Cultivating joy in the midst of uncertainty with Kristine Carlson

#516 Today Shann is speaking with her friend and NY Times Best Selling Author, Kristine Carlson about how we can learn to cultivate joy and peace in the midst of all the chaos and uncertainty.
 
Kristine is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and host of the Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff: Live The Big Stuff podcast. She is passionate about spreading her message of returning from grief and waking up to life with more joy, mindfulness and
gratitude.
 
Her life mission expands upon the phenomenal success of she and her late husband Dr. Richard Carlson’s work in the “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” series. She continues his legacy of peaceful and mindful living through her own bestselling books, courses, and retreats.
 
Points Covered in this Anxiety Slayer Episode
 
Golden Pause Meditation
  What we can do to stay positive right now
 
How to alter our expectations for a better experience?
Suggestions to create a more meaningful and vibrant life of joy?
Tips for listeners who feel stuck in an endless loop of fear and worry
 
Get a recording of Kristine's Golden Pause meditation at www.dontsweat.com
 
###
Today’s Anxiety Slayer podcast is sponsored by Betterhelp…
 
Are stress and anxiety interfering with your happiness? Have you been considering seeing a therapist but not sure where to start? Betterhelp will assess your counseling needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist so you can start getting the support you need online, in under 24 hours. Anxiety Slayer listeners can get 10% off your first month at http://betterhelp.com/slayer 

How to regain calm when anxiety hijacks your brain

#505: Anxiety frequently hijacks our thinking with a fearful narrative. For example: “what if” thoughts or worst-case scenarios.
The body responds as if those fearful thoughts are true—because it doesn’t know the difference between a real threat and imagined scenarios.
When the body reacts it makes the mind more disturbed and we get caught in this fear cycle that feels frightening and completely takes over our body and mind.
 
Here’s what happens:
 
Anxiety starts with a trigger, a symptom or sensation, a message, or news item - something that strikes a vulnerable place in us.
 
The mind zooms in on it and instantly creates an anxious narrative. A story around the trigger that makes it instantly more solid, or a potential threat.
 
As soon as the mind creates its story, and it can happen in an instant, the body reacts. Our heart beats faster, our breathing becomes shallow, we might feel lightheaded, or shaky. And these sensations in the body feedback into our mind and further disturb the mind.
 
This repeats and builds into a fear cycle that feels very real and very hard to bear.  Until we know how to stop it.
 
A mind in balance can respond calmly to incoming information, but a mind that’s already challenged by anxiety will react rather than respond. It lacks the resilience to process the incoming information and respond in a self-supporting way.
 
The good news is that we can change this. We can learn to break the fear cycle. Listen in to learn more.
 
For help with calming heightened anxiety, you can join Ananga for a new Guided Tapping Session video on Patreon at patreon.com/anxietyslayer


How to get a handle on your mental health with Scout Sobel

#504: Welcome back to the award-winning Anxiety Slayer podcast. Today Shann is speaking with Scout Sobel about her lifelong mental health journey.  
 
Scout suffers from a severe case of bipolar type 2 disorder and general anxiety disorder. Her symptoms include depression, hypomania, anxiety, psychosis, suicidal ideation, harming myself, and catatonia. Scout has been hospitalized, been through outpatient twice, dropped out of college, quit internships and jobs, and was deemed "unfunctionable". Her friends and family didn't know if she would be able to ever hold a job or make something of herself.
 
Today Scout runs a successful PR agency. She earned over $100k in revenue in her first year AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, SHE HAS A HANDLE ON HER mental health.
 
Show notes:
We talk about Scout's healing journey and how we can do a better job de-stigmatizing mental health and inspire others to take control of their lives and dreams regardless of their mental health state
What kinds of holistic and spiritual healing Scout recommends
Not being a victim and the importance of taking action
How to hold yourself accountable
How entrepreneurship helps conquer anxiety
What to do when you're feeling low and struggling with self-esteem
 
Learn more about Scout at https://www.scoutsagency.com/
Check Scout's podcast wherever podcasts are played.
 

Best of Anxiety Slayer: How to Cultivate Mindfulness and Calm Anxiety with Marc Lesser

Introducing you to Zen Teacher and CEO, Marc Lesser. Marc is the Co-founder of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute and the author of Seven practices of a mindful leader - Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen and several other books. He is also the host of the Zen Bones Podcast. Marc leads mindfulness and emotional intelligence programs at many of the world’s leading businesses and offers trainings and talks worldwide.
We begin our conversation by talking about the origin of and Marc's inspiration for writing his book and the delve into the following topics. 
How Marc's book can support business leaders who struggle with anxiety.
The Dalai Lama and Anxiety
How to begin a mindfulness practice
The importance of connecting to our pain
How simplifying your life can open you to more mindfulness
You can get a copy of "Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader" at Amazon and wherever books are sold.