Nobody Panic - How to Unwind with Lexie Williamson

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

Yoga-for-sports specialist Lexie Williamson and sports psychologist Josephine Perry have created Power Down to Power Up an incredible audio guide for 'reluctant relaxers'. The brilliant Lexie talks Stevie and Tessa through relaxation techniques, the importance of the para-sympathetic nervous system and how to give your brain a rest. Anyone who's ever struggled with meditation, can't grasp the concept of emptying your mind, hates the man's voice on the Headspace app, or whose shoulders have been up around their ears since 2010, this one is for you. You can listen to Power Down to Power Up here.Subscribe to the Nobody Panic Patreon at patreon.com/nobodypanicWant to support Nobody Panic? You can make a one-off donation at https://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanicRecorded by Naomi Parnell and edited by Clarissa Maycock for PlosivePhotos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The time is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace.com. Single ladies, it's coming to London.

True on Saturday, the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September. At King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. for today's episode. Don't panic and wind. My name's Stevie Martin, Tessa Coates. Hello. To my right and to my sort of diagonally to the right. We have yoga for sports specialist and

author Lexi Williamson. Hello. Now, thank you so much for coming. You've written so many books. Yoga for runners. Yoga for cyclists. The stretching Bible. Sounds fun. Move. And then, but the one that we're going to be talking about today is, of course, power down to power up, which I'm right and saying you wrote with, is Josephine Perry, is she your friend? Is she a colleague? She's a friend, she's a sports psychologist. So I was just in the shower one day and I thought, hey, you know, there's a lot of audio things out there for people for mindfulness kind of things.

And not everybody likes those words. So I thought, let's do a kind of practical collection of techniques for people. We called them reluctant relaxers. And whenever you say that, people go, oh yeah, I know someone like that. that. So yeah, and then I thought of Josie because she's a psychologist. She deals with a lot of sports people. So we came together and we produced power down. Amazing. I cannot stress enough how you're speaking my language. I couldn't be more of a reluctant relaxer. Desa shot into the studios that she was out of a cannon. She's been running an electric bike, I think, with no battery.

That's correct. Across London. And maybe a minute ago, yeah. High stone up! I'm absolutely ready. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. I'm I've never unwound in my whole life. Yeah. These shoulders, they live up here. They simply aren't coming down. And I, yeah, I get that it's good for you. I simply can't grasp it. And I've never relaxed.

Yeah. It's slightly misleading name, though, isn't it, mindfulness? Because it sounds like your mind is full. Yes, yes, yes. And you're meant to completely, but all of the stuff, you know, like even things that we've talked about so much on the podcast, which is like gratitude journal. In fact, actually, Tessa, for one year for Christmas,

bought me a gratitude journal. And I still do it. I've maybe like three, four times a week I do forget before I go to bed. But every single time I'm like, oh, I should probably do that. It's pretty good for me, isn't it? Oh, I'm doing a gratitude journal.

Okay, no, I will. And it's always nice, but it's very, I really struggle with the words and the terminology and feeling lame. I don't meditate. I don't, like, the gratitude journal is the only thing I do

that is like, woohoo. I do a bit of yoga with Adrienne. Yeah, she's good. She's really good. She's good. But sometimes you're like, I've got huge beef with Adrienne. Massive girl. You were like, we're at war in the yoga circles. It was like underneath the calm surface, there was a simmering bubble of hatred.

So I'm very glad that you would like her. You like it, yeah. But then as well, I love it. But then sometimes, you know, she'll be like, stand and you have a breathe and you're like, what's this, Adrian? Come on, let's get down. Let's get you like it. The breathing, yeah.

It's very important. I know. Lots of people are like that. I just want to skip the breathing, make me sort of move and various ways and feel better afterwards. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Let's get into my hips, Adrian, for example, the things I will say. So, shall we begin with the reluctant relaxer situation?

Because that feels like that's very much who this book is speaking to. Yeah, it's in the name. Guide us through. I'm chomping at the bit to learn. How can you tell if you were a reluctant relaxer? Quick, relax me. Please relax me. Obviously, it's very obvious reluctant relaxes like ourselves.

