Life can get tough sometimes. In this week’s episode, Andy and Angela talk to Dr. Jodie Lowinger, founder of Mind Strength, Doctor of Clinical Psychology, and Gotcha4Life ambassador, about mental health and anxiety within the trade industry.
Ange
Hey everyone! It’s great to have you back for another episode of The Tradie Show.
Andy
Absolutely. And we’ve got an awesome guest lined up for you today.
Ange
Yeah, you know what? It’s a bit more of a somber topic today, so I will add in a trigger warning that said, this topic is important and it’s relatable, perhaps for more people than we realize, especially after the last two years surviving the pandemic. And you know what? Everything that resulted from it.
Andy
Yeah, the past two years have been a little rough on everyone, and for some of you it might have brought on some mental health issues such as anxiety or depression. So in the past, this stuff really wasn’t talked about, and I was a shocker for that as well. But it wasn’t talked about in the trade industry and perhaps it should have been, it was all this whole drinker cup of concrete toughen up mentality. But we definitely need to stop this way of thinking and really look at helping each other out.
Ange
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why we wanted to bring someone on the podcast that can open up the conversation and give you our listeners some insight into what anxiety is, and provide some really practical strategies to help us all get through the rough patches in life. Some of you might know Lifestyle Tradie is proudly partnered with Gotcha4Life Foundation that has a goal of zero suicides through delivering mental fitness programs to both engage, educate, and empower local communities. And we are really proud to introduce this week’s guest speaker, Dr. Jodie Lowinger, who is a Gotcha4Life Ambassador.
Andy
Yeah. Dr. Jodie’s an absolute superstar in her field. She has a doctor of clinical psychology and a master of science. You know, Jodie recently joined us at our Lifestyle Tradie event, and you know what? It was mind blowing. She talks a lot about the mind strength method and how to master your mindset to thrive.
Ange
Well, that being said, Dr. Jodie also has a book titled The Mind Strength Method. Four steps to curb anxiety, conquer worry, and build resilience. Plus, she has a clinic, the Anxiety Clinic, which recently won Number one Psychology Clinic in Australia at the Small Business Champion Awards. I tell you what, this is a serious list of achievements.
Andy
It was definitely a long one. So without further ado, we wanna welcome Dr. Jodie. How are you today?
Dr. Jodie
I am super. Thank you so much for that beautiful introduction. How are you guys doing?
Ange
Yeah, fantastic.
Andy
Doing well. We’re killing it. We’re killing it.
Dr. Jodie
Awesome.
Ange
So Jody, you’re a doctor of clinical psychology and you’re a leading expert in anxiety, mindset and resilience. Where did your interest in this field come from and how did you get into it?
Dr. Jodie
I’ve been passionate about, you know, I’m, I’m one of these weird people that go to parties and say, I love anxiety. Um, life is the party, right? Oh, yeah. Um, but I do, I really am passionate about helping adults, kids, and teens to manage anxiety and thrive and to build high performance and thrive because they’re really one and the same. So, how I got into it, um, I, my, my mom was born into war in Europe, and, uh, so she was born into really traumatic circumstances. So she’s always experienced anxiety and so I kind of grew up parenting my parents and, and really getting to know anxiety at a very close level. And the byproduct of that is you experience anxiety yourself and you sort of learn the trials and tribulations of some of these challenges. But in my experience, I’ve also learned the superpower of anxiety. And you know, what can kick in is this protective instinct and this really deep level of empathy and care and kindness. Um, so there are many qualities that underpin this. Um, so I’ve always had an affinity with helping adults, kids, and teens. Really what led me predominantly, i, I, I have a background in management consulting. I did an undergrad in psychology, but then was poached into PWC and then subsequently Macquarie Bank. So I’ve got a really strong foundation in business and leadership development. But, um, my dad actually was diagnosed and subsequently passed away from pancreatic cancer and that traumatic life experience, um, really made me reflect on life and wanting to embrace and basically kick the shit out of life. Yeah. And um, and, and just really think about what is my passion? What is my calling? And, um, and so I realigned to the clinical pathway and dug deep on some, on a real bootcamp of seven years of clinical training anxiety, working at Harvard and all the rest. Um, and, uh, realigned to a passion to help people with anxiety.
