Live an Intentional Life

You have probably heard that athletes visualise winning moments in their minds to help prepare them for a big game - it helps calm their nerves, they know clearly what to do, and it can increase success.

But did you know that you can use visualisation in other areas of your life as well, to do things like improve confidence and reduce the effect of anxiety?

If you want to take your personal development to the next level, then visualisation is the tool you need in your toolbox. In this episode, I’m explaining all the best research findings, and I’ll teach you EXACTLY how to use mental imagery to increase your success.

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/use-visualisation-for-ultimate-success

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Further research:

Callow, N., Hardy, L., & Hall, C. (2001). The effects of a motivational general-mastery imagery intervention on the sport confidence of high-level badminton players. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 72(4), 389-400.

Cumming, J., & Williams, S. E. (2013). Introducing the revised applied model of deliberate imagery use for sport, dance, exercise, and rehabilitation. Movement & Sport Sciences-Science & Motricité, 82(4), 69-81.

Mellalieu, S. D., Hanton, S., & Thomas, O. (2009). The effects of a motivational general-arousal imagery intervention upon preperformance symptoms in male rugby union players. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10(1), 175-185.

Nordin, S. M., & Cumming, J. (2005). Professional dancers describe their imagery: Where, when, what, why, and how. The Sport Psychologist, 19(4), 395-416.

Simonsmeier, B. A., Andronie, M., Buecker, S., & Frank, C. (2021). The effects of imagery interventions in sports: A meta-analysis. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 14(1), 186-207.
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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

I felt compelled this week to give you a short episode on how to start where you’re at.

If you are stuck with your time management, and know there’s more to life but it all feels just too much - just start where you’re at.

In this episode I give you permission to take the smallest of steps, and I explain what those steps might be for you.

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/feeling-stuck

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

Ever wanted to know EXACTLY how I plan my days? I have two businesses, a big family, and lots of other elements of my life, and it’s a juggle! Listen to this week-in-the-life episode to get an in-depth look at how I schedule everything in, and what happens when things don’t go to plan!

In this episode I cover:

• How I plan my weeks and days
• What planners I use
• My mindset around time
• Flexible planning and interruptions
• White space and sleep

Plus the whole behind-the-scenes look at my life!

Links I mention:

My Amazon Affiliate link to Dr Rick Hansen’s book Resilient - grab it, it’s amazing! https://amzn.to/49XBhFa

Here’s the link to my Daily Planner you can purchase and download:

Greenery design: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1392693520/daily-planner-for-time-management

Bright Abstract design:https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1406908879/daily-planner-for-time-management

And the 2025 Intentional Life Planner is here: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1817669411/2025-intentional-life-planner-2025-diary

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

Not getting enough sleep? Lying awake thinking too much, and wondering if you’ll ever sleep again?

Sleep is SO IMPORTANT, and so I cover my favourite sleep tips in this episode, and what can happen to your cognition and mood when you don’t get enough sleep.

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/get-better-sleep-with-these-tips-your-brain-will-love

References:

Quote from Prof David Dinges came from: Worley, S. L. (2018). The extraordinary importance of sleep: the detrimental effects of inadequate sleep on health and public safety drive an explosion of sleep research. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 43(12), 758.

Abdalla, R. N., Ansari, S. A., Hurley, M. C., Attarian, H., Fargen, K. M., Hirsch, J. A., ... & Shaibani, A. (2022). Correlation of call burden and sleep deprivation with physician burnout, driving crashes, and medical errors among US neurointerventionalists. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 43(9), 1286-1291.

Baranwal, N., Phoebe, K. Y., & Siegel, N. S. (2023). Sleep physiology, pathophysiology, and sleep hygiene. Progress in cardiovascular diseases, 77, 59-69.

Krause, A. J., Simon, E. B., Mander, B. A., Greer, S. M., Saletin, J. M., Goldstein-Piekarski, A. N., & Walker, M. P. (2017). The sleep-deprived human brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(7), 404-418.

Ohayon, M. M., Carskadon, M. A., Guilleminault, C., & Vitiello, M. V. (2004). Meta-analysis of quantitative sleep parameters from childhood to old age in healthy individuals: developing normative sleep values across the human lifespan. Sleep, 27(7), 1255-1273.

Ohayon, M., Wickwire, E. M., Hirshkowitz, M., Albert, S. M., Avidan, A., Daly, F. J., ... & Vitiello, M. V. (2017). National Sleep Foundation's sleep quality recommendations: first report. Sleep health, 3(1), 6-19.