But how can people listening tell that they're kind of, kind of, you know, not relaxing and they're kind of that's them. I think it's really aimed at people that never. So Josie gave me, we were trying to put as much research as we could into the power down audible thing just because people use any excuse whatsoever

not to do it. So we were like, okay, we reckon if we chuck a bit of science in, they're going to be more receptive to it and just say, okay, this has been studied on. And she had a study that showed that people would rather be electrocuted than sit alone with their thoughts.

which we just thought was hilarious and we put it in the introduction because it just sums it up you know you would rather take a mild electric shock than sit completely on your own with your own thoughts so I think that's the ultimate definition

of a reluctant relax as someone that would rather do anything whether that's looking at a phone or watching a film or talking or just constantly keep their minds busy and occupied than sit in silence like when you go on the train or the train or the tubel or in your car or whatever

and if you forget your headphones or you don't have your music going or access to the podcast that you're listening to. This one obviously. I know people who will be like 45 minutes late because they had to go back for their headphones because I can't sit for half an hour on the train. I can't. Yeah. You can.

I think you know, people feel there must be like constant stimuli coming in and if there's not they're just a little bit panicky so. Yeah. We're trying to not sit with our thoughts now. In the old days, he had a stick and a ball. And that's all you can do. Well, we've jumped straight from that too. And now we've got Twitter. It's where it went from Shig and Ball to Instagram. In a day. Yeah. That's too fast. Too much. You guys are too young to remember life before mobile phones? Absolutely not. No, I can remember it. Yeah. Thank you so much for pitching our age there. And I, I am. I am too young. I was a child with an iPhone

No, we were teenagers with Nokia 3210s And the internet was something that arrived in sort of secondary school No, it came in, you had one computer Yeah, but you had the landline dial-up One computer at the home and it was on the landline And then one at school, there was the school computer And you all gathered round to look at it. I was like bits of like hula hoops and crisps in the one that was mine

It's gross. Actually, the one at home did as well, so I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, so talking of hulopes and crisps, right, okay, so the book, am I right in saying, focus on 26 different techniques? Yeah, it's not really a book, it's just simply a collection of techniques, so we just dive straight in with them, and they're all, apart from one of them, it's a bit longer, they're all five minutes, and that's also because people can't, reluctant to relaxers, can't focus on five minutes.

Yes, it's baby steps. I think what we tried to do is just give them something to follow. So never at any point or only like very briefly for about 10 seconds, do we actually leave people alone with their thoughts? Just in case they want to educate themselves. So we might do a kind of counting exercise, you know, breathing in for four, breathing out for five seconds. Really, really simple things, but something to follow. Yes. Because this whole empty your mind thing is a complete myth.

You cannot empty your mind. And it's a struggle to quiet in your mind. But if you give your mind something to follow on to, a little bit like a dog with a bone, you just give someone something to follow and they'll follow it. So is this why there was this like spate in like, I'd say the 2010s where every like adult I know had a colouring book. Yeah. I was trying to. I got bought to them at one. I'd have really done it. Again, I was a bit like, I'm not what I'm an adult.

But then when I went out to this, there's a cool bar, fun activity place called Drink Shop do in, London and you'd go for a drink and then suddenly you'd be surrounded by loads of people who were like colouring in various chimps you're like what's it's like it's chimp colouring day you're like I'm trying to have a gin what's going on but actually my resistance to it was wrong because actually yes the concept of finding something to do rather than just sit and try to not do anything yeah yeah it's impossible you can't you can't ask people to do that I mean maybe some people can do that if they've been meditating for years and they've not got a lot going on look yeah yeah yeah They're a bit stupid

They could do it But you're normal people can't do that That's very helpful to know So it's not just us No no no I can't sit in a bath for more than 10 minutes You get very bored I've got

It's the 15 minute bath for me Yeah I weirdly actually I don't have headphones very often And I am actually all right With my thoughts You don't have a lot going on upstairs I've got nothing going on up then Stevie

I think you've got so much going on upstairs That you're able to fully entertain yourself I don't believe that like a little kid. That's exactly what I did. So if someone's like sit alone and I'm like yeah and then I would just pop up into my head. I work on my storage solutions. I'd do a little I would I would like think through all the things like I would be quite content genuinely there's so much going on. Yeah. There's always something to tidy up up there. Yeah. Mindful right. Your mind is so full. You're just happy there. Yeah. My mind is bursting at the seams. I hate it. But what I

would struggle with is when they say empty. I'm like, are you joking? No, I can't be done. I can't. I can't. I can't. And equally in a class when it's any sort of like, you know, let it all go, like the things that you're worrying about today. And there are people like, just blow it away like a balloon. I'm like, please, bitch, that ain't blowing anywhere. That's, I'm holding on to that balloon tight as you like. You just look at your thoughts, come into your brain and then pass through. And it's like, well, I'm looking at a million. Yeah.