Ange
It’s interesting how a real life experience can make you so focused with regards to the subject matter that you are so passionate about. I really appreciate you sharing that story, cuz I can imagine there’s lots of people out there who have had this moment where they’ve, you know, dug deep over some, um, some issue. And I can imagine you’re helping thousands and thousands of people because of it.
Andy
Yeah. Sorry, I just wanna say, you know, the word anxiety, um, coming from a bloke, bloke that’s been a tradie all his life, you know, I think in the past we’ve, we’ve heard that word and I know even some of our listeners out there go, oh, here we go. Like, you know, it’s a word really on everyone’s lips these days. Um, I was looking at my 12 year old son and he was on TikTok and there were people talking about it, and, and he goes, I think I’ve got anxiety. And it’s something, in the past we always knew about but didn’t talk about. And now it’s like, you know, I think, and I’m just saying I think there’s different levels of where we are in all of this, but could you just tell us a bit more about what anxiety is and what are the common triggers of anxiety?
Dr. Jodie
Yeah, absolutely. And I love, I love what you share about, you know, these, these misconceptions oftentimes around, you know, man up and the incredible key messages that Gotcha4Life shares, um, is, you know, boys don’t cry and all of this sort of stuff. Um, and the, the challenge that can be the byproduct of some of those social messages. Um, and, you know, as the reason I’m so, so strongly affiliated with Gotcha4Life is, um, I want to create a message to human beings to help people to say We’re all in this together. This is part of our common human experience. And anxiety is one of the deepest parts of who we are as human beings. It’s our survival instinct, our protective instinct, and whether you’re a male or a female, Or, um, you know, that protective instinct kicks in to want everybody to be safe and well. Um, so anxiety is our physiological reaction to perceived threat in our environment. It’s our fight or flight. It’s, it’s our adrenaline and our cortisol kicking in, when we are worried about something and, um, if we take it to a deeper level as human beings, what we wanna be able to do is predict our environment in order to be able to prepare and protect for the possible things that might go wrong. And so we struggle with uncertainty, and that’s when anxiety kicks in. That’s when worry kicks in to try to get certainty. The challenge is in the world that we live in, Like there’s a, a, a ton of uncertainty and God, I’m swearing all the time. I was about to, was about to say we’re,
Andy
We’re tradies. It’s all good man.
Dr. Jodie
I was about to say a shit ton of uncertainty, but let’s just say there’s a ton of uncertainty.
Andy
Exactly. Yeah.
Dr. Jodie
But you know, the bottom line is we are living in a world that we weren’t designed to live in. Um, we were designed to, we are very primitive and we still want primitive stuff. We still love the tribe, love getting out in nature. But the way our world is designed, um, it, it goes against how our brain is wired. So the bottom line is to feel anxious, is to be human. Um, it’s really normal and we experience it to various levels of severity, mild, moderate, severe. I rarely use the word disorder. Even saying it feels really uncomfortable for me, even though I’m a clinical psychologist and being trained in a scientific model, I want us to see this as a human problem, a human challenge, um, and a very, very helpful human challenge and hopefulness, positivity, empowerment, because there’s so much we can do, and the key message is if you are experiencing challenging stuff, Do not struggle in silence. Seek out the help you need and connect with people who you know have the skills to help you.
Andy
And let’s face it, being a trade business owner, a business owner in general, there’s a lot of stress, there’s a lot of anxiety. Like we have a shit ton of things going wrong.
Ange
Well, it’s uncertain, right? You never know what’s happening every day.
Andy
Exactly.
Ange
So many decisions to make consistently.
Andy
That’s it.
