Exploring Mental Well Being: New Practices and Technologies

Exploring Mental Well Being: New Practices and Technologies

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hi friends welcome to the D Life podcast I'm your host life coach Leila and today we're going to be talking about something I'm personally struggling with and it's also very incredibly timely and important and that is our mental well-being in 2025 we'll explore how taking care of our mental health has evolved from traditional practices to cuttingedge Technologies did you know that mental Health Tech Investments grew by over 30% last year 30% that is insane it's a fascinating time to rethink how we care for our mind it's even more fascinating how less taboo the topic has uh become I remember back in the day it used to be if somebody mentioned they were on proac or they were seeing a therapist or they had depression it was this big taboo thing and they were labeled as crazy or weird or oneoff and in reality everybody has something I'm just going to throw that out there you can you can argue with me if you want to but I'm pretty sure everybody has something and it doesn't necessarily need to be medicated or treated in any other way other than cognitive functions but I think everybody's struggling with something and to make it less taboo is uh is just it's just a giant leap of improvement and growth as a society and I'm super excited to see where we're going with this in today's episode we'll cover Innovative new practices explore emerging Technologies and leave you with actionable steps to improve your mental health so let's get started first up let's talk about how mindfulness has evolved from the old days of just positive morning affirmations and meditation now don't get me wrong I'm a big proponent for meditation uh but I will say that there are so many other options and tools that we can use to improve our mental health that it's good to see that more options are becoming more mainstream as opposed to just those few practices that everybody's been using for years so it's no longer just about talking positively to yourself in the mirror or sitting and focusing on your breath while those are powerful tools that you can use there are so many others there's uh yoga NRA I love this Dr Andrew huberman has turned me on to the yoga NRA technique so like in the middle of the day when you feel like you need a nap but you can't nap I'm really I'm not the greatest at taking naps so instead of taking a full nap you lay there and it's almost like a a meditative a nonsleep deep rest I believe is is what it is nsdr and you just you almost put your body and your brain into a meditative state so it gets that relaxation and that reboot without actually falling asleep and resetting your brain because different things happen when you actually fall asleep and it's it's a whole thing but either way so sleep is super important to just throw that out there if we want to have better Mental Health on a regular basis minimizing stress getting a good night's sleep eating healthy foods that that affect your brain this is my own personal Theory there is no scientific evidence that I'm aware of to back this up I've heard it as rumors and and things of that nature but in just my own personal experimentation I I've noticed that my mental health is directly related to my food intake so when I have eaten a bunch of cookies and cakes and pastas and pies and carbs and sugars I will spend the next couple of days in a super slump and depressed like my body and my brain are both depressed when I eat fast food I feel dumb and I'm not saying that you're dumb because you eat fast food or if you eat I'm not saying any of those things I'm saying I feel Dumber when I eat fast food I feel slower I feel brain fog I don't feel as creative I struggle with certain things that would normally be easy and flow for me again I'm not saying there's any scientific research behind this these are just my own personal observations in myself and how my body reacts to things so I live in the midwest it's in the negatives right now it's like -2 degrees outside and it's going to get worse as it gets darker and the fun thing about that is there there's about a foot of snow on the ground under a sheet of ice it iced for an entire day of like sleting freezing rain to where it looked like we had about 4 in of snow but it was just 4 in of ice balls and then it snowed on top of that so that's real fun to drive in uh we call this a winry mix and it's it's amazing I love it here I'm just kidding I'm actually really upset cuz I should be in the desert right now and everything went wrong and I let a lot of people down and I feel like complete for a lot of reasons and I'm doing a lot of self-reflection and I'm just I'm really upset at a lot of things that have transpired in the past few days and I'm not going to use this platform as a venting Source but when we're on the topic of mental health like let's just throw that in there that that's not adding to my wonderful seasonal depression in the snow I'm supposed to be in Dubai surrounded by my tribe and my people and instead I'm in this miserable Midwest is surrounded by sadness and and I want to say that the seasonal depression thing is real real in places like the Midwest where you know it's too cold to go anywhere or do anything and it's typically cold in the holiday season so not only is social isolation a real thing we learned that from Co but you get the social isolation on top of the inability to go outside one of the best things that you could do for your mental health is to go outside get fresh air get sunlight get being in the forest there's scientific evidence that shows that being in the forest for even 10 minutes a day will automatically like reset your nervous system and give you the the Boost of endorphins that you need to to make you happy and calm and Stressless and and so when you're stuck inside because it's cold so you're not getting all the mental health benefits of being outside you're also getting the opposite of mental health benefits by being secluded and isolated inside you are dealing with this is funny but it's not funny so the other day me and a friend were talking and kind of laughing about how our relatives seem to pass away around the holidays or important times and it's not funny but it kind of is like our grandmas both passed around the same time and they were both both very crucial and integral people and