
(28:10):
laugh at ourselves.
We do take ourselves tooseriously and I know that I'm
absolutely guilty of that, evenjust like yesterday that our
relative I was with.
I took him for a medicalappointment and on the way back
from the medical appointment Itook the wrong turn and I
thought I'd take it.
He said where are you going?
I said I'm going back the way Icame and he didn't say anything
(28:31):
.
And here I am all of a sudden.
I just realized I'm in acompletely different place and I
just realized I'm in acompletely different place and I
said why don't you tell me?
He said I tried to tell you andI just laughed and I said, oh,
and it ended up being theshortcut home.
It ended up being the long cuthome.
So it took much longer to getback, but it was pretty.
(28:54):
And I said, oh, look, hey, Ialways just laugh about my sense
of direction and and, uh, youknow how good I am at navigating
, you know.
But I laughed, I just said,well, we always get there, don't
we?
Because we do always get there,sometimes I just go the wrong
way, or I think I know which wayI'm going and I don't.
So, you know, I just laugh atmyself and make it just a fun
(29:17):
moment, because sometimes inlife they're the fun moments in
life that you look back on andyou laugh at.
Remember, when I took the wrongturn, you know.
But instead of you know,freaking out about it, I just
enjoyed listening to the bellburns and had a laugh at how
great my sense of direction wasand how sure I was.
I was so sure, I was so surethat I was going the right way.
(29:39):
I'm just retracing the way Icame here?
Well, no, obviously I wasn't,but that's okay, right.
So it's sort of being able togo with the flow and laugh at
yourself and kind of you knowwhat is it?
Life gives you lemons, makelemonade.
Well, my lemonade was listeningto the bell birds and kind of
going oh well, like it's adifferent way, hey, different
(30:01):
view and different things.
To look at a bit longer in thecar so we can have a bit of a
laugh, fine, right.
So those strategies I use.
I hope that you find some ofthem really helpful.
Please like and subscribe andshare and rate and review the
podcast.
It really helps other people tofind out about it and I really
would love to be doing more ofthese and doing them more
(30:24):
regularly.
And the more that people hearabout it, the more that I'm able
to do that.
So please support me in any way.
You can Click on the bells andthe subscribe buttons and all
those things wherever you'relistening to or watching this
podcast.
I hope you have a great weekand I'll talk to you next week,
thank you.
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast
with Fiona Kane.
Today I'm actually going totalk to you about mental health
and anxiety and simply how Imanage my own.
I think sometimes it's usefulto get to someone else's idea of
what works for them.
Now, what works for one personisn't always the same thing that
works for somebody else, but Ifeel like if I at least share
(00:23):
some of my strategies and someof these strategies well, many
of them are strategies I've usedwith my clients you might get
some benefit from them.
So I thought I would start bysharing some of my strategies.
So I suppose the first thing Iwould say is, when I do notice
that I start to get startfeeling quite anxious or start
feeling for whatever better term, sometimes I feel like I'm not
(00:47):
very grounded.
I feel like I'm a bit all overthe place and I feel almost like
I've reached liftoff.
I'm just kind of not groundedanywhere and I'm kind of
flitting about and feeling verydisconnected I suppose is the
right term.
One of the first things Iactually do in that situation is
I eat protein, becauseprotein's really, really
(01:08):
important for helping to groundyou and helping to connect you.
So that's one of the firstthings I will do.
And so it could be some eggs orit could be some chicken or
some fish or whatever it is, butI will sit down and I'll eat
some protein, because I findthat that's really good at
grounding me.
And sometimes.
The other thing I would say toyou is, whenever you are feeling
(01:29):
if you just notice you'refeeling a bit off something's
different, whether that'sphysically or mentally, whatever
it is I kind of do a bit of anaudit, right.
I do a bit of a review of like,okay, what's going on, what am
I feeling?
What's going on?
And I might sort of, like Isaid, stop and have some protein
first and just remember tobreathe, like sort of calm my
(01:51):
breathing down.
But then what I will do is whenI've sort of calmed down a bit
and when I'm sort of sittingthere, I will do an audit.
And essentially by an auditwhat I mean is I think about
what's going on.
So if I'm sitting down to havesome protein, I think, well,
when did I last have someprotein?
What's going on?
And I might find that I've beeneating too many carbohydrates.