Or you are being you at this point. I've got one thought at a time. But that's the thing like I find, and I guess it's that that we're using these sort of ancient techniques that are people who have done this. for 20 years, you know, up a mountain. And we're expecting people in a 45-minute lunchtime yoga class to... Yeah, with like a million times more stimuli coming in than ever. Yeah, absolutely. Would you be happy to guide us through a technique?

Oh, wow. An example. Yeah, for sure, yeah. Thank you so. Yeah, yeah. So we just do the breathing one, hey, because it's the most, like all things, it's the most simple thing. Oh, please.

So join them at home wherever you are. Do you have a love for breathing? Okay. So you want to close your eyes? If you're driving, if you're driving, not for you. Pause it, come back. Okay, so really, really simple.

We're just going to breathe in and out through the nose, and the only reason for that is just because it's a narrower airway. It's going to take longer to breathe in, longer to breathe out. I've got a sinus infection. Okay, so you're just going to take a breath in for one, two, three, four. You're just going to pause at the top and you're going to breathe out for one, two, three, four, five. And inhale for one, two, three, four, and pause. And exhale for one, two, three, four, five. We'll just do one more. We inhale for one, two, three, four, and pause. And exhale for one, two, three, four and five. Okay, and just open your eyes.

I feel great I actually do yeah during that third one my bottom like I was like you started dribbling I pissed myself

I was like clenching my jaw I'm going to like like immediately yeah I suppose the way to describe it is if you're like reluctant to do this is we're just going to go straight to the nervous system

that's all we're trying to do here so your nervous system is either in a kind of fight or flight mode, which they're called sympathetic. And that's like a bear's chasing me. We're just trying to switch over into what they call parasympathetic or rest and restore nervous system. And that's when you just really chilled out.

And you can just do that with your breathing. You're always a bit of both systems. You're trying to switch you into that rest and restore mode where you just feel a bit better. And if you breathe out a bit longer, the exhalation seems to do that to the nervous system. May I say my good idea I've thought of for remembering which one's sympathetic and which It was parasympathetic. Yeah, yeah. I think it is sympathetic.

We've jumped out of the plane. We're hurtling to Earth. Everything's very stressful. Parasmpathetic. The parachutes open. Oh, I love that. That's great. It's okay.

We're going to be okay. That's great. We're restoring. I'm going to use that when I teach it. We're gently floating to Earth. Everybody be calm. That's awesome. It's funny.

It's funny. It's something. That simple can just make your brain just when I was doing those breathing things. By the third one, my brain had just like clunked into a completely different gear. Yeah. That's all at the end of the podcast, really, because we're all you're relaxed. Can we have another one?

Yeah, we could do like a circle thing. I'd love to do a circle thing. Yeah, it's a circle thing. I really, you know, and I was like, these shoulders ain't coming down. I'm sorry, but they're on the move. Once down. Once down. Yeah.

Once up, sure. Yeah, but this one's hanging off. It's another breathing. They're not all breathing ones, but I'll give you another breathing one because you guys responded quite well today. Yeah, very much. The jaws hanging off and her shoulders are dislocated. Okay, so you can imagine a circle.

you're going to start at the bottom of the circle and imagine breathing up to the top and you go round and round. Okay, so same as before. You're just going to close your eyes and you're going to start at the bottom of the circle. You're going to take a deep breath in and you're going to go clockwise

flow all the way up to the top and you're going to go slowly around the top of the circle and as you breathe out you're just going to flow all the way down the other side and then you're going to slow down as you get to the bottom and again breathing into the top and breathing out to the bottom And then breathing in to the top

and breathing out to the bottom. Okay. That's super. That was very nice. What circle did you visualize? Okay. Right. I struggle with that one a bit more

because I couldn't make my circle circular. I know what you mean? More of an egg. Mine started to go sort of like a triangle. Yeah, my circle. And I got very cross with myself. So I was like, get in the circle. Come on.

