Welcome back my amazing brain people!

We have made it past the whimsical April Fools Day!

Heaven knows my children enjoyed pranking both myself and my husband as they were home from school yesterday as part of their Easter break.

Though we have started a new month, my series on helping you understand and conquer your stress continues.

Last week we talked about one of the ways that chronic stress can affect you by examining the link between the stressed-out hippocampus and impaired decision making.

Next, we are going to look at what this does to you on an EMOTIONAL level.

At the same time that those logic and decision centers are sluggish and shrinking from your stress loads, your emotion centers spike to overdrive.

You may find yourself crying uncontrollably at seemingly minor problems.

Or perhaps you will try to mask it with manic, irrational happiness while you are secretly screaming inside.

Whatever it looks like for you, when your emotion centers are overstressed, it causes those trauma responses to flare up which then leads back to overstress in a spiraling cycle of unseen, internal stressors.

Add a few external stressors on top of that simmering inferno of internal stress and if we aren’t careful, we become a volcano of negative emotional energy.

Today we are going to talk about that cycle, assessing our stress loads and examining what coping methods work for me in my hope that it may spark some ideas for you.

Join me as we dive into:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today’s episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

The year is flying by way too fast my friends!

Spring is OFFICIALLY in the air along with copious amounts of pollen if you are in the South.

And just as mother nature is going to continually stress our sinuses for the next few months, I am going to continue our series we started last week talking about what stress does to our brain.

Did you know that stress physically alters your brain?

The stress hormones that your body releases named cortisol actually shrinks the hippocampus.

Why is that important you may ask?

Well, the hippocampus is responsible for two critical functions in your day-to-day life namely decision making and short-term memory.

This can lead to a cascade of stress where small decisions like what to have for dinner or what to wear for an occasion feel like huge life-altering decisions.

This is also why you start feeling like you are having more “brain farts” because again, that short-term memory is impaired.

When these become chronic, it leads to that dreaded burnout that you hear me talk so much about.

All is not lost though; today’s episode is dedicated to giving you some relief and help on this front.

We will go through some of the beginning steps that I take with my clients to help fight these chronic stressors.

This will include some real-world tools to employ at work to control the stress and some ways to relieve the stress after work.

And finally, I will give you the knowledge and awareness you need to recognize if you need some deeper help in a professional setting to control this aspect of your life.

Join me as we dive into:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today’s episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Welcome back to my truly fantastic podcast listeners.

I want to be up front- today might be a bit heavier so if you need to take this episode in pieces, that’s perfectly ok.

Many of my clients lately have been coming to me with a common problem.

And that is trauma.

With that trauma will come what are known as “trauma responses” which are mechanism built into the brain to help us cope and protect us from that excess trauma.

So often, the trauma is caused by some form of stress.

Stress as we have discussed before, comes in many varieties.

There might be work stress, relationship stress, financial stress, parenting stress- there are MANY different kinds and sources of stress.

Now the brain is incredibly resilient and has very strong mechanisms for dealing with stress from maybe one or two sources.

The problems start to arise when we have seemingly innumerable sources of stress, our stress management system becomes overstimulated and overwhelmed.

If we aren’t careful, our brain becomes over focused on stress and can cause our emotions and reality to feel out of control.

It’s a broad discussion with many facets and I am breaking this up in 2 parts.

This week we are going to focus on the physiology of stress and types of trauma responses to that stress.

Join me as we dive into:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today’s episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠.

Hello again to my fantastic listener!

Spring is in the air and we are fully in the month of March.

Not to get too serious but we are living through a time with a great deal of anxiety.

Inflation has made us anxious about our budgets and finance.

Layoffs in certain sectors of the economy perhaps have some worried about the job market.

Whatever it may be, we consume this anxiety inducing media and it can very easily trigger our deep-rooted insecurities about our ability to cope with the changing environment and the future unknowns.

Remember our brain is trying to keep us alive so it has an entire hormonal system dedicated to worrying.

Sometimes though this system can throw too many “red flags” as it were and if we are not careful, we can develop insecurities about our ability to cope or perform our daily life.

