The Livy Method Podcast - Anxiety and Your Health with Kyle Buchanan - Spring 2025

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

In this guest expert episode, Gina chats with Certified Nutritional Practitioner, public speaker, and host of the feelgoodery podcast, Kyle Buchanan. Together, they explore why summer can leave us feeling mentally scattered—and how that doesn’t mean you’re off track. Kyle unpacks how future-focused thinking can trigger anxiety, zap your motivation, and even stop you from getting started. You’ll hear how younger versions of yourself might be reacting in the moment, and how simple practices like breathwork and the SSCC framework (Stop. Slow down. Connect. Compassion.) can help shift your state. Kyle also shares why those first 10 minutes after waking are gold, and how the tiniest mindset shifts—like one long exhale or one kind word—can lead to massive change over time.Where to find Kyle:Instagram: @itskylebwww.kylebuchanan.cafeelgoodery PodcastThe Exhale with Kyle Buchanan on SiriusXM RadioYou can find the full video hosted at:www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspring2025To learn more about the Livy Method, visit www.livymethod.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livi and welcome to the Livi Method Podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from my 91 Day Weight Loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews, and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the Morning Live? Want to relisten to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place.

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To learn some things. How do we help you feel less overwhelmed so you can continue on your journey? Keep believing in yourself and keep trusting the process. Just be patient. You are in for a treat today because my guest, Kyle Buchanan, one of our most beloved guests that we've ever had join us here at The Living Method, also the host of The Exhale on Sirius XM, also a wellness expert on Canada's The Morning Show, also the host of the podcast Feel Goodery.

I mean, at this point, you should have a book. You should have your own. Like... We'll see. We'll see what goes on. I can only have so many, like, hyphenates. I know, like, a lot of us are multi-hyphenates, not like all of us, because we have different side hustles,

but, like, eventually it gets to be, like, a bit much. But I'll just have, like, a big asterisk. It's so nice to be here. I always look forward to our chats, because it's just... I never know what's going to come out of them, but I always leave feeling better afterwards. So it's like a therapy and I've said it before, but like the Libby community, oh my gosh, it's second to none

because it really is just a wonderful community. So lovely to be here and happy summer. It feels like summer switched on and everyone is just zoned out. Right. Yes. This week. I don't even know if anyone's here and watching or listening. I know they are. Hi everyone.

Um, it just, all of a sudden I think it's just rained forever, which just, it affects us in so many ways. And all of a sudden the sun was shining and I think everyone was just like, okay, I'm out. I don't know where I am, but I'm gone. See you. Bye. It truly feels like this. Everyone, even at work when I went into work, it just feels like half the people aren't there and the people that are there are checked out. But I think we all had such a terrible winter this winter, like here in Toronto anyways, we had a horrible winter.

So it was long. And I think as soon as the sun we threw responsibilities, anything to the wind, because it's like, we might not see the sun again. So you know what, today might be the last, so let's just do it. And I think we've just had consecutive days like that, but anyways, lovely to be here. Let's start there though. Of course we're scheduled to talk about anxiety.

I'll get to that in a sec, but let's start there because people are, they sign up for a 91 day program and they're working towards their goals. And obviously they wanna reach their goals. And obviously they want to reach their goals. And yet they're having this moment where they're just like, maybe it's like a fuck it. Or I'm just like, I don't know. And it's just like, how do you, how do you work through that? Suggestions for that?

I feel like this summer is the, like, is the fuck it time, right? It for lack of a better word, because it's also when my, it's when we have lack of structure as well, because I think we were all programmed growing up that we don't have school in the summertime. So the summertime is when we do nothing. So there's this natural pull, besides the weather, just to do nothing and relax,

because we're programmed until we're like, what, seven and then maybe 15, and we're kind of used to that. So our bodies are used to taking things slow. And if we're working towards a goal, at a time when psychologically, we're kind of used to that. So our bodies are used to taking things slow. And if we're working towards a goal at a time when psychologically we're just pulling back anyways, it can feel kind of like we have to double down to keep going. So whenever I feel like I have to double down and do more than I really feel I should, that's when I try to celebrate the small things because I know that action begets more action. And sometimes when we just don't want to do anything,

we won't do anything, but then we'll just feel bad about it at the end of the day. So it really doesn't serve anything. So that's where I try to do the small things. Like if you're one to write lists, like a to-do list like I am, the summertime is the time to like stuff that to-do list with the smaller things.

