This is Your Anxiety Toolkit - Episode 299.
Welcome back, everybody. 299, wow. That is amazing. I am so excited. I don’t know what it is about the word 99 that just makes me so joyful.
One of my favorite episodes is actually number 99, which was the only episode and the only time where I actually have a full conversation with my husband on the podcast, and we talked all about agoraphobia and panic disorder specifically related to flying. So, if you want to hear me and my husband have a good conversation about his experience, that was one of my favorite episodes of all time.
But here we are, Episode 299, 200 episodes later, and we’re still going strong. No need to slow down. If anything, let’s speed it up a little. Shall we?
Before we get started on this week’s episode, I am going to do the two segments that we do every week. First, I want to give you a little bit of a peek into where we’re going today. So, what we’re talking about is a question I get all the time, particularly when I’m talking about having a chronic illness. Specifically for those of you who have a chronic illness and have a mental illness as well, but also, this could be just for anyone because this is a human problem, this is not a mental health problem.
We’re talking about balancing exhaustion and when you have to “push through” and what do you choose? This has been a huge part of the work for me in my recovery from having postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. I feel like I’ve nailed this. To be honest, this is an area that I have learned very, very well, and it has saved my life literally in terms of I would be crashing and burning with tears and a major tantrum if it weren’t for my ability to balance, rest and push through. So, let’s talk about that in a second.
First of all, we’re going to do the review of the week. This is from Carsoccer27, and they say:
“There are a lot of things that this podcast has helped me with. It’s a great toolbox in many of my anxiety triggers. I never knew where to start to help my anxiety. This podcast has helped me find my starting place and has helped me find my self-identity. Highly recommended!”
Thank you, Carsoccer27. What a beautiful thing to say. To be honest, for someone to say that I’ve helped them find their self-identity, that is an amazing compliment. That sounds amazing to me. So, I’m so happy I’ve been able to walk along you in the journey of that. That’s just so cool.
Okay. We now have an “I did a hard thing” from Anonymous. Anonymous said:
“I did an exposure exercise. I get anxiety when I’m around people. So, it was hard for me to get groceries at the store, but I conquered my fear and got the groceries. And another important one is that I graduated college dealing with what I deal with.”
Anonymous, I love this. What I love about this the most is you talk about your struggle to get the groceries while also adding graduating college. Two massive things. Two major accomplishments. And I’m so grateful for you that you shared that because I think some people have said to me like, “Groceries, everybody’s getting the groceries. I should be able to do that.” But I love that you’re celebrating how hard that was for you. We all need to do a better job of celebrating when we face a hard thing, whether bigger and small.
Okay. So, let’s get into the episode. All right. Thank you first for Carsoccer27 and Anonymous. Let’s talk about balancing this push and rest. This balance between push and rest. If you could listen to me right now, you could see me. I’m swaying back and forth like a teeter-totter or a seesaw. It is a balancing act.
So, let’s just get the truth out. Having a mental illness or a medical illness is the most exhausting thing, and people will not get it. They will not get it until they’ve been through it. They don’t understand the degree of exhaustion that you are experiencing. So, I first want to just straight up validate you. It’s okay that they don’t get it. It doesn’t mean that you’re not validated and that you aren’t as exhausted as you are, because you do have to go through it to get it. So, let’s just be real about that.
Now, even though you are exhausted, you still are going to have to have times in your life where you have to push through to get stuff done. Anonymous is a great example of this. They push through despite going through anxiety the whole time, just push through, got through college. But what we have to be careful of here is this push through mentality. I’m actually right now reading a book by Ed Mylett and it’s called Max Out Your Life. I personally love it. It’s so inspirational. And as I’m listening to it on Audible, I’m like, “Yeah, let’s max out our life.” It’s so empowering and I just want to flex my muscles until I’m like, “Wait.” The anxious workaholic in me and the perfectionist in me wants to take that literally. And in the past, I have where I’m like, “Yeah, let’s max out our life. Let’s just push through and just push and push and push.” And then as I’ve said to you in the intro, I collapse and everything goes into a big pile of mush.
So, this is where we call it balancing. It’s a great idea and yet, it’s so empowering to hear that. But it’s not healthy to take on a high percentage of push through mentality. So, if you’re hearing this on social media and you’re reading books about it, listen with a little bit of a skeptical ear. Because you are already exhausted, pushing through more is probably going to tip the scales so that the scales tip over and you don’t recover at all. You’re actually in big trouble.
What we want to do today is we actually want to really learn the art – again, I’m swinging back and forth now – the art of balancing, the push through, and then making sure there’s time to rest. So, you do a little bit of a push through, you get through the class or you get the groceries or you pick up your kids or you go to a dinner that you don’t want to go to that exhausts you. And then you balance that with rest.
Now what I mostly hear my clients say is, “But Kimberley, I shouldn’t need to rest for that one thing. Everybody else is fine. I shouldn’t need to rest.” And this is where I’ll often say-- I look at them dead in the eyes. So, imagine I’m looking you dead in the eyes right now and I’ll say, “But whether other people are exhausted or not, you are and you have to radically accept it and you have to listen to your body.” It’s completely not even a calculation we need to take into consideration on how other people are handling it. You are exhausted. That’s the fact. And so, we do need to balance this teeter-totter, this seesaw of you push a little and you rest a little, you push a lot and you rest a lot. There’ll be times where you push a little and you still have to rest a lot. And that is, you’re doing it. The way I think of it is, if I rest enough today, I’ll have more energy for tomorrow so I can push through a little tomorrow, because you do. When I say push through, I mean, just get the things you value done. I’m not saying go hard and max out when you’re already exhausted. I actually don’t think that’s super helpful. I’ve fallen into that trap way too many times.
The other thing here is, a lot of times, when we “push through,” meaning we have to. We have to show up for our kids and our partner and our boss and our parents and whatever, yourself. So, you’ve done that. And then when you go to rest, you look at Instagram and you watch some TV. There’s nothing wrong with going on Instagram and watching TV at all. I do it myself. But I want you to really just use this. Again, I love to ask questions. So, the question I’m going to ask you is, is that in fact restful? Does that actually fill your cup up, restore you? Because if you’re pushing through, you’re using up energy, you’re using up resources, you’re using up time, you’re using up your mental space. Does the resting that you’re doing actually restore you? If it’s no, I very much encourage you to take a look at what might be restorative for you.
