Improve Mental Health & Wellness

 

Improving our mental health can have profound and lasting impacts on our lives, the lives of those around us, and our communities. In Canada, it is estimated that 20% of Canadians experience problems with their mental health in any given year, and half of the population has faced some level of mental health issues by the time they turn 40.

 

In this episode I share tips and strategies that I've used over the years to improve my own mental health, which I feel may help you on your journey as well. Lmk any thoughts or questions you might have about this topic, it’s a big one.

 

 

Mental Health & Wellness

 

(0:00 - 1:21)

We're coming into this season where things feel a little bit more constricted, generally, as I'm recording this. So September's right at the doorstep. It's the other side of summer, of course, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, and with that, and no matter where you are, hey, I mean, you know, your summer starts where your summer starts.

On the flip, this is kind of a Northern Hemisphere-recorded segment. So on the tail end of the summer season, we get into the fall, and we start heading into winter, and at least, you know where I am, in Vancouver, that means more clouds, more rain, and this kind of, like, overhead overhead weight, almost. Vancouverites are, you know, well attuned to it, generally, but it doesn't make it any easier to roll through, like, a long and extended, you know, fall-winter season.

(1:22 - 4:05)

Sometimes the fall around here starts a little bit later. We had a real long summer and a late summer last year, which is always great. However, the big thing is, that pertains to these seasons, is your mental health and wellness, and these are not only seasonally attuned themes, of course, but there is, for many, an association with weather and moods, right? So, the question for you is, you know, have you experienced that? I have experienced that.

I've done a lot of work around it. In the, you know, winter months, of course, we have the snowbirds who take off to sunnier, brighter places. I'm a tropical guy myself, so I do feed on the sun and the warmth and the water and all of these types of things.

They feel great. Many do, but not everybody. You know, this summer in particular just really clocked more than normal many people who just don't feel that call to those elements in the same way that I do, and and so to each their own, but when we're going through those seasons that are darker, and it's not just the weather, the days are shorter and everything, you know, mental health and wellness is a more, I will say, a common topic that people talk about.

I feel that most feel better in spring, summer, brighter seasons, longer days, and and so forth. So why is that? Well, I think we can pin that to more outdoor activity, more movement, more socializing possibly, maybe more exercise, fresh air, the sun, the vitamin D we get from the sun, being in the sun is nourishing. You know, just look at plants need sun, so do we, basically.

(4:08 - 5:26)

So these are some elements, but then in the winter, to nourish this in myself too, I get a lot less sun. Like I get lots of sun in the summer, and I tend to get a lot less sun in the winter. And so when we're mindful of these elements, then we need to calibrate, I'll suggest, ourselves accordingly on a daily basis to improve, to enhance, to optimize our mental state and our overall mental wellness so that we stay healthy, right? That we still stay, you know, healthy, happy, joyful, productive, we, you know, attain and achieve our goals, these types of things, and we don't get dragged into a slump or similar that might present itself when certain, you know, kind of energies permeate.

(5:27 - 7:11)

You can feel it too, like just naturally, like for instance in Vancouver, you'll have a sunny day, so everybody's outside, but then you have that day where like the cloud rolls in and it's raining, and maybe it's just like one day, but if you're like me, you can feel the energy difference in the city, right? And just in people that day, like there's just a different vibe, people are more grounded, it's just a thing, right? So there's going to be social patterns of energy flows on how people feel like day to day collectively as well as individually, but I will suggest that our goal as an individual, one of my recurring themes, right, is control the things you can, is taking responsibility for our own circumstances and our own feelings and emotions and improving our relationship with those and then developing our strength with respect to optimizing those, really, and recalibrating those if need be. And that comes from having, I feel, like a good toolkit. And so in this episode here, we're going to talk a little bit about the toolkit, we're going to talk a little bit about the things that I do myself to improve my overall mental health and wellness.

