The Happier Life Project

When it comes to improving our mental well-being, practising calm is one of the best places to start. Clarity of mind is extremely important when you are dealing with stress, problems and emotional turmoil. And remaining calm in times of turbulence and chaos, allows us to think more logically and make decisions accordingly.

Rebekah Ballagh is the bestselling author and illustrator of 'Note to Self', 'Note to Self Journal', 'Words of Comfort', 'Be Your Best Self', 'Big Feelings' and 'Let's Go, Flo!' She's a qualified counsellor, somatic and nervous system regulation coach, trainer, speaker and the creator of popular Instagram community @journey_to_wellness_ Rebekah’s latest book '101 Ways to Find Calm - How to use your body to soothe your mind', offers simple, powerful tools to teach you how to safely feel and process your emotions, rewire your brain and nervous system, and how to deeply connect with yourself.

In this episode of The Happier Life Project Becks shares some of her favourite calming exercises from the book, whilst discussing with host Gabby why so many people around the world struggle with finding calm. Rebekah also talks about why it’s so important to complete the stress response and sit with and digest difficult emotions, in order to come to a more peaceful place in the body.

Gabby and Becks also look at the most common reasons why the brain won’t allow us to relax, and what we can do to override or disengage the body’s stress response - when it is unnecessarily activated.

To learn more about Rebekah’s courses, book and membership program: www.journeytowellness.online

To be part of Rebekah’s Instagram community: @journey_to_wellness_

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

Hormones are essential for life and your health. They affect everything from blood sugar to blood pressure, growth, fertility, your sex drive, metabolism, and even sleep. Hormones are so important they influence the way we think and act day to day.

The menstrual cycle is regulated by hormones. So if we are having irregular periods, bleed between periods, bleed more heavily than usual, or develop severe pain during our period; this could be an indicator our hormones are out of wack.

Chlo Hodgkinson is a PT and Coach that has learned and trained to work with hormones and the menstrual cycle after recovering from her own journey with disordered eating and relative energy deficiency. After fully rehabilitating and healing her relationship with food and exercise, Chlo turned to social media to raise awareness on amenorrhea (the absence of menstruation). Then went on to become a coach to help clients get back to training after amenorrhea, as well as staying on track with their recovery and supporting them on that journey.

Chlo is passionate in helping females recover from disordered eating, amenorrhea, diet culture and learning to workout with the menstrual cycle. Chlo is also part of The My Possible Self team and creates content for our social channels.

Chlo speaks candidly about her journey with disordered eating habits and overtraining and why losing her period was the catalyst towards her seeking help to heal her hormones and regain her menstrual cycle.

Chlo shares the signs to look out for your hormones may be imbalanced and what steps you need to take to get the help you need. Chlo and host Gabby also talk about the pressures society puts on females particularly when it comes to what is regarded as a ‘healthy’ body image. And Chlo also explains the significant relationship between anxiety, food and exercise.

To follow Chlo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chlohodgkinson/

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

None of us had a perfect childhood; we are all carrying around wounds and behaviours that don’t serve us. But what if we could break free from unhealthy family patterns to liberate the way we live and love? 

As children we observe and absorb everything around us. And we teach ourselves to behave in a way that helps to make us feel safe. But at what cost? Have we developed coping mechanisms and strategies to try to feel more worthy, prioritized, safe, like we belong? Could we have developed trust issues because we witnessed our parents keep secrets? Do we struggle with perfectionism because our caregivers rewarded our good behaviour and achievements, but punished or ignored us when we didn’t live up to their standards? 

When we start to unpack the significant impact and deep conditioning that our roots and origin wounds have on our relationship patterns - past and present - we start to recognise our triggers and coping mechanisms that might actually be doing more harm than good.

Vienna is a licensed marriage and family therapist and one of New York City’s most sought-after relationship therapists. Vienna has practised therapy for more than fifteen years and is the creator of @mindfulMFT on Instagram where she is helping over 700K people around the world heal their childhood wounds.

Vienna shares the five major origin wounds that most struggle with; consciously or subconsciously. She also explains how the healing journey begins by exploring what we have learned as a child - how to relate to others, ourselves, and the world around us. Host Gabby and Vienna also talk about identifying triggers, which could be unresolved wounds trying to get our attention. And how we can shift our patterns and habits to create a new healthier path for ourselves.

For more on Vienna Pharaon: https://viennapharaon.com/

To follow Vienna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmft/

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

Health anxiety is a common condition, diagnosed in 4% to 5% of people. But experts believe that the disorder often goes undiagnosed and may affect more than 10% of the entire population. In this Ask The Expert episode host Gabby puts your questions to ex-health anxiety sufferer.. now relatable health anxiety therapist and social media influencer Cherelle Roberts. 

To follow Cherelle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cherellethinks/

To watch Cherelle's health anxiety videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cherellethinks6398

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

To email a question for our next expert: [email protected]

This episode is dedicated to hearing the powerful story of the previous episode's guest. 