Everyone's waiting for you. I'm not a psychologist. I would need a triangle. to analyse that for me to know what that means. Right? Or your relationship like with your father. Yeah. You couldn't make your circle correct.

And then being like, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I wonder if triangles, you're just trying to get it done quicker because you've got the three sides. Of course. Yeah, I'm trying to do a straight line. Also, I realised that for the first bit,

my circle started to look like the spinning wheel of death on a Macbook. I was like, I wonder. I wonder if like a visual aspect, yeah. But both very visually minded, has made us be like, well, what's correct?

What's the right? When you said, imagine a circle, honestly, I had to stop myself saying, how big, how big is it supposed to be? Is it monochromatic? What collared? Is it coloured? It's in your head. It doesn't matter. Yeah.

Maybe just go back to the brittes. But also, this is kind of helpful because this might be, like, you've got a lot of different little concentrations. Well, there's 26 in there, you know, for exactly this. So you can go like, okay, well, that one, stress me out. I wouldn't say it stressed me out. What I'd say is that, like, there's more to it. And it's, like, about trying to. not to be angry. Like, yeah, try not to be angry

with yourself because any circle will do literally anything. Yeah, for sure, yeah. Of course there's no right or wrong. And also it's in your head. It's a good thing to do with breathe around in a circle. But then it's like, it immediately unlocks sort of like this bigger question. Do you want to know at one point what I thought? Gone there.

I just remember now because I was like, yeah, I started to the spinning wheel of death, MacBook thing happened. Basically, I started to imagine a kind of a circle thing that was going like this, but I was like, oh God, I think I'm imagining sort of like a nuclear reactor. and like in Chernobyl. And then I started to be like,

that guy in Chernobyl was really good. And I was like, get back to the circle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the visualising thing's tricky. Obviously, well, some people find it really hard. Because they do imagine all sorts of random things. Okay, okay.

Well, what advice would you have for somebody who is, thinking about the actor in Chernobyl rather than what would you tell people? Just don't beat yourself up about it, just keep breathing. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. And would you say, okay, maybe the visual ones? Not for me.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Josie does all kinds of things because she has a little bit slightly different. They're all, it's the whole thing based on relaxation, but she does some more physical things than me. So she'll do a kind of power pose thing where you, she'll give you some verbal cues

to stand up straight and let your shoulders drop and kind of broaden your chest a little bit. Oh my God, my spine just crunch when I started to do that. That is terrible. Right, okay. Great. Yeah, so you want me to run you through that? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. I'll just think that man who plays in Chernobyl doing the exercises, but I'll try I'm absolutely best. No, I don't think you will because you'll be, well, I'll be doing it. Who's to say what you'll be doing? Yeah, this is much more physical. So that's my, I think, you know. Like Chernobyl.

Like Chernobyl. Stop it. I don't think you'll find a link but you might stay there. Not all I'm doing is trying to find a link. Okay, got on. So this one is all about kind of feeling confident and relaxed. You know when we're a little bit stressed,

we tend to fold in a bit so our shoulders come forward. Oh my God, yeah. Yeah, so you're just going to sit a little bit taller than you normally are already doing it. You're just going to kind of start from the bottom of your spine and you're going to imagine just a little bit like building bricks. You're just going to lengthen your spine as you go up. That's it, lovely.

And as you get to top, you're just going to let your shoulders drop down. So you've got that opposite thing going on your spine lifts up, your shoulders drop down. And then I'd like you just to imagine that you're just drawing your shoulders slightly back and you're very slightly lifting your chest up. Just to give you that slight feeling of confidence. And it's amazing how that can affect you mentally, sort of how you're feeling confidence-wise. That was great, Lexi, thanks.

Already more confident, you see. So if you were feeling really worried about something that was coming up, you could do that standing. It's called power posing. I imagine like I'm like a superhero. Yeah, you could put your hands. You could wear the full wonder. Yeah, get a cape on.

Get a cape on. It does feel nice. It does feel good. It's so easy to slump, isn't it? It is. Because all these things, it's easier not to do them. You know, it's an active thing to choose to help your brain and choose to. But it's so...