Often people will say, “Nothing is restorative. Even when I rest, my anxiety is going through the roof.” And so, that’s where I would say, “Okay, if that’s the case, you may need to actually push through in terms of really double down with your treatment, really double down with your mindfulness, that’s the pushing through, so that you do learn how to rest.”
Often by the time a client comes to me or one of my staff, they’re already exhausted. They’re already depleted, because they’ve been trying to work through this disorder by themselves for a very long time. And so, when we say, “Buckle up, let’s get going with exposure therapy or we’re going to do mindfulness and we’re going to practice these skills,” they might be like, “Dude, I’m already exhausted. I don’t even have the capacity to do that.” And so, we’d say, “Yeah. This is an example of how we’re going to double down now, “push through” so that we can balance that exhaustion, so we can take away the thing that seems to be exhausting you.”
So, again, it’s a push and a pull. It’s a little balance game. It’s like juggling, and juggling requires a rhythm and a balance and a practice and a consistency that you’ll have to find for yourself. But I strongly encourage you to spend some time looking at this because I think we hear too much about the push through on social media in society. And then on the flip side, we also have like, “Oh, you’re exhausted. You should rest.” And that’s true. But resting alone won’t get you better. So, it’s this dialectical two opposing things happening at the same time.
So, that’s what I want you to think about. An example for me, I’ll just give you a quick example. When I was really sick and my husband was working so much, I had to push through because I had to take care of two young children. I didn’t have a choice. What I did do, though, is when I was “pushing through” and even though I was so exhausted, I then challenged. While I’m pushing through, what am I doing that makes this more exhausting and how can I make it less exhausting?
So, an example, often with clients, they’ll say, “I have this test and I have to just push through, I have to study for it.” And I’ll say, “Okay, while you push through, and while you do that hard thing,” because pushing through is another word for just saying doing the hard thing, “as you do the hard thing, is there anything you can do to lessen the stress on your body? Could you maybe not tense your neck and shoulders so much? Could you breathe a little more? Could you take some more breaks? Could you have a bottle of water? Could you take little moments to breathe and do a little mindfulness or meditation exercise?”
So, the thing here is you can also be resting while doing little intervals of pushing through or doing the hard thing. For me, that was a crucial piece. While you’re pushing through, you’re letting go of stuff that doesn’t matter just to save yourself the exhaustion of taking that story on or that rule on or that expectation. While you push through, maybe lower your expectation. That might be helpful. Maybe lean in with a large degree of self-compassion and like, “Wow, Hun, you’re pushing through, you’re doing this hard thing. I’m going to be so gentle with you while you do this hard thing.” That’s so beautiful. Such a beautiful act of kindness. And then by doing that-- or when you’re exhausted and you’re resting and you’re feeling guilty for resting, you’d say, “Hun, you’re resting and this is so hard for you and this is triggering for you. Keep going. So brave. Keep going. I’m so grateful that you’re taking this time to rest for me.” Cool, right?
All right. That’s all I have for you today, guys. Just play with this. There has to be a balance. If this is still confusing for you, put it on paper, write down how many hours a day you push through and how many hours you rest, and just say, how can I increase the rest by 15-minute increments? What would that look like for me? What would that feel like for me? What would be helpful? Where can that be possible? How can that be possible? And maybe that 15 minutes will make a world of difference. It’s better than nothing.
I’m going to take a deep breath with you. I’m going to hold my heart for you. I’m going to remind you that you’re stronger than you think, that the work you’re doing is important and amazing and inspiring, and don’t give up. Don’t give up. Keep tweaking and tweaking and taking baby steps and you will get there. You will get there.
All right, I’m going to send you so much love. Have a wonderful week. It is a beautiful day, it’s a beautiful week, it’s a beautiful month to do hard things. I’ll see you next week.
This is Your Anxiety Toolkit - Episode 299.
Welcome back, everybody. 299, wow. That is amazing. I am so excited. I don’t know what it is about the word 99 that just makes me so joyful.
One of my favorite episodes is actually number 99, which was the only episode and the only time where I actually have a full conversation with my husband on the podcast, and we talked all about agoraphobia and panic disorder specifically related to flying. So, if you want to hear me and my husband have a good conversation about his experience, that was one of my favorite episodes of all time.
But here we are, Episode 299, 200 episodes later, and we’re still going strong. No need to slow down. If anything, let’s speed it up a little. Shall we?
Before we get started on this week’s episode, I am going to do the two segments that we do every week. First, I want to give you a little bit of a peek into where we’re going today. So, what we’re talking about is a question I get all the time, particularly when I’m talking about having a chronic illness. Specifically for those of you who have a chronic illness and have a mental illness as well, but also, this could be just for anyone because this is a human problem, this is not a mental health problem.
We’re talking about balancing exhaustion and when you have to “push through” and what do you choose? This has been a huge part of the work for me in my recovery from having postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. I feel like I’ve nailed this. To be honest, this is an area that I have learned very, very well, and it has saved my life literally in terms of I would be crashing and burning with tears and a major tantrum if it weren’t for my ability to balance, rest and push through. So, let’s talk about that in a second.
First of all, we’re going to do the review of the week. This is from Carsoccer27, and they say:
“There are a lot of things that this podcast has helped me with. It’s a great toolbox in many of my anxiety triggers. I never knew where to start to help my anxiety. This podcast has helped me find my starting place and has helped me find my self-identity. Highly recommended!”
Thank you, Carsoccer27. What a beautiful thing to say. To be honest, for someone to say that I’ve helped them find their self-identity, that is an amazing compliment. That sounds amazing to me. So, I’m so happy I’ve been able to walk along you in the journey of that. That’s just so cool.
Okay. We now have an “I did a hard thing” from Anonymous. Anonymous said:
“I did an exposure exercise. I get anxiety when I’m around people. So, it was hard for me to get groceries at the store, but I conquered my fear and got the groceries. And another important one is that I graduated college dealing with what I deal with.”