Vic's passion for helping women stemmed from her own harrowing story battling anorexia nervosa, orthorexia and body dysmorphia as she pushed herself to dangerous degrees to obtain the 'perfect body'. First as a dancer and then as a bikini model. 

This conversation contains material of a sensitive and potentially distressing nature involving eating disorders that may be triggering for some individuals. This does not mean the material WILL be triggering; just that it MAY.

Please take care of yourself, and don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it.

To Learn More about The Glow Up Project : https://theglowupproject.co.uk/

To follow The Glow Up project on Instagram: @theglowupproject_

To follow Victoria Niamh on Instagram: @victorianiamh

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

The role of love in mental health is significant. 

Loving and stable relationships can help improve a person's ability to manage stress and can help to decrease levels of anxiety and depression. But while love and mental health for the most part are positively related, researchers have found some correlation between love and mental illnesses (or mental health conditions) too. The most common being anxiety, depression, trauma and chronic stress. 

Victoria Niamh is a female confidence coach, mentor, social media Influencer and founder of ‘The Glow Up Project’ which aims to inspire women to understand that the real glow up is an inside job. Vic advocates for body confidence and breaking stigma around mental health, and is passionate about empowering women to unconditionally own and love themselves.

As this episode arrives during the week in which Valentines Day falls Vic, with host Gabby, look at some of the different reasons people's mental health suffers around Valentines Day; whilst discussing possible solutions to relieve these struggles. Vic also shares how the love and support from her partner Mike was a huge factor to her own self love and body healing journey. The Glow Up Project founder also explains the driving force behind helping women shine from the inside out, without changing anything externally, so they can find inner happiness and peace. 

To Learn More about The Glow Up Project : https://theglowupproject.co.uk/

'What if I die before I have the chance to exist?'

An existential crisis can happen to anyone, leading many to question their existence, identity and purpose in life. Experiencing an existential crisis may cause you to feel angry, helpless, lost, panicked and is usually accompanied by dread, anxiety, stress and depression; often to such a degree that they disturb your normal functioning in everyday life.

But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing or something to fear. Experiencing an existential crisis forces you to examine your life and consider “how can I show up in the world that means something to me?”

Dr. Sara Kuburic is an existential psychotherapist, speaker, essayist, columnist, consultant, influencer and author of ‘It's On Me. Accept hard truths, discover your self, and change your life’.

IT’S ON ME is a guide to identifying self-loss, and discovering the freedom that comes from taking responsibility for how we live. It offers an enlightening blueprint to find your own answers to the questions “who am I?” and “why am I here?” 

Known as the millennial therapist online (with over 1.7 million followers on Instagram), Dr. Sara believes that “in order to be who we truly are, we need to shelve who we are not.” 

Dr. Sara is a passionate advocate for being the leading character of your own life. She believes we need to stop pretending and choose the truth. 

For all things Dr. Sara Kuburic: https://www.sara-kuburic.com/

Stress is a natural part of our lives. Bills, work, relationships, life events, health issues…

A little bit of stress is inevitable, and sometimes that’s a good thing. Stress helps you meet your daily challenges and motivates you to reach your goals, ultimately making you a smarter, happier and healthier person.

But on the flip side. They say stress is the number one killer for a reason. It’s a silent, slow poison which left unmanaged can have catastrophic effects on your physical and mental health. Stress becomes a problem when it starts to take over your life, therefore the key to stress management is identifying the bad stressors in your life and developing healthy ways to deal with them.

Today’s guest, Dr Bernadette Dancy, a stress management specialist, knows all the best ways to manage or combat her clients stress levels. We don’t just have to accept we live a hectic, super stressful life, and ‘that’s life’. Meditation, breathing or a warm bath might help, but it really only scratches the surface. Dr Bernadette uses mindset and lifestyle interventions that get to the root of the stress and in today’s Ask The Expert, she’s getting to the crux of yours.

For all things Dr Bernadette Dancy: https://www.bernadettedancy.co.uk

To follow Dr Bernadette on Instagram: @bernadettedancy_stresscoach

To learn more about Stress Ed: https://stress-ed.co.uk

To take the Stress Ed test: https://stress-ed.scoreapp.com

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

To email a question for our next expert: [email protected]

Part two of our exploration into orthorexia sees host Gabby Sanderson breakdown with guest Renee McGregor the most common elimination food groups in orthorexia, and how and why doing this can be dangerous on the body. Renee busts more food myths when it comes to things like sugar and refined sugar, pasta made from vegetables or lentils, and the ongoing white versus brown or wholemeal debate. Renee also explains why we need to be cautious with who we follow on social media that use the term ‘professional’ or ‘medic’ when it comes to healthy eating, and wraps up the conversation with how orthorexic's can begin to heal and change their beliefs, by getting to the truth of the dangerous messages they have bought into.