Meredith Arthur on Dealing with Anxiety, Overthinking & Embracing Awkwardness

Do you often call yourself an ‘overthinker’? Do you feel an overwhelming sense of unease every time you need to do something that is outside your comfort zone?

In today’s episode, Varun talks to Meredith Arthur, author of ‘Get Out of My Head: Inspiration for Overthinkers in an Anxious World’ about anxiety and overthinking. As two awkward people themselves, they talk about ways to embrace one’s awkwardness & deal with negativity.

Meredith Arthur is also a content lead at Pinterest and runs a website called ‘Beautiful Voyager’ – a safe space for overthinkers and perfectionists.

Time Stamps

(00:00 - 2:05) Introduction

(2:05 - 7:29) How Meredith started writing her book

(7:30 - 12:35) Meredith’s journey with anxiety and over thinking

(12:36 - 16:12) Concept of “waves” in Meredith's book

(16:13 - 17:18) How can “dose of levity” reduce overthinking (Will need to explain dose of levity)

(17:18 - 25:20) Coping mechanisms for feeling awkward

(25:20 - 25:44) Feeling Safe & being beginners

(25:44 - 26:41) Varun’s first podcast episode recording disaster

(26:42 - 30:47) Problem of overthinking before beginning

(30:47 - 35:12) Blue Dot & Red Dot Energy

(36:57 - 38:58) Affirmations on being messages to yourself

(38:58 - 39:42) Twitter is about deflection and overthinking

(39:43 - 44:16) Best way to start journaling/writing

(44:17 - 46:00) Weighing action & inaction while making decisions

(46:02 - 48:50) What are Cognitive Distortions?

(48:51 - 51:25) How Varun wrote his first book in 8 months

(51:26 - 1:02:48) List of Cognitive Distortions

(1:02:49 - 1:04:25) Conclusion

You can Order Varun’s book “Everything is out of syllabus: An instruction manual for life & work “ at https://amzn.to/335QKow  

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About the show

“Take a pause with Varun Duggirala” ( previously “The Varun   Duggi show”) is a thrice a week podcast that’s meant to enable   its listeners to take a pause amidst the chaos of their daily lives to   learn tools, embrace ideas and soak in concepts that will help  them find  motivation, build the right mindset and perform at their  best. Varun  also occasionally taps into the minds of truly  interesting   people to  give listeners a learn from and use in their work, life and  everything  in-between.

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