Anonymous, I love this. What I love about this the most is you talk about your struggle to get the groceries while also adding graduating college. Two massive things. Two major accomplishments. And I’m so grateful for you that you shared that because I think some people have said to me like, “Groceries, everybody’s getting the groceries. I should be able to do that.” But I love that you’re celebrating how hard that was for you. We all need to do a better job of celebrating when we face a hard thing, whether bigger and small.
Okay. So, let’s get into the episode. All right. Thank you first for Carsoccer27 and Anonymous. Let’s talk about balancing this push and rest. This balance between push and rest. If you could listen to me right now, you could see me. I’m swaying back and forth like a teeter-totter or a seesaw. It is a balancing act.
So, let’s just get the truth out. Having a mental illness or a medical illness is the most exhausting thing, and people will not get it. They will not get it until they’ve been through it. They don’t understand the degree of exhaustion that you are experiencing. So, I first want to just straight up validate you. It’s okay that they don’t get it. It doesn’t mean that you’re not validated and that you aren’t as exhausted as you are, because you do have to go through it to get it. So, let’s just be real about that.
Now, even though you are exhausted, you still are going to have to have times in your life where you have to push through to get stuff done. Anonymous is a great example of this. They push through despite going through anxiety the whole time, just push through, got through college. But what we have to be careful of here is this push through mentality. I’m actually right now reading a book by Ed Mylett and it’s called Max Out Your Life. I personally love it. It’s so inspirational. And as I’m listening to it on Audible, I’m like, “Yeah, let’s max out our life.” It’s so empowering and I just want to flex my muscles until I’m like, “Wait.” The anxious workaholic in me and the perfectionist in me wants to take that literally. And in the past, I have where I’m like, “Yeah, let’s max out our life. Let’s just push through and just push and push and push.” And then as I’ve said to you in the intro, I collapse and everything goes into a big pile of mush.
So, this is where we call it balancing. It’s a great idea and yet, it’s so empowering to hear that. But it’s not healthy to take on a high percentage of push through mentality. So, if you’re hearing this on social media and you’re reading books about it, listen with a little bit of a skeptical ear. Because you are already exhausted, pushing through more is probably going to tip the scales so that the scales tip over and you don’t recover at all. You’re actually in big trouble.
What we want to do today is we actually want to really learn the art – again, I’m swinging back and forth now – the art of balancing, the push through, and then making sure there’s time to rest. So, you do a little bit of a push through, you get through the class or you get the groceries or you pick up your kids or you go to a dinner that you don’t want to go to that exhausts you. And then you balance that with rest.
Now what I mostly hear my clients say is, “But Kimberley, I shouldn’t need to rest for that one thing. Everybody else is fine. I shouldn’t need to rest.” And this is where I’ll often say-- I look at them dead in the eyes. So, imagine I’m looking you dead in the eyes right now and I’ll say, “But whether other people are exhausted or not, you are and you have to radically accept it and you have to listen to your body.” It’s completely not even a calculation we need to take into consideration on how other people are handling it. You are exhausted. That’s the fact. And so, we do need to balance this teeter-totter, this seesaw of you push a little and you rest a little, you push a lot and you rest a lot. There’ll be times where you push a little and you still have to rest a lot. And that is, you’re doing it. The way I think of it is, if I rest enough today, I’ll have more energy for tomorrow so I can push through a little tomorrow, because you do. When I say push through, I mean, just get the things you value done. I’m not saying go hard and max out when you’re already exhausted. I actually don’t think that’s super helpful. I’ve fallen into that trap way too many times.
The other thing here is, a lot of times, when we “push through,” meaning we have to. We have to show up for our kids and our partner and our boss and our parents and whatever, yourself. So, you’ve done that. And then when you go to rest, you look at Instagram and you watch some TV. There’s nothing wrong with going on Instagram and watching TV at all. I do it myself. But I want you to really just use this. Again, I love to ask questions. So, the question I’m going to ask you is, is that in fact restful? Does that actually fill your cup up, restore you? Because if you’re pushing through, you’re using up energy, you’re using up resources, you’re using up time, you’re using up your mental space. Does the resting that you’re doing actually restore you? If it’s no, I very much encourage you to take a look at what might be restorative for you.
Often people will say, “Nothing is restorative. Even when I rest, my anxiety is going through the roof.” And so, that’s where I would say, “Okay, if that’s the case, you may need to actually push through in terms of really double down with your treatment, really double down with your mindfulness, that’s the pushing through, so that you do learn how to rest.”
Often by the time a client comes to me or one of my staff, they’re already exhausted. They’re already depleted, because they’ve been trying to work through this disorder by themselves for a very long time. And so, when we say, “Buckle up, let’s get going with exposure therapy or we’re going to do mindfulness and we’re going to practice these skills,” they might be like, “Dude, I’m already exhausted. I don’t even have the capacity to do that.” And so, we’d say, “Yeah. This is an example of how we’re going to double down now, “push through” so that we can balance that exhaustion, so we can take away the thing that seems to be exhausting you.”
So, again, it’s a push and a pull. It’s a little balance game. It’s like juggling, and juggling requires a rhythm and a balance and a practice and a consistency that you’ll have to find for yourself. But I strongly encourage you to spend some time looking at this because I think we hear too much about the push through on social media in society. And then on the flip side, we also have like, “Oh, you’re exhausted. You should rest.” And that’s true. But resting alone won’t get you better. So, it’s this dialectical two opposing things happening at the same time.
So, that’s what I want you to think about. An example for me, I’ll just give you a quick example. When I was really sick and my husband was working so much, I had to push through because I had to take care of two young children. I didn’t have a choice. What I did do, though, is when I was “pushing through” and even though I was so exhausted, I then challenged. While I’m pushing through, what am I doing that makes this more exhausting and how can I make it less exhausting?
