028 Be accountable for the life you choose to live | Annette Tonkin

Be aware of what you are putting into your brain as it will affect your life
— Annette Tonkin -

Being at the Olympics was the pinnacle of success for Annette who achieved this yet realised that she wasn’t happy. She had spent so much of her life trying to prove that she was good enough and it was a dark period but thankfully Annette has learned how to manage her anxiety and depression.  

We talk about her journey, her insights and strategies. It is fabulous that Annette now fulfils her passion by working with health professionals to transform the way they work with patients to improve outcomes for everybody.

Inspire yourself with these essential insights from Annette

Annette Tonkin

We spoke about 

  • A dual life of internal mess and external success

  • The impact of trying to prove she was good enough

  • Power of the mind body connection

  • Role of unconscious conditioning in the beliefs we acquire

  • Changing your beliefs by changing the wiring of your brain

  • Personal strategies for dealing with overwhelm, anxiety and dark thoughts

  • Managing frustration and anger

  • Awareness and impact of self-talk, blaming and complaining

  • Being aware of what you are putting into your brain

Value Quotes 

“Acute awareness of the mind body connection and how difficult it is to get over injury or illness if you don’t have the right mindset”

“Some of the self-talk I did I wouldn’t even do to my worst enemies”

“It taught me a powerful lesson about achieving things that are important to you, not to prove yourself to other people”

“Just because you decide to do something doesn’t automatically mean it’s there and it’s happened”

“The mind body connection is that one can’t exist without the other”

“There is some fantastic research coming out on how the mind influences what goes out into body, into the healing rate of the body and the reception of the mind of what’s going on”

“You can change any conditioning or any belief you have as long as you make a decision to do it, have something to fill it with and then be prepared to put in the hard work”

“The more entrenched the habit and the more benefits the habit has for you at an unconscious level the harder it is to change”

“Asking the one single question of what’s important now, Lou Holtz WIN strategy, and recognising what the most important thing I can do now and then do it”

“Once you take action overwhelm seems to dissipate to some degree”

“It’s very hard to breathe slowly and deeply and stay anxious at the same time”

“See anxiety as a friend and ask what it’s trying to tell me”

“Asking myself what’s real right now help’s me put a better perspective on it”

“I’ve become very aware of what’s going into my brain”

“No matter what happens my feelings are my responsibility”

“Your mind is complicit in the provocation of any emotion you have”

“Be really aware of what you are putting into your brain through the five senses”

“Your brain will affect what you think, what you think affects how you feel and what you feel affects what you do”

If you got value from this episode if you have not yet done so please Subscribe, Rate and Review on iTunes or Stitcher. You can follow the instructions here.  If you know someone else that would get value from this episode as well please share it with them.

Until next time fabulous podcast listener, I’m Bev and I invite you to live the fab life with me now! 

Episode Links 

You can find Annette at:

Website: www.mindandbodyconsultancy.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindandbodyconsultancy/

Placebo research update with Fabrizio Benedetti on the Brain Science podcast: http://brainsciencepodcast.com/bsp/2016/127-benedetti

Norman Doidge on Conversations with Richard Fidler (ABC): http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2016/07/22/4505384.htm

Zig Ziglar blog: https://www.ziglar.com/blog/

The Brian Buffini Show: http://podcast.brianbuffini.com/episodes/

Viktor Frankl youth in search of meaning and purpose TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/viktor_frankl_youth_in_search_of_meaning

 

027 Dealing with depression | Susan Noonan MD

Talking about it will help to normalise things because then the person begins to understand that depression is a legitimate illness
— Susan Noonan MD -

In an authentic way Susan bridges the space between being a recipient and a provider of mental health services. This makes her a wonderfully compassionate doctor to her patients and her firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to live with a mood disorder is heartening. She shares her insights and wisdom on this often debilitating and challenging illness from both the person dealing with depression and from the people living with them.

Inspire yourself with these essential insights from Susan

Dr Susan Noonan MD
  • We spoke about 

  • A unique perspective as patient, physician, author, blogger and certified peer specialist on mental health issues

  • Susan becoming an expert by experience

  • The importance of having a treatment team on your side and access to mental health education

  • Ways to support someone dealing with depression

  • Asking direct questions to determine the need and urgency for getting professional help

  • Depression as a biologically based condition involving the mind and the body

  • When someone refuses treatment for depression

  • Having an open minded supportive conversation about depression

  • Caring for yourself to avoid burnout when living with someone with a mood disorder

  • Recovery from depression as an ongoing process with fluctuations

  • Applying the basics of mental health and wellbeing

  • Sleep as a critical recovery tool for mental health

  • Differences in symptoms between teenagers and adults

  • Susan’s book “When someone you know has depression”

  • Balance and a degree of organisation to living fabulously

Value Quotes 

“Persistence and perseverance was really the hallmark of my life”

“For most of the time my depression went untreated because that’s the way things were done in my family”

“I had an extraordinary treatment team who held hope for me when I had absolutely none”

“It seemed then to make most sense to share what I had learned about the illness with others”