I know what you are thinking…. ”Julie, you are a brain expert. SURELY you of all people don’t have insecurities.”

Sadly, yes dear listener, I am as human as you are and so, I too will get insecurities about my work from time to time.

This episode I want to take you through a case study of the thought process I went through to get through a major bout of insecurity that I had last year.

I had been asked to present at an executive training for a multi-billion-dollar client and it was a new industry and client group than I had worked with in the past.

I found myself having those feelings of insecurity and imposter syndrome creep up until I employed the process and techniques to overcome insecurities that I discuss in this episode.

So sit back, relax and enjoy the story.

Come listen as we discuss:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today’s episode:

• Please leave a review ⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠- it sincerely helps other people find good podcasts.

• Want to work to eliminate your Imposter Syndrome today? Get my FREE Guide ⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠!

• Want to unlock more of your brain’s superpowers? Get my FREE workbook ⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠!

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠.

Good day to my wonderful listeners!

We talk often about boundaries and limits on this podcast.

As humans we all have limits even though it can often be difficult to know what those are.

This week, a member of my amazing podcast editing team was going through some private emergencies and I wanted them to focus 100% on that.

They offered to get the work done because that's the kind of person they are but as a team we decided we wanted to give them all of their focus to take care of themselves and their family.

So today we are mixing things up!

We have a Retro-Rewind of one of my most popular episodes of the show.

Given that we have been talking about reframing our perceptions & removing toxicity from our lives, it felt like a PERFECT opportunity to revisit this episode all about confidence.

How are those related you ask? It's quite straightforward actually.

You cannot reframe your perceptions without the confidence in your ability to grow as a person.

And you cannot place boundaries around toxic people unless you feel empowered to protect yourself.

So if you are ready to take a trip back through memory lane of our fantastic brain journey together, let's move on with the episode!

This episode we share:

• Why Confidence is so important in our day-to-day mindset.

• The correct way to view and think about our abilities and attributes.

• 2 hacks to implement in your daily life to constantly grow and reinforce your confidence.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today’s episode:

• Please leave a review ⁠HERE⁠- it sincerely helps other people find good podcasts.

• Want to work to eliminate your Imposter Syndrome today? Get my FREE Guide ⁠HERE⁠!

• Want to unlock more of your brain’s superpowers? Get my FREE workbook ⁠HERE⁠!

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠HERE⁠.

And just like that we are at the end of February!

I can’t believe how quickly this month has gone by.

I was recently able to get together with a good friend of mine and we were discussing my most recent podcast about how our experiences cloud our perceptions.

And we were chatting, we came to realize we both had some similar clouded experiences with toxic people that were in our same social circles.

We all will go through life encountering many different types and shades of toxic people.

Maybe it’s a horrible boss or a rude person at a store or terrible drivers on a road.

Naturally we can work to limit our exposure to those folks.

Often though, it can be people that we can’t easily limit in our lives.

Whether it is family, people at our common social groups like church or the gym or even people that we consider friends can all be toxic.

And our brains can take away some incredibly unhelpful thoughts if we are unprepared for what these toxic people can do to us.

So, I decided to help you with a primer to protect that precious brain of yours from these insidious and harmful effects of toxicity in our lives.

First, we are going to talk about what are some of the most common toxic behaviors.

This then will naturally give you some foresight into some of the most common types of toxic people.

And more importantly I am going to help you with some tools and ways to manage the influence of toxic people in our lives.

Come join me as we discuss the following:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today's episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Salutations to my lovely podcast listeners.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you are both recounting something that happened in the past, and you realize part way through the discussion, that you each have a completely different understanding of what happened?

You start to think, wait what? How in the world is that how you perceive that event?

What you have to remember is that our prior life experiences inform how our brain views and records events.

Sometimes we call this bias or perhaps clouded perceptions.

It’s really just the point of view that our brain has developed to protect us based on both the good and bad things that have happened in our lives up to that certain point.

Based on our experiences, it will inform three things when an event happens to us.

It alters how we think an event occurs, how we feel about that event and finally how we will react to this event in the future.

By way of an example, I am going to pick on my husband a bit in this episode but don’t worry it ends well.

