The Life Of Bryony - The Life of You – Dr Sian Williams on What Helps Keep Her Anxious Brain in Check

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

Dr Sian Williams is back! In our main episode we talked about anxiety, overwhelm and why so many of us feel like we’re just white-knuckling our way through the week; now Sian is sharing the three things she personally leans on to keep herself grounded. We talk about the movement that gets her out of her head and back into her body, how her five kids quietly (and not so quietly) keep her ego in check, and why music – from upbeat playlists, to first gigs to an unexpectedly brilliant Barry Manilow study – has shaped the way she thinks about confidence, nostalgia and not caring what other people think. If you’re juggling a busy brain, big feelings and a lot of responsibilities, this one’s for youBOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODESian’s new book, The Power of Anxiety, is available to buy now.WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOUGot something to share? Message us on @lifeofbryonypod on Instagram.If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might need it – it really helps! Bryony xxCREDITS:Host: Bryony GordonGuest: Sian WilliamsProducer: Laura Elwood-CraigAssistant Producer: Tippi Willard Studio Manager: Mitchell LiasProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniEditor: Luke ShelleyExec Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, gorgeous ones, and welcome to the bonus edition of The Life of Briney. Today, Sean Williams is sharing the three things that keep her grounded, the non-negotiables that help her stay steady, whether she's sitting with other people's trauma or wrestling with her own anxious brain. There are certain times. Music takes you back to people and places and memories. And I think when you need to get into a mood or want to sort of just acknowledge quite a difficult thing, music can do it.

My chat with Sean coming up right after this. Queen of Doctors, Dr. Sean Williams, is back for the life of you. And Sean, you are going to give us the three things that are crucial to your well-being. And I'm really looking forward to these because pressure. Well, I look at you and I think, like you make me feel calm. And I look at you and I think this woman has got her,

shit together. This woman has got her shit together. No. Well, that's, that's the vibes you're giving off. Is it? I would say the first thing is movement. Yes. Movement. And that can be any movement, but it's, you and I first bonded over running when we were both in very different places, but it meant a huge amount. And it's hard at first, let's be honest. Running is really hard. I still find. It's not at first. It's always really hard. I do. I find a lot of first. But that's why we're just. That's why we're just. We like it. That's why we like it. Because there's a bit of a triumph over, okay, I got out this morning, it was difficult,

and then I managed to still do the thing. Yeah. And there is no such thing as a bad run. I mean, apart from the one where you end up in hospital, which I did, of course, but now is a bad one. Apart from the one where you end up with hyperneutremia. Yeah. And they're in a new hospital and unconscious for a long time. But running somehow just it gets me out.

It gets me moving. Moving in nature is one of the most wonderful things. And also yoga. So I do running in yoga. There's evidence to suggest that if you do an hour of yoga, and I don't know whether this is up your street, if you do an hour of yoga three times a week, it is, I know you're going, that's still quite a lot, Sean.

That's three hours out of my week. That's three hours of my week, faffing around. That it reduces anxiety. Okay. To a sort of statistically important degree. So the reason is there are certain things that you do that stimulate the parasympathetic system, the rest and digest system. Movement can do it. 20 minutes of vigorous exercise can do it.

Yoga can do it. It stimulates two important things. One is, and I'm all about the research. It's like, I love doing this. Why do I love doing it? What's it doing to me? Give me the evidence. Give me the evidence.

Give me the scientific paper that tells me why this makes me feel good. Why does this make me feel good? Oh, I ain't doing it. No, I'd still do it. But one is Gabba. You know Gabba. Do you know Gabba? It's a neurotransmitter.

Yeah. Gamma amniobic acid. And what are these things? So Gabba is the thing that acts like the brake on our car. So it acts on our nervous system to go, oh, hang on. Oh, let's just slow everything down. That's why we feel much better when we're moving and dealing with a lot of stuff than when we're static.

And also, it stimulates something called BDNF, which is brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is another thing that just makes us feel calmer, more relaxed. So they're good things. That's the evidence. We know we've got a doctor in the house, everyone, because she's giving us the facts and the science. I love this.

