Wellness Podcast

In this episode, I talk about activity pairing, one of my favorite tricks for sticking to my habits. This comes from James Clear's book, Atomic Habits, and the idea is to pair two activities together to form a habit of doing them together. These can be one activity you love with one you don't love so much (ex: washing dishes with listening to your favorite podcasts) or an activity you already do every day with one you want to do (pushing the button on the coffee machine right before starting to meditate so that you get hot coffee as soon as you are done). I talk about why it is so important to do this, a possible down side, and my action item is to think of at least 2 activities that you can pair together and try it out! I also talk about Gretchen Rubin's book, Better than Before.

In this week's episode, I talk about triggers, or emotional responses to an object, person or memory that are more severe than what the event itself would call for. These can be due to events that have happened recently or past events that we need to work through but the key is that our response does not match the level of the original event (a 3 event calls for a 3 response- aw man, not a 10 response-yelling and swearing). Since our families often trigger us, I think right before the holidays is a great time to understand and learn how to dissolve triggers! Ex: when my kids don't listen to my husband, he gets more and more upset and yells (a maybe 2 event and a 8 or 9 response, let's say). Action item: To dissolve our emotional responses when triggered, we need to just take a breath between the event/trigger and our response. Meditating (and therapy) have helped me with this. Good luck with the holidays and we'll be back after next week! Take Deep Breaths!

In this episode, I give us all a 5-minute break! We sit up straight (but not too tensely) in our chairs, take deep breaths, tense all our muscles and let them go, hug ourselves, put our hand on our heart, do gratefuls, and then I let you go to either 1) watch a short funny tik tok video (or whatever video) 2) listen to a song and dance 3) chat with someone near you for 2 minutes. Have a great day and I hope this helps you all to take a short break today-it helped me!

In this episode, I define restorative rest as something that, when we finish doing it, we feel like ah, that was nice, rather than, oh man, why did I do that? I give examples of restorative rest (yoga, meditating, going for a walk/run around the block, making tea and texting a friend, listening to or dancing to a song, 10-minute nap, etc.) and explain that we can use the time in our day that we already use doing things that do not make us feel good to find time to rest each day. Action item: go back to week 2, list of things that make you feel better, and write/edit your list to find things that you can do instead of checking social media, bored eating or other activities that do not feel restful to you when you need a break during the day. With 5 minutes at a time, we can remember that what we do each day is what we do with our lives.

In this episode, I talk about the one thing that has really helped me to feel better on a daily basis. When I remember to do this thing, I notice it in my digestion, in my attitude, in my level of tiredness, and when I forget, I notice that I am sometimes even nauseous, more tired, even dizzy (especially in the summer). This thing is-you guessed it (or maybe you didn't)- drinking water! Here is the website I used (and also a general Google Search and my own life experience) for this epsiode: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/water-essential-to-your-body.

Action item: listen for tips and tricks to drink more water throughout the day to feel better and be more healthy!

In this episode, I talk about when we need to let things go (control or also other people's emotions that don't have to do with us) versus when to fight (meaning take action or DO something about our emotions or thoughts. I talk about how meditation has helped me to be able to make a conscious choice about when I take action versus let the emotion or thought pass, and how a lot or maybe even most of the time, the best course of action is to just look at our own or others emotions and let them go. It also helps me to realize when I need to do something, like change a rule in my house, talk to my partner about an issue to resolve it, or be in fight/flight/freeze mode when walking to my car at night (whether I really need to or not). Action item: try meditating this week, even "imperfectly" for 2 minutes without an app or anything. Just sit quietly and take breaths and think about your breaths, and every time you find yourself feeling a feeling or thinking a thought, look at it as a passing cloud or balloon floating away and think "hm that's interesting." And let it pass you by.

In this episode, I talk about how my kids can leave their ice-cream unfinished and how it is because in our house, we do not tell anyone to stop crying. If that sounds like it can't possibly be right, then listen for the details! Action item: come up with a list of things you can do instead of emotional eating, like drinking a glass of water, going for a walk, making tea or coffee, writing in a journal, doing a bit of yard work, make a crying corner in your house and go there to cry for a bit if you need it, etc. And then do those things first when you are not hungry (or suspect you might not be hungry, if you, like me, cannot always tell the difference) before eating 10 Nutella spoons. Or whatever 10 Nutella spoons is for you.

In this episode, I talk about belonging and also fitting in, based on the definitions from Brene Brown. Fitting in is changing yourself to be who you think people want you to be and belonging is being who you are and feeling like people like you for who you are. Belonging makes you feel better but it also means you won't be for everyone and that's OK too (see Brene Brown and also Mean Girls for reference). Action item: Do a fitting in vs belonging life audit- how much of the time are you trying to fit in vs feeling like you belong. Is there anywhere you can or do feel belonging? Even if you never feel belonging in your life right now, you are not alone and also maybe is there a person who wouldn't laugh about something you love or would also turn out to love that thing too?!

In this episode, I define "adulting" (doing all the things adults have to do every day like laundry and getting to work on time and keeping our jobs, etc.), and talk about 3 reasons why the heck it's so hard! 1) burnout and productivity as a moral judgment (those who do the most things are seen as "good" people whereas those who don't are "lazy") 2) a lack of understanding that it is OK not to know how to do everything or be able to do everything or to ask for help 3) social media telling us that everyone else is better off/happier than us (they aren't!). Action item: give ourselves a literal (coffee/walk/stare out window) break and figurative (forgive yourself when you make a mistake this week) break.

In this episode, I talk about what "catch-up week" is to me (as a professor), about benefits/pitfalls and give an action item. Some benefits: giving people (and ourselves) a little bit of a grace period, having the ability to forgive ourselves and move on, knowing how to catch up when we need to as practice for the "real world" in which we are in fact allowed to delay deadlines and catch up sometimes, feeling like we are significantly "moving the needle" on whatever project we are working on. Some pitfalls: we have to then actually do the catching up and sometimes that is more awful than just doing the thing in 30-minute increments every day, sometimes during "catch-up week" we get sick or talk to our colleagues too much at work or our kids have a random day off and then we just get even more behind. Action item: if you are behind on something, try to schedule yourself an hour/2/3/6, sit your butt in your chair, and move that needle!