(00:00): You're listening to the live happier, longer podcast.

(00:13): Welcome to the live happier, longer podcast. This podcast is equal parts, information, inspiration, education and motivation, all dedicated to increase longevity and improving overall quality of life. I'm your host, Molly Watson, and I'm here to help you build the habits of a happier laundry life. Let's get started.

(00:36): Well, hello. Welcome back to the live happier longer podcast. I am coming to you from a rather gray and cold Oregon this morning. This episode was supposed to be me returning from my spring break. I was supposed to have made a couple of trips and you know, of course, along with the rest of the world, those plans had to be canceled and life as we knew it changed completely from just three short weeks ago when I was headed on the break. It's still hard to wrap our heads around, isn't it? And this first episode after break was supposed to drop on April 1st, which I also decided I didn't want to be my first episode back on April fool's day. In light of what has been going on in the world. Just didn't feel appropriate. So it seemed out of context and definitely not like I was taking advantage of one of the great strengths of podcasting and that's being able to produce an episode quickly and to discuss timely events.

(01:38): So I know there's a lot of news statistics and information being consumed about covert 19, the Corona virus right now, and I'm definitely not here to talk about that. I will put one small plugin in that is to make sure that the source you are choosing to listen to most or trust is one that is unbiased based in science and medical facts, not the government, not social media, not broadcast. Please listen to the doctors. Listen to infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists and scientists. These are the people that are truly impartial. And if you are looking for information, make sure it's information based on that science. Okay, I'm done. That's my PSA for, for that. So today I want to talk to you about a daily habit number five, which is let go. It seems a pretty important right now and specifically on a tool that I would call thinking on purpose.

(02:40): I'm betting that a few of us, and yes I'm saying us because I know I'm right there with you have been having some really anxious thoughts over the last couple of weeks. Those thoughts have been creating increased feelings of anxiety and stress. And I know that many of you are having so many of those thoughts that it like they kind of are overwhelming you. And I really understand. I truly do. On a good day, our brains throw out thoughts at the rate of 60 to 80,000 thoughts per day. That's the herd that can number correctly experts, you know, say 60 to 80,000 thoughts per day, maybe on the low end 50,000. But really no matter where you land, it's at least more than 2000 thoughts per hour. And that's just a lot of thinking in normal daily life. You might not always be aware of this endless thinking. Most of it is an automatic process, a mental habit.

(03:38): It's only when you need to focus on something particular that you become kind of aware of. Thoughts that are keeping you distracted or not allowing you to, you know, they're taking your attention away from something that you might be wanting to accomplish. This stream of thoughts that goes on when you are getting dressed. When you eat, when you walk, when you work, when you drive, when you talk, when you shower, when you have a bath, it goes on all the time in the background when you're alone and when you're in company, it goes on until you fall asleep. And it's really just constant mental noise going on and on. And when a stressful situation arises, it's natural that within that very naturally high flow of thinking there's going to be a lot of anxious and worrisome thoughts. It's also why managing your mind and thinking on purpose is so vitally important.

(04:31): So what does it mean to think on purpose? It means that when our brain starts wanting to send us all the negative, worrisome, anxious, stress causing thoughts, we take control and we direct our brains to focus on other things. We literally choose a thought on purpose and think that thought instead. Is it that simple? Well, yes and no. I'm not telling you just because you know what to do, that it's going to be easy. But it is as simple as choosing different thoughts. And this is really at the heart of letting go, letting go of stress, anxiety, worry, anger, fear, all of those negative emotions. You can't get away from them by avoiding them or buffering your way out of them. And it isn't about controlling or changing the circumstances of your life too. That's going to allow you to avoid things. We try don't we to control things like that too.

(05:38): You know, that we believe that the circumstances are called causing our stress. So we try to control it and we know if we can just stop what's going on, then we'll feel better. And you know what happens a lot of times, right? Other circumstances just pop up that causes stress. It's kinda like, I envision it like a Whac-A-Mole. You think you've just got to keep hitting them down and you'll be stress-free, you know? But just much like the game, it doesn't really work. It just, you know, you get more exhausted. The more you keep swinging away at try and controlling the things that are causing you stress. What you think the circumstances that you think are causing you stress. What you can do when your brain is spending too much of its time thinking, anxious thoughts is control what your brain is doing. Manage your mind.