So, an example, often with clients, they’ll say, “I have this test and I have to just push through, I have to study for it.” And I’ll say, “Okay, while you push through, and while you do that hard thing,” because pushing through is another word for just saying doing the hard thing, “as you do the hard thing, is there anything you can do to lessen the stress on your body? Could you maybe not tense your neck and shoulders so much? Could you breathe a little more? Could you take some more breaks? Could you have a bottle of water? Could you take little moments to breathe and do a little mindfulness or meditation exercise?”
So, the thing here is you can also be resting while doing little intervals of pushing through or doing the hard thing. For me, that was a crucial piece. While you’re pushing through, you’re letting go of stuff that doesn’t matter just to save yourself the exhaustion of taking that story on or that rule on or that expectation. While you push through, maybe lower your expectation. That might be helpful. Maybe lean in with a large degree of self-compassion and like, “Wow, Hun, you’re pushing through, you’re doing this hard thing. I’m going to be so gentle with you while you do this hard thing.” That’s so beautiful. Such a beautiful act of kindness. And then by doing that-- or when you’re exhausted and you’re resting and you’re feeling guilty for resting, you’d say, “Hun, you’re resting and this is so hard for you and this is triggering for you. Keep going. So brave. Keep going. I’m so grateful that you’re taking this time to rest for me.” Cool, right?
All right. That’s all I have for you today, guys. Just play with this. There has to be a balance. If this is still confusing for you, put it on paper, write down how many hours a day you push through and how many hours you rest, and just say, how can I increase the rest by 15-minute increments? What would that look like for me? What would that feel like for me? What would be helpful? Where can that be possible? How can that be possible? And maybe that 15 minutes will make a world of difference. It’s better than nothing.
I’m going to take a deep breath with you. I’m going to hold my heart for you. I’m going to remind you that you’re stronger than you think, that the work you’re doing is important and amazing and inspiring, and don’t give up. Don’t give up. Keep tweaking and tweaking and taking baby steps and you will get there. You will get there.
All right, I’m going to send you so much love. Have a wonderful week. It is a beautiful day, it’s a beautiful week, it’s a beautiful month to do hard things. I’ll see you next week.
This is Your Anxiety Toolkit – Episode 298.
Welcome back, everybody. How are you? It is a beautiful summer day here in California. I love summer. It is very hot, but so happy to be here with you. I’m sitting in my office. I have a cup of tea. I have my little flowers next to me, and I’m just so grateful to have you here with me as well. Thank you for letting me be a part of your journey. I’m so honored. Really, I am. I know you have many options. It’s just an honor to be walking in this journey with you.
Today, I want to talk to you about seven questions you can ask yourself every day. It doesn’t mean you have to ask all of them. They’re just my favorite seven questions. They’re questions I ask myself all the time, the questions I ask my patients all the time. They’re not groundbreaking in that they’re going to change your life, but they will definitely keep you on track. 100%. They’re what I call guidance questions. They’re questions that prompt you to go in the next best direction, take the next best step. So, I can’t wait to share those with you.
Before I do, let’s do the review of the week. This is from Kendall Wetzel. She said:
“Listening to her podcast and following her on Insta--” if you don’t follow me on Instagram, head over to Your Anxiety Toolkit on Instagram. She’s saying, “Following her on Insta has been so great for keeping me in check with my OCD. She’s gentle, positive, and awesome.” Thank you. “So thankful for this free resource.”
Thank you so much, Kendall, for your amazing review. I love your reviews. Thank you for putting in the time to do that for me. It’s a gift. Thank you.
All right. Before we get into the episode, let’s do the “I did a hard thing.” This is from Joy. Joy said today:
“I told my boss I was resigning. It was a hard conversation to have and I overthought everything leading up to it.” Joy, I love that you shared that. We are human beings. We’re doing the best we can with what we have. But Joy goes on to say: “But I did it and it went well. This morning I woke up and I said it is a beautiful day to do hard things and that helped me to get through the day. Thank you.”
Wow, Joy, love it. I mean, such a totally human response. Even though we overthink things, you still did it and that is all that matters. That is all that matters. That is all that matters. So amazing.
All right. Let’s get into these seven questions. Shall we?
All right. I’m actually going to do this pretty quickly, folks. I will leave the questions in the show notes. I strongly encourage you if you’re not driving to sit down and write them out and take some time today to journal on them. Again, it doesn’t have to be all of them. You can make it into a pretty PDF. You could print it out. You could make it into a daily journal, prompts. But these questions, I just sat down and I looked at my computer and I was like, “Okay, what are the questions I commonly ask my patients?” Now, of course, I always ask my patients, how are you doing? I also ask my patients like, how was your week? I didn’t include those questions. Of course, I ask the questions again as guiding questions that lead us towards the whole reason you’re here, which is to live the life you want to live and compassionately.
Alrighty. So, here we go.
Question #1: Does does this behavior line up with my values?
So important. Often, I’ll just speak for myself, but I’m going to probably assume that you are just like me, given that we’re both human beings, but maybe not. Maybe you’re way more evolved than me. But often I find myself doing things that don’t line up with my values, because either society told me to do it or I’m on autopilot and I’m doing what I’ve just always done. And so, therefore, I just keep doing it and I catch myself doing it or I’m trying to avoid some emotion or some fear. So, the question is, does it line up with my values? Often it doesn’t. So, this is a question that guides me. I want you to think of it like your north star or your compass. These are compass questions as they guide you back on track. Does this line up with my values? If it’s a yes, proceed. If it’s a no, we might move our way down the other questions, or you might just want to reflect on that.
Question #2: Does this behavior line up with my long-term goals?
The thing around values is sometimes values will contradict each other. I really value being a good mom, but I also really value being a really good therapist. And sometimes I can’t meet both those values. I can’t be a really good therapist and a really good mom every single day. I can just do the best I can, but sometimes I have to go to work instead of being with my kids. Sometimes I have to be with my kids and I have to cancel a client. So, it’s hard. So, the question I ask myself is, does it line up with my long-term goals? Long-term goals. And I’m talking specifically here in regards to recovery. The last few weeks’ episodes are just about this, is getting clear on your goal, holding yourself accountable. Does this behavior line up with my long-term goals?