Dr. Jodie
A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And you know, as a high performance coach. So the, the work that I do predominantly in a one-to-one capacity is working with business leaders, um, of all, you know, whether it’s SMS or um, or, or large multinationals working with senior leaders and CEOs and, um, exec teams to help them to build high performance and thrive. And, um, you know, whether it’s men or women, this is the stuff that I do. And so I want people to know that mental health is not a Bolton to high performance. Mental health is absolutely fundamental to high performance because, you know, you asked about what are some of the consequences of anxiety when we are experiencing, um, stress or anxiety or our struggle with uncertainty. Um, it has a lot of different behavioral consequences and it is at a sort of a clinical level. It’s called the fight or flight reaction. But there are many faces to anxiety that are often unrecognized. And some of these are the fights. You know, we choose, we get a short fuse to frustration or agitation. We lash out, we get defensive, we blame, um, you know, we gossip, we, we just jump into these sorts of behaviors that undermine capacity for high performance. Um, and we hijacked the part of our brain that’s the polar opposite to our strategic part of our brain, which is where we want to engage strategically to build, build high performance. Um, and so they’re the fight behaviors. There’s also avoidance, procrastination, withdrawal, and just our struggle with uncertainty. So sometimes it’s perfectionism and, and sometimes it’s over checking. So all of these sorts of behaviors, Result in us being sub-optimized. Um, but the good news is when you can master your mindset and leverage, um, evidence-based or scientifically supported tools, and these are the tools of, of my mind strength methodology, you can realign to strategy and, uh, your strategic direction. Um, collaboration and connection in both a professional context and a personal context. It is very, very doable.
Ange
I’m sure that a lot of our listeners are actually saying to themselves, oh my goodness, that’s me. I react like that. I,
Andy
Well, Dr. Jodie was rattling everything off and was like, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I’m like, oh geez. Okay. I gotta look into this a bit more.
Ange
Well, it’s interesting because if you were to ask, you know, any trade business owner or anyone in general, I suppose, what does anxiety mean? I think people would actually struggle to actually answer the question because probably a personal perception of maybe their, to your point, experiences in life or the words of others, but you’ve really been really sharp around how it can actually show its face. And like I said, I’m sure hundreds everyone’s going, oh my gosh, I didn’t realize I wouldn’t class myself as anxious, but I’m a perfectionist and you know, I blame others or I lash out and get angry. So what you’ve also triggered there for me is perhaps there’s not much of a difference between what we class as anxiety and what regular life stress is. Or am I wrong in saying that? What would you say about that?
Dr. Jodie
Oh, you are absolutely spot on and, and you know, I mean, Basically when we look at an anxiety disorder, um, so that’s sort of part of a diagnostic manual called the DSM, um, which is a psychiatric or psychological manual to help to define clinical mental health challenges or disorders. The clinical definition is, if it is something that is causing prolonged fear, suffering, and avoidance in an individual’s life, and that could be classified as an anxiety disorder. But the good news is, you know, certainly from my perspective with the decades, these, these wrinkles give it away, decades of experience. Um, the strategies help everyone, no matter where you sit in this, uh, level of severity and anxiety is a byproduct of, um, nature and nurture of our environmental experiences and also our biological predisposition. So our genes and family history that we were born with, but it doesn’t matter, you know, the good thing about this is whoever you are, whether you’re an adult, whether you’re a child, whether you’re a teen, the strategies work for everybody. So I’m very big on, um, not pocketing anxiety in, in a medicalized model, but really thinking about we are all in this together. Let’s knuckle down, let’s do good stuff to support each other. Let’s smash stigma and shame. And really help people to be proud of who they are and to take empowered action to seek out the strategies and the tools that they need.