How did you feel about the physical one? I didn't think of it. about Chauvel once. I thought for a second you were going to say the thing that they'd sometimes say with the ego where they'll be like, and one vertebraeate at time, roll your spine up and it's like... Like a cat. Yeah, and I can't do it because obviously my spine doesn't do like, I'm not a cat, but actually

the idea of just like lengthening, really, I did feel that and also I got a few crunches going down with spine. It's like cheap chiropractor thing too. Yeah, how did you feel? Same. Now, she's still got her hands on it. Yeah, I'm actually too powerful. I was just thinking I was completely present in my body doing the physical thing and even when this is what happened to me

you were like, I'll be thinking about Chernobyl. Then in my head I was like, when we come out of this, I'm going to make a really good gag about Chernobyl. And I was like, I think of one, immediately forgot. You know, I was immediately totally present on my shoulders, on my spine. And now I come up being like, who cares about making a thing about Chernobyl? Who cares about Chernobyl? Who cares about Chernobyl?

Who cares about Chernobyl for God's sake? No, like, even going into it being like, I'm going to be quiet during this, but actually I'm going to be thinking of a joke. I forgot. And so like that one really helps. So clearly the physical ones, the breathing ones. And then genuinely it's so, I think a big thing for both of us is the classes where they're like, and now you're on a beach or now you're imagining breathing into your front bottom.

I'm like, I ain't. That's not happening or anything where any kind of visual aspect. It's a leap too far. It's too much for us. And maybe at home you're like, I loved the circle. I'm so into it. Yeah. I had this beautiful flowery circle and I just calmly.

breathed round and round at whatever. Fantastic. Like, you know that this is the sort of stuff that's going to work for you. It's true. It can get too complicated visualising and also people have associations with it. So if you talk about relaxing on a beach, people like, oh, the sun's too hot or it's a bit sticky. Yeah, what am I? Where's the beach? Yeah, and you know, the water ones, some people, but not others, you know, waves and they're a bit like, oh, there are waves. So it could be good, could be bad association. Yeah, exactly. You're like, how big of the waves?

are they coming? Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think also just accepting that like everybody's different and something that maybe your friend or your teacher or whoever swears by, you're not doing anything wrong if that isn't working for you. You just want to do it in a slightly different way. Yeah, exactly.

And just like knowing yourself and crucially, not beating yourself up. When is best to do these? And is it best to almost do them, yes, when you're stressed, but sometimes when even when you're not just to keep that muscle going? Yeah. The correct answer is when you're not stressed and just do it regularly. Great. The absolute correct answer is just like meditation, wake up in the morning and do it.

Right. Of course, not many people do that. Because we live in the real world and we get up and we have things to. Yeah, I know. This is the problem with it actually. Just do it regularly before you feel stressed because when you're stressed, you can switch yourself over into that parisnipathetic mode we talked about. but you want to almost stop yourself getting to that point by having some kind of control

and then once you realise that I can actually control my nervous system in quite simple ways then you would generally feel more in control generally I mean I'm talking about all this stuff and as a yoga teacher I should be meditating and I have struggled with meditation to take it up as a practice over the years and I do it for a bit

and then I slip out of it and then I do it for a bit and I slip out of it because I've got a smartphone and three teens ages so you know it's difficult yes absolutely yeah the thing that I struggled with the meditation was be I would remember something that I had forgotten to do and then I'd be like okay I want to come back to the meditation but can I write this down you know yeah yeah and those are constantly coming up yeah and I was completely incapable of yeah so that's why if you've got a circle to follow or counting your mind's got something to focus on we're not really trying to meditate at all we're

we're going one step down and that is constant We're just trying to allow our minds to concentrate. So your mind is scattered in all directions all the time and you're constantly, you know, picking up, thinking about different things. If you're concentrate, you're just flowing your attention in one direction. Could be dancing, could be swimming, could be running, could be anything that you're really into. Cooking. Cooking. All your attention is flowing in, what am I making, what are my ingredients, how am I going to do this?

And the mind finds that like a rest. to think about mostly one thing, not exclusively one thing, mostly one thing. So it's all you're doing when you're counting. That's a good way of thinking about it. I'm going to try and once a day get my brain to think of mostly one thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know why it has only occurred to me now that like meditation isn't this sort of like emptying your mind and just sitting there attempting to be just black abyss, which is obviously not working for me. But it's actually trying to just be totally focused on something. And the idea that that's a rest for your mind is.

Yeah, it is a rest. I mean, to be fair, Buddhist meditation is like a breath watching meditation anyway. So you're never at any point not doing anything. You're always watching the air going in and out of your nose. So, you know, that does give you something to focus on. I think people think you're trying to think nothing. But that's impossible.