Well, I think it's, I don't know, it feels, Yeah, it feels important to me. I love it. No, I love it. But so I would say movement. Movement is absolutely key to my day. I try to go out first thing in the morning, early morning light, affects our cortisol levels. We wake up with high cortisol. If we get early morning like, it changes, early morning like changes our circadian rhythm means that we're more effective later in the day. I don't do everything just because science tells me to do it. But there's very good evidence about it. But very good evidence suggests that movement, especially first thing in the morning. morning is really good for your mental health. Okay. What else do you like? What else do you

favour? Not that it is your favourite or your second favourite. What would be the next thing that you would like to recommend to the listeners of the life of Brian? Well, is it too cheesy to say my children? No. Okay. I think that's, can I just say until I read this book, I did not know that you had five children. Yes. So hang on. So you've got five children. You're presenting the BBC breakfast, the 1 o'clock news, the 6 o'clock news, the 10 o'clock news, you're off to Kashmir when there's terrible things happening. Getting out of the house. And you have five children. Yes. Well, they're all very different ages, in fairness. So I had... Well, of course they're all going to be different ages. But quite radically different. Unless you had

quintuplets. How would that be? Can you imagine? I'm sure my mum tells me a story where she had twins and when she gave birth to the first one, the doctor said to her, oh, Mrs. Williams, I think there's another one in there. Can you imagine? Oh, okay, that's a surprise. Wasn't expecting twins. My mother had twins, my brothers, my twin brothers. But she didn't realize she was having two.

No, so I've got five children, but one of them is a stepdaughter. They range in ages from 34 to 17. So the 17-year-old is still at home. Everybody else is off and up and out. And the reason that they keep me grounded, and I think some of this stuff came from my older boys when I was on BBC breakfast, was that they always reminded me that the job I did was a bit thunkers. Not many people got up at that time in the morning, sat on a sofa and broadcast to 10 million people. What time of the mornings did you have to get up? Oh.

Well, initially it was about three and then you sort of push it later and later and later. So what, you get a line until four? Get a line until four always, always in bed before the kids. So, yeah, it was a strange old time. But I think, and because I didn't expect to be a presenter, I was sort of, I was offered the job when I did a random screen test that filling in for somebody else was made a presenter and thought, oh, and it felt a bit odd because I was a producer for a long time. So anyway, I love the job, absolutely adored it.

But my sons would always bring me back to worth if there was any semblance of me feeling the restricted amount of fame that I might have felt at the time. So my eldest son said, fame is a mask that eats the face. Because this feeling that anybody who is famous, it somehow changes your way of being. And he used to tease me because apparently I used to say, people are so nice. And he'd be like, that's because you're on the telly. As soon as you stop doing that job. But people will be assholes again. But I think the thing that I love about them is that they're funny, all of them are funny,

and that they have huge amounts of wisdom. So when I was deciding to leave BBC Breakfast and I'd worked there for 11 years, absolutely adored it. Adored it. It moved to Manchester. I couldn't go. I've got four children's stepdaughter. There was just no way I could do it.

my two oldest son sent me a little plaque that said the ship is safest in the harbour, but that's not where it's meant to be. And they're like, go out and do it. Just do whatever it is that you want to do. And that's when I first started training to be a psychologist. So I think that they give me courage and they make me laugh and they keep me grounded and I'm never happier than when I'm with all the five children together. Oh, that's so nice.

Well, I just think there's a wisdom there sometimes in young people that you... Sometimes. No, all the time. But yeah, they're lovely. But they do, and they make me laugh. And we listen to music together and share playlists. What music do you listen to with them? Okay, so recently we were listening to, when I was training for the last marathon,

they gave me playlists and one was chilled and one was upbeat. Okay. So we were listening to chilled. So there was a lot of massive attack. can port his head and stuff. But when it's upbeat, oh, and there's a lot of radio head. I love radio head. Do you not like radio head?

That's not upbeat. No, the upbeat one is different. No, I'm not really into radio head. I need some more upbeat in my life. Oh, well, you should listen to their upbeat. Their upbeat is great. Okay. So, yeah, so we listen to music together.