Andy
And, you know, I’m gonna be pretty raw here. And, um, you know, and I, I hear Gus Worland talk a lot about it. And I think one of the good things about Gus is he talks about both sides of the fence, you know, and how everyone feels. And I’m just gonna bring that up because in the past, as a business owner, if someone said to me, uh, they had mental health issues, I’d straight away be like, uh-oh, hang on. What’s this gonna mean? Oh, is he gonna go Compo? What’s gonna happen? Is he not gonna turn up to work? Oh, oh, I’m in trouble. And that has always been what it’s been like in the past. I’m really happy to say, that what we’re finding out more and more about is that when people come to you with that, some of our members have expressed to me how they know how to deal with it now, and they help them so they can get the tools and once they get the tools, They don’t have this problem anymore, where back in the day it was a bit like hands in the air, everyone cover your eyes and run. But now I can really feel the shift and, and people like yourself and Gotcha4Life and Gus, it really is trying to shift. So I know, I honestly believe there’ll be a big chunk of people listening to this going, oh shit, here we go again. We’re, we are talking about mental health and we’re talking about anxiety. I’m sick of hearing these words. I, I really do believe there’s a chunk to think that way.
Ange
Sure.
Andy
But if you are thinking that way, please listen to this today and, and look at how we can change that because it’s a major, major issue in the trade construction industry and we have to fix it. So if you have felt like I did in the past, and I apologize, you know, if even coming out and saying that, but it’s just, the way we’d never been taught how to deal with it.
Dr. Jodie
Mm. Yeah, a hundred percent. And we have to say that this is doable, again. And if you, if you struggle with the concept of mental health challenges, just think about high performance. You know, just think about it, I wanna optimize myself as a human being. I wanna build effective relationships. I want to, I want to achieve a phenomenal business and, um, achieve incredible outcomes. So it’s, it’s really about, The tools to enable individuals to do this because when we’re in fight or flight, a neurochemical called oxytocin shuts down, and oxytocin is our neurochemical for collaboration and connection and building positive relationships. And you know, in a trade industry or in any industry really, the key to success is being able to, yes, absolutely be on the tools and, and do a really good job at a technical level. But when you get to this leadership role, um, it’s about moving out of the technical steps and just really focusing on how to build those positive relationships. And also thinking about positive relationships on the home front as well, with your partners, with your kids, with your, your teens, um, but with your, your team as well. So in my book, I’ve got some case studies and I’ve got a guy called Mike as one of the case studies, and I have these guys, texting, well, not quite texting me, DM-ing me on social media, they don’t have my mobile number. That’s okay. They’re DMing me like saying, how the hell did you know? How did you know?
Ange
Speaking about my life.
Dr. Jodie
I’m Mike. They say, I’m Mike. And um, you’ve just described me. So it’s actually, it’s, I’m, I’m giving myself goosebumps right now. It’s so comforting when you can connect with random human beings and help them to feel normal and to help them to just lean in. It really rocks my world.
Ange
I was about to say exactly that. This conversation for me has come full circle to allowing people to feel normal. The sentence you just said. Um, I do think everyone does see themselves in this conversation yet because a lot of our audience are trade business owners. They do need to see themselves elevated with respect to being a leader, and therefore they’re directing other people. And your role as a trade business owner is to get the best out of the people around you. So therefore, you need to be at your best, not just with your relationships, with your partner at home and your family. You have so much influence and therefore you need to guide the team that now looks up to you. So it is important to be armed as that owner about how you take a step to say that this conversation is actually okay. I think the word anxiety, Andy just talked about it before, it kind of freaks people out, but this mental fitness is important to arm them with some tools, I suppose. So Jodie, if a tradie or anyone I suppose was interested in opening up and talking about kind of their life, about what you’ve just talked about, who would you suggest they’d turn to for help and maybe how would they do that?