(02:11):
I've just been having thesecarbohydrate-only meals, so
maybe I've been eating, I don'tknow, like bread or muffins, or
even just it might be healthierfoods, but just too much without
protein in it, right?
So I will just notice have Ibeen eating protein regularly?
Have I been eating vegetables,or what have I been eating?
(02:32):
I look at what's going on withmy diet because sometimes I
realize, oh okay, I went to afunction last night and there
wasn't much I could eat, so Iactually had the pizza or
whatever it was, and then thismorning I didn't have a proper
breakfast or whatever it is.
But I just do a bit of an audit.
I look back at things I've beeneating.
Then I'll look back at otherthings.
So I'll look back at how muchtea have I been drinking?
(02:54):
Now, that's really the onlycaffeine I have tea and
chocolate, right, but I'll lookat those things.
So, in your life, look atwherever caffeine might be
coming from.
Have you been having too muchcoffee or have you been starting
to rely on energy drinks forenergy?
So it's just looking back onwhat I'm doing as far as
caffeine goes.
Am I overdoing the caffeine?
Then I'll look at things likeam I drinking enough water?
(03:16):
And even though I love my tea,in between that tea, am I having
the water, so just making sureI'm keeping hydrated as well.
So there's simple things thatsort of help you stay grounded,
but also just help you reviewwhat's been going on, what might
be affecting you.
Then I will look at other things.
(03:37):
So I will look at and I'vetalked to you before about what
are you feeding yourself.
Well, what you're feedingyourself isn't just your food,
right?
So what you you feedingyourself?
Well, what you're feedingyourself isn't just your food,
right?
So what you're feeding yourselfis stories that you're telling
yourself, or it's people thatyou're spending time with, or
it's things that you're watching, reading, listening to.
So I'll start looking at well,what am I doing there and how is
(04:00):
it affecting me?
Like, what am I doing that'sdifferent, because last week I
was feeling fine.
This week I'm not.
So what's going on?
So I will be looking at.
You know, have I been readingstuff?
And it could be you're readingthe news and that's not good for
you, or you know.
So sometimes reading the newsmight be good for some people
and sometimes it's not.
So it's just knowing that foryourself, or it might be.
(04:23):
I'm listening to podcasts, butI'm not listening to ones that
upset me, not ones that upliftme, or it might be I've been
watching too many murder showsor CSIs or something like that.
Maybe I need to watch somethinga bit more inspiring or just a
bit more like a rom-com orsomething that's just a bit more
(04:45):
kind of you don't have to thinktoo much about.
Maybe I've been watching toomuch television and I need to
look at have I been goingoutside and have I been looking
at the trees and looking at thebirds and enjoying the world
around me?
Because sometimes we spend waytoo much time inside and we're
not doing anything outside orgoing and enjoying being outside
.
And there is something abouteven if it's just going out into
(05:07):
the backyard or a balcony thatyou have or standing at the
front door, whatever yourlimitations might be, but
there's just something aboutlooking at the birds, looking at
the animals, whatever it is.
I was up the Central Coastlooking after or just helping
out a relative of mine on thelast couple of days and I was
(05:30):
looking out the back window andhe has all of these birds come
to visit him to get fed.
But I was looking at there was,you know, a white cockatoo, and
there was.
He has this magpie family thatcomes to visit him and he has
these crows, these giganticcrows, with this like I really
like oily sort of oily skin oily, I don't want to call it fur,
(05:54):
what do you call it?
Coating anyway, on these crowsand I'm just looking at these
birds because they're prettyamazing to watch and watching
them kind of argue with eachother, that kind of thing.
But I just I allowed myself tohave a bit of awe and kind of
just looked at these birds, youknow.
So sometimes it's just steppingback and looking outside of
(06:15):
yourself and having awe, andwhen I'm up there I always do
sort of a sunrise walk becauseit's on the beach.
So I get really, reallyinspired by watching the sunrise
over the beach down at sort ofin Edelong and Yemina.
It's beautiful there and so Ilove going there, being there
for the sunrise, and evenyesterday I went down there for
(06:37):
the sunrise.
Oh, no, it was the day before,actually, and it was when I
first left his place to go tothe beach.
It was about a five-minutedrive, it was pouring rain,
right, and I just thought, no,no, I can see some space in the
clouds there.