part of our upbringing and they both died around Christmas time and his wife's Grandma was passing around around the same time which was right right before Christmas we had this conversation and you know my uncle who I considered a father to me he he passed away on my husband's birthday and it's just it's kind of funny even if they didn't pass away around the holiday season it's still hard for a lot of people to deal with the holiday season because you're missing those people that you love you're missing your loved ones you're missing having them you're surrounded with everyone you love and you care about and yet the one person that you really want and Miss more than anything on the planet isn't here for you so that's a lot of things stacked up against you that's kind of weighing heavy on your mental health so you've got the seasonal depression if that is a thing that you have you have the you know the social isolation the inability to go outside and be in nature the missing of your family and your loved ones in addition to I mean all the other stuff that's going on in our everyday life a lot of people will put themselves in debt trying to make the Holidays happy and then they're stressed and overwhelmed about that and all types of things so it's just it's a big snowball for your mental health and and I said all that just to say that what you put in your body is important but where you put your body is equally important and there's a lot of tips and tools and tricks that we can use to improve our mental health I covered some of the basics that you know should be pretty common knowledge to most people your sleep your diet your exercise I don't know if we talked about body movement one of the hardest things for me to do when I am in a depression or depressive state is exercise I don't want to get out of bed I don't want to shower this is a product of me forcing myself to shower and not having the energy to style my hair this is just natural all natural air dried broom Hilda mess that we got going on here I forget what disease there's this girl on Tik Tok and she's like you know I have 16 spoons to start the day and it's a spoon to shower and a spoon to wash my hair or a spoon to shave and it's one of the other and that's kind of where I'm at like I didn't have enough spoons left to to style my hair but I because I washed it and that was more important so whatever uh if you don't get the reference I just wanted to kind of explain that a little bit so if I'm like I didn't have enough spoons to wash my hair and you people are like this chick is crazy what is she even talking about it's a whole thing on Tik Tok it's it's kind of amusing but yeah so I ran out of spoons and and when you're when you're struggling the idea of working out is so daunting so it's almost impossible to think I'm going to go to the gym or I'm going to go run on a treadmill for an hour and I want to say that you don't have to do any kind of strenuous exercise to improve your mental well-being any kind of movement again if you can go walk outside in nature for 10 minutes after a meal or first thing in the morning that is the most amazing thing that you could do for your mental health if that's not an option any kind of movement yoga Tai Chi chiong all of these things just get your body to flow and move and they're so easy and it's almost effortless something else is dance it's almost aggravating when you're in a state of mind where you just want to lay in bed and rot and then you hear a song come on that's happy and almost puts you in a happy mood and makes you want to dance because that part of your brain wants to just lay there and rot but the other part of your brain is like oh my god this is my jam and you can't help but like get in that mood meanwhile our brains want us to put on the sad sappy music and cry along with it and while you know sometimes you got to feel it to heal it I agree that's amazing thing that you should be doing um you have there's a fine line between being sad and being depressed and having depression and you have to be able to differentiate between okay am I just sad about this or do I have my is my depression in full-blown swing right now and if if you're sad about something it could turn into depression if you're susceptible to that so you have to be real careful with how you are managing your mental health and the tools that you use if you can put on sad songs and cry for an entire day and then wake up the next day and you're like okay I'm over it I'm better that's great good do that absolutely 100% if that if that helps do that if you put on sad music and you cry for an entire day and then the next day you wake up and you want to do it again maybe be a little bit more mindful on whether or not this is just a season of sadness or if the sadness is overtaking you again I don't want to give any like doctoral advice I am not a licensed therapist I'm a certified life coach there's a big difference so please please please please work with your mental health care facilitators and and get the the proper care needed I just want to talk about healthy things that we can do on our own obviously certain situations will require you to get help outside of your own confinement and capabilities and I really request that you do that so so yeah we talked about your sleep your diet your movement exercise those are the big three those things you hear over and over they fix everything and they really do and they're just like the hardest things to do because there's so many Temptations to stay up and hang out with your friends instead of go to sleep on time and to eat a pile of cookies instead of a pound of broccoli or you know whatever so those are the three main factors things that you can do to help improve your mental health those are kind of no-brainers but there's there's fun new things that are coming out like there's VR therapies you can put a VR therapy you can put a you can put a VR headset on and overcome your fear of spiders or sharks or be transformed into a nice peaceful place and to learn how to relax your nervous system and to relive past traumas in a controlled environment and help release those there's there's the tapping there's the eye movement so like you can tap on your body and say different phrases and it helps rewire the trauma that's stored in your body there was a book written I'm so sorry I can't think of the name of the author but the book is called the body keeps score if you have not