Be Kind... Unwind
Close your eyes, put your feet up, head back, and relax. It's 'you' time. A selection of topics chosen to keep you mellow yet focused when it's time to kick back: a mild blend of mindfulness, self-improvement, meditation and wellness.
Ask The Health Expert
The Cold Plunge Benefits You Never Knew About
"You're looking for an instant mood boost that can help you with everything from your workout recovery and stress relief to better immune and heart health, I'm going to show you how to chill out. And level up your health with cold therapy. Now, regularly using cold therapy can help improve your mood, clear up your skin, support heart health, give your metabolism upgrade, and that's just a tip of the iceberg. I know I couldn't help myself. So first of all, what are cold plunges? And I will tell you a little behind the scenes. I've been obsessed with these for a while now. In fact, so obsessed I even got my own cold plunge. So cold therapy just means exposing your body to cold, right? To cold water to cold air, and there's lots of therapeutic benefits. You're submerging your body. Now except for your head and neck. In water temperatures cooler than 59°F. And while this is definitely trendy, it's not really a new trend. In fact, it goes way back to tease who believe that water therapy could alleviate fatigue. In fact, 18th century docs recommended cold baths to treat conditions like fever and rickets. And today, people are using cold therapy for physical mental challenges, including dealing with anxiety and stress and depression goes honestly, it gives you like this instant mood boost. So here's how it works. As you're exposed to the cold, your blood vessels constrict. And then all your blood gets pushed towards your organs. Now, as a result, your blood acquires more oxygen and becomes super nutrient rich. As your body starts heating up again, your blood vessels expand and as your blood vessels expand oxygen and nutrient rich blood flows back to your tissues, helping flush out the inflammation.
Therapy for Black Girls
The Mental Health Benefits of Birdwatching
"And so it was very apparent to me how debilitated I was and that further descended into more depression. And stress and anxiety because of the loss of everything. In my mind, at that time, that's what it felt like. And it became very dark for me and very isolating, like the world was continuing to go on that I was in this house. I didn't see it as a home. It was just this space. I couldn't walk, I couldn't. Exercise, like I used to, it was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah, and so one of the things that you turn to, it sounds like, was bird watching, so can you talk a little bit about, do you remember your first time when you went bird watching was it an intentional kind of thing? Did it just happen? What do you remember about that first time? I kind of have like two aspects about my connection with birds and bird watching, so I have my connection as a young girl growing up. Early on with chickens and my duck, my pet. So I had that. I feel like that was the root of foundation that was always in me and both my parents. Spent time outdoors, took this outdoors as children, and so I feel like that was in my cells and contained in me. Even though beyond that in adulthood, I was so busy here or there and everywhere, I didn't pay attention to birds at all during a number of years. So then in later years, in the more recent times, I would say, because of the debilitating pain depression, the anxiety, the loss, and there was a lot of loss in Greek,
Life Transformation Radio
Prove The Naysayers Wrong With Naomi Mamiye - burst 2
"And so you probably didn't have a guide of how a relationship should be because you're under that severe trauma. Would that be accurate to say? No. No. My father, no. My father. Thank you for correcting me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. No rob. You're wrong. That's not the way it was. Not in my case. Okay, good. I still have letters from my mother. See, I mean, I was ten years old when my mother got sick. And I actually, when I found she had cancer, I actually stopped talking to her. I stopped talking to her because I was mad at her. I had a cushy life upper middle class. I was a spoiled brat, got everything I wanted. We had a beautiful house, a beautiful car, and she went and got sick and disrupted my whole life, okay? I was so mad at her when I was ten years old. I refused to speak to her. When till she died. So if I could turn back time, I was a foolish kid, and I didn't understand that it wasn't her fault. She didn't choose to get sick. So, you know, I look back at myself and I was like, what was I thinking? But it was a child at the time. But it actually have letters. So my mother, for her melanoma, they gave her no hope here in the United States, so my father actually went with her to The Bahamas to the treatment.