I'm just going to drive downbecause, regardless of anything,
even if I sit in my car andlook at the water, that's good
(06:59):
for me.
So I just thought I'm going todrive down there, I'm going to
sit there and look at the waterand I'm going to wait and see
what happens with the weather.
And I sat in my car for 10minutes while it rained quite
heavily and then the rain easedright off, right, so I was able
to get out.
I just put my hoodie over myhead just in case it started
raining too much and I actuallyjust grabbed a small umbrella
(07:21):
because it was still raining alittle bit.
I did my walk and the rainpretty much stopped when I was
halfway through my walk, right.
But I would have missed it if Ihad said oh no, it's raining, I
can't go right.
I mean, if it was likelightning striking or something,
obviously I wouldn't go in that.
But this is just rain and itwas no big deal.
So I just went anyway, becauseI also know one thing that is
(07:42):
absolute for my mental health iswalking, moving my body.
I have to move my body every day.
If I don't, it affects myphysical and mental health.
So it's just something aboutwalking.
Obviously, we know all thethings that walking does, but
just talking personally, justthe things that I look at, what
it does is it clears my head,what it does is it allows me to
(08:04):
have awe, because I do lookaround and because I'm on
Instagram and all that sort ofstuff.
I will actually not always, butsometimes I'll look for things
that I can photograph that areinspiring.
Right, and I don't alwaysphotograph things.
Sometimes I do.
Sometimes I take photos ofmyself or take photos and all
that kind of stuff, likeinfluencers do Not that I'm
(08:24):
really an influencer, but youknow, sometimes I do that stuff.
Sometimes I won't as well,because that's not good for my
mental health on that day.
But the good thing aboutthinking about things that you
could take photographs of is youthink, oh, what's inspiring
here today?
And I don't mean perfect photos, mean because there's no such
thing.
Like you know, I'm way pastthat.
What I'm just talking about isI thought, oh, that flower is
(08:45):
really pretty or that cloud'sreally nice, or look at the
horse, or look at whatever it is.
So I just do that kind of stuff.
I look around for things thatare beautiful or inspiring.
I'll pay attention to thelittle birds.
I say, oh, what's that littlebird doing over there, or I'll
pay attention to the butterfliesor whatever it is, or the bees
around a flower, or I'll payattention to the butterflies or
(09:06):
whatever it is or the beesaround a flower.
So I just try and pay attentionand so that's really good.
Having awe and just lookingoutside of yourself is really
good for my mental health and Ifind that also it's just that
kind of.
The universe is bigger than us.
Whatever's going on in our headit's so minute compared to the
world.
So just going out there andgetting a bit of a what's the
(09:29):
word?
A juxtaposition or what's theother word, but just a contrast
I can never think of the rightwords, but anyway, going out
there and just getting adifferent point of view
different perspective might bethe word is really really good
for my mental health.
And looking for things that arein nature, that are beautiful,
also really really good for mymental health.
Moving my body, getting thatcirculation going, kind of
(09:52):
getting, because I get reallysore muscles and things, so it's
really good for my muscles aswell to be walking.
All of those things really makea difference in just clearing
my head, and sometimes I'lllisten to podcasts on my walk.
Sometimes I turn it off and I'mnot listening to anything.
But even if I'm listening to apodcast, it's never that loud
that I can't hear first of allwhat's around me, because I want
to be safe, but also I want tohear the birds and things like
(10:15):
that.
So you can sort of listen tothings or not, depending on how
well that works for your mentalhealth and how well that works
in your strategy.
But sometimes actually justlistening to nature is a really
really good thing.
It can be really beneficial.
So all of those things, walking, being out in nature, makes a
difference for me.
(10:36):
So what else I do is I will andeveryone knows this about me but
I do love my tea and I make aritual out of my tea.
I always use pretty cups I'vegot, for those of you listening,
I'm holding up my teacup and,excuse me, I'm just going to
have a sip.
I use pretty teacups.
Sometimes I use special pots,those teapots.
(11:00):
Sometimes I go out to myfavorite cafe and get it might
be a hot chocolate or it mightbe a pot of tea or something
like that, and I do it becauseit's a ritual.
I know I could do it at home,but there's something about
going out and doing it somewhereelse.
It feels special, a bit of aritual.