Sabia, S., Fayosse, A., Dumurgier, J., van Hees, V. T., Paquet, C., Sommerlad, A., ... & Singh-Manoux, A. (2021). Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia. Nature communications, 12(1), 2289.

Scullin, M. K., Krueger, M. L., Ballard, H. K., Pruett, N., & Bliwise, D. L. (2018). The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: A polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists. Journal of experimental psychology: General, 147(1), 139.
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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

Have ever felt overwhelmed, stuck, too busy, or unproductive? I think we all have. You can learn how to prioritise what’s meaningful to you, structure your day, and create a holistic and sustainable plan for your life. Time management is so much more than setting timers and putting your phone on silent - it’s a holistic look at the way in which you allocate time during this one wild and precious life.

I hit a pretty difficult point a few years ago, and it was from these challenges and my expertise in cognition that I developed TIMEWISE, my online time management course that takes you through the Intentional Life Framework so that you can craft the life of your dreams.

In this episode I cover exactly what TIMEWISE is all about, so that you can make an informed decision about whether this course is right for you. If you’re ready to uplevel your days then I urge you not to wait, as there are some really valuable bonuses on offer for TIMEWISE week, October 7th to 11th 2024, including 1:1 time with me for the first 10 people who join.

If you’re ready for TIMEWISE, go to liveanintentionallife.com.au/timewise to join now.

Listening after October 11th? That’s ok, TIMEWISE is available for you to join anytime! Go to the website to see the details.

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/time-management-course

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

Do you know what it is you want from your life? Maybe you’re feeling stuck, or disillusioned, or maybe you know that your good life can be even more amazing and you want some help exploring that.

In this episode, I’m going to take you through a dreaming exercise, asking you three powerful questions to help take a look at your life, open your mind, and consider what else might be possible for you.

If you’ve ever thought that things can’t change for the better, then you have to listen. Grab something to take notes!

If you want more dreaming questions and a beautiful workbook to answer them, get the 7 Days of Dreaming Workbook from my online store with the code PODCAST10 for 10% off:

Choose the greenery design: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1383290467/life-dreams-workbook-live-your-dream

Choose the bright abstracts design: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1383290467/life-dreams-workbook-live-your-dream

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/your-dream-life

Research article mentioned in the episode:

Hershfield, H. E. (2011). Future self‐continuity: How conceptions of the future self transform intertemporal choice. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1235(1), 30-43.

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

How are you using your time? Are you someone who often says “I don’t have time?” I like to change my phrasing around this and instead say “I’m not prioritising that right now,” because we all in fact have the same 24 hours in a day.

Whether you consider yourself a “planner,” or have never planned your days before, this episode will help you move towards the life of your dreams.

I’m going to show you that taking time to plan your day is going to help you achieve what you want to get done, and that planning is more important that not having a plan at all, even if you’re going to have interruptions.

I’ll take you through:

• Why planning your day is important
• The science behind FLEXIBLE planning, and HOW to do it
• What to do to prepare to plan (yes, you read that right!)
• How to lay out your daily plan
• The importance of rest and white space
• And a golden nugget of advice at the end

Want the Daily Planner I mention in the episode?  Choose one of two designs, and don't forget your podcast discount code PODCAST10 for 10% off:
The Greenery design: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1392693520/daily-planner-for-time-management
The Bright Abstracts design: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1406908879/daily-planner-for-time-management

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/plan-your-day

References mentioned in the episode:
Britton, B. K., & Tesser, A. (1991). Effects of time-management practices on college grades. Journal of educational psychology, 83(3), 405.
Parke, M. R., Weinhardt, J. M., Brodsky, A., Tangirala, S., & DeVoe, S. E. (2018). When daily planning improves employee performance: The importance of planning type, engagement, and interruptions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(3), 300.

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

Did you know that there is a way to train your attention, feel more emotionally regulated, and generally feel less stressed? And it only takes a few minutes a day. It costs nothing, and it’s something you can do with your kids too. It’s meditation, and it’s something that you can easily learn even if you are not a spiritual person.

In this episode I’m going to cover how to meditate, so that if you’re a beginner you can feel comfortable getting started, and what actually happens when you meditate. Listen out for the amazing info about why it’s ok for your mind to wander!

I’ll also cover the brain science on what happens when you’re meditating, and some of the benefits to cognition and emotions that have been found in the research.

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/how-to-meditate

Find out more about the basics of meditation from expert Tara Brach: https://www.tarabrach.com/howtomeditate/

There are many mediation apps, but I can personally recommend these to get started: Insight Timer, Smiling Mind.