Like in addition to the big things, but once you start doing a little thing, you're more likely to continue to get more done in that same area or something else. So I always say like, if you're pulling back, if you have these massive goals, chunk the goals to smaller little ones and fill it so you can feel more accomplished,

so you're more likely to get more done. Does that make sense? Oh, absolutely. But what makes even more sense is why we feel like this in the first place, tied into summers off as a kid, that's sort of like, there's no routine, no structure because we're all wired into the way that we were raised. And that makes so much sense

because my son is finishing his last year of high school and so I thought he was done Friday. I even walked him to school. I'm like happy last day then I'm crying then I find out like school was like the last day was Tuesday. I don't I don't know why he... Wait and he didn't tell you or he just he was like he was like mom I know you needed this walk with me. I know I'm doing this for you because I know you're going through it and we're just gonna say you can walk with me, I know I'm doing this for you. Because I know you're going through it. And we're just going to say you can walk with me to the school. And he's like, Okay, who knows? I feel like you have very compassionate kids. So I would say that's true. But exactly it. Yeah, it is true. I mean, and like, summertime is for me the time when I have the most, it sounds so silly, but the most like insecurities about life overall, my brain feels more

scattered. And it's also the time when it's like, should I change what I'm doing? Should I change aspects of work? And again, if you think about it back to the way we were raised, it makes sense. Because during the school year, we had focus, and we had school, and we knew what we were putting our attention on. But all of a sudden, you have nothing, you start to question life in general. But summer is an interesting time.

And it's also a time when it's hotter out, even if we have air conditioning, so our bodies will naturally wanna move slower just so we don't get overheated. So there's so many reasons we're feeling this way and lack of energy and lack of motivation in summer. And we can be aware of that and still not beat ourselves up at the same time.

Because I think what happens is we feel guilty and we're getting less done. So it's two bowls of crap instead of just one. Legit, because at one sense you're like, okay, let me just accept that this is just how I'm feeling right now. But then there's this layer of like, heaviness and pressure that I'm putting on myself. Even yesterday, I went out and golf because we're having this big team fitness challenge. And it's very, yeah, I love golf, but it's a way to get in a lot of time

and we're all very competitive. But it was hot. And then I'm all like dragging my ass around. I'm like, what's wrong with me? Like, come on Gina, buck up, let's go. And it's like, it's so hot and muggy. It makes sense, my body. And I drank like, I don't even know,

like two liters of water out on the course, but here I am ragging on myself, because what's wrong with me? Meanwhile, I'm like so hot and sweaty. And then summertime also messes with our hormones as well. Right? So we don't sleep as well in the summertime because it's lighter out. So our bodies don't get that signal,

like, you know, darkness triggers melatonin. And it's, this year, I don't know why well in the summertime because it's lighter out. So our bodies don't get that signal, like, you know, darkness triggers melatonin and it's this year. I don't know why it seems to be. If it's like we're in like the, uh, like Iceland or something, it seems to get L lighter way darker a lot later than it used to time. Isn't that weird? Because like, it's like still lighter, like nine 15. And I'm like, isn't that usually in the like in the summer?

It's like what is going on? So I'm glad it's not just me. You know, who knows maybe it's definitely not just you because I definitely feel But if we think about it talk about giving ourselves grace if we're not feeling great, even if we're more anxious right now bringing back to stress like The longer days affect our sleep like it's great to have that from a mood perspective, but from a sleep perspective, which is the foundational thing, if we're not getting that shut down signal as when we're used to,

we're gonna have more issue sleeping. It's also getting lighter earlier. So our sleep in general is less. And we tend to also, summertime is the time when we have more junk, typically it's barbecues, there's more alcohol, which affects our sleep. So it is, summer hormone roller coasters are a real thing.

So that combined with the polls would just be lazy because of the way we were raised. No wonder we're kind of just in the fog right now. Bug. We are, I wanna bring it back to anxiety behind the scenes. I was sharing with Kyle, I don't know if you guys caught the segment with Yvonne Baxter on Tuesday, and she was talking about, first of all,

before the segment, she was a little nervous. And she was like, oh, I was just listening to Kyle, I was doing my breathing exercises. And she has found the information that you shared in the past so valuable in terms of managing her anxiety. So I do wanna talk about that, because we don't just have anxiety, we have depression, we have burnout.