Question #3: What is one thing I can do right now that lines up with my long-time goals and my values?
What’s the one thing, not the big thing? I struggle with this one so hard because I like to knock things out. It feels so good. It’s like a little adrenaline high, and I get discouraged when I can’t. So, I have to keep asking myself, just what’s the one little thing I can do right now in that direction? What’s the one thing? Don’t worry about the 17th thing. Just do the first, next best thing.
Question #4: Is this behavior effective?
This is similar to the other questions. So, again, you might want to ask yourself all of these. You might get overwhelmed. But this is a question I often ask. I think I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, my 2022 goal is to be more effective. Sometimes I’m doing things and I’m like, “This is not an effective use of my time.” Again, you don’t always have to be effective. Sometimes we just do things for the pleasure of doing them or for the process of doing them, or for the joy of doing them. But is this actually reaching the goal? Is it effective?
Sometimes my mom always to say, excuse me, if I kill this phrase, but she’d say, “You’re jumping over quarters to get to pennies.” She’s talking about saving money. You’re jumping over small amounts of money. Excuse me, you’re jumping over big amounts of money just to save small things. I told you I was going to kill that. I did the best I could. So, you’re jumping over quarters to get to pennies. If you live out of America, you’d say you’re jumping over 10 cents to get to a-- you’re jumping over 10 cents to get to 1 cent. But that’s true too. Are you doing one thing to reduce a little bit of discomfort when you could be doing something that would give you way better outcomes? This is very true of those of you who are doing compulsions. Sometimes we’re doing it and we’re like, “No, I just have to get this certainty. And if I get this certainty, well, then I’ll have relief.” But it’s like, okay, is that effective for your long-term plans? Yes. It reduces your short-term discomfort, but it actually increases your long-term discomfort.
Question #5: How willing am I to be uncomfortable?
This is the big one guys. If you’re going to ask yourself one question in your whole day, this is the one. How willing am I to be uncomfortable? Whether it be that you’re facing your fears on purpose, doing an exposure, how willing am I? Or whether it’s just doing something you have to do that you don’t want to do, like Joy told us this morning, she had to resign. Even if it’s something you have to do, how willing are you to be uncomfortable? How willing are you? Are you in resistance to the fact that this is happening? It’s happening. You’re anxious. You’ve got something hard to do. You can fight it or you can allow it.
Question #6: Can I do this for another 10 seconds?
Oh, I love this one. I love it. I love it. I love it. Here we go. Can I do this for another 10 seconds?
A client of mine once told me this. I think I’ve done an episode on this before, but it was a client of mine many, many, many years ago who said that they’d heard-- actually, I think it was like Grey’s Anatomy or some TV show. Well, maybe it was some research. They said anybody could do anything for 10 seconds. And so, they would say to themselves while they’re doing their exposure, “Can I do this just for another 10?” And when that 10 seconds is up, “Can I do it just for another 10 seconds?” You may increase it to 30 seconds, a minute, 10 minutes, an hour, or you may reduce it. “Can I do it for five seconds?” But it’s a great question. It really challenges this sort of-- we have these thoughts like I can’t do it anymore. But when you ask yourself, can I do it for another 10 seconds, well, then the script gets flipped.
Question #7: How can I make this fun?
I mean this, even if it’s doing an exposure that is petrifying and 10 out of 10 anxiety, how can we make this fun?
A part of you is probably throwing your phone against the wall and being like, “What the heck, Kimberley? None of this is fun. I don’t want to do these hard things. Go away.” And that’s fine. It’s a question you don’t have to ask if you don’t want, but I want you to ponder, how can you make it fun? How can you make the hard thing fun?
So, as we look at these questions, these seven questions through the lens of it’s a beautiful day to do hard things-- let’s put it into sentences.
It’s a beautiful day to do hard things that line up with your values, because that was question #1: Does it line up with my values?
It’s a beautiful day to do things that-- excuse me, let me say it’s a beautiful day to do hard things that line up with my long-term goals. That’s question #2.
It’s a beautiful day to do one hard thing. (Question #3)
It’s a beautiful day to do hard things that are effective. (Question #4)
How willing am I to do the hard thing? (Question #5)
It’s a beautiful day to do hard things for 10 more seconds. (Question #6)
And last one, it’s a beautiful day to do hard things, making it fun. So, how would I word that? It’s a beautiful day to do fun, hard things. I’m being silly now. But it’s true.
I really want you to think about these. These are my favorite seven questions that I ask my patients. Try them on. See how they feel. If you like them, proceed. If you don’t, that’s fine. Just drop them. This is where you take what you need and leave what’s not helpful.
I really want to remind you, this is not therapy. So, I’m not tailoring this specifically to your needs. So, if it doesn’t feel right, just leave it. Not everything is for everybody.
All right. I love you. Have a wonderful day. It is a beautiful day to do hard things. Thank you so much for your support. Keep doing the hard things and I will talk to you next week.
This is Your Anxiety Toolkit - Episode 297.
Welcome back, everybody. How are you really? Just doing a quick check-in.
I love the quick check-in, the drop down into your chest, the drop down into whatever discomfort you may be having. And just take it a minute to actually check-in. So important. How often are you doing this? Hopefully, multiple times every day.
All right. Today, we are talking about accountability, and this actually came, I was listening to something. I can’t remember even what it was, but someone was having a strong reaction to the word “accountability,” which words matter. They really, really do. But what I think is more important is the meaning in which we place on words. It’s a huge part of diffusing from what we tell ourselves all day. So, the whole point of today is to talk about this important treatment concept or recovery concept. And I’ll come back to why. But it’s so important. It’s so, so important. I’ve got a couple of different views about certain things, so you’ll have to hang with me each. Everyone is so important, but hang with me.
Before we do that, let’s first do the review of the week. This is from Maggie Paulson. Maggie wrote:
“I love this podcast. I’ve never been diagnosed with OCD, but I recognize that I have anxiety. This podcast has helped me to learn more about how my brain works, and her gentle and loving approach to treatment has helped me learn to handle my intrusive thoughts and my anxiety. To say that has improved the quality of my life is an understatement. I’m very grateful for Kimberley and her podcast.”
