Shows / The Lulu Essey Podcast
The Lulu Essey Podcast
The Lulu Essey Podcast helps you build Mental Fitness, my way of talking about mental health, together with Self-Love, and emotional resilience from the inside out. I'm Lulu, and each week I share honest, unedited conversations, practical tools, and personal stories to help you grow and deepen your confidence, build self-worth that stays firm during your hard days, and find more joy and freedom in the life you already have. Take what's true for you, make it your own, and let the rest fall away…
Episodes
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Is It Time to Change Course? | 3 Questions to Ask Yourself
Is it time to change course? Here are three questions to ask yourself when you’re still doing something that no longer feels right, but you keep going because…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Seeing Beyond the Label: Jordan Neely, Mental Illness & Compassion
Jordan Neely’s story in Man in the Mirror by Anand Giridharadas shows how quickly mental illness and homelessness become a label that shuts the door on…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Should You Try IV Ketamine? | My Experience, Bipolar & Neuroplasticity
Should you try IV ketamine? I’ve lived with bipolar for over thirty years, and after 18 IV ketamine infusions, I share my personal experience of ketamine…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
What Makes You Human in the Age of AI? | Anxiety & Everyday Creativity
What makes you human in the age of AI? As AI-generated music, images and AI slop fill our feeds, this episode is about AI anxiety, everyday creativity for our…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Do You Trust Your Sleep Score More Than Yourself? | Orthosomnia & Listening to Your Body
Does your sleep tracker tell you how you slept before you ask yourself how you feel? Orthosomnia, an obsession with the perfect sleep score, is growing, and…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
How Do You Keep Showing Up When Nobody's Cheering? | External Validation & Consistency
How do you keep showing up when nobody's cheering? We know how important consistency is to achieving almost anything. And consistency feels hardest when there…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
If Nobody's Watching, Do You Still Matter? | Self-Worth Beyond Social Media Numbers
If nobody's watching, do we still matter? Self-worth gets tested every time we look at our social media numbers, the views, the likes, the followers. This…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
What RM of BTS' UN Speech Taught the World About Self-Love
RM of BTS stood before the United Nations in 2018 and gave one of the greatest Self-Love speeches ever heard: speak yourself. But the moment that stopped me…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Self-Love Through Their Eyes: bell hooks
Love is a choice, not a feeling we wait for. bell hooks' "all about love" is centered around that truth, and I know the weight of it personally: I first picked…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Stop Judging Yourself: A Lesson in Self-Love from Zanele Muholi
What does it take to stop judging yourself and truly see yourself? Self-Love through the eyes of Zanele Muholi, the South African visual activist who turned…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Why Self-Help Can Make You Feel Like the Problem
Does self-help leave you feeling like the problem? Like you did the work, followed every step, and your life still did not change, so the failure must be you?…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Why You Feel Guilty Every Time You Rest
Do you feel guilty every time you rest? Like rest has to be earned, and you have not earned it yet and you definitely don't deserve it? I know that voice well…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Group Chat Gone Quiet? What Their Silence Really Means
When group chats go quiet and friends stop reaching out, the silence can start to feel like a judgment. Researchers are now talking about the friendship…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Summer Feels Too Short? Stop Measuring, Start Living
Summer feels too short, so we grip every warm day and demand that it counts. Make every moment count sounds like such good summer advice, and it is also one of…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Why Everyone Else's Summer Looks Better Than Yours
The summer comparison trap is one of the most diabolical things we do to ourselves, and it bites hardest when everyone else's summer looks better than ours…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Summer Body Image: What Really Hurts
Summer body image is a powerful struggle so many of us carry without always acknowledging it. Warmer weather, smaller clothes, and it can be so much harder to…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Feeling Invisible As You Age? How to Feel Seen
Feeling invisible as you get older is something a lot of women experience and it's complicated and doesn't feel good or fair. In this episode I discuss how I…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
How to Ask for Help and Get What You Need
How to ask for help and get what you need is a skill most of us were never taught. Asking for help is hard, and the way you ask for help changes what comes…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Supporting Someone Who Is Struggling With Their Mental Health