I'll go up to Currajong there'slovely cafes there, currajong
Village, and I will go out ontothe balconies of those cafes or
(11:23):
sit somewhere where I can seeoutside and I'll watch.
There's a cafe in particularwhere they've got I think it's a
.
I was just trying to rememberwhat.
Is it an eagle, or is it a hawk?
Anyway, a bird of prey of somesort that's out there.
This nest must be nearby andI'll watch it out there and I'll
watch it flying.
I'll watch it flying over thetop of me beautiful.
(11:45):
So going there, having a ritualof a tea or whatever.
So even just things like that,little rituals, rituals of
things that feel special, thatfeel like you are nurturing or
nourishing yourself so any kindof nurture and nourish ritual
can be really, really helpful,because if you think back to
when we were children, it wouldoften be the thing that our
(12:07):
mother would do for us, like themother would make you some
chicken soup, or in Australia itmight be Vegemite toast or
whatever.
It is where you came from,something like that.
So it might be somehowreplicating that If you're lucky
enough to still have your mumaround.
It might be to ring your mum aswell.
Mine's not here anymore, so Itry and replicate little things
(12:28):
that I might have done with heror that she might have done for
me.
Like I said before too, I justalways remember about my
breathing and I find and evenjust in this podcast you'll
notice if you're listening I'vejust started to slow down
because I'm thinking about mybreathing and when I think about
my breathing, I slow downbecause I talk and I talk really
(12:51):
fast and that's just how I am,it's what I do, but I'm learning
.
When I remind myself aboutbreath, I slow down.
I remember to breathe andthat's a good thing and that's
why we do it, because I teachthis all of the time.
Does it mean I have itperfectly worked out?
(13:13):
No, it does not, but I teach itand therefore I remember to
remind myself about it, right?
And so sometimes, during aconsultation or during a podcast
or whatever, I will remindmyself about the art of
breathing.
I will slow down my breath, andthat is really really good for
me, right?
So one of the breathingtechniques I teach my clients
(13:36):
I've talked about it on herebefore is a breathing technique
where you breathe in for fourseconds and out for seven
seconds.
So it's in for four, so youcount to four seconds, out for
seven, so you're breathing outfor that little bit longer.
And essentially what you do is,if you do this six times, so
like one minute 60 seconds, thenwhat happens is you reset your
(14:00):
body and your nervous systemback into rest and digest, so
you take it away from the fightor flight which I would have
talked about before.
I might mention it again here,even though I have talked about
it before back into rest anddigest.
So fight or flight.
So our nervous system hasdifferent modes.
It can be in and there's twomain ones.
(14:23):
It's kind of a few, but there'stwo main ones that people know
about, and one is fight orflight and one is rest and
digest.
Now, fight or flight is therefor a reason.
It's there to deal with danger.
Actually, I saw a videoyesterday.
That's the other thing I likedoing for my nervous system.
I just like watching coolvideos.
There was a video yesterday ofa ranger, a safari driver.
(14:45):
It must have been in Africasomewhere.
He was sitting in his van car,whatever it was.
He had these two.
Was it one or two, I can'tremember now no one.
He had this.
I think it was a cheetah, butwhatever it was, it was a big
cat, right, and it had come upand got really inquisitive and
it was actually sitting right infront of him with its like no
(15:08):
more than a foot away from him,even closer.
I think it was really checkinghim out, right, and apparently
what he was doing, because itshowed you he was kind of
looking away.
He wasn't looking at it.
Apparently, if you look them inthe eye, that shows that you
could be a threat to them.
So he wasn't looking it in theeye, right, and he'd eventually
kind of realized he wasn't athreat.
(15:30):
So it went away.
Obviously it wasn't hungry, butthat would be a case where you
would really be in fight orflight, right, for a really good
reason.
That would be fight or flight,and so fight or flight is a mode
that we go in and it's like aprotection mode to save us.
Now, in his case he did the.
Actually it's fight, flight orfreeze, and he did the freeze
(15:52):
method because I was like hewasn't going to be able to
outrun this cheater thing.
Whatever he was in the car, itwas on his car so he couldn't
drive off without it.
It's not like he's going tostart punching it out.
So he did kind of the freezeand stay calm and look away and
not look in the eye kind ofmethod and it worked right.
(16:13):
But in fight or flight whathappens is our body sends it
gets your heart going reallyfast and it's so it can send
more oxygen and more blood andthings around your body, right.