Thank you, Maggie. You fill up my heart. Thank you so much for your reviews. All of you, even if you just click the five-star review or however many stars you think it deserves. You don’t even have to write a review. You can just give it stars, and that helps me. So, thank you so much.
All right, drum roll. We have the “I did a hard thing” segment. This is from Anonymous. Anonymous said:
“Today, I manage not to lapse into a behavioral addiction that I’ve been struggling with for over a year. It’s very easy for me to use this addiction as a coping strategy for the stresses in my life. But I realized today that a good life free of this addiction is better than a good feeling that only lasts momentarily.” Oh my gosh, Anonymous, I want to give you a standing applause right now. “Although every day is going to be challenging when it comes to not lapsing into addiction, if I take each day as it comes and have the attitude that it’s a beautiful day to do hard things, I know I can live addiction free.”
So good. So good, Anonymous. Oh my gosh, lLet me read this line again. It says, “I realized today that a good life free of this addiction is better than a good feeling that only last momentarily.” So much wisdom in that sentence. Amazing. So much wisdom. That is true for all of us. Isn’t it? So true for all of us in that we just-- the real living we want, the real pieces on the other side of that hard thing. So, so true. Thank you so much, Anonymous, and thank you so much to Maggie Paulson for that amazing review.
All right, folks, here is something I want to first start with. So, we’re talking about, can you hold yourself accountable without being self-critical? That’s a really important question because, and the reason it’s so important for recovery is, unless you’re in an intensive treatment center, where you have services 24/7, chances are, you’re doing a lot of this hard work. You’re doing a lot of these “hard things” on your own. And in order to do a hard thing, you do have to be accountable. You have to generate. If you could see me, you can see me like my arms are moving like cogs are turning. You have to generate motivation to do these hard things, because the truth is, no one wants to do these hard things. That’s why they’re hard. I don’t blame you if you don’t want to do hard things today because hard things suck. I keep saying that lately and I mean it. It’s hard. I don’t want to discount and make this podcast out to be like, “Oh, it’s just easy. Just do these five mindful things and you’re going to be fine.” No, it’s hard work. You have to generate motivation and you have to generate accountability. The accountability is what gets you to do it, even though you don’t want to do it.
And here is the point I want you to really take from this episode. Hopefully, this is a shorter episode, because I know I’ve been going a little longer lately. I’m a bit chatty. I’m chattier lately. I don’t know why. Here is the point. Being accountable is not synonymous with blame and harsh treatment. So, let me put that same concept into different words. Holding yourself accountable doesn’t mean the same as blaming yourself, beating yourself into doing the thing that you said you were going to do. That’s not accountability. Accountability is just holding yourself accountable to do the thing. Saying have some accountability doesn’t mean treat yourself terribly. And as I was saying at the beginning, I had heard something and I don’t even remember where. I’m assuming it was on Instagram. They were saying like, “Don’t tell me to be accountable. That’s just mean. That’s just mean that you would ask me to be accountable.” And I’m over here going, what? No, hun, someone somewhere you’ve picked up the idea or someone’s taught you that accountability means getting whipped and that isn’t true. That’s not true.
Accountability, we just last session, last episode did 196. It was about, what is your recovery goal? So, we got really clear about what do you want your life to look like. If you haven’t listened to that, please go back and listen to it. So, we got really clear on that. And accountability is saying, I love myself so much, and I love those recovery goals so much that I’m going to do this thing. That’s accountability. I value my well-being so much. I value that goal that I want for myself. I believe in myself so much that I’m going to do that thing. That hard thing. It’s not whipping and beating. It’s not mean words. It’s not saying get off your butt your lazy thing. That’s self-criticism. That’s not accountability. That’s just bullying. That’s self-bullying.
And so, what I want you to look at is, accountability is simply saying, I’m going to do the thing I said I’m going to do because I deserve it. I deserve the outcome, the dream, the goal, the life that lines up with my values. Accountability isn’t saying, push through no matter what, no matter how much pain you’re in, just like plow through it. Believe me. I’ve been there. I’ve been there. Sometimes you have to do that. I’m not going to say that that’s particularly even wrong because sometimes we do have to push through, but you don’t have to be mean. And it’s asking yourself, how willing am I to show up and do this hard thing so I can get this goal? Exactly like Anonymous said in this “I did a hard thing” segment. That’s accountability. Everything that Anonymous said is accountability. I should have actually-- sorry, Anonymous. I should have just read your “I did a hard thing” and said, “There you go, folks. That’s the episode. That’s what accountability looks like.”
So, it’s accountability. Compassionate accountability will still get you across the finish line. Often when I talk to clients about roadblocks to self-compassion, they’ll say, “Well, I won’t get up and do it if I don’t beat myself up.” Is that you? Maybe I should ask that question. Does that resonate with you? Like, “I won’t get to the gym. I won’t exercise. I won’t do the exposure unless I beat myself up. That’s the only form of transportation to get myself to do the thing.”
If that’s the case, please make today the day that you start trying something else. I’ll tell you why real quick and then I’m going to finish up. Yes, there are times when being self-critical gets you to do the thing. And if that’s what it takes, it’s up to you. You get to choose. I’m not going to tell you what’s wrong. I’m not going to tell you you are wrong. I don’t want you to feel judgment about that from yourself or from me because we’re all doing the very best we can with what we have. So, that’s totally fine. But if you use that as your only way, the chances are, eventually, it’s going to burn you out. You’re going to start to feel so bad about yourself that you will give up. We’ve got all the research and science to back it.
So, it’s only short-lived. This is only going to work for a certain amount of time until it stops working. So, let’s use today to try something different. Let’s put eggs in different baskets. Let’s practice compassionate accountability.
Again, I’ll say it, compassionate accountability is doing the thing that you set out to do, because you love yourself and you love your goals so much that you’re willing to do the hard thing. That’s it. That’s it, friends. That’s all I got to say.
All right. I love you. Have a wonderful day. I just love you. I’m squeezing my fist. I just love you guys. Thank you for being a part of my community. Thank you for supporting me. I totally understand you have gazillions of options for podcasts and gazillions of people who are probably doing great things. Thank you for letting me be a part of your journey. It’s an honor. Really it is.