f you love and support someone who is struggling with their mental health, this episode is for you. Mental health support is for the supporters too: the…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Nonfinite Grief: Grief for the Life You Thought You'd Have
Nonfinite grief, mental health, and the emotional grief of feeling stuck, feeling behind in life, and grieving the life you thought you would have. This…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Connection: Why We Would Rather Talk to a Machine
This is not a conversation about whether AI is good or bad. This is the more subtle, nuanced layer of AI and mental health that the binary debate is missing…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Functional Freeze: Why You Feel Nothing Right Now
Functional freeze is why you feel nothing, and nobody asks if you're okay. This week's Mental Health Awareness Month question: what should we be talking about…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Self-Advocacy: Why Mental Health Awareness Isn't Enough
Self-advocacy is a mental health conversation we need to be having. We have more awareness than ever, and yet more than half of adults experiencing a mental…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Overthinking: Why Your Feelings Are LYING to You
Overthinking doesn't always start with a bad thought. Sometimes it starts with silence, and your mind filling that silence with stories so convincing you…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Stop Studying Your Nervous System
Nervous system regulation, co-regulation, polyvagal theory, somatic practices, vagal tone, sympathetic activation, parasympathetic activation, window of…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Self-Love: The Lie That's Hurting You
The Self-Love and Mental Fitness lie that you can't love anyone else until you love yourself is hurting people who are already loving beautifully. If you have…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Self-Abandonment: Why You Keep Doing It and What It's Costing You
Self-abandonment is why Self-Love does not stick. If you keep saying yes when you mean no, staying quiet when you have something to say, or pushing through…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
How to Love Yourself When You Don't Like Who You Are
How to love yourself when you don't like who you are - and why you don't have to like yourself to start. If self-love messaging has ever felt impossible from…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Imperfect Action: When Life Messes Up Your Perfect Plan
How to stop waiting for the perfect moment - and show up anyway. Mental fitness, self-love, and what imperfect action actually looks like in real life. I just…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
What's On The Other Side of IV Ketamine - Part 3
IV ketamine treatment for bipolar disorder changed my brain - and this is the honest, unfiltered story of what happened after. If you have ever fought your own…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
My First IV Ketamine Treatment for Bipolar: What It Actually Felt Like - Part 2
IV ketamine for bipolar depression: what my first treatment actually felt like. After 30 years, 20+ psychiatric medications and ECT, I walked into my first…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
My 30 Years of Bipolar. Is Ketamine The Answer? Part 1
Bipolar depression, 30 years of medication, and then it wasn’t working. I tried IV ketamine. After 20+ psychiatric drugs, ECT, and a crisis that terrified me…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
What Self-Trust Really Is + How to Build It
You can doubt yourself and still trust yourself, and understanding this changes everything. If you've been stuck in a loop of knowing what to do but not doing…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Personal Growth: Why You Keep Repeating the Same Patterns
Personal growth and breaking unhealthy patternsstart with understanding why your brain keeps pulling you backinto old patterns. If you keep ending up in the…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Nervous System: Why Calm Makes You Anxious
Nervous system regulation, Self-Love, and emotionalresilience are at the heart of this episode. If everything is okay but you still feel anxious, on edge, or…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Mental Fitness: Why Am I So Tired All the Time?
Mental fitness and burnout recovery start with understandingwhy rest isn't working. If you're exhausted all the time, even after sleep, vacations, and…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Self-Criticism: Your Harsh Inner Voice Isn't Yours - How to Update It
Self-criticism isn't something you were born with. Thisepisode explores why we're so hard on ourselves, why self-compassion can feel uncomfortable, and how to…
- The Lulu Essey Podcast
Building Confidence: Why You Still Don't Feel It - Even After Taking Action
You're taking action, building self-worth, doing the hard inner work - so why don't you feel confident yet? This episode explores the quiet self-sabotage that…
The Lulu Essey PodcastMental Fitness: Why Knowing What To Do Isn't Enough
You know what you need to do - so why can't you make yourself do it? If you've been beating yourself up for not taking action, thinking you're lazy or lacking…
The Lulu Essey PodcastStuck: Why Do I Feel Stuck When Nothing Is Technically Wrong?