Dr. Jodie
Well, they’re welcome to contact me. They’re very welcome. I’m very accessible on social media and, uh, on LinkedIn and, uh, on my website of course. But, uh, ultimately, look, I mean, what you are doing is fantastic in terms of building a tribe and building a community. Um, that is really, really wonderful and that’s what we very much need as human beings is a community. And, uh, if you are experiencing stuff that you think, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m not myself at the moment. That’s when it’s getting to the kind of prickly end. Ultimately, we wanna prevent, you know, prevent and preempt. Preempt and prevent is key to engage wellbeing strategies to flourish and thrive mental fitness strategies to prevent problems before they take hold. But sometimes an experience of burnout is when it’s gone into that sort of red flag stage. And burnout is an experience where people describe, I feel like I’m walking through sludge. I don’t, I just don’t have the energy that I’ve previously had. My mind is worrying about overdrive. I’m waking up, you know, at 3:00 AM, 4:00 AM um, worried about things that are going on. Burnout and depression kind of have very similar features. Um, and, uh, so, so listen to those. If you are not feeling yourself, if you’re feeling sluggish or if you’re feeling agitated with a short phase of agitation, some of these are warning signs. There are many warning signs, you know, but, um, uh, I cover it all in, in great detail in my book, in the Mind Strength Method. What I’ve done with the book is cover to cover with practical tools to be able to have self-contained, self-help in that book or seek out a mental health professional, a clinical psychologist seeks one of us out at the anxiety clinic. Uh, but there’s lots of stuff out there now, which is really, really great.
Andy
So I felt like you touched quite a bit on the mental fitness side and the anxiety side for the person going through that. And I know you’ve done some work with us, which I’ll talk about in a second, with Lifestyle Tradie with your mind strength toolkit, you know, and you’ve, you’ve helped teach our members not only how to deal with it, with themselves, but how, I think the big question is, as a business owner, I know there’s a lot of business owners out here. If someone comes to you, what should you do as a business owner to help? And where should you guide them to go? I think we’ll put in the show notes, um, your book. I know that that book is amazing and I’ve had a few of our members say how incredible it was and obviously that’s one thing. But yeah, as a business owner, cuz I, I still think a lot of us have probably got anxiety and mental health issues ourselves because it’s the high stress levels. But when someone then comes to you with that, you freak yourself out and you don’t really know where to turn, what would you suggest if that happened? One of the staff members came up to us and said, Hey, I’ve got mental health issues, or I’ve got anxiety. And then they look at you and you go, uh, okay, what should they do?
Dr. Jodie
Yeah, it’s a really common, um, challenge, you know, in, in organizations typically, this is one of the main problems that, that, um, managers experience is how to lean into those courageous conversations and not fear them, because oftentimes caring people fear saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing. Um, and we are not equipped with the strategies of how to necessarily lean in. A topic that I’m doing a lot of keynotes on at the moment is psychological safety in the workplace, and psychological safety is core to high performance. It’s really opening up transparency around being okay to not be perfect, being okay to make mistakes, being okay to be vulnerable. And when you can build those transparent conversations, uh, what happens as a result is high performance. Um, because people get outta fight or flight and they feel safe and they feel safe to give things a go. So first things first is to check in on yourself. Are you in fight or flight? You know, are you feeling threatened? Are you not feeling so great? Like, as you know, we can’t pour from an empty glass, or you gotta like all of these kinds of cliches, you gotta fill up your own fuel tanks before helping others. Right? That’s really critical. We kind of extend this care outwards but in order to help others, you must help yourselves first. If you’re a parent and you’re, you’re struggling with your kids and teens wondering, what the hell do I do? Look after yourselves. You are number one. And I don’t say that lightly to be a role model of resilience. It is exactly what it’s saying, well, I was not feeling so great, and so this is what I did in order to look after myself. So you are modeling appropriate behaviors, but you’ve gotta do those behaviors in the first place in order to model them, right? And then it’s about, with these conversations, it’s about, first of all, validating. So what that is, is just acknowledging, rather than judging, just sitting with the experience saying. Okay, I hear you. That sounds really tough at the moment. Um, you know, goodness, you know, but authentically, like, bring it back to your heart, heart connection is what this is all about. Don’t think shit. What should I be saying? What should I be doing? Am I doing the right thing? Am I saying the right thing that’s up here? Bring it back to what you authentically feel like. Oh wow, that sounds really tough right now. Um, and then, so that’s step one is to validate and acknowledge the emotions that the person’s experiencing. And then step two, you want to empower people towards action for themselves. And really that’s about asking an open-ended question, um, with your goal in mind. So if your goal is to help a person to seek out the help that they need, it might be, okay, that sounds really tough. What do you reckon you could do that might be helpful for you right now? Um, or what stuff do you feel that you need right now? Um, you know, so opening it up, building that conversation, helping them to feel like it’s okay. Um, and they might say, I have no idea. I really don’t know. And that kind of thing opens up an invitation for suggestions and collaboration towards strategies that can help this individual. So then you can share stories about, but the stories that you share, share it for the purpose. Not to be talking about yourself, but sharing it for the purpose of saying it’s, we’re all in this together and sharing because it’s a suggestion that might be helpful for this other person. Um, so that’s sort of some fundamental strategies. If you are an organization that has got an infrastructure, that you’ve got your own HR team, or you’ve outsourced to hr, um, and you’re contracting in hr, make sure that you’ve got some specific policies, HR policies set up around so you can have process around these sorts of things as well. That can be very helpful and very important. Um, but if you’re a small team just opening up these safe conversations, it can actually end up saving a life.