Cynthia Loist joined us on Tuesday, was talking about burnout. We have stress. Where exactly does and is being anxious the same as anxiety? Like where does that, where does anxiety fit? So I always like comparing anxiety to stress. Like if you're anxious, I would say you're dealing with anxiety, but stress in my head, stress is very specific. There's a reason you are stressed, work, what if anxiety is more like vague, it's more future oriented, it's more you feel like your body's alarm system is going off, but you can't pinpoint why. And

it just creates this kind of nervous system up regulating like you're just kind of on edge all the time. So yeah I lost track of the exact question that led into that. I don't think there was one there probably wasn't one. I mean anxiety, depression like everything is different facets and there's different like and again preference like I've done a lot of research on this, but I'm not a psychologist, just obviously want to put that out there. But anxiety has been my oldest friend, like since I was a little kid. I like to describe anxiety, depression is, you're upset about something that happened in the past, stressed, if you're

right now going through it, and then anxiety is future focused anxiety. Anxiety is the what ifs. Anxiety is, I just call it your body's alarm system being a little dramatic. Like nothing is inherently wrong and even if something isn't great, it just magnifies it. It catastrophizes and then that creates this kind of snowball in your head, this tornado storm that storm that just keeps going. And then whatever you're thinking about, if you have this anxiety tendency, it'll get swept up in that and you'll catastrophize that. Like it's, when I'm anxious,

when I'm going through a period of heightened anxiety, I link it to like, I don't, my mind's not completely sober. Like I can't trust what I'm thinking because my mind's going to the what ifs, it's going to the spirals, it's going to the what if I fail, what if this happens. So it kind of hijacks your logical higher self-brain and pulls you down to like this catastrophizing worry state all the time. Okay.

So I want everyone to listen when you have a second, go back and re-listen to that. It's really interesting when I first had Kyle on and we talked about this conversation, I had never connected anxiety and weight loss before. But if you're thinking, if you go back and you listen to what Kyle just said and then think about your journey here, so anxiety, we call it future tripping, where people are starting to stress, like future tripping, and then that almost leads to like a self-fulfilling prophecy and then almost like self sabotage Yeah Oh my god what I'm never gonna lose this weight or like even if I did even if I do then what happens if I gain

It back and that's happened before even though they're doing it a different way There's not enough time left in the program for me to reach my goals Well, I mean, of course you like I you're trying to fit in my box Like you're gonna have to continue. But like all of this really can, it's not doing the things, it's showing up to do the thing. It's getting out of our own way sometimes. And that's where anxiety gets in our way.

Exactly, anxiety just leaves. I always say like anxiety is the killer of motivation because anxiety will lead you to overthink. It will lead you to overthink every scenario in your head. You get decision fatigue, should I do this? What if I fail, whatever. So by the time you're actually ready to take action in some form, you're just exhausted.

But your brain's like, no, I did good. I thought about it all. I'm good, I'm complete. What are you talking about? And you're like, oh, my physical body needs to get the work done. So it's this tricky thing. And I would think, you know, when we spoke, I don't know, like years back now, I guess.

But yeah, anxiety and weight loss, it's to me so interconnected because a weight loss journey when you're embarking on something new, it brings uncertainty. And uncertainty is basically food for anxiety. So of course, it's going to be like, we're, we're in it, you're feeding the monster here. And the more you just kind of aware of it going in, be like, I'm gonna, you know, my little brain, some people find it helpful to like, name your brain. I it depends on the day, but like, no, there's no name coming to me today. So

sometimes whatever the name on the day, but knowing it, knowing that I'll say Susie, Susie speaking to me today. If Susie speaking up, I just have to be like, okay, I know I'm going on this change. I've been barking on it. There's gonna be obstacles. There's gonna be all this uncertainty. And Susie, I know you love uncertainty,

but we're just gonna take it one bit at a time because even though it feels like anxiety is serving us and we're being productive, it's sabotaging us. Because we're going to be so exhausted by the time we have to do the things that we don't. We're more likely to revert back to comfort and not doing it because, yeah. Yeah, I love the name your brain.

We do have a clinical psychologist that joins us, Dr. Beverly David, and she's absolutely lovely. And she says, people have, you throw these big words, I'm struggling or whatever, but like you have to name it to tame it, lovely and she says people have you throw these big words I'm struggling or whatever but like you have to name it to tame it is what she says. I mean I love that actually the the name your brain part I love that. And the more vocabulary I've learned the more vocabulary you have to name whatever emotion

or thing you're going through is the better as opposed you know instead of like I'm overwhelmed but like no like what is that pulling it? But that's again, I'm sure Dr. Brevley can talk on that, but interesting. I want to take a hot second just for all the new people who are just meeting you today. Kyle has his own history with his weight journey. So he knows of what he speaks.

So he's not just the super handsome, you know, slim trim buff guy that's showing up and trying to tell us how it is. He's been through his own weight loss journey. So he knows exactly what he's talking about. Yeah. And speaking of like, you are imprinted who you are until you're like, like 10, 15, 20.