read read it please read it big trigger warning please make sure you're in a mentally good place to read it it's it's a hard read it's very triggering especially if you've had a lot of trauma uh I I borrowed the book from my oldest daughter who had highlighted certain phrases and things that were like oh that's a conversation that we should have So Not only was my trauma triggered but then knowing that she had trauma that was triggered was even more triggering cuz as a parent you don't want your children to ever have to deal with certain things and and is a lot so there's there's definitely a few days where I was like okay we're going to set this book down for a while uh until I'm mentally capable to finish reading this chapter because it was it was a lot of triggering and I've read it twice now and every time I read it new triggers happen so it seems like as I heal certain things from the Past new things that were suppressed pop up because they were just so hidden by some of the other things that I never even acknowledged so every time I read it there's a different understanding it's it's so crazy how it works I basically I'm talking about this book because it is scientifically proven that your body holds trauma and when you do the tapping you're rewiring your body to release that trauma when you do it's like ET or something where you're like you look back and forth real fast while reliving the events of something traumatic and something about the eye movements and the direct Connection in your brain help helps your body release that trauma or view it differently so it's not so triggering the sad thing about our brains is it doesn't know what the difference between a memory in real life is so when you relive a trauma in your head your brain and your body react as if it's happening again over and over and over again and when you do these cognitive tips and tricks and things that are coming up it helps rewire your nervous system to understand that it's okay and that it's not happening again and it it doesn't trick your body into thinking it's a Memory it tricks your body into not reacting as traumatically as you did initially so these are fun new cognitive techniques and tools that are are coming to be now that the conversation of mental health is not so taboo and there's there's breath work there's sematic um setic they're sematic everything sematic breathing sematic dance sematic like all the things I've done quite a few I've done flow with one PA Barona and you release stored energy and you just you feel like a different person when you're done doing these breathwork sessions and I highly highly suggest that you try them out if you haven't super transformative breath work to me is so intriguing you can you can induce states of hallucinations in just the way you breathe uh you can get your body to release its own DMT as opposed to taking plant medicine in the jungle somewhere or you know all the fun stuff I don't want to say the fun stuff it's not always so fun it's actually not fun at all anyway um and then there's there's the psycho psychotherapies that they're doing now the psilocybin and ketamine and all the different things that they're doing that you you can go and take siloc cybin in a controlled environment with a trained professional which is way different than what we used to do as kids where we would just go into a big dark room with lots of lights and music and dance uh anyway but yeah there there's there's so many therapies now that that are using these drugs that we used to take forever ago just to induce happiness in Altered States of of being and now you can go in a it looks like a doctor's office and get hooked up to wires and machines and monitored and be in a controlled environment to make sure that you are having a pleasant experience and you are utilizing it for the betterment of yourself and your mental health and and I just love that that's a thing that we can do this day and age like drugs have been vilified so long for so many years that now they're like hey these things aren't so bad maybe those flower Children of the 60s were into something uh and it's just sad that it took this long for them to be like yeah okay let's let's do things um let's research these mushrooms that seem to make everybody that takes them real happy um maybe if we do it in a controlled environment where people aren't just taking random drugs from strangers that they met at a party somewhere and then being super full of anxiety wondering if these drugs are going to work or kill us being in a controlled environment takes away a lot of that stress that really shouldn't be associated with these drugs in the first place so having that option is super important and I just I love it I'm so excited about technology and where we're going as a civilization and the fact that you know so many men can talk about their assaults and their traumas and things that have happened to them and before it was so taboo if if a guy talked about something that happened everybody would he would he would have a fear that that would be used against him you know oh that's you're such a loser that's why you're swim teacher touched you inappropriately or whatever and now it feels like it's more allying more Ong the lines of bullying the bully like if somebody comes out and like that's why your swim teacher touched you inappropriately that's the person that's getting attacked like why would you say something like that that wasn't his fault how dare you and I love that as a society that we are coming together and supporting each other and our traumas I I got so I'll give you a little bit of history about myself I was raised by my aunt and uncle I called them Aunt mom and Uncle dad just because I was over there every other weekend every spring vacation summer vacation winter break break it was like they had joint custody but not legally I would just I was just there and they're both passed away but we got into three arguments my entire life three and one of them was some things that happened in a camping trip that I thought were inappropriate and I was really concerned about the children involved and you know as a as as a single mom I was on high alert I didn't want my children to ever undergo any of the traumas that I had went through so I was very cautious and observant and uh something that happened and one of my nieces was doing things that were concerning and I wanted to know where this Behavior came from and where