(7:13 - 7:45)

And this is a journey, this has been a journey. If you've followed some of my episodes so far, you understand that, you know, the way I manage these types of things in the past weren't ideal and my path of learning has improved the methods that I use to do that and also more organic, holistic, and I will argue healthy ways and means to do that. In the past there were other solutions.

(7:46 - 8:18)

Drinking was one, right? And so again, you know, I don't preach as much as I practice, but if you're here, it's because you're curious. And if you're curious, then I'll at least share my suggestions that were for me because what we're looking to achieve, I'll suggest, is consistency in our mental and emotional states. We're developing a strength.

(8:18 - 9:44)

We need a degree of resilience in that so that it doesn't matter if it's raining, right? It doesn't matter if, you know, your boss or your business partners have an emotional day. It doesn't matter if, you know, and they're angry about something. It doesn't matter what's going on around you.

You're controlling or at least steering yourself consciously through whatever's coming at you day-to-day, but you're staying level. And, you know, mental strength and fortitude is a bit I'll suggest about that is drawing awareness to, you know, the types of solutions that you feel drawn to or that you currently use um to reconcile, you know, your imbalances or similar, right? You're kind of, you know, deeper or more unhealthy mental states, we'll just say. And exploring which of those are unhealthy means to address them.

(9:45 - 10:48)

And then recalibrating so that one, you've got a toolkit that can steer you out of more challenging mental states. But two, done in a healthy way that doesn't undermine your overall wellness or your life or whatever. So in the past for me, so deeply embedded socially in my personal experience was drinking.

And so again, not to preach it, but just to say um we know many people get off work and go, oh, I need a drink, right? And it's these types of patterns we want to draw awareness to because I'm not going to judge you or anyone for going to have a drink. It's up to you, but it's up to you to recognize if that's exacerbating um the state. If it's simply drowning the state for the moment, but it doesn't alter the state ultimately.

(10:49 - 13:12)

So when I drink it would be, I'd go to the bar or whatever and it would be social and be fun and great to see people and all that. I'd have a generally good time, right? But when I'd wake up the next day, I'd be hungover and tired and irritable and these types of things because I didn't get enough sleep and I'm dehydrated to keep it just really simple. So was that a solution or did the source or did the circumstance that was contributing to my state the day before was that resolved from that activity? No, not generally and then I'd need to face it the next day or I need to try and resolve it or acknowledge it the next day, but I would be feeling in a really, you know, lame place generally.

I didn't feel very good. So that's what I feel that I see a lot of people doing is using those types of tools. And then wondering, you know, why they feel low or why they're anxious or why you know they feel a bit erratic or things like this, right? I have this conversation a lot with people and really like wellness is kind of as presented you know in the past there's been lots of medications and things that have been you know offered to people and I think some of those still exist and are available for people that kind of have recurring patterns of certain elements, but I will suggest that while each case is different, I'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to judge anyone's choice to how to use those things or what are their circumstances, your circumstances.

It's okay. Ideally, for me, I don't want to take those kinds of things. I don't want to rely on those kinds of things.

(13:14 - 15:33)

So and I don't at present, right? I don't take anything like this. I'm pretty holistic in in my world. I don't currently take any forms of medication and I look for the natural ways to support myself.

And so I would suggest that the question is if taking those types of things, are we still, are we doing the fundamentals right? Are we doing the basics right? You know, what are you doing for yourself? And even if you are taking those things, are you also supporting those types of solutions with the basics done right? Do you know? So that's an important question and I will suggest in many cases, we aren't. So there's some tools, right? Like what are your morning rituals like? What do you do to start your day? Is the start your day chaotic? Is it tired? Are you dragging? Like many people go right for a cup of coffee. I used to drink coffee once upon a time.

Coffee, you know, obviously is supposed to kind of speed you up or wake you up, whatever. I haven't drank coffee in like 10 years, maybe plus. Coffee is a thing, like if I have a cup of coffee, I'm like, oh that's felt all right or whatever and I'll get into it for a bit and I'll drop it.