And the reason being is becauseif you need to run or if you
need to fight or whatever, youneed that sort of extra sort of
boost of energy.
So it's sending around stresshormones like cortisol and
(16:36):
adrenaline and it's sendingaround stress hormones like
cortisol and adrenaline and it'ssending around lots of oxygen
to your arms and legs so you canrun faster.
It's also circulating to youreyes so you can see better.
So basically everything thatyou need so that you can run or
fight or whatever you need to doto get out of this emergency
situation.
And it's an amazing systembecause sometimes that actually
(16:56):
saves our lives and we've allheard stories of people who have
had a dog running after themand they've been at a scale, a
six foot fence, and theynormally couldn't do that, but
they've been able to get overthe fence.
Or the mother who was able tolift a car off the pram when the
baby's pram's been run over, orwhatever, because a mother will
have that have what would seemlike a superhuman strength to
(17:19):
save her child.
So this is what we get to saveourselves.
We get this sort of boost ofall these stress hormones and
this circulation.
Now, that's a good thing ifthere's a cheetah sitting in
your car or if there's a dogrunning after you that wants to
bite you or attack you.
It's not such a good thing ineveryday life when it's just
(17:40):
about a deadline or it's justthoughts that are going around
in our head or whatever it is,because what's happening when
you're in fight or flight?
There's no circulation going toyour reproductive system.
There's no circulation going toyour digestive system, because
your body considers that if youare about to become lunch, you
do not need to digest lunch,right, which is a pretty
(18:01):
sensible system when you thinkabout it.
However, being in that systemall of the time obviously isn't
good for us, because it meansthat we don't digest our food.
We end up with a whole lot moredigestive symptoms, a whole lot
more reflux and bloating andmight be other issues at the
other end.
Whatever, but our digestiondoesn't work well and food sits
(18:24):
around for too long and also,because it's affecting your
reproductive system, it mightaffect your sexual function as
well.
Those sorts of issues mighteven, if it's happening a lot,
affect your fertility, who knows.
So it is a real problem if thisis happening all of the time.
So it's important to understandhow to take your body from fight
(18:47):
or flight and move it back intorest and digest, and that is
what that breathing techniquedoes.
So you do that four seconds inand seven seconds out, and what
it does is it will pull yourbody out of fight or flight and
put you into rest and digest,and so it's a really quick way
of doing that and it's a reallyconvenient one to do when you're
(19:10):
having a meal.
So I encourage my clients to dothis before a meal to take
themselves out of that fight orflight, put themselves into rest
and digest, because when you'rein that mode now, you're
getting circulation to yourdigestive system and your
digestive organs and now you canmake digestive enzymes so you
can break your food down.
If you can break your food down, you can use the calories you
(19:32):
can absorb and use the nutrientsand you're not going to get all
of those digestive symptoms offood sitting around not being
digested right.
So rest and digest is really,really important.
So, and also that includessleep.
So that's the other thing I wasgoing to get to is I look at my
sleep and what I might find isI might find I've been having a
(19:54):
second cup of tea at night andthat's keeping me awake and
getting up too many times to goto the loo.
That's interrupting my sleep.
All the caffeine's interruptingmy sleep.
Or I've been going to bed toolate, or I might have been
eating too late and so I'mlaying in bed and I've got
reflux because I ate at 10o'clock or something like that.
So I look at things to do withmy sleep.
Am I going to bed early enough?
(20:15):
Is my sleep being interrupted?
Am I watching something?
Am I checking my Facebook likesor my argument that I'm having
with someone on Facebook?
Am I checking that right beforebedtime?
Not conducive to sleep guys.
So just things like that I willlook at.
Am I getting enough sleep?
If I'm not, what's affecting mysleep?
What can I do to change that?
(20:36):
So some of the other things thatI do is I will look at things
like if I've got stories goingaround in my head, I might just
say to myself you know, is isthat true?
Is that helpful?
What's going on here?
You know, sometimes we've gotto interrupt those thoughts
because they're not helpful, andsome of the other strategies
(20:57):
I've talked about going for awalk, going out, whatever will
help me interrupt that.
Or maybe listening to a podcastor listening to some really
good music dance around thehouse with some music, because
what we want to do is we want to.