Ange
Yeah.
Andy
Also, to add on that, not only saving a life, I’m hearing more and more people having those issues with some staff members, and as I said, the old days was, ah mate, drink a cup of concrete that’s long gone. You can’t be saying anything like that now. But the members that have listened to your presentation and have talked to me, they were finding that when these people were coming to them, they were trying to deal with it similar to what you taught them and all of a sudden, They’re guys that might have been a seven outta 10, and they weren’t really the tradie they wanted. They’ve brought ’em up to an eight or a nine out 10 just by showing to them that they’re there for them to help them and to help them with these tools. So I know a lot of us, you know, when you business owners, sometimes everything just goes straight back to business. What’s it gonna cost me that’s gonna kill me? Oh my God, I’m a business. Ah, it’s so hard being a business. Take a deep breath. That’s our own anxieties. But when these people come to you, if you can deal with it the right way, I just want everyone to realize that a lot of the times what I’m hearing is they’re a better tradie after going through this process. They love the team morale and it’s working better as a business and the business culture as a whole.
Dr. Jodie
Hundred percent. And you know, there are reasons why global corporates are putting. Um, keynotes on and workshops on psychological safety as number one on their agenda. Um, because psychological safety is all about transparency, authenticity be, you know, we’re all in this together because we truly are like, we all struggle. You know, I work with, I coach, um, incredible human beings. Like when I say we’re all incredible, right? But yeah, I work with people who are at the top of their game and it doesn’t matter, like the struggles that we have, no matter if you’re a startup or if you’re a multinational, the struggles that we have are very, very similar, if not exactly the same. And also when you are wanting to build a business, the strategies are the same, you know, so you bring it back to basics, you bring it back to fundamentals that are very logical, that are built on our primitive drivers as human beings. And we, we pair back from anything complicated because it’s the simple strategies, it’s the mental fitness toolkit. That makes a difference in people’s lives and helps you to flourish because that’s what we deserve. The world is pretty, pretty shitty at the moment, and we would just wanna bring it back to basics of being able to, you know, align to satisfying goals in business, but also to have fun. And to connect and to enjoy our family, and enjoy our friends and just have a bit more fun, I think is what we all really deserve at the moment.
Andy
Yeah, that’s a hundred percent. It’s so true. And everything you said, your words have been amazing and we all need to be a hell of a lot better, don’t we?
Ange
Yeah. Jodie, you recently joined our members actually at one of our last events where you actually shared a lot about your mind strength toolkit. I know our listeners would absolutely benefit from understanding perhaps a couple of practical strategies to help them manage anxiety. So are you able to share maybe a few from your mind strength toolkit with our listeners?
