Play is not just a frivolous activity, but an essential part of our lives. It relieves stress, improves brain function, and promotes learning and problem-solving. Play allows us to explore new ideas and perspectives, heal emotional wounds, and strengthen our relationships. It’s a powerful tool for personal growth and wellbeing.

In this episode, Anya and Mark discuss the benefits and importance of play in our lives, and how play can serve as practice for life.

Three prompts

1. What’s stopping you from playing?
2. What is your kind of play?
3. How can you bring more play into your life?

Resources

• Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Dr Stuart Brown
• National Institute for Play
• Scientific Disciplines Researching Play
• Affective Neuroscience Theory and Personality: an Update
• The Benefits of Play for Adults
• Many Types of Play
• Your Play Personality
• Your voice is a beacon – Summercamp talk by Mark Steadman
• The Secret of Luck – Derren Brown's The Experiment
• Austin Kleon - Bond 2018
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness
• Mark Steadman

Optimism plays a crucial role in shaping our perspective and experiences in life. It allows us to have a forward-looking outlook, embrace possibilities, and cultivate a growth mindset. Optimism helps us notice the good things, be open to change, and enhance problem-solving abilities. By choosing to see the world with optimism, we can create a more fulfilling and positive life.

On this episode, Anya and Mark explore the concept of optimism and its significance in our lives. They discuss the relationship between optimism and happiness, the importance of having a growth mindset, and the challenges of maintaining optimism in the face of adversity.

Three prompts

1. What does being optimistic mean to you?
2. Do you believe that things are personal, permanent, and pervasive?
3. How can you cultivate more optimism in your life?

Resources

• 11 Optimism Exercises & Theories (Incl Learned Optimism)
• Optimism and its Impact on Mental and Physical Wellbeing
• Martin Seligman - in conversation with Richard Layard
• Psychological Capital and Optimism
• Ship, by Carol Ann Duffy
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness
• Mark Steadman

Learning to say "no" is essential for setting boundaries, protecting our own time and energy, and being authentic to ourselves. It can be challenging, especially for people-pleasers, but by understanding our capacity, being self-compassionate, and practicing clear communication, we can navigate the complexities of saying "no" in a healthy and empowered way.

In this episode, Anya and Mark discuss the challenge of saying “no” and setting boundaries, the importance of protecting personal time and capacity, and the difficulty of balancing people-pleasing with being authentic.

Three prompts

1. How easy is it for you to say no?
2. “If I say ‘yes’ to this, what am I saying ‘no’ to?”
3. How can you practice saying no?

Resources

• How the Enneagram System Works
• Convergence Podcast - Balancing Doing and Not Doing
• Rebecca Moore - Breathe practice cards
• The People Pleaser’s First Aid Kit
• The Therapeutic Poet in conversation with Kari Kwinn about boundaries
• Song of Myself, 51 - Walt Whitman
• Four Thousand Weeks: Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count - Oliver Burkeman
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness
• Mark Steadman

Humans flourish when they have meaning and suffer when they don't. Meaning can come from various sources: family, work, volunteering, or contributing to something bigger than oneself. It involves significance, purpose, and coherence, and can be different for everyone.

In this episode, Anya and Mark discuss the importance of meaning in life and how it can bring happiness and fulfillment. They talk about the different components of meaning, such as significance, purpose, and coherence, and how finding meaning can give a sense of belonging to something larger than oneself.

Three prompts

1. What gives your life meaning?
2. Is chasing meaning making you unhappy?
3. How can you offer a sense of meaning to others?

Resources

• “I haven’t got time to go to no stonings”
• What Is the meaning of life according to Positive Psychology
• Seligman’s PERMA+ model explained
• The three meanings of meaning in life: Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance
• Tikkun olam
• Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness

This podcast is produced by Origin.

Love is not just a romantic feeling, but a crucial aspect of human biology and social connections. Love has the power to positively impact our physical and mental health, and it is important to recognise and remove barriers that prevent us from giving and receiving love.

