A Change in Story

Today's topic explores the idea of a growth mindset and how this frame of mind can help when navigating challenges and trying new things.

Psychologist Carol Dweck originally introduced the concept of a "growth mindset." Her research on motivation and personality led her to discover that people tended to operate with one of two different mindsets: fixed or growth.

A fixed mindset is the idea that our talents, abilities and intelligence are set or can't be changed. While a growth mindset is the belief that intelligence, abilities, talents and even parts of our personality can be cultivated or developed through effort.

Some other characteristics of a growth mindset include:

• the idea that challenges can help us grow;
• failures or setbacks can be learning opportunities;
• facing setbacks or failure doesn't mean that we have to give up on a goal; and
• feedback, both positive and negative, can help us align our efforts toward reaching a goal.

Two ways to help develop a growth mindset are to value effort more than results and to use the word "yet" when referring to goals that you're working toward.

Sources and additional info:

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Disclaimer: The information contained here is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by an emotion?

Today's topic explores Name It to Tame It, a strategy to help reduce the intensity of challenging emotions, like fear and anger, that sometimes feel overwhelming or overpowering.

To give this strategy a try the next time you're feeling an intense emotion, you can break it down into several steps:

First, pause, if you can, and notice what you're feeling in your body. Maybe that's a tightness in your chest or a pit in your stomach.

Next, try to name any emotions that are coming up as best you can. You might notice for example a feeling of anger, fear, or simply overwhelm.

At this point, it can also be helpful to reflect on what might be contributing to the emotion. For example, maybe you're under a lot of pressure at school or work, leading to anxiety or maybe you're in a really frustrating situation, contributing to anger.

You don't have to fix or solve anything but having a greater understanding of what's contributing to the intense emotion can help you better understand what's going on within you and even help you find compassion for yourself.

As a final step, see if you can notice the change in your body as you've been going through this process. For example, do you notice that your breathing is slower and calmer? Do you feel an overall greater sense of peace?

Try to focus on or stay with those sensations of relief for a little while to continue signaling to your body that you're safe.

Like most techniques, Name It to Tame It might work for some people and not for others, or it might work in some situations and not in others. Always use your best judgment regarding which strategies resonate with you.

Additional resources and sources:

Dan Siegel: Name It to Tame It

Lieberman MD, Eisenberger NI, Crockett MJ, Tom SM, Pfeifer JH, Way BM. Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychol Sci. 2007 May;18(5):421-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x.

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Here's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.

Today's topic explores an easy, fun way to identify some of your values by looking at the people who inspire you.

As a quick refresher, values are essentially an internal guidance system that help us to decide what to move toward or away from based on what we find important or meaningful.

Because they're more internal, and not right on the surface, values can sometimes take a little bit of work to figure out or to get clear on.

So to try this exercise:

• Identify three people you look up to. They can be people you know, like family members, friends, people in your community, or they could be famous, maybe an athlete, a musician, actor, artist, or a well-known entrepreneur.
• Reflect on each person, thinking about what characteristics or qualities they each embody that you appreciate or respect. (Maybe it's their work ethic, or their sense of humor, or maybe their sense of community, or their creativity and how they express themselves, etc.)
• Jot down those qualities under each person's name to create three different lists.
• Once you've gotten a number of characteristics down for each person, cross compare among the three lists and see if you notice any similarities or even the same qualities between two or even all three people. You can circle those or make a new list.
• Next, identify at least 3-5 overall values that you might have based on what you've written down. You can also use a list of values available online to help give you some ideas.
• Finally, test it out. Notice how you spend your free time for the next several days, and see if it's reflective of those values you identified. Or, you can intentionally use those values to make decisions about how to spend your free time, and that can help you to further clarify what's really important to you.

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Here's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.

Today's topic explores the difference between values and goals and why it can be helpful to take both into account as you're working toward things you want to achieve.

Goals, for one, provide a destination, like the end point on a map, which is typically something we want to achieve or experience.

Values, on the other hand, are more of an internal guidance system, kind of like a compass, telling us what to move toward or away from based on what we believe is important or valuable to us.

So, goals provide more of the "what" or the destination—where we want to end up—while values provide more of the "how" we're gonna get there and the "why," or the motivation to get the destination.

And this can be important because if we default to focusing more on goals without also considering our values, then we can experience things like burnout or achieve things that feel unfulfilling or empty.

It can also make it more difficult to achieve a goal because if we don't know why we're doing something or why it's important to us, it can make it much harder to enjoy the process and stick with it.

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Here's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.

Today's topic explores what-if thinking and one way to help manage the "what ifs," especially when we're worried about the future.

"What-if" thinking can creep in when things feel unknown or unpredictable, and our minds might start to overreact or go into protection mode by trying to figure out what's going to happen and even try and anticipate worst-case scenarios.

Anticipating the future, or at least trying to, can also sometimes give us a sense of control in times when we may feel like we don't have that much control.

But if we're overly concerned with all of the potential negative outcomes, we can experience an increase in things like stress, anxiety, self-doubt and even indecision.

One way to disengage from these types of thoughts is to try and come up with a possible solution to whatever you're worried about by using the phrase "If … then."

So if you're having the thought what if I fail the exam, can you come up with a plan of action that you could take?

Coming up with a plan doesn't mean you're going to fail or even have to act on the plan, but focusing more on a solution is going to:

• help you feel more at ease because it provides a sense of agency;
• make a decision, which should help you to feel less stuck; and
• help you to ground because your focus is now more on what you can do about the situation or on tangible action steps you can take rather than on all the potential or hypothetical worst-case scenarios that may or may not even happen.

