“Free your mind….and the rest will follow…”
~En Vouge, Free Your Mind~
Podcasts seem to be popping up anywhere anyone has an opinion or story. The beauty if that they are all something we all can access with ease (some for free), and tune into other people’s opinions. I scoffed at all of this at first. I mean, “Come on, man!” It’s 2021! We already have 24 news cycles, op-eds, twitter and more. There are a few that I have found to be downright additive to any type of mental health homework though. I love music, but find when I tune into these while walking, I get to exercise my brain a bit too (and it needs it!) I have grown fond of Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast, Dear Chelsea by Chelsea Handler, Joyce’s Meyer’s Talk It Out, and my personal favorite, We Can do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle.
I have been trying to work on my physical health too. Returning to running after a hiatus has been painful mentally and physically. Weekends used to be for 8 mile runs, and mentally I just kick my own ass for not being there. I have been working to add what I can-where and when. One of these is on my 30 minute break, eating quickly and then walking for 20 minutes or so. Today my inner harmony was off. I could blame mercury being in retrograde or I could own my own shit and reset my mood. So I took off for my walk and decided to listen to one of Glennon Doyle’s latest podcasts.
Game changer. She does hard things AND she is a game changer in the field of mental health and recovery (imo.)
As I walked past the newly fallen leaves upon the beautiful sidewalks of East Dixon Avenue in Charlevoix; I tuned in and actively listened to what she had to say with her crew today. The title today was “Living By Your Own Original Music instead of the Crappy Cover Tunes.” (I love a good music metaphor as well.) The topic covered the basis of how do you know something about yourself versus have you conditioned yourself the worst case scenario and telling yourself lies.
Hmmm.
Digging deeper, its a hugely and deeply impactful thought. How do we know when to trust ourselves? Women inherently are trained to be nice to be people and often push away feelings of fear from strangers. It can be their intuition talking to them. I spent a good three years afraid of strangers after my assault. I allowed thoughts of fear to become a baseline.
I am also open up the anxiety I have carried with me my entire life. I was born high strung, hyper aware, empathetic, and sensitive. (All things I embrace more and more as I age and grow okay with.) How do we know if its the beast of anxiety…say a cover tune playing in our minds versus the original song of being of rational mind. Even thinking about this sorta stresses me out!
I love what the basic thought process was by those talking during the podcast. You have to get back to a baseline, ask yourself, how do I really feel in this situation/place/about a person and trust that you were made by God to feel what’s right. Stay out of overthinking and your mind. For most of us, its a damn mess in there.
I get this and it resonates with me.
My entire inner being is so much better after some form of exercise outside. Its like my body feeds off the nature of God’s creation and calms itself back to being in sync. Mentally I can problem solve anything with my running or work out shoes laced up and the certainty of my air pods being charged. Its what works for me. I can’t meditate, sit still too long, and so many other things that others use to calm down.
I understand about those cover tunes all too well. When we tell ourselves we must react to something-we internalize it and we do! What you feed yourself mentally is just as important, if not more, than what you feed yourself physically. Negative thoughts and thinking can be equated with the spinning stomach of a sugar and junk food addict. Its a roller coaster, unstable, and nothing good ever comes from it.
So ask yourself, what are you doing to feed your mind something positive today?
How are you going to re-center your day?
Do the hard thing and put some investment back in you!
And as always, I am a phone call away if you need anything or further brainstorm on this. Who knows, may be can create a rock band of positivity.
toughasteal 