Papers mentioned in the episode:

Bostock, S., Crosswell, A. D., Prather, A. A., & Steptoe, A. (2019). Mindfulness on-the-go: Effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being. Journal of occupational health psychology, 24(1), 127.

Hasenkamp, W., Wilson-Mendenhall, C. D., Duncan, E., & Barsalou, L. W. (2012). Mind wandering and attention during focused meditation: a fine-grained temporal analysis of fluctuating cognitive states. Neuroimage, 59(1), 750-760.

Norris, C. J., Creem, D., Hendler, R., & Kober, H. (2018). Brief mindfulness meditation improves attention in novices: Evidence from ERPs and moderation by neuroticism. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 277779.

Stapleton, P., Dispenza, J., Douglas, A., Dao, V., Kewin, S., Le Sech, K., & Vasudevan, A. (2024). “Let's keep calm and breathe”—A mindfulness meditation program in school and its effects on children's behavior and emotional awareness: An Australian pilot study. Psychology in the Schools, 61, 3679–3698.

Tang, Y. Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature reviews neuroscience, 16(4), 213-225.

Tang, R., Friston, K. J., & Tang, Y. Y. (2020). Brief mindfulness meditation induces gray matter changes in a brain hub. Neural plasticity, 2020(1), 8830005.

Tsai, S. Y., Jaiswal, S., Chang, C. F., Liang, W. K., Muggleton, N. G., & Juan, C. H. (2018). Meditation effects on the control of ... Frontiers in integrative neuroscience, 12, 17.

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

Struggling to focus? There are so many distractions these days, and it’s hard to know how to sit down and do deep work. Without an intentional plan, you may get to the end of the day and realise you didn’t actually do what you should have done, and you end up feeling frustrated and defeated.

Doing meaningful work is satisfying and important, and in this episode you’ll learn exactly how to focus your attention so that you can work at your best. I explain a two-part framework of how the attention system actually works, and then cover EIGHT strategies and tips that will help you focus based on this attentional framework.

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog!  https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/how-to-focus-do-deep-work-and-make-the-most-of-your-time

Scientific articles for further reference:

Basu, S., & Banerjee, B. (2023). Potential of binaural beats intervention for improving memory and attention: insights from meta-analysis and systematic review. Psychological Research, 87(4), 951-963.

Beck, M. R., Trenchard, M., Van Lamsweerde, A., Goldstein, R. R., & Lohrenz, M. (2012, September). Searching in clutter: Visual attention strategies of expert pilots. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting (Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 1411-1415). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.

Katsuki, F., & Constantinidis, C. (2014). Bottom-up and top-down attention: different processes and overlapping neural systems. The Neuroscientist, 20(5), 509-521.

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed, like your brain is totally full and you just can’t think straight?! In this episode, I’m going to show you five tips on how to support your brain so that you can kick stress to the curb.

Your working memory is a really important cognitive skill, and I explain what it is, how it works, and exactly what you can do today to start reducing the load on your mind so that you can feel more at ease.

📚 Prefer to read? Check out this episode on the blog! https://liveanintentionallife.com.au/blog/5-ways-you-can-use-your-working-memory-to-reduce-stress

Relevant research articles:

Baddeley, A. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255(5044), 556-559.
D'Esposito, M., & Postle, B. R. (2015). The cognitive neuroscience of working memory. Annual review of psychology, 66(1), 115-142.
Klabes, J., Babilon, S., Zandi, B., & Khanh, T. Q. (2021). The sternberg paradigm: Correcting encoding latencies in visual and auditory test designs. Vision, 5(2), 21.
Nückles, M., Roelle, J., Glogger-Frey, I., Waldeyer, J., & Renkl, A. (2020). The self-regulation-view in writing-to-learn: Using journal writing to optimize cognitive load in self-regulated learning. Educational Psychology Review, 32(4), 1089-1126.
Sternberg, S. (1966). High-speed scanning in human memory. science, 153(3736), 652-654.

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⏳️ Want to dive in further? I write over on Substack, and you can become a paid subscriber to get deeper and more practical content on exactly how to manage your time, live your ideal week, and love the experience of your life.  Go to liveanintentionallife.substack.com to see more.

📝 If you’re looking to take the ideas in the podcast and turn them into meaningful action, go to my online store where you’ll find beautifully designed workbooks and planners that help support your personal development. Go to my Etsy store at www.etsy.com/au/shop/AnIntentionalLifeAU. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off!

✨️Follow me on Instagram for all the latest tips and inspiration: instagram.com/live.an.intentional.life 

🎙 Don’t forget to rate and review the show so you can feel really good on the inside! Subscribe to the podcast to hear about new episodes.