They just send a few sort of, you know. Young people music. Young people music. Like Olivia Dean, my daughter, like she's going to see Harry Styles. Oh, that's with her sister. Yeah. That's a biggie, isn't it? That is a biggie.

your favourite upbeat musician? I'm going to look at Laura, the producer who's going to go, oh, really bright. No, no, go on telling me. Bad Bunny. I literally bring Bad Bunny into almost every episode and it's getting a bit tragic. So we're going to stop and move on to the third thing that keeps you, well, if it's bad bunny, we can continue to talk about Bad Bunny. Is it Bad Bunny?

It's not Bad Bunny. Oh, that's a shame. What is it? Well, I was going to say music, but I'm not going to say music now because we've already done music. I've ruined it for you. No, not at all. I think it should be music. Because I do think it is also, I find music an incredibly effective way to hack my mood as well. It is so effective.

It's a brilliant way to hack your mood because it does lower your cortisol levels and it stimulates something in the brain called dopamine, which you'll know about, which is the reward. neurotransmitter. And also it echoes emotions that are sometimes too hard to say and to, if words aren't enough to talk about a big thing, then music does it. And it certainly, it does it certainly, it does it for me. So I often, we often go to bittersweet music when stuff is really hard. And that's good because it goes, this is how you're feeling. And nobody else might, might recognize this, but the music says it's okay to be here. And I can listen to really that bittersweet, difficult, sad music in a tough time, like when I've lost friends, I've lost friends and I've lost my parents.

Going to music then has been incredibly helpful because it just supports you in so many ways. I just think I couldn't go through the day without listening to music. because it anchors you. It just anchors you. And I know all the stuff it does to the brain and the body, but it just can slow everything down. Equally, it can hype everything up. I met somebody yesterday who'd gone to the same gig as me in 1970-something.

We both went to The Stranglers. That was my first ever gig. When I was 12, I went to see the Stranglers. And it was so exciting. They were doing the nice and sleazy tour. where they had a stripper on stage. What? And I was 12.

Oh my gosh. It was at the Brighton Dome. What is this? I know. There we go. So, you know, there's music that excites us and thrills us. You've never forgotten that. No, why would.

That's formative. That was your first gig. That was my first gig. I remember my first gig. Go on. Go on. What was it? Not as cool as the stranglers.

It doesn't have to be cool. I went to see new kids on the block. Oh, did you? And my mum took me and I was about 12. Yeah. And I remember I really wanted to just scream like all the other girls there. But because I was with my mom, I couldn't. And it was just like, it was like this desperate mix of longing and cringe.

Oh. Yeah. Did you love it though? Was it quite a important thing to do? I wouldn't see Little Mix with my daughter. We loved it. Absolutely loved it. You know, there are certain times.

music takes you back to people and places and memories and just parachutes you there straight away. And I think when you need to get into a mood or want to get into a mood or want to sort of just acknowledge quite a difficult thing, music can do it. Yeah. Yeah, it is great. I also took my daughter to her first concert a couple of years ago and it was the ERAs tour, Taylor Swift. Did you see Taylor Swift? Yes. And she did, she was, she was not cringing.

She was just singing along with me and we were screaming together. And that was a perfect full circle moment. Yeah. Can I just say as well, on the same year, my husband got me tickets to see the stranglers, right, when they were much older. And I got him tickets to see Barry Manilow. And I have to say, Barry Manilow really good. You like Barry Manelow. You do refer to the map.

Baza Manolo in the book. That is a terrific study though, isn't it? The Barry Manilow study where adolescents were asked to wear a t-shirt with a picture of Barry Manilow on the front, which is meant to be highly socially embarrassing. And they thought that everybody noticed them. And nobody noticed them. And then they wore another one with a picture of Bob Dylan, much cooler on the front. And again, nobody noticed them.

Take out. Nobody notices you as much as we think they do. Yeah, that's it. I could have screamed at that new kids on the block concert and no one would have given a toss. No one would have cared. Take that into your day today, listeners of the life of you, because you think people are watching. No one is. Live your life the way you want to live it because you can't live anyone else's. Hallelujah.

Thank you, Dr. Sean. Woo! Love you. Oh, guys, I could listen to Sean. all day. If any of her life of you grounded essentials chimed with you or sparked ideas about your own non-negotiables, message me on Instagram and let me know. Or you could just leave us a review and give us a follow. It really makes a massive difference. But most importantly, look after yourself. Be as kind to you as you are to everyone else and I'll see you on Monday.