Like for me, it's like, I will all, you carry that. Like that's the person with you and you grow. So yeah, the pain that I felt that I was, it's still very real. The bullying, yeah, I was like, I was 200. Short version is I was really unhappy. I was 200 pounds in grade eight and went up a little bit and got bullied a lot because of it.

And then worked to like exercise, started eating differently, lost the weight, went a little bit too much in the other direction. But then in coming back to adulthood, again, not liking myself for another aspect, I put weight back on again with unhealthy coping mechanisms. So I know the roller coaster and it sucks. Something you just said there, Kyle, like you carry that,

right, we think of our past and our weight and whatever, but we're not like, we're almost like, we can let go of the physical weight. And I know this sounds so cliche, but you carry that mental weight where you, where you literally carry that. It's so defining of who you've been for such a long time. Yeah.

It's that little, I love visualizations. If you ever hear my, like, it's how I like, my brain works. Like I like picturing things, it helps me cope. So if you ever listen to like, it's how my like my brain works. Like I like picturing things. It helps me cope. So if you ever listen to the like the podcast, feel good or I talk more about like visualizations, but I love the concept of the inner kid. And especially as it relates to anxiety,

like our inner kid or inner, you know, five-year-old or 10-year-old, however you want. Like your most, sometimes I like to think of it as like wherever you were in your most fragile self as a kid, the most hurt one. that's what I like to hold on to because normally, probably, if I'm going through things right now and I'm scared about what if that really fragile one is the one speaking a little louder and sometimes what can help is just showing compassion to that little one because I find when I do that, I'm operating from my highest self.

Like you're operating, like even though you're scared right now because of X, Y, and Z, something's not changing, a work stress, when you shift it to speaking to the little hurt one inside of you, it up levels your current self a little bit because you can just hold onto that one and be the higher self for that.

And it kind of works, it's like a magical, I don't know, like a Disney movie moment in your day, just holding on to that little, little one that's, you know, just scared. So at the end of the day, we're just big kids that are scared a lot. We are because we revert we literally revert back if you get in a fight with someone right, like I you know, I used to fight with my ex husband, I swear, he turned into like a five year

old, because like he never really learned how to communicate and have like conflict and whatnot. And so he literally would act like a child. But that is part of reverting back in that moment that you act like that. I call it rising above. It's not better than, it's being able to see the situation from a different perspective,

or how would you speak to yourself at that age or how would you speak to someone else if they were going through what you are currently experiencing. That takes practice. That takes wherewithal. How'd you get to that point? Well, like you said about the rising above, if you run anxious and you're going through something, you are caught into your emotions really quick.

Like you will latch on and have a takeover. So the key and what's worked for me and a lot of neurotic people, because if you are highly anxious, you're probably highly neurotic, is proactively daily doing things that create space for yourself. And that can be meditation, It can be breathing exercises. It can be something that separates your mind from the moment like right in front of you because whenever you're faced

with something like a stressor or someone's fighting with you or you see a number that you don't like, there's that moment. There's that like that split second. And if you've laid the foundation to calm your body on a daily basis, long term, but also short term through like breathing exercises, there's greater distance in that microsecond, like if you slow time down, where you can see things a little bit more clearly, and you can choose where

you how you proceed in that moment. And I know it's it's when you're in it, you don't want to hear it and when you're stressed out, but it's not necessarily the stressor It's how your body responds to the stressor that determines how it's going to affect your physiology So the more you can do to create space The better I mean if you run anxious if you have an anxious brain, I I say like the brain just feels full It just feels so overwhelmed and literally claustrophobic in there that any new stimulus, any new input is just you won't know how to handle it.

But through things like breath work, meditation, supporting your microbiome, like the whole bunch of things like doing things to calm your body down on a daily basis, it clears it out a little bit. And when you have more space up there, you can see things a little bit more clearly and with greater perspective. Because you know, when you're in it, when you're going through something anxious, you probably know like,

I should not be this stressed out about this right now because I know in a week, this won't matter as much. I know in five years it won't matter as much. And we hear that, and it's so frustrating when you're in it because I know that, but my body's heavily reactive right now and I need to honor that. But maybe if you're doing steps on a daily basis before that moment comes, you actually will have greater perspective so you won't get as intensely emotionally involved with whatever stress you're dealing with the moment because like action begets action but like stress. It begets more stress is begets the right word I so. I've been saying action begets action for a while

and I should check that. But you get it? Yeah, I get it. I get it. What you said there about your brain being claustrophobic. It's interesting because I was thinking, oh my God, I'm doing too much. But then I think I'm actually not doing too much.