Dr. Jodie
Yeah, with absolute pleasure. So really what awareness is very important because we can only change what we’re aware of in the first place, and sometimes we are just caught up in a spiral of worry and we actually don’t realize what’s going on, and people kind of think, oh, if I don’t worry, then something bad might happen. And sort of beliefs about worry. Um, we think that worry’s helpful, worry’s really unhelpful, worry just takes us to focusing on all of our possible negative things and just makes us feel really, really bad. So notice when worry’s taking hold, worry is oftentimes the what ifs. What if this, what if that? Um, you know, what if I fail? What if I don’t earn enough money to put food on the table? You know, some of these sorts of worry stories. Notice when worry is taking hold and move it from worry into problem solving and action planning around what’s in your control. Okay, we can only control what, what’s in our control. Um, and problem solving allows you to feel more in control. So we wanna notice those worried thoughts, get distance from them, but move into action. So I will talk about from anxiety to action. So that’s one of these things. Also leverage or use the power of our breath. Um, when worry is taking hold and when we are getting hijacked by this part of our brain that takes us into fight or flight, our heart rate is increasing. This is stress, and this is going to, when we just get caught up in that, it keeps our brain in that stress mode. The beauty is when you use your breath in a purposeful way, um, you can override that fight or flight reaction. And it’s super simple. It’s just a matter of slowing your breathing down. And there’s various forms of this. I like to talk about the out breath rather than deep breathing, cuz when we’re in fight or flight, we’ve got muscle tension. All of our muscles tense up. And if you tense up your muscles and you try to do deep breathing like we think we are meant to do, let’s do that now. Tense up your muscles and try to breathe deeply. What happens?
Ange
Too hard.
Andy
Too hard. Yeah.
Dr. Jodie
Too hard. And then we think, shit, I can’t even do this bloody breathing thing. Right? And um, and so that keeps us in fight or flight about being in fight or flight. So bottom line, long, slow out breath. Let’s do that together now through purse lips as if you’re cooling down, a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. And just let that muscle tension melt away. So it’s, it’s super simple in the moment if you feel your muscles tense, if you feel you’re getting agitated or angry, um, or wanting to just pounce and, and attack, or if you feel like you just wanna run away, just long, slow out breath. Build in the pause, let your lungs fill up naturally that will bring your stress levels a little bit closer to baseline. That will reduce your stress levels and will help you to bring yourself back to, right. What are some practical actions I can do at this moment to take myself out of attack or out of run and just bring it back to collaboration and connection. And what are your specific goals at the moment? They’re just a couple of strategies.
Ange
That’s a great tip. I notice actually in moments that my tongue is at the roof of my mouth, and then I have this awareness that my jaw is tight, and all of a sudden, as soon as I drop, I consciously drop my tongue, which drops my mouth. I actually feel my whole shoulders go. Like almost every release. It’s actually quite interesting, you don’t realize the way you’re holding your body at times.
Dr. Jodie
Yeah.
Andy
Oh, well I,
Ange
so I do love breathing.
Andy
I realize that we’re getting, we’re being filmed at the same time, so I’ve been sucking my guts the whole time. As soon as I blew out and it was all out there, I’m like, Jesus, I gotta get back to the gym baby.
Dr. Jodie
That’s awesome. I love that. To me, you know, I’m like, I’m this rampant. Should, should do more, should be more, should, should, should, should, should. And it’s kind of like you feel like you’re actually attacking yourself. Right? And that’s that fight or flight. So that’s my, when I’m in the Should be more, should do more self flag, self-flagellation, I call it. And I’m like, Bloody hell, Jo. Leave, lead by example. Slow out breath. Be kind to yourself. We talk about moving into neutral, moving out of fight or flight, and back into neutral. I like to extend it, move out of fight or flight and back into kindness and compassion for yourself. Are you being kind to yourself right now? Hell no. That’s not kind. Will you be kind to others? Why the hell wouldn’t you be kind to yourself?
Ange
Yeah, it’s a great point.
Andy
Great word. Great words, Jodie, we’d like to play a bit of a game here as well. Um, and if it’s okay, I’m gonna ask you three rapid fire questions. You’re gonna have between 10 and 30 seconds to answer them. Are you ready?
Dr. Jodie
I’m ready. Bring it up.