she learned it and who taught her that and all of the things and I was questioning and my aunt mom like got defensive and was like well this is just something that happens to everybody and you just need to deal with it and I was like ABS absolutely not I will never just sit by and deal with it and then as I I got mad I do this thing where I get mad and I go for a walk cuz I clear my head and I need to do the things and I went for a walk and part of me like I wasn't mad and I didn't understand why I felt mad because I wasn't and when I realized I was sad for her because that was her reaction because that was the reaction that was given to her when she was that age and my generation and younger we are not just accepting things as is and we're not just repeating things that we were told because I said so or whatever we are deep thinkers and change makers and generational Curse Breakers and Trauma avoider because not avoider something so when I hear my aunt mom say that's just how it is and it happens to everybody and you just have to deal with it I genuinely felt sorry for her because and that means that as a small child when things were happening to her that's what she was told and that means her needs weren't met and when we are young the first seven years of our lives are just crucial for our development our brains are in like a Theta stage and that's our programming so here we are as adults still trying to understand and reprogram our brains from things that happened from when we were seven and I don't know how old she was when these things happened or what she was told but it makes so much more sense in some of the other things that have transpired in our histories that and it was like you your needs weren't met as a child you didn't understand and it's one of those things when you're a kid and you reach out to your safe person and you say hey here's this thing I don't think is right and it's met with dismissiveness and almost anger and aggression it messes with you and I love that men specifically are are coming out about some of the traumas that they've undergone as children because that was such a taboo thing and we didn't talk about it and the more women talk about the things that have happened to them the more the more we realize how common it was and how disgusting it is and we can be together for each other as a society and and come together to support and and up uplift each other to just to know that you're you're not alone is is a lot to some people they need that and I just I love how as a society we can come together and demystify this taboo topic of our mental health and a man can say yeah I was talking to my therapist the other day and not be scoffed at or looked down upon I think everybody should go to therapy even if you had an amazing childhood had great parents you should still go to therapy I don't care everybody needs to learn healthy coping mechanisms if nothing else or ways to deal with trauma or maybe heal your childhood wounds that you maybe don't even know that you have but I really think that everybody should go to therapy at least a couple times and just have conversations with someone and and talk about some things and and I love that going to therapy doesn't admit you're broken or something's wrong with you or that you're crazy it's just hey maybe there's a better way to go about this maybe I just need an unbiased opinion to have a conversation with those are the things that that I'm really excited about at least as far as the trajectory of our our society so being able to have these conversations and not be looked down upon is amazing and I'm rambling so okay that was that was a lot of the old school techniques and a blend of some of the newer techniques a lot of the new things when I say like 30% 30% of that is your your Wellness apps your mind Valley your GA your your heads space your calm your Wisa all of the things and then you've got your wearable tech like Apollo nuro Muse uh whoop all of those things that track your I mean even my Samsung watch will be like hey you're kind of stressed do you want to breathe you want to do some box breathing I love that I love that if you're having an anxiety attack you can just hit a button on your watch and you can count your breath as opposed to focus on your trigger and calm down so not only is talking about mental health less taboo having mental health issues is less taboo and we can be more open and say Here's a thing that I'm struggling with right now and people aren't going to think we're crazy because we're having a panic attack they're going to be like okay well let's take a deep breath and breathe with me and they'll be able to help you because they understand it because it's probably a something that they have or they've dealt with by someone who's close to them that does have it and I just all the technology and everything that the advancements that are coming are just going to continue to get better and that is so exciting for us as a whole and so we've talked about some of the old techniques and the new techniques let's talk about some different ways to implement them you should have a mental health toolkit so like I said you know my watch I can hit a button and I can do some box breathing if I'm feeling super stressed or angry or I need to reset I can do the physiological sigh which is always a good one for me because you can do that anywhere and you just take a deep breath in through your nose and when you breathe out you just and you sigh audibly and then that kind of resets your central nervous system which is amazing and something that you can do quickly so if somebody says something they ask you a question and it's triggering and you want to respond aggressively or whatever do that sigh take a deep breath and then respond and not react also one of the hardest things I've ever had to learn how to do so yeah you want to build your mental health toolkit what are the tools that you use what are the things that I've talked about today that you could Implement can you practice going to sleep on a more regular basis can you practice a F meditation in the morning so one of the best ways to set yourself up for success in the mental health department is to show up for yourself first and foremost if the first thing you do is grab your phone please don't that is the worst thing you can do because you're basically letting everybody else set and dictate your day for you and what I mean by that is like I woke