I'm just really anxious about everything that I'm doing. It's almost like my brain is so full that it's seeping out. And then poor Tony who's sitting here, I have moments where I'm like, what's he saying? But I'm saying to him, can you just listen to me for a second? And it's almost like I have to get it out and clear it out to make space in my brain.

There is probably a better way. Well, it sounds like talk therapy there. So that's not the worst thing. I mean, Tony's a lovely person to take that. And I feel like my partner marks the same way. Cause sometimes when you're like, getting it out always helps, which is like journaling works really well for people

or just talk therapy works really well. Like sometimes you need, your brain is so full with those words. And what you said about like everything is, could be okay, but I'm choosing to make it more important. And then I'm feeling overwhelmed. It's almost as if like we have type, typed words in our brain and we're deciding to bold them all.

So there's just not as much space. We're making things important where we shouldn't be making things important. But yes, you getting it out, like if, and this is another thing, like I'm not, if you are stressed, I'm not talking about like deny it. I'm not talking about like, don't like just rise above and don't feel it. Um, but, uh, if you are, if you are stressed, you need an outlet. Like that's why exercise like burn off whatever emotional hormones and stress

hormones are coming up. You need to burn it off and sometimes talks helps. But I feel you on the screaming because sometimes especially if we're going through a more stressful time, we just, we need an outlet. And sometimes that's our partner. Tony's like, yes, Gina, keep going, find another outlet. It's all about recognizing it and awareness, which is why, okay. So what we're trying to do here when people are looking to lose weight is not just change what they're eating, whatever.

It's the skills and the tools that they're acquiring while they're working through whatever they need to work through and do whatever they need to do so that they're able to maintain and sustain their weight because they're literally changing. They're changing their way their body functions physically, their brain.

And so obviously we spend a lot of time doing it one way and so it's a lot of practice to do it another way. When it comes to anxiety, is it coping skills or is it these behavioral changes that are changing who we are, so we're dealing with it better? Do you know what I'm saying?

I would say it's both. I would say it's both knowing what, I always say, as you're going through this change right now and your body's changing, we're creatures of comfort and habit, so even if we were certain way and unhappy with ourselves, for whatever reason, that's still our body sees as like, oh, this is comfort, so it's okay. And

you make these changes, you lose weight, that's still a change. And there's going to be that pull to revert, there's going to be that pull because you're the thermostats off, you have an upregulate, there's that in between when you haven't gotten used to this new comfort. So that is the in between. So both coping, like finding, I always like saying find in your anxiety toolbox because everyone resonates differently with everyone. During this time, collect things in your anxiety toolbox that you can use.

Coping I think of short term stuff, but at the same time, longer term stuff that can help like lay that foundation of calmness. So when those thoughts come up as you're changing, uh, you're operating from a more grounded standpoint. Hoping in the moment, creating a toolbox. And then that sort of like how you like just function. Yeah. Like do like coping in the moment, IE like find short term solutions that work for you if anxiety is popping up and then behavioral change is like the foundational stuff.

And that's a lot of what like the how you eat, how you feed yourself is a huge part of that. So this program covers a lot of that. So I would say if change is popping up and you need more short-term relief, really get to work at doing those short-term coping things on a daily basis, and then that coping will actually just become your baseline. Yeah, got it.

Okay, what can we do? What, how does, I know we've talked a lot about anxiety, but how do we know it's popping up? Because I, you know, I wouldn't call myself an anxious person, but then you talk about my brain feeling claustrophobic. And I was like, Oh, wait, am I? What?

I mean, I think I'm an anxious person. And I don't think I am because I get things done and I work through and I whatever, but I think I have a lot of anxiety. I actually take a minute to think about it. So what are the ways that it can come up so we can maybe see it in ourselves? Let's start with that. And then what can we do to help in the moment

and then just sort of some long-term things? Okay, so short, like it can show up differently for everyone. Like there's the obvious thing where you feel your heart racing, you feel your hands are clammy, you feel like you have a tight chest or you just feel like,

almost like if you've ever had like restless legs, it could be something else. But like that feeling like you just want to get out of your body. Mentally, it could look like overthinking. It could look like thinking about the same thing and ruminating over and over again, it could look like avoidance because you're actually scared about starting something. So it can look like irrationality, it can look like it can, again, like it can look like irrationality, it can look like it can, again, like it can look like procrastination, like you're not starting and you think you're just like being lazy, but no, it's actually like anxiety trying to keep you safe from doing the thing that will create that change. So it can be

subtle. And if regardless, if you do or do not experience it, the tools that can help anxiety and your stress response are beneficial to everyone because when you work to calm down the body everything operates better and we live in a world like I think a lot of people more we're talking more about it which is great but we're living in a more anxious time than ever before and our brains have more stimulus than ever before. We're filtering out social media emails we. We're seeing a thousand different faces on, I was speaking to someone about this and they're like,