But like when I was drinking coffee, it was actually a source of anxiety and discomfort for me because of the caffeine. It would speed me up and I joke with people that it would literally like make my hair stand on end off the top of my head because I just feel fried from it. And if you're if you're used to coffee and you're drinking it all the time, then to get off the coffee, it might take, you know, a week or two just of kind of recalibrating and getting used to it.

(15:34 - 16:43)

But I will suggest like you're supplanting your natural your natural radar of yourself with something that's basically like artificially amplifying your energy. So, but it's not just that, it's that like for me as an example, it was a source of anxiety. It created discomfort.

I didn't feel settled. I didn't feel centered. I didn't feel grounded.

I felt wired, right? So when we're talking about mental health and wellness, one, these are states, right? They are not they are not sentences per se. So like if you're depressed or you're feeling depressed or you're feeling down, right? That is a state. I will argue and I believe it is not it is not you, right? You are not depression.

(16:43 - 17:01)

You are down or depressed, right? Similarly, anxiety, feeling anxious is a state. It is not what you are. You are not anxiety.

(17:02 - 19:22)

Your life is not anxiety. You are anxious. So first these are, you know, really, well, not even first, we've been talking for a few minutes here, but these are important things to recognize.

And people suggest and I agree with that depression is a state of um certainly being in the mind. It could also be a bit of a physical state, I'll suggest, of like fatigue, but fatigue impacts the mind. So um so we think of it in kind of a mental context, right? And um depression being uh triggered, I feel, and many suggest most often when our mind is focused on the past.

So when we're thinking of like uh the partner that, you know, we've broken up with or um that regret of that thing that we didn't do and and and brings with those like regret, uh, those other states like shame and disappointment and all these things. So it's like a uh, right? But our minds are focused on those things. And that is generally the the lead of depression.

So at least in my experience and um and what I, you know, understand many to also interpret it as. And on the flip side, which is still related, so not really a flip per se, but a flip in the focus, is the suggestion is, which I agree with, that anxiety is um about focusing on the future. So anxiety, a different form of stress, which is about uh trying to force a thing to happen to make things happen and like, you know, push things forward or being um uh uncomfortable about the potentiality of what can happen and what things can happen.

(19:25 - 21:35)

And you know, those are still valid feelings, I feel, right? Those are still things that are normal to feel at times. But what we're wanting to be cognizant of, I suggest, is the duration of that and shaking up those patterns so they don't become like the norm or um excessive or extensive or or drag on per se. So um an example, so like in doing some of this work you know, myself, it was about recognizing, okay, like I feel like x eighty percent of the time and I feel great twenty percent of the time.

And it wasn't even that, I mean these aren't perfect numbers, but I was just, I was just feeling into that. And so if you don't feel great and you're listening to this, then you can ask yourself, you know, how much of your day don't you feel great and how much of your day do you feel great? And then the journey is about recalibrating that to flip it. So if you really don't feel great and low like eighty percent of your day and you feel pretty good twenty percent your day, the journey, I would suggest, the transformation, the alchemy we're looking to stimulate here is for you to feel great eighty percent of your day and then accept that maybe things come up twenty percent of the day, right? Because what are we trying to achieve? Um well, more joy, more happiness, more fun, right? Better experiences, better energy, all these kinds of things so we can just enjoy our lives more.

(21:36 - 22:41)

Right? Um, in joy. Uh the word exactly as it means. And why not? Why shouldn't we enjoy our life experience? Well, it depends on what you carry on reasons that you feel that you shouldn't enjoy your life, right? And that can be a bunch of different things.

That could be trauma, that can be fear, it can be a number of different triggers um experiences that you've realized or things that people have told you. Maybe you've been in an abusive relationship or similar where people say you don't deserve that, you can't have that, you're not good enough for that, these types of things. So our work is about digging in to ourselves, right? Spending some time with ourselves and being aware of ourselves to um to consider and recognize where those types of blockages might be that might be inhibiting our um our experience, our experience in life.

(22:42 - 26:21)

And so in that um without looking at it, you know, self love with love, right? Just look at yourself gently without judgment and just observe it for what it is because not all these patterns are conscious. They're also possibly unconscious and you might not even realize that you've been running with these patterns, but we do want to recalibrate them, right? Um because you do deserve joy, you do deserve a great life, you do deserve all the potential that you seek for yourself in the world. You do deserve to realize your dreams and that's no matter what anybody's telling you, right? No matter what's happened in our lives in the past.

We can't do anything about it right now. What we can do is we can do what we want to do in the present. And in the future, we can't force things to happen in the future.

It hasn't happened yet. But what we can do is we can seed things that make the outcomes we're looking for more likely in the future by doing things consciously in the present So if we shake ourselves out of the past and focusing on the past we receive those experiences as lessons, we integrate them, you know, we commit ourselves for ourselves, a gift to ourselves of um doing the work to just explore, recognize, acknowledge what those types of influences might be to make peace with them, then we won't be getting pulled back right into that. We can think about them.

We can reflect on them. It's okay, but we're minimizing their power over us, right? And then similarly, you know in the future, what's a huge cause of anxiety, right? Finances. It's probably the biggest one and these days many people feel it.

I talked to lots and lots of people many people feel under pressure financially but we can't force finances to get better. What we can do is in the present moment start the work and improve our work right now, here, to improve our financial circumstances, to do that work which over time will help to alleviate those anxieties if they exist for you. Just an example.

So we have to explore what the sources are, right? And then come to presence and part of the work of improving our mental health, I will suggest, is spending more time in presence and improving our relationship with those two poles, right? And other triggers that lead to them. And they're not the only ones. You know, anger is another big one that isn't directly correlated to those two sources, but being excessively angry is not ideal.

(26:23 - 26:43)

It's not an ideal mental state, I believe. We need to be mindful of what triggers us on anger level and lessen its control or its influence over us also. As we're doing this, we're improving, you know, our emotional IQ, really.

(26:43 - 27:13)

We're being mindful of the triggers that move us into states that we don't really feel like hanging out in. And when things happen to us, improving our relationship with our environment and then recalibrating those things so we're not around those triggers all the time that we're changing our circumstances. The simplest example is out of the snowbirds, as I said.

(27:14 - 28:45)

People say, hey, seasonally, I'm affected by the weather. I like the sun. The sun makes me feel my best.

I'm going to go to the sun. In fact, I should also do more of that, being in the sun in the winter. You get the occasional sunny days, obviously, as you know.

It's not just like a blanket rainy day all the time, but there are places that do get more sun than this city. That's an example. And so that's a response.

But in improving this relationship with yourself, there are certain ways to do this. Whether you're feeling depressed or you're feeling anxious. The biggest things I find, if you're feeling depressed, if you're in your head and you're sulking a bit or whatever, I want you to remember this thing, you know, you're not a victim.

You're a creator. This is a big, big thing to embrace. Just embrace it.

Just trust me. Just shift that perspective that everything's happening to you versus you're creating your experience. And be okay with yourself about it.

Be gentle with yourself in recognizing and considering that. What if you looked at the world that way and thought, I've created all this. Why? And if I don't like what's happening, what do I want to create and start, right? And it's just a shift that makes a huge difference that way.

(28:46 - 29:02)

To just consider that perspective. So start there. But if you're in a depressed state, you're not feeling very good, you're feeling, you know, sad, you're feeling down, overwhelmed, you know, these types of things.

(29:04 - 29:16)

And you're, you know, feeling regretful. There's so many more other like adjectives and states to describe here. One of the best things I find is movement.

(29:19 - 29:33)

Movement is a release from your mind. It brings you back into your body. And when we get heady about things, we aren't in our body.

(29:34 - 30:08)

So to bring yourself back to the now, which is the environment we can control today, this moment, we need to take ourself out of those past dreamy states, thinking about things we can't control, thinking about things that have already happened, and we have to we have to take ownership. We have to accept that they've already happened. We have to take ownership of the now.

