Your Anxiety Toolkit - Practical Skills for Anxiety, Panic & Depression

Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit.  Today we are thrilled to introduce Dr. Laura Wetherill who will be talking about school anxiety.  Dr Laura Wetherill is a Formal Research Scientist, turned full-time mom, who has a gift for doodling and supporting students with their studies and their mental health.  Dr. Laura Wetherill now considers herself an online educator and has so much to share with us about managing school anxiety. During the interview, we address the below questions:  What advice to you have for those who afraid of how stressful the year will be?  How can students manage comparisons (with students who are “smarter” or “more popular” etc.)? Any tips for managing time during the school year?  How can one manage the fear of failing a test or a class?  How can one manage strong feelings of dread and hate towards school?  Dr. Wetherill gathered information on how students are feeling about going back to school and learned a lot about school anxiety and fears: When asked, “How are you feeling about going back to school?” the vast majority reported fears based around friends, exams, time pressures, expectations, etc. We included them for your reference.   Friends/relationships: • Nervous about not having friends in some of my classes. • Worried about losing friends. • Worried about making friends. • Unresolved conflict with friends. • Bullying.  Exam Stress: • Many students worried about coping with stress, anxiety and the pressure around upcoming exam time. • One student is worried that she will panic in the exam room. • Students worrying that they’ve failed their exams and must go back to school with “bad” results (worried they’ve let parents, teachers and themselves down).  General stress: • Scared the year will be too stressful. • Excited for subjects but not about the stress.  Expectations/Not feeling smart enough: • Worried about not meeting entry requirements for A levels. • Worried about not being smart enough and finding it hard when everyone is competing and being compared against one another. • Worried about being unable to cope with the step up in difficulty.  Time pressure: • Not having enough time to learn everything. • Not having enough time to finish resources. • Not having enough time to revise. • Feelings of time running out. • Having to miss the first week of school and then worried about catching up with work.  Predicting Failure: • One student had failed her mocks and is worried that she will fail the real exams. • Students worried that they will fail the exams at the end of this new school year.  Feeling unprepared: • Unprepared for exams. • Unprepared to leave school at the end of the year. • Unprepared for the year ahead. • Some are not sure how to prepare for the year ahead. • Revising hard but feel like it’s not enough. Coping with ongoing medical conditions that disrupt school. • Having a medical condition that means they might not be able to attend school or sit the exams that they would like to sit. • One student was doing half days and they’re worried that this year they won’t be able to cope if they have to do full days. • Making the wrong choices: • Worried that they’ve chosen the wrong subjects or will not enjoy them.  Strong feelings: • “I hate school, I don’t want to go back.” • “My friends p*** me off.” • “I’m terrified”.  New beginnings: • Nervous about starting a new college/6th form/school. • Nervous about starting a new school, in a new country.  For more information on Dr. Wetherill, visit: Instagram:@doctormeclever  Website: doctormeclever.com  Dr. Wetherill and I created a FREE 7-Step resource to help you bust your procrastination habit.  Click HERE for the info.

Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit. Today I was reflecting on what you might need to hear and it dawned on me that you might need a solid dose of compassion.  So, today we are talking about finding your compassionate voice.  In this podcast, I will lead you through a “Finding your compassionate voice” meditation, created originally by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer.  The script is below, but please note that I did change a few components to match the style of my voice and my ideas for what you needed to hear.   Finding your compassionate voice involves us bringing what we need to hear to our awareness. Examples of finding your compassionate voice might sound like:  “I love you”  “I am here for you”  “You are enough”  “You are loved”  “Everything is going to be ok”  Finding your compassionate voice is an exercise or tool that might be able to offer you a skill to increase self-compassion, self-kindness, and self-respect. Finding your Compassionate Voice Meditation Please find a posture in which your body is comfortable and will feel supported for the length of the meditation.  Then let your eyes gently close, partially or fully.  Taking a few slow, easy breaths, releasing any unnecessary tension in your body.  • If you’d like, placing a hand over your heart or another soothing place as a reminder that we’re bringing not only awareness but affectionate awareness to our breathing and to ourselves. You can leave your hand there or let it rest at any time.  • Now beginning to notice your breathing in your body, feeling your body breathe in and feeling your body breathe out. Now releasing the focus on your breathing, allowing the breath to slip into the background of your awareness, begin to offer yourself words or phrases that are meaningful to you. Whisper these words into your own ear.   • Just letting your body breathe you. There is nothing you need to do.  • Perhaps noticing how your body is nourished on the in-breath and relaxes with the out-breath.  • Now noticing the rhythm of your breathing, flowing in and flowing out. (pause) Taking some time to feel the natural rhythm of your breathing.  • Feeling your whole body subtly moving with the breath, like the movement of the sea.  • Your mind will naturally wander like a curious child or a little puppy. When that happens, just gently returning to the rhythm of your breathing. This is mindfulness.  • Allowing your whole body to be gently rocked and caressed – internally caressed - by your breathing.  • If you like, even giving yourself over to your breathing, letting your breathing be all there is. Becoming the breath.  • Just breathing. Being breathing.  • And now, gently releasing your attention to the breath, sitting quietly in your own experience, and allowing yourself to feel whatever you’re feeling and to be just as you are.  • Slowly and gently open your eyes.