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Today's episode features an interview with Prasant Nukalapati, founder of What Comes Next Ed Consulting, which supports young people launching into adulthood.

This is the second time Prasant has joined the podcast to talk about life after high school and some of the different paths that are available, and in this episode he shares his own personal journey of taking a nontraditional path through college.

You'll hear how an unplanned year off became a turning point, helping Prasant shift from following others' expectations to pursuing what felt personally meaningful to him. He explains how that change in perspective shaped his academic experience and eventually led him to his personal purpose and career.

And while his path wasn't without obstacles, Prasant challenges the idea that choosing a different route is the second-best option.

Instead, he invites listeners to see alternative paths with the same excitement and possibility often associated with a traditional four-year college experience.

For more information on Prasant, check out his website whatcomesnextconsulting.com.

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

Here's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.

Today's topic explores the idea of naming your brain and why this can be a helpful strategy for reducing stress and even improving self-confidence.

If you've never heard of this strategy before, naming the brain is a technique that can be used to help distance yourself from unhelpful or negative thoughts.

These are the thoughts that tell us that we're not good enough, that we should be better at xyz, that everyone thinks we're a phony or that something terrible is definitely going to happen, and so and so on.

This is where naming the brain can come in handy. Because by naming the brain, we are creating distance between us and what is happening in the brain.

The negative thoughts now become their own entity, which when separate, or a thing over there with a name, becomes easier to control or, at least tell it to be quiet.

When you create space between you and the negative thoughts, it's going to help cut off the emotional response, and if you don't give negative thoughts your time and attention through your emotions and continued negative thinking, then they will quiet down.

To give the strategy of naming your brain a try:

You can give it a human name or name it after an object, a color, a place, whatever works for you. Or, if naming your brain doesn't resonate with you, you could try instead to personify it or create a character around it.

Once you have your name or character, try using it when your mind starts chiming in with negative or unhelpful thoughts.

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Here's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.

Today's topic explores self-compassion and how we can use it to motivate ourselves, in spite of the misperception that if we're too nice or lenient with ourselves, then we'll never achieve anything.

That type of thinking actually motivates through fear, which can be a pretty powerful motivator, but it's not always the most effective.

In fact, self-criticism can often get in the way of our goals because it can contribute to things like perfectionism, anxiety, stress, depression and low self-esteem.

Self-compassion, on the other hand, cannot only interrupt self-criticism and its downsides, but it also motivates because it fosters resilience and more of a growth mindset.

When we're kinder to ourselves, we tend to feel more relaxed and open and ideally less afraid to make mistakes, try new things or to get back up when something fails.

We also tend to be more open-minded or curious, which can make it easier to see setbacks and perceived failures as opportunities for growth.

For example, a study published in 2023 found that college athletes who intentionally practiced self-compassion were more likely to see improvements in perceived performance and they experienced lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress compared to their fellow athletes who did not intentionally practice self-compassion.

Research cited: Resilience and Enhancement in Sport, Exercise, & Training (RESET): A brief self-compassion intervention with NCAA student-athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Here's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.

Today's topic explores three different ways to practice mindfulness that don't involve sitting down to meditate.

While mindfulness often gets equated with meditation, the two are actually distinct.

In a nutshell, mindfulness is the ability to focus our attention and awareness on the present moment and notice what's happening inside (so any thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations that might be coming up) as well as whatever may be happening in our surroundings.

It's a state of being, while meditation on the other hand, is a tool or practice that can be used to achieve a state of mindfulness among other things.

While there are benefits to both, intentionally cultivating a practice of being more mindful can be helpful to reduce stress, improve attention and enhance feelings of calm.

Three ways to practice mindfulness are:

1. Use your senses.

Simply pause, if you're able to, and notice what you can see, smell, taste, hear and feel in your immediate surroundings.

2. Narrate a task or something that you're doing while you're doing it.

For example, if you're washing dishes, explain what you're doing as if you were instructing someone who had never washed dishes before.

3. Try a body scan.

Bring your attention to the top of your head and notice any physical sensations you might be experiencing. Then begin moving your attention down your body, to your neck, your shoulders, your arms, all the way down to your feet, noticing any physical sensations as you move to each different body part.

These are just three strategies to help practice mindfulness. There are tons of other techniques that you can use to become more present. You might even come up with your own unique method.

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.

Here's a quick, three-minute tip where we break down a mental health or personal development topic in 180 seconds to help you shift or reframe your perspective.

Today's topic explores some of the different ways that spending time in nature can help expand creativity and problem-solving abilities.

For years there's been more and more research suggesting that spending as little as 10 to 15 minutes outside can have positive effects on overall health. That also includes positive effects on how we think, including on our ability to think creatively and to problem solve.

Some of the reasons for this are that being immersed in nature:

• can provide a break from our normal routines, almost like taking a vacation, which helps the mind to relax and open;
• activates a different, softer type of attention and focus than what we're normally using when navigating modern life; and
• can create a sense of awe, which in turn expands the mind and promotes curiosity, imagination and flexible thinking.

So if you ever feel stuck for inspiration or can't quite figure out what to do about a situation, you can always try spending some time outdoors.

Research cited: "The great outdoors? Exploring the mental health benefits of natural environments." Front. Psychiatry

"Physiological Benefits of Viewing Nature: A Systemic Review of Indoor Experiments." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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Want to reach out, be a guest or have a question? Contact [email protected].

*Disclaimer: The information contained in this episode is for the sole purpose of being informative and is not considered complete. It should not replace consultation with a qualified professional.