Lesley's Lessons Podcast
What Does Real Friendship Look Like? How to Create & Strengthen Friendships - burst 1
"Lessons. So today I wanted to talk about what real friendship looks like. And I find that we can think about what real love looks like, we can tell someone, no, that's not what real love is about. Real love is this real love walks talks, acts like this. But what does real friendship look like? You know, is it coming from a place where you need them to nurse certain things inside of you that hasn't been healed? Things that you know you need to work on, but they're so good at it that they almost enable you to give you a pass so you don't have to work on those issues because they give it to you freely. They have it in abundance. Like if they're just super confident and you lack confidence, you don't have to work on it because they have enough for you. So the relationship works because you have something that you can get from them. What does friendship really look like? Thinking back, I had a few fallouts and in my case, it wasn't so much like there was any argument or anything. They just dropped off and I had to have a true moment with myself, like listen, don't worry about what it sounds like, talk straight. And I would compare it, you know, to a wise counsel and then they'll be like, yo, the common thread is, look at what they're doing and what you're doing and look at what they're not doing, and I didn't want to get into that and, you know, trip off of, you know, my ambitions versus anyone else, I just know I showed up as who I was and it just didn't work out. And I had to understand that there are different scenarios why things don't work out. Sometimes it is you sometimes it's not you sometimes someone knows they can't bring anything else to the table or at that place or they don't want to. Sometimes they're annoyed at your evolution. They're not interested or it's intimidating by where are you going? Last week you were into, you know, drinking till you pass out. Now this week, you're meditating. And just one glass of wine, or what have you, and friendship is something that we just kind of accept, but we don't really filter out. And when we do it's either too late or we just, we just don't do it in time, sometimes. And I just want to know what does it look like for you? Is it someone who's always there, someone who always attends your events? Does that mean they're a friend? Someone who listens to you problems, you get to crown their shoulder, you pick up every phone call. Does that make you a friend? Because there are a lot of things that it can serve both of you very well. You can get an ego boost. It can make you feel better, knowing that you are dependent upon to be there for someone for them to cry on your shoulders, but are you happy? Are you satisfied in the friendship? And I think a lot of times people want to figure things out without expressing themselves. And I don't understand how that can ever work without someone knowing how you feel, so to me, a friend, you know, understands the dynamics and understands what the friend can handle when how much they can handle it and sometimes there's some things you just have to work out on your own or wait till it's the appropriate time to talk if you don't have regard for that then maybe you're really not a friend, maybe you're more concerned with hearing yourself speak but a friendship it goes both ways. A real friendship is not textbook. It's not like a hallmark movie sometimes you need space, sometimes it's almost like a platonic marriage, you know? I'm not going to say that because it's going to start an argument. I'm going to bite my tongue because I know how this is going to end up. But you give each other grace. That's a real friendship. You give each other grace and it's not about just waiting to one day, okay, three strikes, and then I'm going to blow up and throw everything in their face. Then you're not a friend. Because you have an opportunity as they do to express yourself. Why are you waiting until you've reached the boiling point to now all of the sudden bring up everything that annoyed you. So you were just waiting on that moment. So have reasonable expectations for each other and talk about it from time to time. Or, you know, it really doesn't have to be a thing. It really doesn't have to be something that takes away from having a good laugh and enjoying each other's company. Read the room. Read the temperature. No when to say something when not to say something. What is your motivation for expressing what you feel right now? Is it going to hurt the person? Is it going to help make the situation better? Are you going to be a cheerleader or are you going to sit on the side and just be a critic? You know, is it something that they need to stop right now what they're doing just to hear you speak? Or can it wait? Grace. Friendship to me is grace. Grace for the imperfections, grace for, I'm going to maybe hurt your feelings one day and I didn't mean to do it. Grace is about forgiving, I'm sorry I didn't show up in the way that you needed me to show up. But nothing has changed about how I feel about you. Grace is about I was wrong. I just wanted my own way. I just, I don't know what took over me. That's being a little stubborn. We're missing grace. It's antibiotic expectations and being a perfect person. Or being a mind reader and knowing what this person is thinking all the time. It's about saying, you know, this is all I got. I did my best. Or you know what? I don't feel my best right now, and I need you to understand that. Being a good friend is not about doing everything right. It's just about doing your best. Being yourself, loving and embracing someone the way you would want them to do for you. Giving them space when they need it. Allowing people to come to their own conclusion without trying to control the narrative for your advantage and for their disadvantage. Friends, if you are lucky to have someone see you as a friend as you see them, are worth treasuring their worth, appreciating.