Welcome to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast.  We are talking all about our bodies and addressing a very important topic called Health At Every Size in this episode.   Today, I am honored to talk to Emily Cooper, a therapist who specializes and is so knowledgeable about health at every size, body positivity, body neutrality, and privilege. In this episode, we talk about whether there is a “right type of body” or a “wrong type of body” and how society and diet culture impact us and how we see our bodies. Emily Cooper addressed why Health At Every Size is an important concept that improves self-respect and self-love. Health At Every Size (HAES) is an inclusive movement that supports people of all sizes, weights, and body types in addressing health directly by adopting healthy behaviors.  Health At Every Size does not focus on weight as the sole indicator of health.  Being thinner does not necessarily make a person healthier or happier.  A “healthy body” aligns with more than one body type and across a wide range of weights. During this episode, Emily Cooper also addresses how our perception of our body can impact our everyday lives, specifically related to work environments, social environments, relationships, intimacy and life in general.  In her discussion about Health At Every Size,  Emily Cooper also addressed the concept of thin privilege and diet culture and how they impact our relationship with our body and other peoples’ bodies.    The goal of this podcast episode is to introduce you to the idea that you can start to respect your body today, no matter what size or shape.  Emily beautifully shared that her hope is to give us permission to not like our bodies but still learn to live our lives, not using weight or size to indicate your worth or ability to do the things you want to do.   For more information on Emily, visit: Instagram: @heyemilycooper  Blog: http://www.heyemilycooper.com/ Book References: Body Respect by Linda Bacon and Lucy Aprhamor Intuitive Eating by Linda Bacon

This podcast explores how to manage intrusive thoughts by discussing the ineffectiveness of thought suppression and distraction. It emphasizes the importance of understanding that all thoughts are normal and offers insights into alternative approaches to regulating emotions and thoughts. Additionally, the podcast discusses the concept of cognitive endurance and the importance of practicing occupation. It concludes by encouraging listeners to choose based on values rather than fears and seek professional help if needed.

This week’s episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast will really change the way you look at and relate to Self-care. In this episode, we aren’t talking about luxurious, expensive and unsustainable self-care.  We are talking about affordable self-care.  And, we are talking about self-care that costs NOTHING!  If you struggle with self-care, this is the episode for you.  If you struggle to even be aware of when you need self-care, this is the episode for you.  In this episode, we talk with Psychologist Dr. Jenn Hardy about how marketing and media have made self-care into something that should look perfect, cost a lot of money and be luxurious.  Dr. Jenn Hardy brings up the wonderful point that a self-care plan that is expensive and indulgent is not sustainable and won’t fit into most people’s daily lives.  Dr. Jenn Hardy addresses a concept she coined, affordable self-care, which is taking care of your basic needs and making time each day to give your body and mind what it needs.   Here are a few examples of affordable self-care that you can include into your life in simple and easy ways.  Going pee when you need to pee Journaling  Slowing down  Taking a breath between activities  Honoring what your body needs Saying no to things  The thing I love the most about this episode is that we learn just how accessible affordable self-care is.  We all have access to affordable self-care, no matter what your income is, where you live and what you do for a living.  For more information on Dr. Jenn Hardy, visit: Instagram: @drjennhardy Website: Drjennhardy.com  Before we go, I want to share a virtual conference with you that I will be speaking at (from August 5th-15th): Share Triumph Cancer Conference. I will be speaking at this free, virtual event in which women share how they made decisions about medical treatment and discuss how the emotional effects of diagnosis impact them today.  Specifically, I will be talking about managing anxiety related to physical illness and cancer. This event brings together renowned doctors, therapists, nonprofits, fashion brands, comedians, podcasters, survivors and metavivors teaching you how to get through diagnosis, treatment and the aftermath to help keep your mind and spirit intact! Click HERE for more information and to register