Have a wonderful day.
This episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit is brought to you by CBTschool.com. CBTschool.com is a psychoeducation platform that provides courses and other online resources for people with anxiety, OCD, and Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors. Go to cbtschool.com to learn more.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
This is Your Anxiety Toolkit - Episode 296.
Welcome back, everybody. I am so fired up for this episode. Oh, I just love this stuff. I love it. I love it. I love it.
Okay. Let’s get started. First of all, let’s do an “I did a hard thing.” This one is epic. This one is from Fisher and they said:
“I have OCD, health anxiety, and panic disorder. And last year, I was diagnosed with POTS,” which is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. That is the chronic illness that I have also. And they’ve said: “This was very overwhelming for me. I was petrified of exercising because of the exercise intolerance that comes with POTS and worrying that it was a life-threatening cardiac issue.”
Oh, I am with you, Fisher. So, for those of you who don’t know what exercise intolerance is, it’s like it’s almost impossible to do exercise. When you stand up, you pass out. And when I’ve been triggered by POTS, it’s hard to even do a block around, walk around the block of my house.
“My doctor did all the cardiac tests to rule out any underlying issues before diagnosing me with POTS and recommended cardiac reconditioning to help me get started with recovery. My first barrier to overcome this was to trust in my physician and their diagnosis and follow their recommendation for exercise therapy. My second barrier was facing my fear of exercising. I can now say that I’m in my last week of the program after going twice a week for three months, along with exercising on my own at home. It’s been a struggle. There are some days where I flare up.” I hear you, Fisher. I totally get you. “And it seems impossible, but accessing self-compassion, budgeting spoon usage for the day, and moving things around to allow myself to rest have been invaluable tools to help me with the experience. A wise person told me after my diagnosis, the only predictable thing about living with a chronic illness is that it is unpredictable. So, I try to accept that uncertainty as a part of my life, living with anxiety and POTS.”
Fisher, I just love you. You’re killing it here. “I have a lot of work to do in learning to live with my chronic illness and my OCD and health anxiety recovery, but I make a little progress each and every day. P.S. Would you consider doing an episode on coping with chronic illness that mirror anxiety symptoms like POTS? I’d love to hear the skills that have helped you and some of you recommend coping strategies. Thanks for all the hard work that you do on this podcast.”
Fisher, I would love to have you on the podcast. I am going to write it in my notes to reach out to you because I think this is such an important topic, one that I myself have gone through, and thank you for writing this. You are doing badass, amazing hard work. So, yay. Thank you. You will hear from me. If you don’t hear from me, reach out, because I think that would be wonderful.
Okay. Let’s take a breath because that brought up a lot for me. I just feel such deep compassion for Fisher and all of you who are just doing the hard thing. So, so cool.
All right. Quickly, review of the week from Mosley23. They said:
“I’ve been listening for several years and can say that this podcast has helped immensely to understand my OCD and anxiety. Kim and her guests have provided very helpful ideas, strategies, and encouragement that have been so key in helping me to get to a good place with my mental health. Could not recommend it more highly if you or someone you love have an anxiety disorder.”
Thank you so much, Mosley23. Your reviews mean the world to me. The world really. Really, it’s so helpful. And again, if you give a review, and I know specifically what episode you’re talking about or what specific thing, it means then I can do more of that and help more people. So, yay.
All right. Let’s talk about recovery. It’s taking all of my energy not to bang my hands down on the table and be like, “Let’s do it.”
All right. So, I take walks every morning and I often listen to podcasts or audiobooks. I’m a big self-help, non-fiction kind of gal. And I’m often listening to these most motivating speakers and it gets me so fired up. This morning, I got so fired up because this is such a part of the work of being a clinician. We get trained on all the theory and the statistics and the diagnoses, but we don’t get taught very well how to help a client identify what is your recovery goal. What are you here for? And so, even though you, listener, loving beautiful person, human friend – even though you’re not here for therapy, because this is not therapy, I want you to be really intentional about your recovery goals.
Why is that important? Because, when you’re dealing with a mental health issue, you’ve already got a full-time job. You’re working your butt off to manage that. And sometimes we can put our attention so much on the disorder instead of making time and carving time and having a mindset towards, what do I want life to look like once I recover and how can I use that recovery goal to fuel the work I’m doing now while I’m in the trenches?
So, what I’m not saying here is, list off 20 magical things that will happen to you in the future when you get rid of your anxiety disorder, because that just means now you have an additional list of things to check off and it’s overwhelming and anxiety producing. So, I’m not talking about just lists. I’m talking about getting clear on what you want life to be like, even if anxiety is there.
So, let me ask you. You guys know, I love questions. First question, what does your recovery dream look like? What do you wish it looked like? So, often when I ask that to clients, their first response is, they put their hand on the buzzer and they’re like, “Pick me.” I don’t want anxiety and I don’t want that to be your goal. So, the absence of an emotion is not a recovery goal. We need anxiety. If you didn’t have anxiety, you’d put your hand on the hot plate. You’d jam your hand in the door. We need anxiety. So, try not to make that your goal. I’m talking about specifically, zoom in and imagine that you are the ring camera on your house. What would be happening in your house, around your house, around your life? How would you be interacting with the world? That’s the stuff I’m really interested in knowing.
So, for me it’s like, okay, if I was in my fullest recovery, I would be with my kids. I would be helping my clients and my listeners and my followers. I would be a connected wife. I would be a wife that shows up for my husband, even when it’s tough and we’ve got stuff to work out. I’d be someone who still has good days and bad days. But the bad days I just keep showing up, like it’s a beautiful day to do hard things. I’d be that person. I’d embody “it’s a beautiful day to do hard things.” That’s what recovery would look like for me. It might not be that for you. And please don’t just use mine because mine is just for me. Make it specific for you and look at that, write it down. Because in those answers, in those questions and answers is all of the details in which you can start to implement today.
