When we seek self-improvement, its easy to pick podcasts as a medium for learning. But what if I told you that *creating* a podcast might be the best way to explore your creativity, reduce your anxiety and steady your life’s journey?

This week I’m chatting to Helen Garcia - a Mental Health Professional, Therapist, and host of The Sincere Practice podcast & newsletter.

I met Helen through a mutual acquaintance in a Mastermind back in 2023, and since then I’ve been following her content creation journey. She has a penchant for exploration and growth through the podcasting medium by exploring creative practices in her content.

The motivation behind it all caught me by surprise, though. Helen understands herself so well, which makes sense with her background as a therapist, but the depth of her intrinsic understanding has allowed her to build a creative environment that activates her.

She talks of diagnosed anxiety, and how her podcast helps to keep her thinking on-track and healthy. And this led to the biggest revelation for me: Helen creates her podcast as a tool to maintain her creative life, not for fame and fortune. And she makes her podcast for the younger version of herself, that needed a guide through the turbulent times.

We also talk about the state of the podcasting industry and charlatans in it, why she left, her favourite microphone (she’s tried a lot!) and she even asks me a few questions that you might be interested in too.

Follow Helen Garcia's Journey:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thehelengarcia/
• "The Sincere Practice" Substack
• "The Sincere Practice" podcast and YouTube Channel

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Chapters:

• (00:00) Intro & meeting Helen
• (00:21) Exercise as creative medicine for a creative brain
• (02:12) Three-notebook system, nature walks & analog habits
• (04:32) Anxiety, depression, immigration & finding freedom in creativity
• (08:13) Hustle bros vs wholesome creativity & Matthew’s own practices
• (11:15) Flow, biology and growing up around microbiology talk
• (14:20) Social media, limbic hijack, video games & flow states
• (18:20) Bringing a therapist lens into podcasting & self-help skepticism
• (26:06) Questioning experts, cult followings & defining a meaningful life
• (33:59) Rebrands, self-discovery & landing on “The Sincere Practice”
• (44:03) Being too hard on ourselves as podcasters & learning to accept choices
• (51:05) Creating for your younger self, future kids & what listeners really want

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy