There’s a lot of confusion over self-care – it’s about much more than bubble baths, it isn’t being selfish and it’s not about putting yourself first. Taking care of your needs as well as taking care of everyone else makes you better able to spend less time lost in raking over the past and what if-ing the future.

In this episode we look at:

• What self-care is
• And what self-care is not
• Where you may already be practising self-care
• The benefits of practising self-care to you as an overthinker, and to those around you

Resources:

Episode 2: How to worry less about what others think of you

Previous episodes featuring self-care actions:

• Episode 4: How to take micro mindful moments in your day
• Episode 8: Calm your mind and open your eyes with a mindful walk
• Episode 10: What to do when you feel overwhelmed

Overwhelm likes to take on different guises so it can get a firm hold on you without you even realising. It shows up as a lack of focus, an inability to know what to do next, as a lack of patience, as pessimism, lethargy and apathy along with plenty of other feelings that make you want to hide under the duvet.

In this episode we look at:

• The sneaky signs that you’re in overwhelm
• What are the common causes
• What you can do to help yourself feel better
• How you can reduce its impact on you next time

 Resources:

Episode 8: Calm your mind and open your eyes with a mindful walk

Overthinkers often believe that if you can have everything in life planned out and organised, know what’s happening where, when, how and with whom, then you’ll be able to stop worrying. If only it was really true. Trying to keep control of everything doesn’t stop you worrying so it’s time we took a different approach.

In this episode we look at:

• What wanting to be in total control looks like
• The role of What If
• How trying to keep control won’t make worrying disappear
• How to recognise when you’re in controlling mode
• What to do to loosen your controlling grip

There are times when thinking over a problem or formulating a plan while you’re walking works well and other times when you get stuck in overthinking, going over and over the same thoughts without getting anywhere. That’s when applying mindfulness while you’re in the great outdoors, whether you’re in a crowded city or a quiet forest, can calm your whirring mind, reduce your stress and open your eyes to the world around you.

In this episode we look at:

• What is mindful walking
• How it can benefit you, not just when you’re overthinking
• My experience of how it made a difference in my life
• How to take a mindful walk

Resources:

• Episode 6: How to break the rumination cycle
• Savour the Season: Step into Spring with Mindful Intention Ebook has lots of ideas and resources to maximise your enjoyment of Spring outdoors

When you think of what makes you feel content, what gives you bumps of joy in your daily life, more often than not it’s the little things rather than the big events. And why is that? It’s because we notice these so-called little things and we savour them. The benefits of savouring the ordinary stuff of life are far-reaching.

In this episode we look at:

• What is savouring
• What are the benefits to our wellbeing
• The four strands of savouring
• Why money doesn’t help
• What we can do to increase our opportunities to savour

 Resources:

• Books discussing savouring: Savouring by Fred Boyd Bryant, The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman
• Take photos of what you’re savouring in life and share on Instagram with #savouringhappiness, #savourtheseasonalshift, #flashesofdelight #petitejoys or #forahappymoment
• Get a copy of my ebook Savour the Season: Step into Spring with Mindful Intention to maximise your enjoyment of Spring and consider what you want to do and how you want to feel as you move through Spring and into Summer

While you’re replaying the same thoughts over and over and over again you’re lost in your head ruminating and what if-ing and worrying and overthinking. It’s exhausting and stressful and it can feel really hard to break free of this overthinking vortex. But it is possible. Not by trying not to think but by directing your attention elsewhere.

In this episode we look at:

• What is rumination
• How it feels to be stuck in overthinking and overworrying
• Why trying not to think doesn’t work
• How to disrupt the cycle of overthinking with one simple technique that you can do anywhere, any time

As we scroll through social media we can find ourselves making up stories about what we see in other people’s posts. This can lead us into the comparison trap and to feeling dissatisfied, irritated, tense, sad and question ourselves and how we live our lives. Being mindful of how you feel before you open the apps, and checking in with yourself while you scroll can help you to notice what impact social media is having on you.

In this episode we look at:

• The kinds of stories we tell ourselves about other people’s social media posts
• How to recognise when you’re falling into comparison trap
• What to do to challenge the social media stories we tell ourselves
• How mindfulness can help us to create a healthier relationship with social media

There’s a lot of talk about mindfulness and with good reason. Mindfulness helps us to slow down our overthinking brains, to let go of rehashing what’s already happened or imagining what could or could not happen next. To just be here, in this moment, in what’s real in our lives right now without judging it or trying to change it.

In this episode we look at:

• What mindfulness is
• What the benefits are of practising mindfulness
• How mindfulness reduces how stressed we feel and gets us out of worrying mode
• How to take a micro mindful moment
• How mindfulness can be integrated into our day rather than added to it

Resources

• Books on mindfulness: Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness by Mark Williams and Danny Penman
• Meditation apps: Mindfulness, Headspace, Calm, and Buddhify

Savouring the good stuff and making a point every day to appreciate the little things in life can have a real and powerful positive impact on your life.

In this episode we look at:

• What being thankful, grateful and appreciative is and what it is not
• What gratitude practice is and how you can do it
• The benefits of regular gratitude practice as shown by positive psychology research
• How I’ve made thankfulness part of daily life and the difference it’s made to me

Resources

• Books on gratitude: Gratitude Works! By Robert Emmons and The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan
• Write in a gratitude journal like these from the green gables or Kikki.K
• Gratitude apps: What’s Good: Daily Gratitude, Happijar
• Take photos of what you’re thankful for and share on Instagram with #savouringhappiness, #capturinggratitude, #thehappynew or #thisjoyfulmoment
• Join my e-course, A Thankful Heart, to learn how to appreciate all aspects of your life, create your own gratitude habit, reduce your stress, build your resilience and enjoy life more

It’s a typical trait of the overthinker – worrying about what other people think of us. It’s exhausting and stressful giving so much time, energy and brainspace to thinking about how other people, from our family, friends and workmates to complete strangers on the street and on social media are judging us.

In this episode we look at:

• how to challenge these thoughts
• why others don’t think about us as much as we think they do
• how to handle the idea that someone may not like us
• what to do when we feel ourselves worrying about other people judging us