Feeling stuck when your life looks fine on paper? That low hum of anxiety, that sense something's off - it's often a sign your values are out of alignment with…
The Lulu Essey PodcastThe 2 Most Important Things You Need for 2026
Feeling overwhelmed by all the New Year pressure? Drowning in goals, resolutions, and "new year, best you" messaging? What if you only needed two things to…
The Lulu Essey PodcastHow to Love Yourself | 3 Words That Change Everything
Do you struggle to love yourself? Do you know you're supposed to practice "self-love" but have no idea what that actually means? Do you feel like no matter…
The Lulu Essey PodcastExhausted in December? Do This One Thing Every Night
Running on fumes in December? Feeling like you should be "finishing strong" but you're barely making it through each day? Sluggish, foggy, ready to hibernate -…
The Lulu Essey PodcastWhy You Keep Trying to Fit In - and How to Finally Break Free
Have you spent your whole life trying to fit in? Are you the square peg in a round hole - exhausted from trying to smooth your edges, straighten your lines…
The Lulu Essey PodcastThe Gift Guide That Changes Everything (And Costs Nothing)
Most gift guides tell you what to buy. This one invites you to rethink what it truly means to give. As the holiday season ramps up, many of us feel the…
The Lulu Essey PodcastMental Fitness 101: What to Do Every Single Day
WHY DOESN'T ANYONE TEACH US MENTAL FITNESS BASICS? You know how to exercise your body. You know consistency builds strength. So why doesn't anyone teach us the…
The Lulu Essey PodcastWhy You Don't Need to Heal Faster: The Difference Between Coping and Healing
FEELING GUILTY FOR JUST SURVIVING? This episode reveals why coping mode isn't failing, the critical difference between coping and healing, and why accepting…
The Lulu Essey PodcastHow to Love People You Disagree With (Without Losing Yourself)
IS POLITICS DESTROYING YOUR RELATIONSHIPS? Navigating ideological differences, setting boundaries with love, and staying connected without betraying your…
The Lulu Essey PodcastSelf-Love as Foundation for Success: Building Your Career on Self-Worth, Not Burnout
Self-Love isn't soft-it's the missing infrastructure for sustainable success in every area of your life, including your career. This essential blueprint…
The Lulu Essey PodcastWhen Your Tools Stop Working: Permission to Just Stop
When your Mental Fitness tools stop working. Permission to rest without guilt. What happens when every practice you've built - journaling, breathing exercises…
The Lulu Essey PodcastSelf-Love, Comparison, and Showing Up Imperfectly | 50 Episodes of What is Actually Working
Self-Love, Imperfect Action, and Comparison vs Modeling — what 50 episodes taught me about consistency, external validation, and showing up anyway. Fifty…
The Lulu Essey PodcastKnowing Your Thoughts Create Your Reality Isn't Enough—Here's What Is
You know your thoughts create your reality. You've heard it everywhere: Instagram, TikTok, every podcast, every book and workshop promising transformation "in…
The Lulu Essey PodcastYour Creative Block Isn’t What You Think | Creativity, Play & Mental Fitness
You’re probably not blocked, you’ve just forgotten how to play. Forgotten that creativity is part of who you are, whether you know it or not. This week, Lulu…
The Lulu Essey PodcastEverything Feels Heavy? Build Your Foundation Before You Break
Everything feels heavy right now. The world, your life, maybe both. And here's what nobody's saying: you're close to breaking. Not dramatically, quietly. One…
The Lulu Essey PodcastThe Productivity Police: Breaking Free from To-Do List Tyranny
If your to-do list is running your life instead of serving it, this is your purposeful rebellion. Lulu shows how productivity culture becomes identity, why the…
The Lulu Essey PodcastWhen Mental Fitness Is in the Red: 3 Gentle Tools for Nervous System Regulation and Emotional Resilience
When your Mental Fitness hits empty and the usual routines stop helping, this episode reframes it as information, not a personal failure, and gives you simple…
The Lulu Essey PodcastWhen Self-Care Becomes Self-Criticism: Breaking the Wellness Perfectionism Cycle
When self-care turns into self-criticism. From sleep score stress to fitness tracker guilt and the quiet weight of wellness burnout, this episode explores how…
The Lulu Essey PodcastSelf-Doubt, Numbers, and Worth: The Real Struggle Behind the Mic
2.7 billion people on YouTube. 37 watched my last video. This is what happens when the person teaching self-love gets dunked in self-doubt. In this unscripted…
The Lulu Essey PodcastRewriting Your Story Without Erasing Your Truth (Part 3)
What if your most profound healing begins when you stop allowing trauma to write your story? You are so much more than the worst things that have happened to…
The Lulu Essey PodcastTrauma and Healing: Building Emotional Resilience (Part 2)
What does it take to keep building emotional resilience and healing when life keeps getting harder? In Part 2 of this raw series with Hawa Who from…