(30:09 - 30:17)

And we have to pull ourselves forward. We have to remember nobody else can do this work for you, but you. And you have to find yourself in this place.

(30:19 - 30:52)

But movement and kind movement, you know, you don't have to walk out your door and sprint down the street as far as you can go. It's just, it's just movement. There's a colleague once upon a time who I crossed paths with and it was such a great lesson.

I may have mentioned it in past episodes, but it was just such a great lesson. And he was, he had been through trauma and physical trauma and serious trauma. He was in a car accident.

(30:53 - 31:18)

And and he began developing his practice of yoga for rehab after. And what he learned along the way and recognized along the way is that yoga as an example is not a class you go to for 60 minutes on Monday at 9.30 in the morning only. You could do that.

(31:18 - 31:26)

You could go to classes at any time. Right? They're all over the place. But it's not just that.

(31:26 - 31:45)

It's a state as much as a movement at any time you require it. So if you feel tight, if you feel stiff, if you feel you're getting like a bit down, whatever, like a movement. Now yoga is a gentle form of movement that really opens you up.

(31:45 - 31:51)

I greatly enjoy it. I highly recommend it. It challenges me all the time.

(31:51 - 32:14)

But when I do it, I just feel like you know it just cracks open parts of my body that like we're holding things that I don't even recognize or consciously realize. And you know the poses and postures you can start at whatever level you want it. It's a super basic level.

(32:15 - 32:24)

And grow into it and improve as you go. There's no pressure or judgment on these things. There's YouTube videos of classes of all levels.

(32:24 - 32:37)

You can just fire one up right now and start. But you know walking also. Just standing up and just twisting your body.

(32:38 - 32:54)

Putting your arms over your head and just rotating your shoulders. Just simple movement is a great technique to just shake you out of some of this energy. And then it can expand from there.

(32:54 - 33:07)

And so mental wellness is about being present and coming to presence. It's about living in presence. And the more we do the work, the more present we can be.

(33:07 - 33:18)

Because the less other things we feel are weighing on us. This is what I would suggest and argue. For me, I do this work.

(33:19 - 33:50)

And once you start doing the work, you're always doing the work. Because not only are the things in the past that are that have their connection to you that you need to do the work with and reconcile and make peace with and let go of and these things to come to presence that way. There's the other things in the future that we can overly focus on that pull us and create stressors for us in that direction.

(33:51 - 34:14)

And there's also the things that meet us in the now and presence for us to experience that can trigger various forms of stressors or similar that can also send us back into these states. We need to explore those also. And those are valid if they come up.

(34:14 - 34:34)

But what we're improving is our ability to to recognize them navigate them receive them integrate them, release them in the moment. Like as new things still come. You know, we're still living.

(34:34 - 1:03:17)

We're alive. Things are happening now. And also embracing the magic of what that is for us to grow in our life experience by going out into the world and tasting the thing and experiencing the thing and dancing that dance and going to that event and these types of things to experience the world which is the opportunity it's the magic of what all this is and to take a block of clay that is our life and mold that into the world that we want the world that we see for ourselves and still being kind enough to ourselves to realize even those dreams may take a different shape they may shift pardon me they may mold you may build the dreams that you felt were what you wanted and get there and realize that wasn't it.