“Family members and close friends are often the first ones to recognise any subtle changes that occur”

“You want to provide hope and realistic expectations for your family member”

“Try not to promise anything that you can’t deliver”

“It often leads to some distortions in our thinking which the person who has depression doesn’t often recognise”

“Try to understand what’s behind the person’s thinking for refusing treatment and try to address those issues”

“Begin by reassuring them that you love them and are concerned for them. Point out the concrete things that are different in the person that are different from their usual state”

“Talking about it will help to normalise things because then the person begins to understand that depression is a legitimate illness”

“You can have the illness and people don’t judge you for it and don’t criticise you for having it. You’re not less of a person for happening to have this illness”

“Burnout refers to the symptoms and the emotions you have from caring for someone”

“Episodes of depression may come as a random pattern that is unique to each person”

“Don’t allow the depression to consume him or her, it’s not what defines you it’s just something you happen to have”

“Sound sleep optimised brain function and has a positive effect on your mood disorder”

“A change in the amount of your sleep or the quality of your sleep will definitely affect your illness most definitely”

“It’s a myth to think you can catch up on your sleep”

“Suicide is usually considered an impulsive action in a troubled person who sees no way to change their painful circumstances”

If you got value from this episode if you have not yet done so please Subscribe, Rate and Review on iTunes or Stitcher. You can follow the instructions here.  If you know someone else that would get value from this episode as well please share it with them.

Until next time fabulous podcast listener, I’m Bev and I invite you to live the fab life with me now! 

Episode Links 

You can find Dr Susan Noonan MD at:

Website: :  http://susannoonanmd.com/

If you experiencing a personal crisis help is available by calling Lifeline Australia on 131114 or find resources at https://www.lifeline.org.au/

026 Act on unproductive anxiety | Kay Lindley

Living fabulously is to think about your approach to life and the links of wellbeing from a physical, mental, spiritual and emotional perspective. To put that all together and be fulfilled to have that authentic life
— Kay Lindley -

Hearing Kay say she lost who she was for a lot of her life made me realise how anxiety can rob you of your very essence. When someone is dealing with anxiety issues it can be easy to say ‘stop worrying’. However anxiety is a persistent pattern that the mind is locked into about something that may or may not happen in the future. Kay is a compassionate and insightful coach who is making a lasting difference to her clients and shares from a place of wisdom having conquered her own anxiety.

Inspire yourself with these essential insights from Kay

We spoke about 

  • Kay’s passion for helping people become unflappable

  • The impact of Kay suppressing a traumatic event and her way out of disabling anxiety

  • The spectrum of anxiety

  • Retaining the positive purpose of anxiety while letting go of unproductive anxiety

  • Challenges for someone dealing with anxiety

  • Side effects for people dealing with anxiety

  • Ways people can tackle their anxiety

  • The value of using truisms and belly breath to calm the body

  • Taking the best life lesson from a difficult situation or event

  • A focus on what you can do and not what you can’t do

Value Quotes 

“He really taught me to find the resources I needed to get back to normality”

“Know that when you are in an anxious state for long periods of time the front lobes of the brain are not working as they should”

“Like many people in that state, they don’t necessarily speak up and look for help, they just shrink their lives almost nothing”

“To get somewhere you have to spend more time in what you do want rather than what you don’t want”

“Anxiety is about something that hasn’t happened yet so it is a future kind of state”

“That anxious part of people wants to know about certainty but they don’t have certainty so they worry and get anxious”

“It could be something that happened in the past that is still there and morphs itself into other facets of their life for the future”

“It shows how creative the mind is for it to be able to think of all those things that could happen but might not”

“You might develop a fear of the feelings itself that it brings upon you, so an anxiety attack rather than the initial worry”

“You can help someone build a really strong metaphor that they could anchor and it might be a suit of armour or something that they want and can really embrace that can be triggered”

“There’s a lot of options to pretend in your head that you are doing it the way you would like to do it rather than the way you fear you might do it”

“If she can keep herself in the present then the anxiety doesn’t take hold”

“We know that the things that we think, our body posture, our breath are all interrelated and all of those things create the behaviour that comes out or the outcome”

“Wellbeing is an assistant to living longer and living a more fully functioning life”

“When you get them passed the anxiety you get more self-love, more creativity, more of their ability to give love and be who they really are”

“Living fabulously is to think about your approach to life and the links of wellbeing from a physical, mental, spiritual and emotional perspective. To put that all together and be fulfilled to have that authentic life”

“Have your best life. Focus on what you can do and not what you can’t do”

If you got value from this episode if you have not yet done so please Subscribe, Rate and Review on iTunes or Stitcher. You can follow the instructions here.  If you know someone else that would get value from this episode as well please share it with them.

Until next time fabulous podcast listener, I’m Bev and I invite you to live the fab life with me now!

Episode Links 

You can find Kay Lindley at:

Website: http://mindandbodyconsultancy.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindandbodyconsultancy/

If you experiencing a personal crisis help is available by calling Lifeline Australia on 131114 or find resources at https://www.lifeline.org.au/