Small spoiler…

He once took a comment I made in a completely different way than I intended and he stopped buying me flowers…

I know…. not cool.

But as I said, the story ends well so come have a listen to this week’s episode and find out all about how our perception of events changes our understanding and remembering of them.

Come join me as we discuss the following:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today's episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Love is in the air my friends!

Happy Valentines Day for those of my listeners who celebrate it.

As I was considering what to share with you on this week, I started thinking about how our brain creates & responds to the feeling of “love.”

It got me thinking about my own whirlwind romance to my now husband.

And finally, it got me thinking about how this time can be difficult for those that may not currently be in a relationship.

Like so many things that our brain does, there is a primitive and developed brain aspect to love.

The primitive brain often feeds the feelings of love between two people in order to ensure survival and satisfy it’s need for social connection.

Those connections that our primitive brain forms with others are pivotal to creating and releasing vital hormones that increase our health and wellbeing while also lowering stress.

Something that gets overlooked in society though is that while romantic love can trigger many of these beneficial hormones, platonic love or child/parent love can also attain many of the same physiological benefits of romantic love.

There are also other things that can trigger the same parts of your brain and flood your body with these wellness and stress relief hormones.

So, as you consider your relationships this week, I truly hope this episode helps you examine all the love in your life and how much benefit it brings to you.

I am SO excited to talk about this with you today!

Come join the love train on today's episode:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today's episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Hello again to my fantastic podcast friends!

Can you believe it is February? January certainly seems to have flown by.

I really hope my series on understanding and dealing with Perfectionism has been helpful.

I wanted to pivot a bit this week to talk about some feelings that I have seen recently with my clients.

For many, we have just finished a month where we are setting and hopefully keeping some goals that can often trigger some limiting beliefs in our brain.

And perhaps we have been really successful at some goals but also maybe not as good at some others.

We can easily start to doubt ourselves in this moment and that doubt can accidentally trigger the protective part of our brains that is sometimes not as helpful as it thinks it is.

Remember, that primal part of our brain looks at goals and changes as a threat to our being because it literally views those changes as trying to alter the person you were to something new…

And even when that something new is objectively good, it can still be very scary to our primitive brain.

Anytime you stretch or get uncomfortable, you brain sometimes views it the same way as touching an open flame or something sharp- it immediately tries to make us pull back.

The trick in this moment is to engage the “forward thinking” part of your brain.

This is the part of the brain that CRAVES those big goals and ambitions.

It’s the part of the brain that does the big things like put a man on the moon even when the rest of our brain screams “What are you thinking! You can’t go to space!”

So today, we are going to dive into this topic of tricking your brain into helping you with those big ambitions and goals

Can’t wait for you to listen!

Come join me as we discuss the following:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today's episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Alright my amazing people!

We are at the end of January and the final episode in my series on Perfectionism.

Rounding out this series, today we are going to talk about how Perfectionism impacts those of us with ADD or ADHD.

Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are very hot topics in the creator and mental health space.

ADD & ADHD is commonly diagnosed in Children and historically it was mostly diagnosed in young boys.

Generally speaking, it was understood to mean you were unable to focus, you procrastinated more and couldn’t sit still.

And these were the symptoms that most frequently manifested in young boys so it was easy to diagnose.

The medical field initially overlooked that this diagnosis manifests differently in young girls causing many girls to never get the help and coping skills they needed.

Now women are speaking out and the medical community has realized that in women and young girls, the symptoms are more anxiety related and struggle with motivation.

This has fueled the phenomenon known as “Adult Onset ADD” in women, generally speaking, but really this is just a result of it never being diagnosed properly in the first place.

Thankfully we have a much greater understanding now how these disorders affect both women and men and so I wanted to discuss how it intersects with the tendency towards perfectionism.

Disclaimer – while I am going to teach you some coping skills today and some things to be aware of, I am not diagnosing you over a podcast episode.

If you feel you may have undiagnosed ADD or ADHD, I strongly recommend you go speak with your doctor and potentially get the medical assistance you may need.

On today's final Perfectionism episode:

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed today's episode:

Ready to be your best self? Schedule a free consult call with me today ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.