So, example being, if that was my recovery goal, what can I do today? I can get down on the floor and I can play with my kids, even if anxiety is there. I can go to my husband and say, “How are you? How are you really?” And practice staying in the moment and practice listening instead of letting my anxiety do all the talking. I still do the talking, but I’m listening to my partner, not to my anxiety. I’m practicing this and it’s not perfect. I might even suck at it. That’s fine. But I’m already working towards the recovery that I want, the life that I want, the dream that I want.
While I have anxiety, and if it’s there, I’m also going to bring myself into intention that my goal was to help people, to be of service, to show up for you guys and have a couple of giggles and be myself because that’s a huge goal for me, to be more myself, which means I have to share a few layers of professionalism and just show up as Kimberley, the imperfect, giggly, silly, goofy, all-over-the-place Kimberley. So, I’m working towards that, whether anxiety is there or not. And by practicing that, I’m already 20 steps towards the recovery goal because I got down-dropped into what was it that I was looking for? So, this is the work, guys. Don’t use this recovery list as a list of expectations that you tell you, you won’t ever get to. Instead, use it as a way to implement it today.
Now, what I just said is the perfect segue into identifying the next question I had in my prep for this. Are you living according to old stories or your recovery goal? Because often, if we’ve made mistakes in the past or we’ve struggled in the past or we have messed up in the past, as we’re engaging with our goals, we’re telling ourselves a story. What’s the point? Look at that, what I wrote down. Like, I want to show up for my followers and listeners. I want to be a wife that’s engaged and connected. I want to be a mom that’s on the floor playing with their kids. I want to be a therapist that is just pouring my heart into the people. So, that’s my list.
But if I’m living according to old stories, I’d go, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen because you totally screwed up with that one client that time, and you totally said something inappropriate to that one person and offended them and harmed them.” And so, you’re just, “Nah.” You think you don’t deserve to have that recovery or it’s just not possible for you, Kimberley. That’s what we call a fixed mindset. You’re living off of old stories. “No, I couldn’t do it in the past. I tried. So, there’s no point. There’s my recovery list. I’ll never get there.” That’s old stories.
And the whole point of me talking with you every week on doing the “I did a hard thing” segment isn’t just because-- well, yes, it’s because I love it. I ain’t going to lie. I love it so much. But the whole point I do that is so that you guys can see baby steps lead to medium size steps, leads to large steps. And you mess up and you totally screw up. I’ve done whole episodes about this in the past. Just recently actually. You mess up and then you go, “Okay, I’m going to just do one more.” It’s going to try one more time, and one more time. The whole AA approach, if you have an addiction, if you go to alcoholics anonymous is one more day. And there’s some research around that model because it helps you just to stay in the short term, doing today, not looking at the long term, and changing the story.
The next question I have is, are you really clear of what recovery will look like, and does that line up with your values? The reason I ask that, and that’s the final question of this episode, is when I ask my patients like, “Okay, let’s get a recovery plan together. What are your treatment goals? What do you want to look like once therapy is done? How would we define that?” Often, because they’ve been trained and conditioned from society to be this, they’re like, “Okay, so I want to have a house and I want a car and I want to have 100,000 followers on Instagram and I want to be a size blobbidy blah.” And it’s just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that what society told you or is that actually what you want? Do you actually value those things? Are they coming from a place of getting other people’s approval or are they coming from a place of what really feels good to you, really feels good? What feels true to your values? Because yeah, it’s easy to say, “I want to have this many dollars in the bank,” or “I want to have achieved a certain thing.” That’s fine. I’m not against that. In fact, I love that kind of thing. I love goals. But I first want you to ask yourself, why? Why do you want that goal? Is it because you want approval or is it because you want to prove you’re worth? Because if it’s any of those two things, it’s probably going to be a painful process. Because, number one, you won’t get approval from other people that’s long-lasting because that depends on their mood and their values themselves, and you won’t get up to a place where you feel worthy because you’ve based that on a conditional relationship.
The only way we can actually build self-worth is to drop all the conditions and recognize that you’re worthy right now, whether you reach this goal, this recovery goal or not. It’s not a condition. The thing to remember here is your worth doesn’t go up if you reach these goals. Please remember that. Your worth is the same whether you reach them or not. You’re a valuable, important human being that deserves love and kindness. So, just keep an eye on that. I’m sorry, I’m going on a little tangent there, but it’s so important as you embark on getting really clear. And I really want you to be really, really clear. I really do.
I’ll use a really ridiculous example, and mind me, I understand that this is a very privileged example, but my daughter is going off to middle school. She’s going to a school that’s very far away. And so, I have to engage in a carpool. We have a four-wheel-drive that we use to do all of the outdoor stuff that we do. So, I need a bigger car to fit seven people. And so, I’m trying to get really clear on values as I buy this car. I understand this is a ridiculous example, but let’s use it as an example. As I go to buy a car, what do I want to feel when I get in the car? What are the things that matter to me? Is it the brand? Do I have to drive a Mercedes Benz or is it the functions? Is it the way it makes me feel? Is it the color? Is it the way my kids feel? That will help me to make a decision. So, I drop down into, really what do I want? What’s important to me? Is it important for me to have technology or is it important for me to have ease? Is it important for me to have technology or pay less for this car? And so, it’s asking questions. Don’t go overboard here, but asking questions so I get really clear on what matters to me, what values matter in this decision.
So, again, I get the ridiculous privilege of that whole question, but they’re the questions I want you to ask about you, because you deserve that. When you make decisions about your recovery and your life, you want to ask the questions that are detailed so that you can pivot in those areas. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but get clear on what you want recovery to look like. Because if you don’t, you’ll probably find that you’re wavering around feeling directionless, not sure why you’re doing all these hard things, feeling like, what’s the point really? But when you know exactly what the outcome you want is, you’ll know exactly the point.
Okay. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Thank you for being here. It is a beautiful day to do hard things. I hope that was helpful. I will talk to you guys next week, and have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful day. By the time you hear this, I’ll be back in the United States from my trip. If you want to go back and listen to the old episodes, I encourage you to do that. All the goodness is right there in those early ones.
Have a wonderful day, everybody. Talk to you soon.