Episode 6: What we've learnt about authenticity, creativity and diagnosis (with the Positive Planners)
Release Date: 11/05/2019
Series 2, episode 5. Relapse and Recovery
Learning How To Live
An episode about that moment when you seem to be getting better and then suddenly have a bad day, or bad week. Following my story of recovery from anxiety and in this case discussing my relapse a few years later and how I came to terms with it.
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Series 2, episode 4: I'm struggling with anxiety, what should I do?
Learning How To Live
In this episode I look at the many varying ways I learnt to calm my anxiety. Some of these are small physical and practical changes, some were skills I learnt, others still were difficult relational choices I had to make. I hope this might help you if you have recognised you are struggling with anxiety and don't know what could help.
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Series 2, episode 3: The mindsets that can make you ill.
Learning How To Live
In this episode I look at the unhelpful mindsets I was stuck in during my 20s (and if I am not careful mindsets I can still slip into today). These deeply held, but never properly acknowledged beliefs created an environment for anxiety to flourish. It is only by re-examining and unpicking these ideas I have been able to recover and live well.
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Series 2, episode 2: What happens when you are diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
Learning How To Live
In this episode I discuss my mental health diagnosis (initially with Post-Natal Depression and then with Generalised Anxiety Disorder.) Being diagnosed with a strange experience, it changes nothing and every thing. Here I discuss my initial reactions to the diagnosis and what I then went and did about it with my usual level of skin-off honesty.
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Part 1: Recognising you are suffering with anxiety.
Learning How To Live
It can be hard to recognise you are struggling with your mental health. In this podcast I discuss the situation the unrealistic expectations and circumstances that surrounded my diagnosis of post natal depression and anxiety. This correlates strongly with what I see happening around me at the moment. The pandemic has pushed many of us to the brink of not-coping and many people are struggling with anxiety for the first time. Lets talk about why and how and what we can do about it now.
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Episode 8: Speaking to your inner critic.
Learning How To Live
I can be my own worst and most harsh critic.
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Episode 7: Uncovering the World of Measurement.
Learning How To Live
In this episode I take a long hard look at the World of Measurement. Not sure what that is? It is the world most of us live in nearly all the time. A world where we compare and quantify, chart academic progress and weight loss, reward promotion and achievement, where the most important thing is winning and if that means somebody else loses, well so be it. In the World of Measurement we measure everything from our income to our cars, from how tastefully decorated or tidy our homes are to the behaviour of our
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Episode 6: What we've learnt about authenticity, creativity and diagnosis (with the Positive Planners)
Learning How To Live
This might just be my favourite podcast episode so far. A couple of weeks back I travelled to Bath to attend the launch of the Positive Wellness Journal, the new book from the Positive Planners. For those of you who don’t know, the Positive Planners are Ali and Finn and together, fuelled by their personal mental health stories, they designed and launched a successful range of gratitude mindful journals. I was introduced to Ali and Finn about six months ago via the medium of Instagram. Having exchanged m
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Episode 5: The truth about capacity or Discovering Your* Enough (*not a spelling mistake).
Learning How To Live
Episode 5: This episode explores why knowing the limits of your capacity is vital. I didn't know how much I was able to do. I tried to do it all. I pushed hard and kept going when I should have stopped. It didn't end well. I ended up at the age of 30 riddled with anxiety, experiencing panic attacks and burn out. One of the most important elements of my recovery has been to think about how much I can do. This is easier said than done when you live a life full of responsibility and activity. In this episode I
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Episode 4: Emotional Articulacy and Anxiety
Learning How To Live
A conversation about finding the words to talk about how we are feeling and the limits of language.
info_outlineThis might just be my favourite podcast episode so far.
A couple of weeks back I travelled to Bath to attend the launch of the Positive Wellness Journal, the new book from the Positive Planners.
For those of you who don’t know, the Positive Planners are Ali and Finn and together, fuelled by their personal mental health stories, they designed and launched a successful range of gratitude mindful journals. I was introduced to Ali and Finn about six months ago via the medium of Instagram. Having exchanged many messages over the past half year it was great to be able to finally meet in person, and even better to have the opportunity to chat to them about all the ways they have been learning how to live.
This conversation cover many topics including; creativity, education, becoming the most authentic version of yourself and the perils and positives of receiving a diagnosis. To say we went deep would be an understatement. Ali and Finn spoke vulnerably and articulately about their mental health journeys and what has helped them along the way.
A couple of things mentioned:
The Art of Possibility by Benjamin and Rosalind Zander.
I first read this book nearly 10 years ago and have picked it up numerous times since then. An excellent, permission-giving, truth-telling read.
This link will take you to the mental health resources page of the Positive Planners’ website. If listening to this episode of the podcast has stirred up anything for you and you think it might be good to get some help, this is a great place to start.
And finally, the Positive Planners website, where you will find details of their brilliant books and a whole lot more.