I've talked to you before aboutthings that can sort of boost
your dopamine or boost youroxytocin and different
neurotransmitters in your brain,and so things like music or
(21:19):
dancing around and exercise allthose sorts of things can do
that.
Or watching, like I've saidbefore, watching cute videos
I've been watching cute Capybaravideos lately, but whatever
little cute animal videos All ofthose things are really good
for boosting differentneurotransmitters in your brain,
and so it might be things likethat to boost the
neurotransmitters that I do.
(21:39):
So things to sort of justinterrupt the thoughts I'm
having, and sometimes I just say, look, is it true, is it
helpful, how's it going to helpme right now.
Okay, so we just have to letthat one go for now.
Right?
And?
And sometimes it's action is thebest thing it can do, because
we do get caught inperseverating about things.
So sometimes, rather thanperseverating about things and
(22:01):
going on and on and on,sometimes, like you know what,
I'm going to take some actiontowards my goal, whatever that
is.
And one action can be yeah, I'mgoing to get up and have a
shower.
Another action can be I'm goingto go for a walk.
Another action can be I'm goingto have some protein, and then
it might be whatever the thingis that I need to do.
It might be, you know, whateverthe goal is, it might be I want
(22:23):
to start a podcast.
So you know, like, when I wantedto start my podcast, what was
getting in my way is I didn'treally know what system will I
use and how much microphone willI use, whatever.
So you know what I did.
I asked people.
You can either Google or Iasked people, but I asked people
who were already doing it whatdo you use, what do you do?
What's the simplest thing?
And they all said use thissystem, use this microphone,
(22:47):
whatever.
And then I just did that right,because I get really
overwhelmed in the detail, thosedetails, and I'm not very good
at comparing those sorts ofthings.
So I could have spent another10 years kind of going, oh I
don't know what sort ofmicrophone to use, and I just
asked people who knew right.
And so what I started doing was,as I could afford it, I was
(23:07):
getting those things, or I wasdownloading the system or going
onto the website of the systemand looking at the different
plans.
So one thing might be you go onand you choose a plan that day,
or you might go on and youmight watch a YouTube video
about how to film things or howto do certain things, or you
might ask someone or go and lookat the reviews of a camera,
(23:30):
whatever it is.
But you just start, you justbegin, you do something, and
that's what I did with thispodcast is I just began.
Now I'm not Jo Rogan, I don'thave the biggest, most amazing
podcast in the whole wide world,that's okay.
But what I did is I started andnow I'm sort of more and more.
I'm getting better at differentparts of it, I'm learning
(23:52):
different strategies and, as andwhen funds are available, I'm
getting support from otherpeople and help with different
strategies or aspects that Idon't understand or that I don't
know about, and that's fine.
But now I have a podcast andI've got over 100 episodes of
this podcast, whereas I couldstill be sitting thinking about
(24:14):
what sort of microphone do Ineed, right?
So sometimes you just need tobegin, you need to start, you
need to get some action because,as I've talked about before,
action builds momentum.
So sometimes we just need totake an action.
The action could be as JordanPeterson talks about all the
time.
It could just be make your bedright, but sometimes action and
that's what I would alsorecommend.
If you are someone who is athome a lot or you're working
(24:37):
from home, I would make a pointof have that shower and get
dressed, because there'ssomething about spending the day
in your pajamas that is reallynot motivating at all.
The other thing that I do thatI find really really helpful is
I do butterfly tapping.
You'll have to probably watchthe video if you want to see
(24:57):
what this is or Google what thatis, but essentially I put my
thumbs together with my hands,with my palms facing me.
I put my thumbs together sothat my hands look like, kind of
look like butterflies, and thenwhat I do is I put my hands
(25:17):
over my chest with my thumbsstill hooked in together and I
go tap, tap, side to side, sideto side, side to side, tap, tap,
tap, tap.
So you will have to probablywatch a YouTube video to see
this or Google butterfly tapping.
But essentially, look and Ican't even remember the science
but there's something about whenyou hit either side, when you
(25:38):
hit side to side, it stimulatesboth sides of your brain and
there's something about thatthat can be very calming.
The other thing is that whatyou're doing is you are it's
like a hugging.
You're hugging yourself, soit's also got that benefit, and
it's also that tap, tap, tap,that tap, tap and hugging it.
(25:59):
It is almost like you know whatI was talking about before,
like the soothing, that likewhat your mother might have done
for you when you're a baby, ifyou were lucky when you're a
child.