Lesley's Lessons Podcast
The breakup is not a personal attack. It's what's best for that person. -
"And just mental capacity when things don't work out. And let's face it, no one wants to prepare for a relationship to be doomed. It's just, that's what happens. Some part of our lives on our journey. And what do you do? Recently, I recorded an audiobook. How to turn a breakup into a breakthrough, and move on like a boss. And it's really a mental thing. You don't have to be a boss and a company or anything like that, but the attributes of a boss. Being in control, taking charge, going after what you want, getting to business, project management, you can take attributes of a boss and apply it to your emotional side. Because we don't want to stay in that space, right? It's not good there. If you stay too long at that space, all you're going to do is get depressed. If you look in the future based on that space, all you're going to do is feel anxious and we don't want you to feel anxious, we want you to be in the present and be your best. And I wanted to speak to people who often get overlooked. I find that sometimes we keep it a little a little bit more surface a little bit more general when it comes to talking about dealing with a breakup. Not everyone has handled it in a model way, you know, not everyone becomes friends, not everyone is able to just get up out of bed, brush their teeth, start their day without feeling like they're dying inside. Not everyone understands no is no. And you have to stop contacting me, stop acting like we're still together. And I wanted to bring that together in a safe space for people who are in different areas of the spectrum of accepting a breakup. Understand the triggers of what caused the breakup, the duels and don'ts of what you don't want to do that's only going to make things worse for yourself and what you can do to heal and move on. Granted, you might be the person who might still have a chance with someone. But I didn't want to focus on that. That's your journey to decide. This is about someone who it is clearly over and you are struggling to get a hold of it. You might look put together on the outside is still doing the same things, still getting your coffee, tea, going to the gym, getting your hair done. You still doing the routine on the outside, while on the inside, you're dying inside, and we don't want that. You have the capacity to heal. You have the ability to thrive in life and to move on. And what do we often do? Let's see who we can get involved in our life to kind of distract us, try that. Let's DM someone. Let's flirt with someone and see what happens. Try that. And everything that you've tried has not worked, and you find yourself going around in circles and more frustrated as time goes by. And I just wanted to, in my own life, I've dealt with people who haven't accepted a breakup. And I know how that felt on my end. Was I not direct enough? Why is this happening? Why are you so why are you still there, why are people stalking people? Why are people abusing people shaming people airing dirty laundry or trying to get them jealous? Like, why are you doing these things trying to embarrass them? Why are you doing these things when the breakup is really not personal? It's not a personal attack. It's what's best for that person. So either if you're the person that's struggling to accept the breakup, you're hurting, you want desperately that person back. You want that person back or you just don't know what to do. There's something for you in this book. And there's something for you. There's jewels of advice for you in this book. And my goal wasn't to make someone feel ashamed of how they feel, but to feel comfortable knowing that you know what? I've been trying to deal with this on my own, but I don't have to tools. I don't know what to do. I'm going to my usual moves in my own mental survival kit, but it's not working. I need new energy. I need a new way of thinking. How to do this in my life. And it can be tough when you feel like just abruptly something drastic happens in your life. And you don't know what to do. It's uncomfortable. The pattern was unexpected, even if you had an idea, you didn't think it was going to happen right now. So I just want to encourage you that it's not too late, and it's not too late for you, but we have to get you to focus on you right now. It's time to check out of the usual routine the things that you're doing and let's get to work. Because life still needs you. And it's about being motivated to live life. And this is just a small step in your life and there's so much more to come and I want that for you. So if you are dealing with a breakup or could have been a year ago, it could have been ten years, 20 years ago, isn't it time to get back to you? Isn't it time to laugh again? Get those laughs back. Get whatever you feel like you lost from that relationship back in your life. Get some your smile dance again, you know? So I hope this is able to help you. If you are looking for something to listen to, I encourage you to check it out. I just thought about how grew some it can feel sometimes. How you can feel isolated with your pain. And I didn't want that feel. I wanted to write a book to help people no longer feel isolated with their pain, but to feel inspired to come out of their shell and heal and move forward in their life. There's one thing to tell someone you got this, go for it, you'll be okay, but I wanted to take it a step further and help put steps in place to help you know how to do that. Be your own hero, you have the capacity to save yourself. You just have to look and see that you are wearing a life
![Breakdown of Meaning and the Courage to Despair: Insights of Paul Tillich [SSL 205] - burst 2](https://storageaudiobursts.azureedge.net/site/images/stationIcons/16259.png)
Spark My Muse
Breakdown of Meaning and the Courage to Despair: Insights of Paul Tillich [SSL 205] - burst 2