That's okay. Right? It's not a big deal. Adjust your dreams learn and adapt as you go make adjustments there's no set rule really for this stuff there's some of course very clearly what not to do but there's lots of room and the positive ways of what you can do to build a life and the experience you want so movement is big big and I'll get into a whole episode on movement and training and this sort of stuff what you put in your body is another one for sure nutrition you know these foods give us nutrients or they don't so are we getting enough nutrients that give us energy and vitality and these sorts of things in what we eat food is fuel it's not just for entertainment there is entertaining food out there that are high sugars and kind of appeal in different ways but but we're looking for the foods that are fuel and adding more of these to our lives so how's your diet are you getting enough nutrients I'm getting a whole episode about this but a great way to look at this is a food app and a food app that I use is called chronometer it was recommended to me by just a superb athlete that was coaching and training me once upon a time and um and what it does is you can plug in all your food that you eat throughout your day all your macros, your macros are your carbs, your proteins and your fats you can see how those ratios are so in training and optimizing your physical health which is another episode for another day but to keep it kind of brief when you're optimizing your physical health you're working those ratios of your macros because this is how your body is processing what you're eating and balancing those according to what your physical goals are but then equally when you plug these different foods in that you're eating and you can create your own recipes in there you can spit out what are in those also it'll tell you the nutrients you're getting, so are you getting all the nutrients you need um in your day so you can run that filter so you can use an app the chronometer app, you can download it for your phone and give that a go and that's going to help because if you're not getting the right nutrients then you're not feeling energized enough to go out and get into the world participate in the world and if you're feeling low then you're not energized enough you're not fueled properly that type of fatigue state can drift you into more down mental states I'll suggest um breath breath is another tool so how's your breathing when you're feeling stressed particularly anxiety how's your breath so we want to develop a deeper breath work practice there's tons of resources to do so but connecting yourself with your breath is going to help ground you it's going to help bring you back to the now it's going to help your body relax and release the tension, the squeeze that you're feeling when you're feeling stressed so we want to improve breath work, right um these are like three like major major components to improving um your state of mental wellness there's also environment what environment are you in are you in an environment with like exceptionally bright lights uh that are overbearing or sound that's too loud that's like grating on your ears just look at your own home space is your home space cluttered or is it uh or is it minimalist a great kind of minimalist um uh approach to things is really great practice because we tend to hang on to things I've got that in me I do a lot of work in this area but to go through that and go what things do I need or not and just go through your home go through your office consider the spaces where you spend all your time what things in there are stagnant energy are things that you're just holding on to that you don't need anymore go through them all and just clear it all out just take all that weight out of your space and then consider lighting we don't talk about light pollution much we don't talk about sound pollution much but those two things are about helping support creating support a a a nurturing environment a feel good environment a possible gentle environment where at least you can rest and heal and get the rest you need the recharge you need um which leads also to sleep how are your sleep patterns are you getting enough sleep you know if you're partying a lot there's a chance you're not getting as much sleep as you need so you need to make sure you get that rest but you need to make sure that it's good sleep um there's a technique I recently started using that's really quite good it's about helping support your back so you put a pillow under your legs if you sleep on your back and I also prop my shoulders up a bit higher so I'm just in this like kind of like inclined almost like semi seating position but with the pillow like right under my knees I started doing that and I just drop into these like super deep REM sleep states they're amazing I have these incredible dreams and I feel super rested so I'm obviously with that more comfortable going into a deeper state of sleep um alternatively if you sleep on your side you can put the pillow between your knees while you sleep on your side and it has a similar effect but getting enough sleep I know for myself that if if I don't get six and a half hours of sleep I'm pretty irritable the next day and not like super irritable but I'm like dragging my butt right and that's a down state and we're trying to keep ourselves in more elevated states so I need at least six and a half usually seven for me and if I get seven I'm like let's have a day, let's go I'm good in the gym I'm good on my day I've got general energy sustaining me throughout the day it's great so you know and that will also explore your sleep um the people around you who are the people around you uh are these good relationships are they healthy relationships are they people that are supporting you that are elevating you that are helping you grow, be better achieve your goals um are they people with um with more toxic patterns that make you feel like you don't deserve them um you know deserve those things I should say uh that you're not good enough that you'll never make it this type of stuff so the people around you run an audit on