Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 5-MINUTE FRIDAY: How Do You Take Care Of Your Mental Health?

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5-MINUTE FRIDAY: How Do You Take Care Of Your Mental Health? · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Emily Abody here. You're listening to five Minute
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Friday from Hurdle. This episode comes out the day after
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  Speaker 1: World Mental Health Day, and I feel as though it's important.
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  Speaker 1: And I did a little bit of this in the
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  Speaker 1: weekly Hurdle newsletter as well, so make sure you're subscribe
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to that comes out every single Friday and it's absolutely free.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like it's important to talk about mental health
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  Speaker 1: for me. I certainly have had what feels like a
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  Speaker 1: roller coaster a few years learning about my own mental health.
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  Speaker 1: I would be remiss if I didn't say that I
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  Speaker 1: certainly went through what I know now to be perhaps
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  Speaker 1: bouts of depression in college and perhaps my teenage years,
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  Speaker 1: but at that time I really just thought it was
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  Speaker 1: par for the course. But at the beginning of twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty two, I believe it was. I experienced what I
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  Speaker 1: now know was a debilitating bout of depression. I felt
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  Speaker 1: as though so many of the things that I would
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  Speaker 1: do throughout my day to day that once brought me
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  Speaker 1: joy didn't have the same effect anymore, something like running
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  Speaker 1: that makes me so so happy. I know this to
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  Speaker 1: be true. I was doing it because I identified as a runner,
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  Speaker 1: but I didn't feel anything in the act. I would
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  Speaker 1: sit down at my desk for a day of work
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  Speaker 1: and hours would go by and I wouldn't be able
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  Speaker 1: to tell you what I did during that time. I
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  Speaker 1: was really really struggling. And there was an event that
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  Speaker 1: happened one night where I went to get a pan
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  Speaker 1: from a cabinet in my kitchen and I pulled it
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  Speaker 1: out and a bunch of other pans fell out onto
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  Speaker 1: the floor around my feet, and then I fell onto
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  Speaker 1: the floor as well. And I remember in that moment
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  Speaker 1: that I knew that I needed to take action, that
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  Speaker 1: I knew that I needed to make a change, that
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  Speaker 1: I didn't want to feel numb to my own life.
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  Speaker 1: And so through both speaking with a physician, going on medication,
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  Speaker 1: and also choosing to work proactively with a therapist and
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  Speaker 1: a life coach, I was able to make some really
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  Speaker 1: great progress and get back to a place where I
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  Speaker 1: felt at home in my body. Now years later, I
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  Speaker 1: have so much more education, understanding and transparently awareness of
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  Speaker 1: what it's like to struggle with my mental health. And
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that I don't have days where I'm
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  Speaker 1: not struggling with my mental health. It just means that
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  Speaker 1: now I have a really great toolbox that I can
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  Speaker 1: lean into, a really great and I use this word already,
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  Speaker 1: but awareness of what to do when things don't feel right.
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  Speaker 1: And so for that, I'm really grateful. And that's a theme, right,
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  Speaker 1: There's a theme with these difficult hurdles that we go through,
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  Speaker 1: these difficult hurdle moments. It's that although in the moment
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  Speaker 1: it is anything but easy, when you look back at
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  Speaker 1: that time of adversity, you are better for having the
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  Speaker 1: experience and understanding and learning more about yourself so that
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  Speaker 1: you can handle the tough stuff in the future and
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  Speaker 1: perhaps even handle it better. And so I encourage you,
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  Speaker 1: on your own time with your friends, with your family,
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  Speaker 1: or whoever feels right, to have conversations about your mental health,
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  Speaker 1: to talk about whatever it is that you are experiencing,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that your experience may be unique, but you are
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  Speaker 1: not alone in what it is that you are going through,
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  Speaker 1: that there are so many other individuals that struggle with
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  Speaker 1: the same anxieties and frustrations and there is no need
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  Speaker 1: to go it alone. My prompt for you this week,
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  Speaker 1: what comes to mind first when you think about what
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  Speaker 1: makes you feel safe? What comes to mind first, when
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  Speaker 1: you think about what makes you feel safe. And now
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  Speaker 1: a listener question. Hi, Emily, I am someone who is
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  Speaker 1: on a weight loss journey and I have lost twelve
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  Speaker 1: pounds so far with a combination of healthy eating and
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  Speaker 1: exercise under a physician's guidance. I am so proud of
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  Speaker 1: the progress I've made, but I often get discouraged when
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  Speaker 1: I see people post on social media seventy five hard
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  Speaker 1: challenge transformations. My question for you is this, how do
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  Speaker 1: I motivate myself to stay focused on my own journey
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  Speaker 1: and avoid the self comparison. I would really appreciate any
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  Speaker 1: words of wisdom you have. Oh my God, when I
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  Speaker 1: say comparison is the thief of joy, you clearly understand this.