"Existentialism as it appeared in the twentieth century represents the most vivid and threatening meaning of existential in it the whole development comes to a point beyond which cannot go it has become a reality in all the countries of the western world it is expressed in all the realms of humans spiritual creativity it penetrates all educated classes. It is not the invention of a bohemian philosopher or of a neurotic novelist. It is not a exaggeration made for the sake of profit and fame. It is not a morbid play with negativities elements of all these have entered it but it itself is something else it is the expression of the anxiety of meaninglessness and of the attempt to take this anxiety into the courage to be as once-off
Real Ass Affirmations
Finding The Pieces of Yourself That You've Lost
"Is easier to go. Sleep is easier to procrastinate. Is easier to stop doing something. Because you're not feeling it right now but the things that we do on a daily basis provide us with the goals and the achievements that we want and it's just really hard sometimes to see your way clear through that forest through that foggy day to say i got to get me back like this was really happening right now right. You're in a situation where you feel like you've lost your self and the only person that can get you back. Is you so all the excuses that you've told yourself all the naps that you've taken all of the phone calls and emails that you didn't respond to all of the times that she said you were going to go somewhere and you were going to do something in the you just like faggot. I'm not doing it. All of that is because you lost a piece of you and you need to find that piece of peace which allows you to be as great as you possibly can now what you have to do in order to find that it's going to be different for each individual partisan but i'm a big for that you already know what's missing you already know what would make you happy. You already know what's not bringing you joy right now so when you evaluate this and you take inventory of who you are who you were and who you want to be. They may not be the same person. Oh shit somebody's just realizing this about themselves on Yeah issue you know who you. Were you know that there were certain things that brought you joy in that made you happy. And they're not doing it for you anymore and there are other things that you may be didn't even think about right and now that thing is making you happy and it is breaking you a piece of peace. So who do you need to find. You need to find you because some where along the line you lost the most important person to you which is yourself
On The Verge
You Get To Make This Up!
"You get to make this up. I thought about that this morning. When i was sitting with my journal and all of a sudden i wrote morning messages. Go back to morning messages. And i thought to myself as my as my doubting mind came in all. But you've tried that and you've gotten tired or you've got lost things to say or you weren't sure if it was working or not and then i wrote down in the next moment you get to make this up and not only do i get to make it up and try again. Get back on the horse. Do these morning messages again. But you get to make up your life as well you know at the end of the day. No one's really watching. No one's keeping score. No one's keeping count that you stopped and started something that you tried several times and maybe felt like you failed. No one is really watching so you get to make it up. Think about the things that are moving through that creative energy that creative impulse. What is it that is nagging at you in those early hours of the morning to pick your paintbrush backup to to try something new in how you move your body to let go of something. That's not working. We get to make this up and as we all know now after a year and a half of incredible uncertainty in the world. Nothing is forever we can change on a dime as we all had to change during the pandemic. We all became so nimble so flexible. Even if we didn't want to we did it anyway. Well how about if you want to help out if you want to change you wanna make it up. If there's anything that i can share in these morning messages. And i hope it comes through loud and clear is that we get to change. We get to change our story. We get to let go of what doesn't work anymore. We get to embrace who we are becoming and so if that means doing something that you've tried ten times before but you have a new impulse to do it just like i do with these morning messages. Then go for
Food for Thought
The Gut-Brian Axis
"Now is a good time to go into the evidence surrounding something could the gut brain axes i guess kind of it is and why suddenly become not suddenly. I'm bane. i guess discovered why it's important. Yeah great ray. And it is so much in evidence around the gut brain access and what we do know from. The studies is that the gut brain axis is all these microbes have a two way communication between basically the entering nervous system of the gastrointestinal tract so alcott and the central nervous system. Which is the brain the vegas nerve and is referred to as the gut brain axis now. This communication occurs via the power sympathic nervous system which also is known as the rest and digest mode and this is the complete opposite response to our sympathetic nervous system. Which is that fight or flight mode which gets us ready. But the power sympathetic returns our body to the state of calm and rest whereas the sympathetic massive nervous system get the body ready for that fight or flee which can increase blood pressure breathing slowing down at digestion and take him blood and oxygen away to other parts of the body. So it's important that people know is this of two way. Communication almost like a highway caused going back and forth between the garden rain.