that right there's family we have and we need to do our work with our family to make peace with our families for sure no matter what's going on find that because that's family right those are your people I encourage you to find the way right to make those relationships work then there's our chosen family and our chosen family is something we control more which is who are our people around us right who's our community um and what does that community believe in what is that community about what are they doing and um and growing nurturing sourcing developing a community that is about the things that you are about that is about the things that make you feel great that bring you joy and these types of things and that is both on a personal and professional level so I highly suggest running an audit on that and making adjustments where appropriate so that those that are around you are supporting your growth and your wellness and not contributing to uh anything but really anything that isn't supporting that because we're trying to elevate your world we're trying to reach these new states on a greater frequency we're trying to enjoy life it's happening now let's go do it all the potential exists today in this moment for you to do and realize that which you really deeply want in your life which is about meditation I haven't really talked on meditation too much but meditation is a relationship with yourself it's a space you hold for yourself and when I first started meditating I started listening to Deepak and I was squirmish because I was still in a lot of these other patterns it was not common for me to settle into my own skin where I was grounded I was really still carrying a lot of the stress and pressures of the world and the lifestyle I was living and each of those segments were like 15 minutes and 15 minutes felt like a long time back then but now I can drop into meditation for an hour I'm just in it and it is a relationship with yourself what's amazing about meditation is you can't lie to yourself there you don't lie to yourself there we might go about in the world and tell people these are the things we want in our lives because we think those are the right answers but we're truly this is what we want in our lives this other thing that we don't tell people for whatever reason but when you're meditating you're exploring that for yourself and you can meditate really on anything but for me my meditation is a space I hold for myself I start my day with it the first thing I do before I even get out of bed I just sit in meditation once I've woken up and the first phase of my meditation my meditation is three parts first phase of my meditation is I just sit with myself with my breath and I just check in and just see how I'm feeling and just hold space for like the kinks of my body to move a little bit for any tension to just kind of melt away to just come to presence the second phase of my meditation is kind of whatever I want to focus on in that meditation if I want to like think about a puzzle or a problem my morning meditation is about setting intentions for my day so it's like okay what are the things I need to achieve today you know A, B, C, D I kind of just run through and go okay this I want to get this done today this is my goals I get clear on like my intentions for my day and I hold space for that as well as which is similar what I like my day to look like experiences I'd like to have people I'd like to meet um results I'd like to achieve all these types of things and you can do it on a daily basis or a more macro basis you know you can meditate just on your life your journey, your goals more broadly these types of things and then the third phase which most suggest is part of what manifests what brings it in is bringing the feeling into your body bringing the feeling into my body that I've already achieved that it's already realized that it's happening now which is a recalibration if you do this in your meditation you'll feel that like your vibe shifts and then you're in this state and this state is the joy, the energy of this happening it's happening now which is amazing and so this is really great it's like a recalibration practice and to start my day with it it's better than just rolling over out of bed and going ah whatever and just trying to kind of figure my day out and play catch up it's that I actually set that vibe for my day and then when I'm done I'm like clear I feel centered grounded I'm in a state that is already bringing this positive energy into my day and I flow from here and it feels amazing so it's a great practice you can watch through my channels for guided meditations for me I feel like I'm going to drop at least one pretty soon that should be helpful in this respect but they say you should meditate for I believe it's 20 minutes every day unless you don't have time then you should meditate for an hour and that's a I think a Buddha joke or who was it I don't think it was Rumi something like that but it's hilarious and it's right as a creator we start from ourselves and everything else around us is drama really so which of those experiences are signals which are things that help us grow and move forward and experience the world we want and which of those things are noise meaning just distractions and you know things that try and pull us down or get in the way or whatever so we need to filter out the noise and we need to pay attention more to the signals and we need to put more signals out there ourselves and we need to just spend enough time for ourselves to be centered and let whatever energy needs to move so that we can be more present and engage more fully in the world in this moment and see the things, do the things we want in the now to build the future and support the experiences we want to have in the future so then the next topic within this whole topic here the next item which is complementary in some respects is mindset and with mindset is self-talk so how do you speak to yourself and what do you say how do you communicate to yourself do you talk to yourself in the mirror do you talk to yourself about your day what do your social feeds look like