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  Speaker 1: I can really relate to where you are, and I'm
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  Speaker 1: withholding this person's name to be fair, kind, etc. When
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  Speaker 1: it comes to really celebrating yourself, I would advise for you.
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  Speaker 1: And this is what I did when I was in
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  Speaker 1: the crux of a very large journey myself back in college.
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  Speaker 1: I made celebratory benchmarks that excited me individually. So if
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  Speaker 1: there was a certain bag that I wanted to save
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  Speaker 1: up for, or perhaps a new pair of genes, or
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  Speaker 1: maybe going to lunch with two of my good friends
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  Speaker 1: that I don't get to get together with very often.
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  Speaker 1: I think you can understand where I'm going with this.
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  Speaker 1: So every milestone that I hit, albeit they weren't very frequent,
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  Speaker 1: maybe every five or ten pounds that I would go down,
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  Speaker 1: I would reward myself with one of these things that
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  Speaker 1: really excited me and that helped me stay dialed in
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  Speaker 1: on what I had going on. Now, does that mean
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  Speaker 1: that you're not going to compare yourself to other people? No,
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  Speaker 1: I can't guarantee that, but you have the opportunity now
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  Speaker 1: to be strategic about what your inputs are. So if
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  Speaker 1: your inputs right now aren't making you feel that good.
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  Speaker 1: If you go on Instagram and maybe you're not even
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  Speaker 1: following these people but they're just in your feed, then
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  Speaker 1: as do you scroll, I would encourage you to mute it.
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  Speaker 1: And there is often an opportunity to say I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to see content like this. So if you find
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  Speaker 1: yourself in the hamster wheel of comparison, do yourself a
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  Speaker 1: favor and audit your inputs. Know that you have that opportunity,
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  Speaker 1: right you get to be smart about what you're consuming.
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  Speaker 1: Whether that's social media, who you surround yourself with, where
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  Speaker 1: you're even going out and spending your time. The last
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  Speaker 1: thing I'll say is make sure you're also paying attention
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  Speaker 1: to how you're feeling. So yes, a physical transformation is
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  Speaker 1: something that can be extremely rewarding, especially one that you
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  Speaker 1: are putting so much effort and energy into, and I
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  Speaker 1: love to hear that you're doing it with the guidance
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  Speaker 1: of a physician. That's so important. Make sure you are
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  Speaker 1: also finding the time to write about how this makes
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  Speaker 1: you feel or talk about how this makes you feel,
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  Speaker 1: because we need to do work on the inside as well.
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  Speaker 1: We need to and I know I just talked about
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  Speaker 1: World Mental Health Day. Make sure that we're processing all
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  Speaker 1: of the emotions that come up with a change like this.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for trusting enough to talk to
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  Speaker 1: you about where I stand on this. And I am
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  Speaker 1: not a physician, So if you two are interested in
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  Speaker 1: something along these lines, in losing weight, in making a change,
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  Speaker 1: I would encourage you highly, highly to speak to someone
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  Speaker 1: one on one about you and your body. Make sure
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you're following along with Hurdle over on social It's at
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: hurdle Podcast. I am over at Emily a body and
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  Speaker 1: if you have a listener question, shoot us an email.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Our inbox is hello at hurdle dot us. Hope to
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  Speaker 1: hear from you soon another hurdle concord. Catch you guys
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  Speaker 1: next time.