Right. Gosh. Okay. Well, I've come a long way thinking one thing. That's obviously completely wrong. Right, okay. Well, no wonder I was struggling. I was just thinking we're saying about the rest thing and like the total focus that like obviously like cold water swimming gets like a terrible rap these days and it's always like

in The Guardian and everybody's like, oh, lame. Is it? Does it get a bad, bad rap? Well, it gets a bit of a like, all right, mate. Very good. Yeah, very good. It gets that sort of rap. But I think the thing about it that people find this positive benefit from

is that your mind can't possibly be thinking about anything else apart from like, well, Jesus Christ, that's cold. And suddenly I need to survive, you know? Because I think about swimming, it's like, right, but if I stop for a second, I will drown. You know, so it's like, it's total focus. You can't possibly be having any other thought apart from that. Yeah, I think it takes you out of yourself, doesn't it, just for a second?

And also, you feel like your heart stopped having tried it recently. So, yeah, you're in survival mode. But cold water to swimming is a massive release of serotonin as well. Sorry, you might as to repeat that because my stomach rumbled so badly went, blah. But isn't there a nice thing that you wrote about why your stomach rumbles in the... Oh, yeah, that's just a byproduct of shifting into the... parasympathetic mode in relaxation. Hey, you did it.

So you must be like really chilled out. I'm quite chill now. I just done three relaxations. I've never done one in my life. Right. God, why that's actually really wild. What's happening is your mind's sensing that there's no danger at all. And so it just goes, okay, I'm going to start repairing muscle and digesting food now.

Oh my God. So my stomach was like, right, all okay up here. Blah, blah. I could just get on with more work. Yeah, yeah, right. That's why you probably don't ever, like, when we're on stage and stuff, you don't really need a wee. Yeah, that's exactly why.

Yeah. It's like, we can't we now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Looking at us to do our comedy. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You're like, I thought it was going to be sick before I went on stage, but then I managed to do a show for an hour.

And I don't know where the sick thing, and your body was like, not now. Yeah. We're busy. Yeah. Later, please. And also afterwards, you're probably really hungry about 20 minutes after. Everything is, oh, yeah.

And it's, the danger's gone. And also I saw that you wrote about sex in there. I'm sorry to bring sex to the table immediately. Oh, my God. Similarly, that you're like, the thing about, you know, sometimes you might be so stressed and your partner wants to kiss you. And you're like, no. And then don't taste much.

You're like, oh, okay, now I'm more of a, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so for sex, you need a combination of both. You need to be largely parasympathetic, but also you need a little bit of sympathetic. I know how we're going to put this delicately to get to where you want to go. A little bit of something coming in. Yeah.

Ah, very nice. Do you feel as well that like people, because the thing I do this, so do you think that people, I, a friend, I may, you know, that to get into that kind of, I've got it wrong, parisynthetic. The parachute, so things like, you know, you say like cooking and things, like, I will use, like, work as that. And then that feels like that's actually not helpful because then the work might be. So if I'm stressed about life, I'll be like, okay, I need to focus on something else, but it will be work all the time. And there's like a big, I know there's like a big problem in, especially in America, but also here, and people are like overworking and kind of using work to like ignore the fact that they're actually quite stressed in life. So basically what masculine is like, is that as bad for you as it sounds like it is.

I think it totally depends on if when you go to bed, can you just go to sleep? Absolutely not. Yeah, well, that's the thing. Yeah. I was just going to say my thought of, I would say that you're using the work to relax an attempt of being like, well, at least that's done. At least I've moved this forward a bit more. Yes, and then after that I'll be able to relax.

After that I'll be, as opposed to being like, and now I will just do my coloring in. Your work is like, I'm trying to move something forward in my life. Take things off the list so that I feel calm, but I never get to the calm feeling. Whereas I recently steamed all the wallpaper off the wall with the clothes steam. That would be good. And everyone was like, what the hell are you? doing. Surely that's a counterintuitive. Use a wall steamer. Obviously,

well, the wall steamer had broken. So like, I should have been using that. And I was, and it was extremely pleasant to do. But people were like, just get a professional in to do it. But I was like, it's, it's been extremely pleasant. I've really enjoyed doing it because you were just, I couldn't do anything else. I'm just steaming this wall. Yeah, exactly. And it was total focus and I had a lovely sleep afterwards. That's why

I like Christmas, because every Christmas, I'm making new Christmas decoration and I just sit and make it. So I think, rather than tricking yourself that you, you You can use work as a relaxation technique. You need to be like, this is this, like, little craft project or this, or this. Well, you said you just like. I've gone into sympathetic.