So it is kind of aself-soothing method that I use.
So sometimes I use that if I'mfeeling anxious as well.
So, uh, so that might be usefulfor you, that might be
something that you could try.
(26:20):
So really, it's just like whenyou're having these issues.
It's remember to breathe.
It's remembering to noticethings outside of yourself.
Go outside, look at theuniverse.
Have a bit of gratitude as well, like I have the gratitude that
I can go outside and that I cansee the beautiful cockatoos or
eagles or whatever the birds arethat I'm looking at when I'm
(26:42):
outside.
I just have such gratitude thatI can see them.
I live somewhere where I cansee them and they are really
beautiful and I can admire theirbeauty.
Do a bit of an audit to see whathave you been consuming and
that might be food-wise, butalso media-wise and other things
.
Are you regularly watchingsomething now that's making you
(27:02):
feel stressed?
Are you putting a news or apodcast or something on first
thing in the morning?
That's actually starting yourday with making you feel really
stressed.
Or are you looking at all youremails and messages first, when
maybe you'd be more productiveif you started with just by
doing your work, or you startedby doing a meditation, or
started by going for a walk orjust started by listening to
(27:25):
music.
That really you know that isreally fun to listen to music.
That's really inspiring.
So kind of look at your dailyroutine and look at little
places where you might be ableto make little tweaks.
But so, essentially, do anaudit.
If you're not feeling goodmentally, do an audit of what's
going on.
Obviously, the other thing isto reach out if you need to.
So it's reach out to a mentalhealth professional or ring
(27:48):
Lifeline or talk to a friend orsomething like that.
So obviously, if somethingfeels like it's beyond you,
reach out for help and getsupport for that.
But these are all kind of justa little kind of everyday
strategies, the sorts of thingsthat I use in my life.
That I find makes a really,really big difference.
The other thing, too, is tolearn to laugh at yourself.
Honestly, it makes a bigdifference when we learn how to
(28:10):
laugh at ourselves.
We do take ourselves tooseriously and I know that I'm
absolutely guilty of that, evenjust like yesterday that our
relative I was with.
I took him for a medicalappointment and on the way back
from the medical appointment Itook the wrong turn and I
thought I'd take it.
He said where are you going?
I said I'm going back the way Icame and he didn't say anything
(28:31):
.
And here I am all of a sudden.
I just realized I'm in acompletely different place and I
just realized I'm in acompletely different place and I
said why don't you tell me?
He said I tried to tell you andI just laughed and I said, oh,
and it ended up being theshortcut home.
It ended up being the long cuthome.
So it took much longer to getback, but it was pretty.
(28:54):
And I said, oh, look, hey, Ialways just laugh about my sense
of direction and and, uh, youknow how good I am at navigating
, you know.
But I laughed, I just said,well, we always get there, don't
we?
Because we do always get there,sometimes I just go the wrong
way, or I think I know which wayI'm going and I don't.
So, you know, I just laugh atmyself and make it just a fun
(29:17):
moment, because sometimes inlife they're the fun moments in
life that you look back on andyou laugh at.
Remember, when I took the wrongturn, you know.
But instead of you know,freaking out about it, I just
enjoyed listening to the bellburns and had a laugh at how
great my sense of direction wasand how sure I was.
I was so sure, I was so surethat I was going the right way.
(29:39):
I'm just retracing the way Icame here?
Well, no, obviously I wasn't,but that's okay, right.
So it's sort of being able togo with the flow and laugh at
yourself and kind of you knowwhat is it?
Life gives you lemons, makelemonade.
Well, my lemonade was listeningto the bell birds and kind of
going oh well, like it's adifferent way, hey, different
(30:01):
view and different things.
To look at a bit longer in thecar so we can have a bit of a
laugh, fine, right.
So those strategies I use.
I hope that you find some ofthem really helpful.
Please like and subscribe andshare and rate and review the
podcast.
It really helps other people tofind out about it and I really
would love to be doing more ofthese and doing them more
(30:24):
regularly.
And the more that people hearabout it, the more that I'm able
to do that.
So please support me in any way.
You can Click on the bells andthe subscribe buttons and all
those things wherever you'relistening to or watching this
podcast.
I hope you have a great weekand I'll talk to you next week,
thank you.
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