Mind In View

Personality tests can be fun to try and offer interesting perspective on ourselves and our loved ones. Based on a listener suggestion, Thea and Kate took their official Enneagram assessments. In this episode, you'll hear which of them is an Achiever whose results lined right up with her self-perception, and which one is an Individualist who was, frankly, triggered by the inaccuracies in hers. You'll have to listen to find out which is which...although you can probably guess.

Are you a goal-setter like Thea, who likes to develop a vision for the future and plan out each benchmark to achieve it? Or are you more of a goal-finder like Kate, whose Pisces heart has to feel its way to the next step? The Mind In View ladies talk about their personal relationships with goals, and how they can be both helpful tools as well as paralyzing pressure-cookers.

Can you remember the first time you felt guilt? It's such an intense, visceral emotion, and yet most of the time we feel guilty even when we've done nothing wrong! Thea and Kate discuss the power of guilt and it's close relative, shame. They also explore their own experiences with that pull of self-blame and punishment, and discuss how they are trying to take some of its power away and get out of that all too familiar guilt trap.

When you experience a major life change that people think of as good--a new job, a move, an addition to the family--do you feel like you aren't allowed be anything but happy about it? Even though along with the great it might still be hard, or sad, or feel like a loss? Thea and Kate explore how even positive transitions can cause all kinds of different feelings. Let's give ourselves and each other a break and leave space for growth to be a little more complicated.

As important as mental health is to our overall well-being, opening up about our struggles can feel like a big risk. What are we afraid of? Thea and Kate talk about the stigmas they've experienced and observed, and try to start chipping away at some assumptions or generalizations that can make people suffering with mental illness feel misunderstood.

Is gratitude an attitude? Is optimism a strategy? Sure. Those positive approaches to life can certainly benefit our mental, emotional, and physical health. But when we don't allow them to co-exist with the hard parts--when they become avoidance or denial in disguise--they can become shallow and toxic. Thea and Kate discuss the importance of acknowledging and embracing the full range of experiences, including the sucky ones, so that we can release expectations that we or others should always be cheerful.

Do you remember the day when "I wouldn't be caught dead leaving the house in sweatpants..." became "it's been so long since I've worn non-elastic clothing I'm not sure it still fits?" This pandemic has done a number on our physical appearances--it's changed our movement habits, what we wear, where we go, and how we see ourselves. Thea and Kate begin to explore the topic by starting with their own relationships with their bodies.

You now how some situations or interactions just feel like they totally drain your life force? Yeah, we do too. In this episode, Thea and Kate talk about their own experiences with "energy vampires," and offer some simple ways we can make sure we are protecting ourselves and our inner peace when we inevitably come upon these people or moments in our daily lives.

Do you have a relationship with your intuition, that little quiet voice inside you that tells you what you really need to know? As valuable as it is, sometimes we can avoid, mistrust, or mislabel it, and as a result we miss out on a connection with our innermost knowing. Thea and Kate discuss their own thoughts on the topic, and offer some ways to "tune in" to that place.

Some of us are great at setting and maintaining our own boundaries. Others (*cough*Thea&Kate*cough*) struggle to understand how best to establish these self-protecting guidelines--and to properly communicate them--before they are crossed by unsuspecting friends and family. In this episode, Kate and Thea consider ways to develop clear boundaries, which in turn helps to recognize and respect those of others.