we've never lived in a time where we can see a thousand different people in the span of 10 minutes and we don't know what that is doing to our brain. So there's a lot that our brains have to sift through and it's creating stress in the body. So anything you can do to calm your system, anxiety or not, I think is beneficial. In terms of like the short-term solutions,

if you're going through anxiety, I always like just the acronym SSCC. Doesn't sound great, doesn't look like it's not a clap to it, but SSCC. So if you're going through it and you're overthinking, you first S, stop. Stop yourself and slow down, because sometimes when you're going through it, you just wanna keep going, so stop.

Second is slow down, because if you're anxious, you're probably revving yourself up. And if you're anxious, you're probably breathing a little bit quicker than normal. You're probably breathing more shallowly than normal. And for me, sometimes when I'm anxious, I even talk a little faster. So find an element to slow yourself down.

So you stop, you slow down. Breathing exercises can be in there and we can go back to that. The next one would be connect. So that's where you physically get back your control. That can be touching yourself, it can be smelling something, using your senses. And then the final C is compassion.

And that goes back to that inner child work that when we talked about, like show yourself the same compassion you would show your best friend or a little animal going through pain right now. Like whatever you need to pull yourself out of being hard in yourself can be the biggest thing. So stop, slow down, connect somehow and compassion.

And then that would be the free things you can do, and then breath work. Yeah, and then step down. You can find herbs or remedies that you find really work for you to actually physically calm your body down. This can be as simple as, literally, if you're going through the day,

go buy sleepy time tea, the one that doesn't have valerian, even just chamomile on its own. So those nerve vines, those things that relax the nervous system can work really well in those moments. You can do, there's something called, if you don't, there's something called a rescue remedy, which is a Bach, like it's five different flowers. You can get it at your local health food store. You can put that under your tongue. It's a liquid. There's homeopathic. So finding a collection of short-term things,

L-theanine as a supplement or green tea as well is a great option. Because it helps. L-theanine right here, I just pop in them all day long. Yeah, I love L-theanine, especially as it relates. I will add L-theanine to my coffee because in the morning, because it can help counteract some of the negative effects of caffeine.

So if you're an anxious person but you love coffee and you're a hypocrite because you'll keep drinking it like me, I would add L-theanine. So yeah, find short-term solutions in that realm. Breathing techniques slow down in the moment. And then the deeper foundational stuff is things like a daily meditation practice or journaling practice. Even a daily gratitude practice can kind of rewire your brain a little bit in the morning.

And it's, it's, we hear these things a lot. And the more we hear something, the less we are to do it because it just becomes like noise in our head. So I recognize when I say gratitude, you've probably heard it a thousand million times, but damn it every time like I'm I'm going through. So it's if you know you're stressed out, if you know you're going through a stressful time, if you're embarking upon change, this is where you know you're going to be faced with higher stress, higher anxiety, get ahead of it as much as you can earlier on in the day, because the calmer you are earlier on in the day, the

less reactive you are going to be going forward, it'll be a smoother day. So like I've been going through a more stressful time, and I've been in walking my dog every morning. I'm the I'm the crazy guy that talks to himself because I don't care anymore. But yeah, I will like, for the, I will make it my thing where for the entirety of the walk, I will just think of like I am so happy and grateful that I have clean water

to drink, I am so happy and grateful that I'm walking my dog this morning, I'm so happy and grateful that I have working legs. Like it's a muscle you get better at, but I don't let myself off the hook until I come back inside and literally, because I don't let myself off the hook until I come back inside. And literally, because I didn't do that for a little bit. And my, like, I didn't change anything else, but I've just had better days. And it's one of those things where even though it's so annoying to hear, like, oh, gratitude, groundbreaking, it really does help support the brain. So that's, I would, yeah, L-thinning in the morning, like doing whatever you're doing to calm yourself when that stressor comes, move it to the beginning of the day

and see if that stressor doesn't hit you as hard later on in the day. I believe in that because I do this thing where I, before I get out of bed, especially if I know I'm feeling really anxious, which clearly I'm an anxious person, I'm just realizing. I do this thing where I harmonize my day, where I like lie there and I think about just going through the motions, not in

great detail, but especially if I have a couple of big meetings or a podcast or something is, you know, some there's a big thing going on or something that makes me anxious, like I have to go somewhere and be social or whatever, as much as I love that. And I visualize it going smoothly. And then I attribute a word or words to my day, like this is going to be a calm day, a productive day or whatever day is not like a to do list. And the days that I do that, I feel like I start my day and it's just I go through my day and I'm like, yeah, I had a productive day, a calm day, a fun day or whatever. And days

where I don't it's fucking chaotic. It's just like I get out of bed and I rush. Yeah. I'm sure my team Jodi and Jess behind the scenes can tell there's some days where I'm like good morning and I'm calm and there are other days I'm like okay. Yeah and they're like we know how it started. We know how yeah okay, okay. And it's so funny because like that, and they like setting an intention for the day, doing what you do, like doing that, it does work. But if you become, if the older we get is just so easy to become jaded and it's so easy to like write things off.