are they of a bunch of trolls and negative posters and similar on various feeds that are always critical of people and generally toxic or is your feed uplifting inspiring creative expansive, supportive what are you receiving through your channels what music do you listen to music is huge to support good vibes I love music, I love curating new music Spotify is really really good at it I used to do it with SoundCloud but Spotify is amazing for new music discovery really good so like you know what type of music are you listening to what are the messages in those songs that you're receiving your social channels so like as I was saying what are you getting from those social channels make those adjustments you want a positive social feed that is supportive of your growth when you open those things up you want people saying I believe in you, you can do it you're capable giving you tools and resources to grow and improve your circumstances TV shows, movies, what are you watching are you watching things that are expanding your mind that you're learning about that help you grow or are you watching shows that are kind of dragging you into artificial conflicts or issues or dramas that are just not really relevant or required or necessary are they drawing your attention to fake issues or are they expanding your mind about real things, circumstances similar much film art of course is also metaphoric so you can dig a little layer deeper to consider what it is you're watching but just be mindful of what you're watching because those things also have an influence on how they make you feel are you watching inspired cinema for example is another way to improve your mindset and outlook on life there's some exceptional storytellers that do that comedy is also funny right it can shift your vibe always a good laugh you know, laughter is the best medicine they say so what are the things that crack you up get more of these things in your social feed and in your playlist so those are some tools and I can't have a conversation about mental wellness on the whole without talking about a an area that people have begun to explore more recently as a supportive component to improving mental wellness and I'm not a doctor and this is very frontier stuff but people are doing it and it comes up all the time and natural solutions for some right so you know cannabis, edibles psilocybin better known as magic mushrooms a form of psychedelic other forms of psychedelics to assist with addiction and similar this is a frontier world cannabis, more common it's been around for a while I don't use any of these things there's a time in my past where I experimented with some of them but there's research that came out with respect to psilocybin in particular that was sourced from John Hopkins that suggested that subjects who took psilocybin researched this for yourself had improved mental wellness had improved symptoms from depression and anxiety after their experience for a reasonable amount of time I mean it was I believe it was like months the duration but find the report and many people I know are experimenting with micro doses which is like really small doses of these types of things to just complement supplement their life experience in a way that just helps them feel a little bit brighter so I'm not recommending that but it is another thing people are exploring it is frontier science I don't know where and where it isn't available as an option off the top of my head but this whole realm is emerging so it is something else to keep an eye on how it develops the data around it the potential of it and so I leave that for you if you're curious about that world to explore for yourself because I'm not a doctor I can't recommend those types of things and I'm not because I don't use them myself to achieve the states that I achieve which is the work that I've done to create a sense of peace and joy and similar in my own life so I don't feel that they're required but it at least seems and appears on surface that it is helping some people so it's not to be ignored and I have colleagues that are running pretty significant companies in this space that are furthering research they're facilitating access all kinds of stuff like this and so I'm following them closely as well it's very very interesting but again, not required I feel if you follow the other elements that I've shared here of ways and means to improve your state of mental wellness and also recalibrate the ratio, the amount of time that you feel better that you feel good and great because why not, you deserve it that those things will assist and support largely at minimum help you if not be sufficient to facilitate that recalibration in your life and your world and it's creating rituals around those elements and also having those tools in your back pocket so that whenever you feel the drift or the shift you just know, ah I need to go for a walk I'm just going to meditate on this for a bit so I can just relax and work through the puzzle or I'm going to put some good music on I could use a great track this morning that type of stuff and just having this tool kit so that when you are aware that these things are creeping in you can make adjustments because remember they are states they are not what you are and so as they are states we can shift the states so these are tools to help you shift the state to then get back in the flow and get on with it and have an amazing day strung together, an incredible life experience which as I've said a few times I'll say it again, you deserve so I hope this episode has provided some interesting insight and color and perspective for you on helping you deepen your awareness of things that can contribute to these states and also some tools that will help you shift them day to day and over the course of your journey let me know if you have any thoughts or questions about this, all my links are in the body and descriptions below and until the next episode I wish you an amazing day and the realization of all the things you're seeking for yourself in this moment, on this day in your world as you march from here forward and we'll chat with you soon