Welcome to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast.  Today I am sharing my takeaways from the 2019 International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) Conference. I just got back and it was possibly one of the most wonderful experiences.  This year, the conference was in Austin, Texas, and I won't lie…it was HOT.  I was super impressed with the people from Texas, as they were so kind, cheerful and helpful. In today’s episode, I wanted to give you guys a quick peek at what I took away from the 2019 IOCDF conference this year.  The 2019 IOCDF Conference is a conference that is held annually to help provide education, support, and advocacy for those who struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Health Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors, Tic Disorder or Tourette's Disorder and general anxiety.  It is a wonderful opportunity for those who need extra support or want to learn the gold-standard treatment for OCD.  Not only is it an educational weekend, but it is also a weekend filled with hope, love, and unconditional acceptance.  Here is what I took away from this year’s 2019 IOCDF Conference.  First of all, you guys are so kind. I cannot tell you how overwhelmed and honored I was to meet so many of you.  Thank you to each and every one of you who came and said hi, gave me hugs, thanked me for the work I am so honored to do and for those of you who showered me with the sweetest and most thoughtful gifts.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Now, once again this year, I was honored to host the 2019 Compassion Collective support group for Self-Compassion with my dear friend Michelle Massi.  Michelle and I met each morning at the very early hour of 7 am to sit with a group of beautiful humans who are invested in being kinder and more compassionate to themselves.  It was a beautiful group and, once again, we got to peek inside their minds for an hour each morning and learn just how hard you all are on yourselves.  Wowsers, you guys.  Humans are FAR too hard on themselves.  The main message we tried to share with y’all (We were in Texas hehe) was to drop the idea of getting A+ in life and to shoot for a B-.  Be a B- human.  Give life a B- effort.  Give yourselves a little break here and there.  In addition to running the Compassion Collective group, I also had the honor of running the Women’s OCD Support Group with my dear friend, Beth Brawley.   The one big takeaway from these amazing women was to be unapologetically yourself.  As women, we need to stop apologizing for ourselves and just own the struggles and wins that we have.   Another thing I heard from attendees over and over in the elevators and hotel halls is the strong urge and pressure to make themselves attend each and every presentation.  If anyone has attended and IOCDF Conference, you will know that the schedule is JAM PACKED every single hour of the day.  There is no way we can do it all.  I figured you guys are hard on yourself in daily life also so my message to you is that you don’t have to do it all.   This one is SUPER important.  You are alone!  You really are not.  Each year, thousands of people meet in a random city in the USA to learn about OCD.  I know at home you may not know a single soul with OCD, but please know that people like you are out there and they are wonderful and kind and smart and funny and make my heart so full, just like YOU.    The last takeaway from the 2019 IOCDF Conference is this.  YOU ARE SUPPORTED!   I was honored to attend the OCD Game Changers event at the conference and there I met a large number of OCD treatment providers and OCD Advocates who are on a mission to help you all and provide good treatment and to advocate for you and to fight for you.   You may have had terrible experiences with some therapists, but please know that there are some incredible therapists out there who are such badasses and they are fighting for you.  

In today's episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit podcast, we are discussing a compassion practice that will change your life.  Today, we are talking about the Buddhist practice, Tonglen Meditation for anxiety. The ancient meditation practice of Tonglen is known as a practice of “taking and sending”. Tonglen Meditation for anxiety is a practice that is similar to everything we talk about here on Your Anxiety Toolkit.  Tonglen Meditation for anxiety reverses our usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure. Commonly, people with anxiety want to learn how to eliminate their own suffering and pronouns such as “I”, “Me” and “Mine” is the focus of their attention.   The use of Tonglen is a practice of compassion for all humans, including ourselves, that allows us to visualize taking in the pain of others with every in-breath and sending out whatever will benefit them on the out-breath.  In the process of Tonglen Meditation for anxiety, we let go of patterns of selfishness and we bring love to both ourselves and others.  We create a practice where we take care of ourselves and others. Tonglen Meditation for anxiety awakens our compassion and introduces us to a view of reality that is wider and more realistic.  Tonglen meditation for anxiety can be a formal meditation practice or can be used at any time for even brief periods of time.  Tonglen Meditation for anxiety also allows us to send compassion to all humans and see that many other humans are just like ourselves.  This Tonglen Meditation for anxiety will bring you to see that you are not alone in your suffering.  The practice is to bring love and compassion to all living beings, as everyone is suffering in one way or another.   Instead of beating ourselves up, we can use our personal struggles as a way to access common humanity (understanding what people are up against all over the world). As we breathe in the pain and suffering for all of us and breathe out love and compassion for all of us, we create a space where we can feel more deeply and honestly. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings. Please use this Tonglen Meditation for anxiety to remove the suffering of mankind, while also sending the relief.  Breathe out while releasing out comfort and happiness. Radiate love as widely as you can, CBT School community! 

This episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit was not an easy one to record.  No one likes to have a conversation about suicide, but we need to.   We need to have a conversation about suicide more than ever and we need to keep having these conversations until we break the stigma of suicide.   Recently, one of our dear CBT School members died by suicide and our community was heartbroken.  My heart was broken.  Even as a therapist, I cannot prepare myself enough for the conversation about suicide.   Thankfully, as we all grieve this sad loss, we are joined today by Joe Dennis to help us work through this difficult topic.  Joe Dennis is the Clinical Director of Mindful Counseling in Utah with such a wonderful kind heart.  In a flash, Joe agreed to join me for a conversation about suicide where he educated us about suicide and gave us some wonderful tools and resources for those who are struggling with thoughts of suicide.  We also discussed tools and resources for those with a loved one who has died by suicide.  Joe talked with us about why we now call it “Death by suicide” and the reasons for this terminology change.  Joe also talked about the difference between passive suicidal ideation and active suicidal ideation and how to differentiate between the two.  Joe and I talked about why we struggle to talk about Suicide and how Depression, anxiety, trauma, etc. play into suicidal ideation. Lastly, Joe talked about what is going through the mind of someone who is contemplating suicide and what tools/strategies/resources they can use when they are faced with this difficult time.  I really hope that this podcast helps you to understand and approach suicide in a way that is less stigmatized, less shamed and less frightening.   Thank you, Joe Dennis, for being on the show.  For more information on Joe, visit: Instagram: @joedennis.counsels Website: https://mindfulcounselingutah.com For more information on suicide awareness and prevention, visit or call: Helpguide.org National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1800-273-8255 Crisis Text line: 741741

Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast.  This week we are joined by the amazing Dan Furlong.  Dan Furlong is the man behind @maleanxietydepression on Instagram and is an inspiration to many in the mental health field.   In this episode, Dan Furlong talks about his recent experience with running the Jungle Ultra in Peru through the Amazing Jungle.  Dan Furlong called it a “self-sufficient race” where he had to run for 5 days through the Amazon Jungle, 3 of which had torrential rain.   Dan Furlong talked about his struggle with anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and depression.  Dan also talked about his struggles with suicidal ideation.  Dan said many inspiring things throughout this episode, but here are a few inspirational quotes that really got me thinking.  When discussing his experiences with depression, Dan quoted, “You need to goal set your way out of depression. He talked about how he never lets himself give up and “only when you go through real pain do you find out who you are!”  As Dan ran through the Amazon Jungle and faced many death-defying cliffs and traverses, he repeated to himself, “If you get through this, you can get through anything” and he referred to his OCD recovery in this discussion also.   Dan reported only getting 2-3 hours sleep each night and how he chose to run ahead to be allowed to take the “long course” which was running up to 1.5 marathons per day.  Just so inspiring, right?!  Dan Furlong spoke extensively about his mindset during the run (and his OCD recovery) and how he has learned to “take the path of least resistance”.  Dan stated that “your brain will always talk you out of doing hard things” and because of this, he learned to “take the harder route”. To donate and help those affected by OCD, click HERE. To learn more about Dan, visit: Instagram: @Maleanxietydepression Website: Mad.com  To purchase Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins, click HERE 

In today’s episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit Podcast, we are talking about finding a middle path in our recovery.  This is a very important topic to me, as it is what has helped me immensely in my own anxiety management.   Finding a Middle path (or middle way) is about us seeing beyond our dualistic or black-and-white ways of thinking, behaving and being.  Finding a middle path (or way) describes our journey of seeing the middle ground between attachment (where we cling and grasp onto things being a certain way) and aversion (where we run away from things that are not the way we want them to be).  Finding a Middle Path is about stepping away from “good” and “bad” and seeing that there is no good and bad, and there is only neutral.   In this episode, we talk about embracing the dialectics of change and stillness at the same time. We addressed how finding a middle path is being independent whilst also being a part of a larger community.  It is where we embrace tension, paradox and change and discover a world that is workable in the middle, not just at the beginning or end.  One of the reasons I love this concept so much is that instead of always seeking resolution and completion and perfection, we let ourselves open and relax in the middle stages of our process.  We live in the reality of the present. The more we delve into the middle way, the more deeply we come to rest between the play of opposites.  One of the hardest parts of this Buddhist practices is learning to trust in life itself.  In this episode, we touch on this as an important part of finding a middle path.  For more information on Finding a Middle Path, read this wonderful article by Jack Kornfield: https://jackkornfield.com/finding-the-middle-way/