up a few months ago and I grabbed my phone first thing to see what time it was and I had 27 mess from a friend of mine who was having an issue in the middle of the night and wanted to blame me for some things that didn't have anything to do with me and I couldn't shake that feeling all day I was angry I was crabby I wanted to go off on her everything I wanted to say in response to everything that she said the text message was going to cause us to not be friends anymore and I didn't want to lose her as a friend I wanted to have a rational conversation about these things but I was just so frustrated and angry and then it spilled over into the whole day my my husband will roll over and grab his phone and and then have like a news article and it's something sad that happened and then the whole day he's sad where when I wake up I try to do a um I'm a six-phase meditation facilitator I know I mentioned that but I love to do the six-phase meditation first thing in the morning because it has a portion of it where it's day segmenting and visualization so you're planning out your day in a fast forward like I I visualize like I'm watching a movie in fast forward and it's my day and how I'm reacting to things what I'm doing and and I can set the tone and the mindset and the mental abilities for that day so when things happen and they don't go 100% according to plan it doesn't throw everything off schedule it's one of those like oh okay we'll just deal with it and adjust later and it's not as big a deal as opposed to if I wake up and I'm already in some sort of mood that somebody else is kind of dictated for me so when I wake up the first thing I do is I show up for myself and I highly suggest that that's that's what you do too so show up for yourself first and foremost what are some of the other tools you can Implement if you can't get therapy actually you know know what there are tools and techniques that you might not know are available to you if you have a job most companies have a some sort of a health system through their HR so like your insurance companies will technically pay you or reward you for going to your Wellness checkups every year there are different tools that you can use in a lot of different companies that will assist your mental health a lot of them will let you download apps like calm and headspace for free depending on the company they don't necessarily advertise it to its employees because it's more of a enticement for new people to sign up with them it's something that they want to brag and say that they have as an option that's available but not necessarily something they want you to sign up for because that costs money we're not we're not going to get into all that but you know what I'm saying is basically like you can go through your HR department and see what kind of benefits or programs that they have like my husband's company lets him a therapist for six sessions for every problem or issues he's having and if you live in the household even if you're not legally married or you know you're just together if you have an issue you can also utilize the same system or even like for dependence and things like that so there's a lot of different companies that have a lot of different programs that they're not advertising or telling us about so look into your HR programs and see if there are the options to download some of these apps or go get therapy because you could you could have good mental health and it could be paid for and you just don't know about it so something else you can look into and then look into some of the apps most of them come with a free trial so you can try them out for a week two weeks 7 Days that's a week 30 days things like that before you you purchase and see if it's a good fit see if it's worth your money see if it's worth your time if it's something that you're going to do so I I have a handful of them that I've subscribed to and and I utilize them on a regular basis so obviously don't pay for them if you're not going to use them and then maybe the opposite maybe do a digital detox maybe don't use your phone or grab your phone for a day or two maybe go spend a weekend camping in the woods with no signal be completely unavailable just cut off and disconnect and and see how that makes you feel or digital detox and and again remember like you are the sum of The Five People You surround yourself with the most so who your community is who you're surrounding yourself with is a big import important factor on your mental health are your people bringing you up or they draining you down maybe reevaluate who you spend your time with if you're if you're not feeling uplifted if you're feeling dragged down and energetically drained at the end of an interaction with someone so yeah I challenge you to implement one of these things that we've discussed today let me know how it goes let me me know in the comments like share subscribe do all the things write a review I hope you found value in this video so to recap we talked about some of the new Cutting Edge Technologies and things that they're doing to improve our mental health we talked about how it's not as Taboo it's not a stigma anymore it's just common and it's okay to have a conversation about it we've talked about some of the ways that you can Implement some of the new practices and a lot of the new techniques and tools that you can use where to find them so this has been um it's been a really hard episode for me to do I'm going to be 100% real with you I have this excruciating depression de migraine that I've had for like 3 days now and I know technically depression migraine isn't a thing but it is definitely a comorbid relationship that is happening in my brain right now so um and I also feel like I'm going to lose my mind I recorded this whole entire episode and the audio didn't go through so this is the second time that I'm recording this I'm out of light I had to turn the light on Midway through the video I'm sure that looks super weird but you know what I'm so over it I'm so over it I'm so over it we are we're done we're going to have a great day we are going to go live live life no we're going to go do life cognitively I guess whatever anyway I love you I appreciate you I thank you for being here and sticking with me today I wish you the best please take care of your mental health for you and for everyone around you stay safe [Music]

2025-01-14 14:26

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