Conversations Cave Podcast.

When stress gets out of control, however, and you feel constantly nervous or on edge, then it can be utterly exhausting, and if it goes on for more than just a few days then it can cause long-term damage to both your mental and your physical health. That’s why dealing with stress is so important because it’s bad for your health and there is absolutely no sugarcoating that fact, so let’s be clear – too much stress can kill you.

This week we’re talking about baggage – what emotional baggage is, why we can sometimes become weighed down by unresolved stuff from our past, and how to work through it so you’re not carrying it around for the rest of your life. So, let’s talk!

Let me just take a moment here to say what ‘dealing with baggage’ isn’t about. It isn’t about just sucking it up or getting over it. It isn’t just about saying “it is what it is” and thinking that you’re all done with your baggage. And it’s not something that you just do once and tick off your list – it’s a journey, not just a destination. And yes that’s a cliché and no I don’t care, because every cliché is grounded in truth and has something to teach us.

What things do you do every day to look after your physical, mental and spiritual health? What do you do to relax? And what things do you do to relax that might not be in your best interests? We all have control over what we do every day to look after our health and wellbeing, and it’s the choices we make and how highly we value the need for self-care that can determine what happens next in our life. Today I’m going to be talking about what self-care is (and isn’t), what effective self-care looks and feels like, why self-care plays such an important role in our lives, and some of the things you can do every day to maintain or improve your mental health and wellbeing.

Have you ever wanted to do something you were passionate about but haven’t because something has held you back? This week’s episode is all about taking chances – what holds us back, the difference between a calculated risk and a regular risk, as well as how (and why) to push through and take more calculated risks in life.

Serious over-thinking is different to an ear-worm though: at its worst, it goes round and round (like a record – sorry, I had to!) in your mind and it can distract you from rational thought which moves you forward. That’s what we’re talking about this week: why it happens, and what to do about it.

Welcome to Conversations Cave Podcast, the weekly podcast full of simple ideas for better mental health by Kanotha Gatua. Each episode focuses on practical and simple things that you can do every single day to improve and maintain your mental health and wellbeing, based on quality research.

This is Episode 3 and this week I’m talking about self-awareness. I’ll be discussing what self-awareness is, why it matters and, most importantly, how to become more self-aware every day. So, let’s talk all about it!