(06:29): So step one, do a thought download. Write down all of the thoughts that you have. Don't be just satisfied with feeling anxious and immediately writing it off as that's just the way of the world right now. Don't equate the circumstances of what's going on with the feelings you're having as though you're having, you know as though it's some unconscious thing that is not negotiable. Yes, there's a lot of credit happening in the world, but guess what? There's a lot of crowd happening in the world every day and there's also a lot of wonderful things happening. Truly amazing things are happening right now in the midst of this crisis as they always do. And the first step you need to take is to separate all the thoughts you were having about the circumstances in your life and in the world. And the very best way that you can do that is to write them down.

(07:26): So write down all the thoughts, pause your brain and look for the thoughts that are causing you or feelings of anxiety. Then write it down, look at it all and decide are these thoughts mean? Are any of them serving you to feel better? Do any of them help you solve a problem? Do they move you forward to whatever result you want in your day and just be an observer of them now that you've seen them, we're not going to beat ourselves up for having these thoughts. Okay, that's no good either. You are human, your brain is so powerful, 50,000 than thought today. And it's completely normal that it's finding negative thoughts during a time of crisis. It's completely normal. Don't add to your suffering with thoughts like I know better, I shouldn't think like that or it doesn't help. So again, those kinds of thoughts are choices and all they do is create feelings of self criticism.

(08:26): Be compassionate with yourself, compassionate and curious. Look at the thoughts you've written down as though they are data. You've got them out, you're a scientific observer and you can tell your brain, thank you, I appreciate that input. Now I'm going to give you some new input, some new direction, and you're going to manage the process with your thoughts on purpose. So that was step one, writing down all your thoughts in self coaching, they call it a thought download. Step two is we're going to practice believing a new thought. What belief do you want to believe? A new belief. A belief is simply a thought that you keep on practicing and you know, doing it over and over again until it, until it sticks. One of the new beliefs I'm working on right now is I'm a leader who leads by example and helps people through my journey.

(09:30): And here are some thoughts that are helping me to get to believe that new belief that I'm a leader who leads by example and helps people through my journey. These are some of the thoughts that I'm working on. Progress not perfection is what is important. I am in control of my thoughts and actions. I create habits that serve me and overcome habits that don't. I am healthy, I am healthy and take care of my body. Food is fuel. I help other people more by helping myself. I am. I am an example of doing the work. I walk my talk. Some of these thoughts are easy for me to believe right now. Others are examples of thoughts I want to get to and I just keep practicing them. Thoughts are literally sentences in your brain, but they have tremendous power to create the feelings that we use to help us take the actions we need to get the results we want in our lives.

(10:34): We absolutely can think on purpose and ultimately it's about wanting to feel better to show up during times of stress and crisis as your best self. And trust me, your best self knows that feeling anxious and stressed does not serve you. We cannot change facts. Covert 19 has happened, is happening and will be happening. Does the future you two months from now want to look back on this time with pride about how you showed up. That happens by thinking thoughts on purpose that help you get there. So this was just a short, quick, special episode to let you know that I am thinking about you all that I am trying to think on purpose and I hope that you will too. I will be putting some links in my show notes. First, I am offering a free PDF of the ultimate 30 day habit building system workbook.

(11:35): This is really a great time to build new habits, but most importantly right now this PDF gives you 30 days of thought downloads and prompts to help you practice new thoughts on purpose. So regardless of whether you're using it to build a new habit, it's a great practice just to get into the habit of doing thought download and thinking new thoughts. This PDF actually accompanied the 30 day ultimate habit building system course that we offered back in October, but you can definitely use this tool on your own. Just go back and listen to episodes 55 and 56 and the book is pretty self explanatory. I'm also going to be linking to some of the podcasts that I listened to that helped me let go of anxiety and stress that helped me practice thinking on purpose. I'm going to link to an app that I found that I shared on my social media that has a free a tool right now that's again help helpful in managing your mind and letting go of stress and anxiety. And lastly, I'm going to link a couple of videos that I just love that demonstrate some of the amazing ways that humans are creating things in the world right now. So I am happy to be back and happy to have shared a little bit of time and thought with you all. Take care of my friends and look for the next episode.

(13:00): Yes, on April fool's day, just like normal. Thanks for listening to the live happier, longer podcast. If this podcast is helping you and you'd like to go a little deeper, maybe track your progress on your habit building, you should check out our five for life planner. The planner is 13 weeks undated, and you can start literally at any time to create the habits of a happier, longer life. It'll keep you motivated and it will keep you accountable and Hey, it's affordable. So go to shop.buy for life.co that's shop.buy for life.co and enter promo code podcast for a special discount.