Yeah, you, okay. You just said you liked making your decoration every year. But only in December. Okay. So in the other months of the year, we need to find you something that is, can be small. So Easter decorations. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. That's gone badly for us. I'm looking at. No. Cooking. I should cook more. Okay. But the should is, sorry, I will.

No, no, no. But like, if you go into it being like... I like to cook, come on. In which case, I think, what about like a Sudoku? Would that help? I hate math. Okay. No, but I...

A small puzzle? Crossword. A crossword. Okay, but would that count? Yeah, yeah, that counts. Would you like to try the coloring in? Yeah, or I think of what I'd like to do... No.

Okay. But I think what's maybe doing... Playing words with friends with my mom on... Is that the same? Yeah, I guess. I guess so. I think the problem with work is it just, it's not like a thing that you've done and then, right, I've done that. I can cross it off the list, is it? It's not like doing the wallpaper because it'll

lead to lots of other little avenues. It does, right? And then your brain carries on, even after you've officially stopped working. Okay, so I had to find as satisfying tasks within themselves that I finish. And I don't go looking for the tasks that have any purpose or ticking to them. And think of it, like I'm improving myself for work. Yes. You know, like if you were your own employee. Yeah, I was good at that in lockdown because it was like I like learned to French plant my hair.

Okay. But now I've got a, now I'm like, well, I've got limited time. Come on. But you'll be better in everything you do. In everything I do. If you can take five minutes to do a small word puzzle alone. I love how we're like desperately trying to find some way that I can fly my brain when we're talking to Lexi.

I'm just 26 different. I'll obviously just listen to your, to your audio book on audible. Yeah. Well, one of these 20 seconds. Genuinely, I'm going to work through all of them. Is it an audio book? It's just a guide.

So we kind of... Oh, sorry, guide. It's a collection of techniques. We kind of just dive straight in with them. But it's your voice? Figuring that no one will have the patience to listen to it. Of course. And it's you doing it.

Yeah, so we've got a lovely voice. Thank you. We're like 50-50. So actually, Jos is a little bit more up, which wouldn't be hard with my voice. But she's more kind of up and energetic. Because she works with a lot of athletes and quite a high level. So she's taking those people and trying to kind of just dial down a bit so that they can perform well.

So that's her, that's her slight angle on it. Whereas I just put people to sleep basically. That's nice. Yeah. Great. Where can people find the guide? It's just on audible. Go on audible now.

Power up. To power down. Power down. To power. I thought that. I was like, I was like, That sounds like a very opposite title. Don't power up first.

Oh, you could actually. Maybe I will. I mean, hey. Power down. Up to some burpees and then power down. Or please do you go and find the guide, Power Down to Power Up by Lexie Williamson and Josephine Perrin. That's much, much better. It fits with the, because it's the title.

With the book. By Lexi Williamson. You can follow her on Instagram. Cycle Run Yoga, at Cycle Run Yoga. And Twitter, but not as much tweeting. But still follow. Yeah, haven't for a while. But we're all boycotting Elon Musk.

You're on 99 followers. Stop it. One more and you've got 1,000. Oh. So, come on, listen. I haven't given to them. Yeah, one more then. Go on.

Come on. She quits forever. God's sake. Go on. Pop her over. And thank you so much for coming in and for doing the techniques with us. It's really helpful. And I'm genuinely going to use my audible credit this month.

You don't need to because it's included in your membership. Holy shit. Oh my God. Right, well there we go. My stomach is literally going crazy as well. I'm so parisynthetic right now. That's fantastic. I can't stop myself.

Just so chill. I mean, that's so exciting that it's free. So there's absolutely nothing stopping you. Yes. Go and have a listen. We'll certainly be there. Yes, and also follow us at Nobody Panic Pod and give us an email if you have any good episode.

that you'd like us to do, Nobody Panic Podcast at gmail.com. And see you next week, guys. For a more relaxed time, have a relaxed week. See you next week.