But the more you do it and you, it actually works. And that first part of the, if you're going through anxiety like that, the first 10, 15 minutes after you wake up are like you program your brain on how it's gonna react in that day. Like if you are one to go on your phone right away, and my partner doesn't deal with anxiety

so he can do this and I can't stand him, but like if you wake up in those first two minutes, if you turn on your phone and go through social media You are priming your brain with chaos and I know that's just dramatic, but I'm anxious person So yeah, I'm dramatic but like it really is because when you wake up your brains in this in-between state brainwave wise It's in theta mode, which is the same mode you that is hypnosis So when you wake up and you're kind of groggy and you open your phone to emails or you check something, you're increasing your stress response

first thing in the day. But if you just delay even by like 10 minutes and do an intention or just get up and pee and drink water without looking at your phone, that can even just be setting calm for the day ahead. And if you do an intention like you do, that's even better. But it is these little subtle things that do make a difference to how you react in the day and how you react in the day influences your biology and how you respond to whatever

goal you're trying to do. So it is this big domino effect. And even though it's so easy to roll our eyes at this stuff, especially if we're already going through it, it really is important. Well, it's what you're bringing into your mind, what you're bringing into sight. Well, you said there that when you get out of bed that time, I'm thinking like there are times where we try to meditate and we try to find that calm, that space, or you go to yoga and you're trying to find that calm, that space. You literally have that gifted to you every morning.

Yeah. Where you have that calm and that space. And rather than doing something with it, we are either thinking about all the million things we got to do and putting pressure on ourselves. I didn't do this, didn't that, or we're grabbing our phones rather than using that time that's gifted to us to set the tone for our day. And it's like soil, like that time, like yoga is great. And meditation throughout the day is great. But that 10 minutes, as soon as you wake up, that's precious, that's like gold.

And even if you are stressed out and be like, no, I have to think of all of this thing, even then make it five minutes, but show like choose compassion in that moment and think of that five, 10 minutes as your brain's medicine. Like that's what you input during those 10 minutes is gonna set the tone for the day ahead. And it makes such, it really does make such a difference.

And we're just working with, we're just working with our brains and how they adapt to the day. So it's, yeah. I want to, before we go, talk about breathing for a hot second, because you know, even that is stressful now you got to do the box breathing the this breathing that that breathing all of it like what

what i know it's like i don't want a prescription i do this for free every day right um yeah so there are breathing exercises that are great like Like the four, seven, eight breath, the box breathing, everything. But at its very minimal, if you run anxious, or I think in general, just make your exhales longer than your inhales. That's it. Make your, whatever, like if you need to breathe out

through a little like thing in your mouth, if you need to do it, whenever you make your exhales longer than your inhales, you will feel better afterwards. But you also signal to your body that things are good. I'm safe. You can calm down. You help to down regulate that stressed out response. So if you don't like the number thing, just make your exhales longer than your inhales.

Like even as you're walking, just choose, you don't have to stop and change your day and take another break, because we're just stressed out and we don't want to have time. Integrate it to whatever you're doing. If you're walking to the bathroom, just a longer exhale. Try to make your exhale as long as it takes to get to the bathroom.

Or you're going to the car, or as long as it doesn't smell like gas, like when I'm pumping gas, I'll do a breathing. Microdose it so it just becomes kind of like unless I'm in the mood for fun that day, I won't inhale the gas. It does smell like gas. I think there was like some study where women actually like the smell of gas. I want to just talk about this breathing because we had a pelvic health specialist join us yesterday and people don't factor into their pelvic health and she says all of our shallow breathing and not actually getting into our diaphragm is affecting our pelvic health. So just another reason to do our deep breathing

exercises. Yeah, like into the belly, we are very shallow breathers. And if you're going through a stressful time and like you're freaking out, chances are if you if you monitor, you're probably either holding your breath or breathing very shallowly. And the minute you just exhale a little bit longer, it just gives you, it gives your brain a little bit perspective. So yeah, like at the very least, just exhales longer than your inhales. And then if you're,

if you wanna add one more thing to that and you're scattered, cause sometimes we're just anxious because we're so stimulated with everything we're looking at. As I just do an exhale, a long exhale, I'll just look at my finger, look at one single thing and center my focus on that.