In this episode, Anya and Mark explore the different types of love, from filial to platonic, and the many ways it shapes the human experience.

Three prompts

1. Who loved you into being?
2. What barriers do you have towards love?
3. How can you be the love you want to see in the world?

Resources

• All You Need is Love – The Beatles
• Limerence
• Positive Emotions, Spirituality and the Practice of Psychiatry, by George Vaillant
• 10 Positive Emotions, by Barbara Frederickson
• Let the Love in. Because, “It’s an honour to help you.”
• What makes a good life? Robert Waldinger has three lessons for you
• Deeper Dating: How to Drop the Games of Seduction and Discover the Power of Intimacy, by Ken Page
• Rumi quote
• The Four Noble Truths of Love: Buddhist Wisdom for Modern Relations, by Susan Piver
• 3 ways to make a better bid for connection
• Your three feet of influence
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness

This podcast is produced by Origin.

Kindness creates connection, and it begins with empathy. Kindness has emotional and physical benefits, and can create a ripple effect through society and relationships.

In this episode, Anya and Mark discuss the importance of empathy and recognising our common humanity. They highlight the positive physical and emotional effects of kindness, including the "helper's high" and the ripple effect that can touch the lives of many.

Three prompts

1. Where can you be unexpectedly kind?
2. What does being unkind give you?
3. How can you add more kindness to your life?

Resources

• Be More Kind, by Frank Turner
• The Little Book of Kindness: Connect with others, be happier, transform your life, by Dr David Hamilton
• Ram Dass
• Kindness: The Little Thing that Matters Most, by Jamie Thurston
• Clear is Kind. Unclear is Unkind – Brené Brown
• Matthew Bellinger
• Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart, by John Wellwood
• Idiot Compassion and Mindfulness
• Pearse Polyvagal Habitats Model
• How to do the Work – free resource from Byron Katie
• Loving Kindness meditation
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness

This podcast is produced by Origin.

Joy is an intense feeling of surprise and delight that’s often fleeting. It needs us to be fully present in order to experience it. Joy can be found in small things and in the present moment, and can help us to relax and drop negative emotions.

Three prompts

1. What brings you joy?
2. How often do you experience it?
3. What would happen if you navigated by joy?

Resources

• Seligman’s PERMA+ Model Explained: A Theory of Wellbeing
• Barbara Fredrickson, 10 positive emotions
• You aren't at the mercy of your emotions -- your brain creates them - TEDx Lisa Feldman Barrett
• How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, by Lisa Feldman Barrett
• Finding Your Own North Star: How to claim the life you were meant to live, by Martha Beck
• [Neuroception: A Subconscious System for Detecting Threats and Safety](https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ938225#:~:text=The term "Neuroception" describes how,a stranger as an assault.)
• Positive Psychology - FREE Coursera course, Dr Barbara Fredrickson
• A Still Life, by Josie George
• Barbara Fredrickson: Positive Emotions Open Our Mind - video
• Sean Stephenson, “When life works” list - video
• “Do You “Numb” Yourself with TV, Internet, Work, Food?” Gretchen Rubin on Brene Brown and numbing
• Dr. Brene Brown: Joy Is 'The Most Terrifying, Difficult Emotion' video - “foreboding joy”
• Sam Ryder (singer)
• What Is Flow in Positive Psychology? (Incl. 10+ Activities)
• Warning, by Jenny Joseph
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness

This podcast is produced by Origin.

Insecurity is a universal experience, causing us anxiety and creating negative beliefs about ourselves.

In this episode, Anya shares her own experiences and explains how insecurity can show up in different ways, like making it hard to sleep or causing physical symptoms. She and Mark talk about attachment styles which can lead to feelings of insecurity.

Anya explains the four types of attachment styles: secure, anxious and preoccupied, avoidant and dismissive, and disorganised. They reveal how new experiences can trigger negative beliefs about oneself and lead to social anxiety and a fear of not fitting in.

