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Mojo Monday - Navigating Stress Through Action by Carly Taylor · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, It's Cully Taylor here for this week's Mojo
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and Monday. So I'm going to start with a question,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: what do you do when you're feeling stressed? So I
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: was thinking about this, and I've decided to be really honest.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I've had plenty of times where I've let my stress
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: be my compass for what I do, so my compass
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: for my behavior. So I've said no to the very
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: things that could have helped me cope. So like the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: gym way too hard, too uncomfortable. Alcohol free day is
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: out the window, glass wine poured by five o'clock doesn't
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: matter if it's a Tuesday. A good night's sleep is
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: swapped for wine and Netflix. Numbing out felt easier in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that moment, but it never actually helped. It does help
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: short term, It does help in that kind of window,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't help long term. Certainly, it doesn't help
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the next day because the stress is still there. It's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: just layered, isn't it. It's layered under more stress. And
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: it takes real courage to sit with stress instead of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: numbing or scrolling or snapping or zoning out. And I
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: don't say that I've nailed it. I certainly haven't. I
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: still catch myself slipping into those old habits, but over
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: time I've learned something. When I choose to face stress
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: with action, not avoidance, I almost always feel better for it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: So the stress is still there, but I can manage
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: myself more effectively, and that choice it's really easy. So
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: just the other day, I was dealing with something that
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: left me feeling I don't know, anxious, worry. I felt flat,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and my mind told me not to go to cross fit.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: My mind was telling me it was just way too hard,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: too many people, too much effort. But I've had enough
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of those moments now to recognize that fork in the road,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and so I went and something really shifted. And it
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: was kind of the inspiration for this podcast episode because
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: for that hour I was so present, I was focusing
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: on my form, I was chatting with my coach, surrounded
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: by the people there that like my tribe. The problem
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: didn't disappear, but when it came back into my mind,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I could meet it with more perspective. That's what movement
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: and attention do. They kind of anchor us. And here's
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the thing I've learned. Sometimes the hard way is you
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: can't think your way out of stress. You have to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: act your way through it, not by pretending you're fine,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: not by ignoring the stress, not by fixing everything, but
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: by doing the next constructive thing. And that could mean
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: going for a walk or getting through your daily tasks
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and doing those tasks well, because if you focus on
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: doing even the small things well, it means there's less
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: chance of you ruminating over your problems because your attention
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: is on the task at hand, or choosing to eat
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: in a way that supports your energy and not drains it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: And when we do these things, we bring our physiology
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: back to baseline, and from there we can start to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: think more clearly. Because what stress does is it narrows
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: our view. It's like looking at life through one of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: those cardboard cylinders, you know, the ones that your paper
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: towel comes from. If you're just looking through those, you
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: can only see your attention is only on a very
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: very small part of your life, and you miss the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: bit picture. But when we move and act and ground ourselves,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it's like lowering the jew. You see your options again,
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  Speaker 1: You see a wider perspective of life, and then you
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: can feel less trapped. So here's something to try next time.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: You're at that crossroads. So you have a choice at
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: that crossroads to either avoid or to act. Just pause,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: take a deep breath, and ask yourself, will I be
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: proud of myself if I do this? Will I like
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: myself more for showing up? And then choose and it
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: won't be perfect, but it'll be progress. And that's how
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: emotional strength is built. It's one choice at a time.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: You don't have to feel fearless, you don't have to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: feel ready. You just need to take that one small
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  Speaker 1: action that aligns with who you want to be and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: recognize and be aware that it can be hard, it
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: can be uncomfortable, but it's taking you towards the person
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: that you want to be. So I'll leave you with
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a quote from Marcus Aurelius. We don't rise to the
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: level of our expectations. We fall to the level of
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: our training. So train well, train gently, train consistently, and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: when that stress hits, you'll be more ready. Not because
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you're like this unshakable, unstoppable person, but because you know
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: how to move through it and you know how to
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  Speaker 1: choose wisely. So I hope that's been a value to you.
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  Speaker 1: I hope that if you are going through a stressful
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: situation that you will be able to kind of pause
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and think about the choices that you have. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you all have a great week and I'll catch you
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: next week. Thea Hey