And that can help kind of just calm the body down. Similarly, if you don't wanna do that, I think we've talked about this before, you can just palm your eyes or you just rub your hands together and you just cover your eyes and apply slight pressure. And then you breathe in and even when you do it for a second you'll feel your body kind of downshift

a little bit. Yeah it's almost like it's instantly like yeah it's called palming it's really really effective especially if you've been at your screen all day or you're just overstimulated it can really do so you combine you don't you will naturally slow your breath when you do that anyway so you combine, you don't, you will naturally slow your breath when you do that anyway. So you, if, if you don't want to think about doing an exhale, palm instead. Like whatever is the minimum that will get you to do something to slow down the breath, that's your thing. Like you don't have to do the four, seven, eight. You don't have to do all those ones. Chances are once you feel a little bit calmer, you might be more inclined to try those out because you're like, oh, maybe they are good. And it's, again, back to what we were talking about in the beginning, just the little actions in the summer, like the little things. All I'm gonna do is exhale

and then you'll feel a little bit better. You might wanna do another thing that might make you even feel better, but if you didn't make it small in the beginning, you would have never have started. So we have to meet ourselves where we're at. Yeah, it's awareness. It's tools in your toolbox. It's practicing a lot of the things that we do here when it comes to weight loss, right? Like actually making change. And you've done things for so your brain is so wired one way that it's going to take techniques to practice,

to bring awareness, to put tools in your toolbox so you can get on the other side of it and do it a different way. Oh my gosh, so much good stuff. So much good stuff. It takes time. That's the other thing. We're so hard on ourselves. And that's the thing. We've had 40 years, 50 years to a certain point, and we started this new goal, and we're so immediately frustrated with ourselves that we're not there in a even a week or six months. We're so frustrated. We're like we're failing and it's like no, you are wired and hardwired because it's like when we're younger.

So like the more we just treat ourselves as this little machine that's going through a cycle instead of immediately beating ourselves up, the happier we'll be. We're just yeah. Anyway, I sometimes word vomit all over you and I'm so sorry. No, I was actually going to ask you what your final takeaway was, but that was pretty good. Give yourself grace. I know it's hard.

I know it's hard, but because even though we're anxious and stressed, our brains think we're doing something. We're doing something by worrying. We're being productive because at least we're doing something. We're doing something by worrying, we're being productive because at least we're thinking about it. It doesn't do any good. It doesn't help us achieve our goals faster. So the more we can show ourselves grace,

not because we're glitting ourselves on the hook, but because it's actually a tool that will help us achieve our goals, the better we'll be. And it is hard. Now you have your podcast, Feel Goodery, and then you are now the host of the new The Exhale on Series X. And what's the difference between both? Why are we going to listen to both?

So Feel Goodery is more solo. It's more me to just hang out with you and talking about different health related stuff, more nutrition, a lot of nutrition stuff in there, a lot of visuals as well. Sometimes I'm experimenting with formats and doing more like guided things. The Exhale, which is on Series XM, has elements of that, but we talk to a lot of different experts as it relates to mental health. It really is about kind of venting about the crappery of adulthood sometimes. So I typically will have a guest on the beginning just kind of shooting the stuff, what's going on, what do they find helpful, and then I'll have an expert come

on and talk about a given subject. And it airs on Sundays at 4pm, kind of like when the Sunday scaries hit hardest. So it's a place to connect events a little bit and then just gain one or two little nuggets that we can take into the week ahead. But once it airs, it's available on the SiriusXM app or SiriusXM website if you have a subscription. Cool. And if you want to find Kyle,

you can head over to his Instagram account. It's Kyle B. That's I-T-S-K-Y-L-E-B. He gives some great tips over there. I love just your daily musings, honestly. I just adore you. Thanks, Sheena. It's a fun place to hang out and just like-wise, I so appreciate you. Well, and you equally have a great community, right? I think it attracts at the end of the day. So I know that our members, our community would love spending time over on your space. You can also find Kyle on his website, Kyle Buchanan.ca.

I don't want this to end, but I know well, you're family now and I'm going to make you come back whether you realize it or not. So you'll be back with us in the fall. Okay. Thank you. Have a wonderful summer, everyone. Thanks for just being such a great community. It really means the world in a time when, you know, a lot of us are just feeling lonely. So thanks for having me. True that. True that. Thanks, everyone, for joining us live and listening after the fact.

Have a great day. Thanks, Kyle.