Three prompts

1. What are you feeling insecure about?
2. What else is true?
3. What if you’re not really insecure, you just think you are?

Resources

• What Is the Negativity Bias?
• The 3 most common causes of insecurity and how to beat them
• Attachment Styles & Their Role in Relationships
• Why Some Children Are Orchids and Others Are Dandelions
• There Are 12 Relationship Patterns. Which Applies to You? - fern and cactus
• Relationships and Chronic Illness
• Insecurity – from GoodTherapy
• [Body doubling for productivity](https://chadd.org/adhd-news/adhd-news-adults/could-a-body-double-help-you-increase-your-productivity/#:~:text=Body doubling is a tool,or virtually through videochat platforms.)
• Syd Banks The Three Principles
• The Inside-Out Revolution: The Only Thing You Need to Know to Change Your Life Forever, by Michael Neill
• The Relationship Handbook: A Simple Guide to Satisfying Relationships - Anniversary Edition, by George Pransky
• The Work by Byron Katie
• Why Aren't We Awesomer? | Michael Neill TEDx
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness

This podcast is produced by Origin.

Hope is a fragile and nebulous thing. It’s important to cultivate a glimmer of hope, a light in the darkness, and to look forward to something.

In this episode, Mark and Anya discuss the topic of hope. They explore the difference between hope and expectation, and the importance of finding and offering our best response when facing concerns. Anya shares her personal experience of despair and how hope helps her to carry on. They also touch on gratitude, active hope, motivation and goal setting.

Three prompts

1. What do you hope for?
2. What support do your hopes have?
3. Who do you provide hope to?

Resources

• Clockwise (1986)
• Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
• Isolation is the dream-killer, not your attitude – Barbara Sher
• Active Hope - Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
• “Between Stimulus and Response There Is a Space. In That Space Is Our Power To Choose Our Response” - probably inspired by Rollo May
• Broca's area
• Hope Theory by CR Snyder - a brief explainer
• Karen Horney’s Theory of Neurotic Needs
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity, by David Allen
• Swarm of B’s - BJ Fogg
• Hope: Its nature and measurement, by Anthony Scioli et al
• Isolation is the dream killer, not your attitude - TEDx Barbara Sher
• The Happy Startup School
• Scioli and Biller - Hope Provider’s traits;
  • Availability (Access, Anticipation, Reliability)
  • Presence (Focus, Safety, Authenticity)
  • Contact (Involvement, Clarity, Repetition)
• “Hope” is the thing with feathers, by Emily Dickinson
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness

This podcast is produced by Origin.

Sometimes you have to show up and hit Record even when you’re not feeling your best. In this episode, Anya and Mark take time to recognise the good things in life, even when they’re tricky.

They play a game of Gratitude Bingo, where players draw things they're grateful for in each corner of a piece of paper and compare their lists. Their lists include books, sunshine, tea, friends, warmth, opportunities, and cats. They discuss the benefits of finding commonalities and gaining insight into someone else's life, and emphasise the power of gratitude in promoting happiness and wellbeing.

We close with a guided gratitude meditation from Anya.

Three prompts

1. What are three things you're grateful for?
2. What do you normally overlook?
3. Who are you grateful to?

Resources

• The Museum of Happiness
• Anya’s Gratitude Bingo card
• Mark’s Gratitude Bingo card
• The Little Book of Gratitude: Create a Life of Happiness and Wellbeing by Giving Thanks, by Dr Robert A Emmons PhD
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, by Brene Brown
• [Gratitude Journal Practice](https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/gratitude_journal#:~:text=People who wrote in a,hassles or their daily life.)
• Letters of Gratitude: How to Write a Message of Appreciation
• ‘Teflon for the good, velcro for the bad’ - Rick Hanson
• Certified Happiness Facilitator Training - The Museum of Happiness
• Anya Pearse, Intuitive advisor and her An Hour of Kindness

This podcast is produced by Origin.