Improve Your Mental Well-Being Right Now

Hi, folks. How are you today? Nick the poet here. Just gonna give it a second for some more folks to trickle in. I hope you had an amazing Labor Day weekend, and I hope your work week is off to a good start. And so, yeah, we definitely have a new season upon us. It's September. We're moving towards fall. And so I just today wanted to give you some thoughts and ideas and some actions that you can take centered around well being. Like my friend James Ronan, who hosts the catch it on Cadre podcast, says, catch some of these ideas and just, you know, let yourself see what sticks.

Don't feel like you need to do all of them. Don't feel like you need to agree with all of them. Just pick what works for you. And I would love to hear from you. If you could email me Nhansonadre IO and let me know which of these really rings true to you. And so I really believe that well being and health and goodness is flowing towards all of us all the time. And we just have to allow it to happen. This can be very difficult. I forget it all the time. But these are some activities that really help me.

And so, number one is to breathe. Just breathe. Take some deep breaths. Take ten deep breaths. There's some really simple breathing practices that can help you in the morning. They can help you if you're dealing with any kind of anxiety. They can just really help. There's a great book called breath by James Nestor, just talking about how we've forgotten kind of in modern times how to breathe. And it's just something that we forget about but that we can really tap into. And so whether you're going to start a serious breath work practice or just focus in on it a little bit, I think it can really change your life.

In fact, self help guru Eckert Tully says, focusing on your breath, just that one thing can change your life more than anything else. So number two is help somebody else. You know, go ahead and get outside of yourself. It can be a tiny thing. You know, this morning I was walking around the neighborhood and I saw some trash. And at first I was like, I don't want to touch it. It was a McDonald's bag. You know, what if it's got germs, whatever. I'm kind of a germaphobe. I picked it up and I threw it in the trash, and I felt better.

It could be something as small as that, or it could be helping a colleague with a big work project. There's so many different ways that we can help others. And I know, it's something that always helps me. Number three is to write a gratitude list. And this is a simple practice. You can do it any time of the day. Just write down five things that you're grateful for and keep building that list. Number four, go for a walk. You know, this is something that always helps me. It's something that, you know, people have been talking about for years, the power of walking, getting out of nature.

I'm out in nature right now, and just these brief moments of time can help us so, so much. Number five is connected to that is exercise. You know, whether it's running or weightlifting, yoga, biking, you know, let's get outside and move. Katie says she needs a walk. You know, it's one of those things, we get that walk in and we just feel better. We get the blood flowing, you know, move a muscle. Change of thought is another great thing that I've heard. And so, yes, definitely, let's get out there for a walk.

And number six is to journal, you know, write about your experiences. It doesn't have to be, you know, an hour long thing. It could just be five minutes, you know, at the beginning or the end of the day, where you're processing, you know, what you're going through. The written word on the page can be super beneficial. Number seven is guide your thoughts. And so this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. It can be really hard to control our thoughts. I don't even know that it's possible.

I think the things that I'm talking about are really helpful with it, but I think that it is possible to guide our thoughts when we have that negative thinking come up. It might be impossible to stop it, but we can put it in a better direction. We can do things to change it, you know, whether it's getting outside of ourselves or just trying to think a little bit more positively. And once again, this. We don't want to deny these negative feelings when they come up. We want to feel them and process them in a healthy way.

But, you know, we don't want that incessant worry and mind shatter to take. To take us over, because I know it takes me over all the time, and I've heard it said that once you give a negative thought 17 seconds to kind of take over, then it. Then it takes over. So something that could help me is what Tony Robbins would call a pattern interrupt. So when that fear comes up, do something else. You know, he might say, run around the block or be like, you know, do it. Tony Robbins has some pretty funny pattern interrupts.

You can check that out on YouTube if you're interested, but just change that way of thinking, alter it in some way. And number eight is ask people the question, do you know anybody who could help me? And I have some videos on the art of asking. I'm afraid to ask questions. You probably are too. But if we can ask this question, hey, do you know anybody who can help me if you're starting a business? Hey, do you know anyone who designs websites if you're, you know, spouse, significant other, child, whoever is struggling?

Hey, do you know anybody who can help me with this? And it can be a super, super powerful question, I think, here at Cadre is that's really what we're interested in doing. We're interested in helping you. We've all been helped tremendously, and I'm going to continue asking for help, and we want to help you, so really, don't be afraid to ask that question. Do you know anybody who can help me? Number nine, where your attention goes, your energy flows, and this is kind of tied to the guiding of thoughts.

And so the more that we put our attention on what we want, I believe then we get more of that. Once again, it can be difficult to do, but some of these things I'm talking about, I think could help us with that. Where our attention goes, our energy flows. And also connected to this is number ten, reach for a better thought. So whatever thought you're having, you know, see if you can reach for one that's better than that. See if, you know, if your thought is at work. I hate this task. What's a better thought than that?

This task is paying me money. I'm invested in myself, and I'm gonna do it as well as I can. That's a better thought than, I hate this task. And there's probably even better thoughts that you can build on with that. Connected to that as well, is these are all connected a bit, I think, is to have fun. Number eleven. So whatever you're doing, see if you can imbue it with a sense of fun and, you know, try to bring it to tasks, even that you don't like. Loading the dishwasher, emptying the dishwasher.

You know, at work, I have these spreadsheets that I do once a month. That's always the most kind of difficult thing for me. And I actually recently was able to train an assistant to do that, so I'm not doing that anymore, but I'm sure I'll have some other spreadsheet type tasks come up so whatever it is, see if you can bring some fun to it and connect it to this, too, is to follow your bliss. You know? See, we all have responsibilities. We have things that we need to take care of. But see if you can follow your bliss within that.

Maybe it is doing those spreadsheets. You know, maybe it is paying those bills. I'm kind of on a Tony Robbins kick today, so I'll share. This story that I heard him share was when he had to make a whole bunch of phone calls, like 50 or something in an afternoon that he didn't want to make. He went to the hot tub, his hot tub, and called from there, you know, so maybe it's whatever that is for you. See if you can follow your bliss within the constraints that you have, you know, in your life and the responsibilities that you need to take care of.

And something that's going to help you take care of things is number 13, which is to wake up earlier. I think just waking up, you know, even 20 to 30 minutes earlier, could really be beneficial. I know I used to be a night owl, and as I've become a little more early to bed, early to rise, I found it to be, you know, beneficial. I've also read that if you're struggling with depression, waking up slightly earlier can, can help to activate the nervous system. So just something to think about, number 14, and bear with me, there's only two to go.

Number 14 is text three people you haven't heard from in a while and just ask them how they're doing, you know? And I think we're discovering through COVID, through the mental health stuff, through everything that's going on in the world, that we are all so very connected. And so the more that you can reach out to your loved ones and let them know you're thinking of them, I think it's a really big deal. And finally, number 15, think of yourself as generous. This has been an important one for me lately.

I've had a little bit of financial insecurity going on, and so when I get in those modes, I don't want to start thinking of a scarcity mindset. I want to keep being as generous as I can with my time and my talents and trust, you know, that the right opportunities are going to come up, and they have, and I got to keep trusting that. And, you know, if I can think of myself as generous, I always feel better and then ultimately tend to be more productive. So those are 15 different thoughts. You know, I hope this, this helped maybe kickstart your September or to restart.

Either way, please reach out to me. N Hanson. N h a n s e nadre IO. Let me know if any of these resonated with you, and I hope you have an amazing day and wishing you peaceful and positive thoughts. Okay, bye.