Andy
Okay. So the number one is what is one strategy that you use to start your day on the right foot?
Dr. Jodie
Definitely exercise. Um, I love to start the day with exercise. Exercise is a superpower because it just helps to start the day sober, brilliant.
Andy
Yeah. Exercise is really the number one thing everyone And any of
Ange
the movement, isn’t it?
Andy
Yeah. Any of the members that I talk to when we are bit stressed and whatever, going to the gym, going for a run or going for a walk, like we talk a lot about that and, and that’s,
Ange
Just move your body.
Andy
That’s a great way to start the day. I know a lot of tradies listen and go, but I get up early enough as it is and I’m like, yeah, I know. But some people find it hard to get outta bed, but when you’ve had two or three beers in a scotch, it’s impossible to get outta bed. So, um, you’re probably not looking after yourself the way you should to make sure your body is at its maximum.
Dr. Jodie
Move your body, a hundred percent. Yeah. It doesn’t matter, like walk to the end of your block and back, or just do 10 sit ups or just, you know, run up and down the stairs. It doesn’t matter. Walk up and down the stairs. Just something, even if it’s two minutes. It’s just something to start the day to get your body into that. Cuz what happens is it stimulates positive neurochemicals and we’ll, we’ll just set your day up on a much more positive front. Another, another quick go-to in the morning is what’s one positive thing that you can think of, positive focus, um, what’s one thing you can feel grateful for? That’s a good way to start the day in a positive way.
Andy
Exactly. Exactly. Number two is, what is something that has made you smile recently?
Dr. Jodie
Made me smile? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is connecting with my kids. I’ve got three children and they always make me look, um, connecting with them always makes me smile, so, um, We recently had a family dinner that, um, that certainly makes me smile. They were recently in a show together, um, and that absolutely made me smile. So connecting with my kids makes me smile.
Ange
It’s beautiful.
Andy
Beautiful. And number three, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever, ever received?
Dr. Jodie
Oh my goodness. Best piece of advice, God, there’s been so many. I learn from my clients all the time, by the way. Yes. So thank you clients. Um, best piece of advice. I think one of my, one of my first, uh, bosses or partners at PWC said to me, when you are building relationships, build relationships, um, that’s a really, really wonderful piece of advice. So don’t, like if you’re in a sales industry, um, don’t sell. Just when you’re offline. Just build relationships because relationships are key. So when you’re with a person, focus on that person. Make them feel like they’re the only person that matters, but do it from your heart. So heart connection, you know, even if I’m talking to a white light or a green light and a global keynote or a, you know, digital connection, just connect from your heart authentically, and that’s gonna make the world of difference. You as a human being, but also your work as a professional.
Andy
I just wanna say a really big thank you for today. I know, yourself, Gotcha4Life, Gus, and everyone’s trying to, to really raise the topic of mental health and anxiety and, and I know we all need to be better and at Lifestyle Tradie we are trying to be really better cuz it’s such an important part for the construction industry as a whole. So I just wanna say a really big thank you for talking to our listeners today.
Ange
Yeah. It’s so great to be able to bring experts like you onto our platform to help bring light and conversation to what I class. It’s probably tough conversations, to be honest. So thanks again. We really appreciate your time.
Dr. Jodie
Yeah, absolute pleasure. Lovely to connect with you guys and all the very best to all of you out there.
Andy
Great. Thanks. We’ll chat soon.
Dr. Jodie
Chat soon. Bye for now.
Ange
If anything in today’s episode resonated with you, then I urge you actually to take some action today. You might feel drawn to some of the methods that Jodie actually talked us through, or maybe you feel like reaching out to family or friends or some local health professional. So whatever that action looks like to you, I suggest that you actually take some action.
Andy
Yeah, definitely. And if you are struggling and you and you need to talk to someone, uh, we’re gonna put a full list of free resources in the show notes for all of you to access.
Ange
Okay. I think that’s where we’ll leave it today. We’ll chat next week.
Andy
Catch you, then.